The Chuetas of Palma de Mallorca, Spain are Jews, says the head of Bnei Brak's ultra-Orthodox religious court, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz.
INN reports:
…Six centuries after their forcible conversion [to Catholocism just before the Spanish Inquisition], a leading hareidi rabbi rules a Spanish island’s Chuetas are Jews.
The Chuetas [the Cataln word for pigs] of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, are the descendants of Mallorca’s Jews, who were forcibly baptized in the 14th and 15th centuries and then barred from intermarrying or assimilating with the island’s Catholic population until the modern era.
Most of the island’s Chueta community bears the names of families whose ancestors who were executed for practicing Judaism more than 300 years ago. Rabbi [Nissim] Karelitz’s [the head of the beit din, religious court, of Bnei Brak] ruling relates to those Chuetas whose ancestors practiced strict endogamy down through the generations and did not intermarry. In order for their return to the Jewish people to be complete, it will be necessary for the Rabbinical Court to get to know each individual Chueta and their personal and family background.…
“This is an historic development,” [Shavei Israel Chairman Michael] Freund told Spanish journalists in Palma. “I have been working for years to get the Chuetas of Majorca recognized as Jews. This ruling removes any doubts or questions that may have existed regarding their status. The Chuetas are now considered to be full-fledged members of the Jewish people. Rabbi Karelitz’s decision will pave the way for many of them to return to their roots nearly six centuries after their ancestors were torn away from us against their will.…