The Bensignor Family Heritage as Sephardic Jews

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  • Our Sephardic Heritage

    Our Sephardic Heritage

    This website, www.bensignor.us, is devoted to the family of Eli and Adele Bensignor,their three adult children Laurence Bensignor, Rick Bensignor and Lisa Bensignor Gibson, and their respective families.


    We believe, as you will learn in these pages, that we are direct descendants of Don Abraham Seneor of Spain, who together with Don Isaac Abravanel, was the leader of the Jewish community in Spain leading up to and at the time of the Spanish Expulsion
    of Jews in 1492.


    We are a family filled with pride in our history and legacy as Sephardic Jews… in Spain, in Turkey and for the last century, in America.


    Welcome to our story.

  • To Turkey and The New World

    To Turkey and The New World

    Our last name remains the same 500 years beyond the Spanish Expulsion of Jews.


    After Spain, the Benseneor family ultimately settled in Smyrna, Turkey, where a branch of the family remains to this day. The current spelling of our family name is French, and has been in place for the last century, since a France-based yeshiva teacher in Turkey heard the family name and wrote it down phonetically as she knew it, in her native French. It’s stuck. B-E-N-S-I-G-N-O-R.

    We note that our presumed ancestor Abraham Seneor’s father’s name was Eliyahu, “Eli”; so too was his great-grandfather’s, two generations up from his father’s. Our great-grandfather’s name was Eli. Two generations later, our father’s name was Eli. And two
    generations later, Larry’s son’s name…is Eli. Rick’s daughter’s name is Elina. And Lisa’s son’s middle name…is Eli.

    Our grandfather Moise (French for Moses) and his four brothers emigrated 110 years ago from Turkey to Havana, Cuba; his four brothers later emigrated from Havana to Buenos Aires. Our grandmother Estrella, affectionately called Bella, had died in Havana of breast cancer at age 33 and is buried in the Sephardic cemetery there. Our grandfather moved to New York, where my great-grandmother, Donna Amado Nahoum, and my grandmother’s sisters had settled.

    Our next post will address the strong family legacy on our grandmother’s side, the Amados and Nahoums.

  • Bensignor is a Jewish Name. It’s a Sephardic Name.

    The Hebrew word for Spain is Sepharad. By definition, Sephardic Jews,my family included, trace their roots to the Iberian Peninsula, where Jews lived for centuries until the Spanish monarchy ordered their expulsion in 1492. That decree forced Jews to
    convert, flee, or face execution, ending what had been a vibrant and influential chapter of Jewish history in Spain.

    Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with Sephardic Jews in America. Or perhaps you’ve heard of a few without realizing it. From history: a Jewish man helped finance the American Revolution:Hayim Salomon, a Sephardic Jew. The poem on the base of the Statue of
    Liberty? Written by Emma Lazarus, also Sephardic. Benjamin Cardozo, one of the earliest Jewish Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, was too.

    In more recent American culture, designer Diane von Furstenberg, actor Hank Azaria, singer Neil Sedaka, actor Jerry Orbach, pianist Murray Perahia, and CNN anchor John Berman all have Sephardic ancestry.

    My family hails from Spain. Unlike many others, the Bensignor family has passed down our story orally from one generation to the nex continuously, since 1492. For over half amillennium, that oral tradition has remained intact.

    Remember the childhood game of telephone, where a sentence gets distorted as it’s whispered down the line? Remarkably, the Bensignor family story hasn’t changed. Whether you’re hearing it from a Bensignor in the U.S., Argentina, France, Israel, Spain,
    or Turkey, the recitation is the same. Identical.

    And the essence of that story is this: our direct ancestor was the Court Treasurer of
    Spain.

    I am a Sephardic Jew, and I’m proud of it. In future posts, I’ll share more about my family’s journey since the 1492 Expulsion—how we survived, adapted, and carried ouridentity across continents and centuries.

  • Laurence Bensignor on Abraham Seneor, Our Last Spanish Ancestor?

    Laurence Bensignor on Abraham Seneor, Our Last Spanish Ancestor?

    The essence of our family’s five-century oral history is simply this:  Our direct ancestor was the Court Treasurer of Spain.

    That singular statement is repeated today as if it was yesterday. Or 500 years ago.

    Abraham Seneor was the Court Treasurer of Spain. He had been the Chief Rabbi of Seville and, together with Isaac Abravanel, became the leader of the Jewish community in Spain. Don Seneor had personally facilitated the marriage of Princess Isabella of Castile to Prince Ferdinand of Aragon. He played a major role in both funding and facilitating Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the New World. Late in life, he became the Crown Rabbi of Castile.

    The Alhambra Decree in 1492 by then-King Ferdinand, all of forty years old, and then-Queen Isabella, of similar age, set forth the requirement of the Expulsion of all Jews from Spain… within just three months. The efforts of Don Seneor, and Don Abravanel, to have the Alhambra Decree withdrawn by the King and Queen fell on deaf ears. Chief Inquisitor Torquemada’s insistence on “cleansing” Spain prevailed with the royals.

    533 years ago, Spanish Jews were left with but two choices: immediately convert to becoming a Catholic or immediately leave the country. Don Abravanel was 55 years old then, 25 years Don Seneor’s junior, and he immigrated to Italy. Don Seneor was age 80 and was just too old to pick up and literally go over seas, in what would have been an arduous and treacherous journey.

    Don Seneor converted to Christianity, at least outwardly, and changed his last name to Coronel. He died but a year later.

    Had he converted in his heart? Had he converted within his own home? A man who was a rabbi, let alone then a Chief Rabbi, for over five decades? Or was he a converso, a “marrano,” who secretly maintained his Jewish faith while outwardly acting as a Christian?

    We’ll never know. What we do know is this: Even today, his home still stands in Segovia and is open to the public. In it, on the second floor… is a small, private synagogue.

    This is the best our family can tell: At least one of Don Seneor’s children or descendants chose not to convert, or later reclaimed his Judaism, and emigrated from Spain. He too changed his name. Out of respect for his lineage as a Seneor, he became Benseneor. Ben – Hebrew for “son of.” Benseneor –  the son of Seneor.