Who are Sephardic Jews?

Sephardic Jews are the Jews of Spain, Portugal, mediterranean countries and the Middle East and their descendants. The adjective "Sephardic" and corresponding nouns Sephardi is derived from the Hebrew word "Sepharad," which refers to Spain.

Sephardic Jews are often subdivided into Sephardim, from Spain and Portugal, mediterranean countries and Mizrachim, from the Middle East. The word "Mizrachi" comes from the Hebrew word for Eastern. There is much overlap between the Sephardim and Mizrachim. Until the 1400s, the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and the Middle East were all controlled by Muslims, who generally allowed Jews to move freely throughout the region. It was under this relatively benevolent rule that Sephardic Judaism developed. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, many of them were absorbed into existing Mizrachi communities in Northern Africa and the Middle East.
In Israel, a little more than half of all Jews are Sephardim and Mizrahi, descended from Jews who have been in the land since ancient times or who were forced out of Arab countries after Israel was founded. Most of the rest are Ashkenazic, descended from Jews who came to Israel or from Holocaust survivors, or from other immigrants who came at various times.
Most of the early Jewish settlers of North America were Sephardic. The first Jewish congregation in North America, Shearith Israel, founded in what is now New York in 1684, was Sephardic and is still active. Philadelphia's first Jewish congregation, Congregation Mikveh Israel, founded in 1740, was also a Sephardic one, and is also still active.