It can be understood how people may wish to claim a Sephardi identity that is more than possible descent, and it has been pointed out critically that much of the 'evidence' can be plausibly explained in other ways than continuing crypto-Judaism. This excellent (but previously unknown to me) article turns the spotlight on why academic (and even more 'lay expert') discourse has also so uncritically jumped onto this band wagon. The orientalising of exotic Sephardi identity is, in my opinion, a continuity of 19th c. European Jewish projections onto 'Sepharad'- in its way an earlier 'ethnographic allegory'?But is the academic enthusiasm for unsubstantiated identities, fudging 'truth' with postmodern academic sleight-of-hand fair to those who are being led along ... ?