Jesús Jambrina, world languages and history, has been internationally recognized and honored for his research regarding the Sephardic Jews; these are Jews who lived in Spain and Portugal from Roman time to 1492 when they were expelled by the Monarchs and the Spanish Inquisition.

The Council of the Sephardi and Oriental Communities located in Israel, recently announced they will honor Jambrina with, according to the Hebrew translation, “The Medal of the Four Sephardic Synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of Old Jerusalem.”

During the course of four years of research, Jambrina’s work has included organizing two international conferences focusing on the Jewish heritage of the city of Zamora, Spain. He has also worked with city officials in developing signage and markers identifying locales and preserving the historical significance of that city’s Medieval Jewish Quarters for residents and visitors.

Jambrina said that even the most conservative estimates reveal that during the Spanish Inquisition, more than 90,000 Sephardic Jews were persecuted and expelled from Zamora and other parts of their Iberian homelands in 1492.

Worldwide, there is interest in preserving the history and identity of the Jewish people who have suffered under forced expulsion from their homelands and Jambrina’s research contributes to that effort.

Jambrina is of Cuban descent and his grandparents emigrated from Zamora to settle in Cuba. It was Jambrina’s interest in his own ancestry that led him to visit Zamora. There, he gained a heightened interest in the plight of the Sephardic Jews and commenced his research in earnest.

For more information, go to: http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-prof-gets-Jerusalem-medal-for-Jewish-historical-research-in-Spains-Zamora-381236?fb_action_ids=560631010737661&fb_action_types=og.shares.