Actually, historically, Sephardi Jews were considered white long before Ashkenazi Jews were. All the Jews who were, for instance, part of the rulling class in the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War were Sephardic; at the same time period, the same distinction was true in England, where Jews of Sephardic descent could be part of the upper class, but Ashkenazi Jews couldn't.

Later, WESTERN European Sephardic Jews, from Germany and Austria, could be considered white, but EASTERN Ashkenazic Jews -- Polish, Russian, Litvak, and so forth -- were not considered white, not even by Western Ashkenazic Jews or Sephardic Jews. That didn't change until thethe vast majority of them were killed by Hitler.