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Information about Mizrahi Jews

For the Religious Zionist Movement and other entities and people named "Mizrachi", please see the Mizrachi disambiguation page.
Mizrahi Jews
(יהדות מזרח Yahadut Mizrah)
Total population
2.7 to 3.2 million (estimate)
Regions with significant populations
 Israel2,200,000-2,500,000
 United Statesunknown
 France400,000
 Canada35,000
 India250
 Iran40,000
 Chile2,700
 Argentina2,170
Languages
Hebrew, Dzhidi, Judæo-Arabic, Gruzinic, Bukhori, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri and Judæo-Aramaic
Religions
Judaism
Related ethnic groups


Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions and Arabs.


Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, (Hebrew: מזרחים, Standard Mizraḥim Tiberian Mizrāḥîm ; "Easterners"), also referred to as Edot HaMizrah (communities of the East) are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East. Included in the Mizrahi category are Jews from the Arab world, as well as other communities from other Muslim countries, including Georgian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Persian Jews, Bukharian Jews, Syrian Jews, Lebanese Jews, Mountain Jews, Yemenite Jews, Indian Jews (including many of Iraqi descent), Maghrebi Jews, Berber Jews and Kurdish Jews. Despite their heterogeneous origins, Jews from these areas generally practise traditional Sephardic Judaism, with some differences between the minhagim of the particular communities.

History and usage

"Mizrahi" is literally translated as "Eastern", מזרח (Mizrach) being 'East" in Hebrew. The original use of the terms "Mizrahi" and "Edot ha-Mizrach" was as a translation of the Arabic term Mashriqiyyun (Easterners), referring to the people of Syria, Iraq and other Asian countries, as distinct from those of North Africa (Maghrabiyyun).

In modern Israeli usage, it refers to all Jews from Arabic and Asian countries. The term came to be widely used by Mizrahi activists in the early 1990s, and since then has become a widely accepted designation. [1]

Many Mizrahim today reject this (or any) umbrella description and prefer to identify themselves by their particular country of origin, or that of their immediate ancestors, e.g. "Iraqi Jew", "Tunisian Jew", "Persian Jew", etc. Another description sometimes heard is "Oriental Jews", this term being still quite common in the western hemisphere, though some find it demeaning following the sense given to "Orientalism" by Edward Said.

Other designations

Enlarge picture
Jewish wedding in Aleppo, Syria, 1914.
Many speakers, especially in Israel, identify all non-Ashkenazi Jews as Sephardim. This is widely perceived as illogical, as the literal meaning of "Sepharad" in medieval and modern Hebrew is "Spain" or "Iberia", and most Mizrahim are not in fact of Spanish or Portuguese descent.

The reason for this usage is that most Mizrahi communities use much the same religious ritual as Sephardim proper (i.e. descendants of the Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, that is, modern Spain and Portugal). Thus, though they are not "Spanish Jews" they are "Jews of the Spanish rite". (In the same way, "Ashkenazim" is used for "Jews of the German rite", whether or not they originate from Germany.) This broader definition of "Sephardim" is common in religious circles, especially those associated with the Shas political party.

In many Arab countries there was a social distinction between Judeo-Romance-speaking Sephardim arriving after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, plus the ones expelled by order of King Manuel I of Portugal in 1497, and the older Arabic-speaking communities. The latter were often referred to by themselves as "Musta'arabim" or by the Sephardim as "Moriscos" (equivalent to "Moors" in English).

Language

Main article: Judeo-Arabic languages
Enlarge picture
Kurdish Jews in Rawanduz, northern Iraq, 1905.
Mizrahi communities spoke a number of Judeo-Arabic dialects such as Maghrebi, though these are now mainly used as a second language. Most of the many notable philosophical, religious and literary works of the Mizrahim were written in Arabic using a modified Hebrew alphabet.

Among other languages associated with Mizrahim are Judeo-Persian (Dzhidi), Gruzinic, Bukhori, Kurdish, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri, Judeo-Marathi, Judeo-Malayalam and Judeo-Aramaic dialects.

Aramaic is a close sister of Hebrew and is identified as a "Jewish language", since it is the language of major Jewish texts (the Talmuds, Zohar, and many ritual recitations such as the Kaddish). Aramaic has traditionally been a language of Talmudic debate in yeshivoth, as many rabbinic texts are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects, as spoken by the Jews of Kurdistan, are descended from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (as can be seen from its hundreds of reflexes in Jewish Neo-Aramaic). By the early 1950s virtually the entire Jewish community of Kurdistan — a rugged, mostly mountainous region comprising parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus, where Jews had lived since antiquity — had been completely relocated to Israel. The vast majority of Kurdish Jews, who were primarily concentrated in northern Iraq, left Kurdistan in the mass aliyah (immigration to Israel) of 1950-51, which brought almost all Kurdish Jews to Israel, ending thousands of years of Jewish history in Assyria and Babylonia. In addition to Judeo-Aramaic, some Kurdish Jews speak an unrelated language called "Judeo-Kurdish" which is a "Jewish" form of the Indo-European Kurdish language.


Most Persian Jews speak standard Persian.

See also Mizrahi Hebrew language.

Post-1948 dispersal

Main article: Jewish exodus from Arab lands
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and subsequent establishment of the state of Israel, most Mizrahi Jews emigrated to the new state where they could become citizens.

Anti-Jewish actions by Arab governments in the 1950s and 1960s, including in particular the expulsion of 25,000 Mizrahi Jews from Egypt after the 1956 Suez Crisis, led to the overwhelming majority of Mizrahim being obliged or pressured to leave Arab countries, becoming, in a sense, refugees. Most went to Israel. Many Moroccan and Algerian Jews went to France, and thousands of Syrians and Egyptians to the United States.

Today, as many as 40,000 Mizrahim still remain in communities scattered throughout the non-Arab Muslim world, primarily in Iran, but also Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey [2]. There are few remaining in the Arab world, with just over 5,000 left in Morocco and less than 2,000 in Tunisia. Other countries with remnants of ancient Jewish communities with official recognition, such as Lebanon, have 100 or fewer Jews. A trickle of emigration continues, mainly to Israel and the United States. Many Jews in Iran feel actively persecuted and a number have been arrested, mostly for alleged connections with Israel and the United States. Some have been executed, with religious intolerance often cited as the main contributing factor. [3]

Mizrahim in modern Israel

Since their arrival in Israel, the Mizrahim have distinguished themselves from their Ashkenazi counterparts in culture, customs and language. Arabic dialects were the mother tongue of some—especially those from North Africa—Persian for those from Iran, English for the Baghdadi Jews from India and Gruzinic, Georgian, Tajik, Juhuri and various other languages for those who emigrated from elsewhere. Some Israeli Mizrahim still primarily use these languages. Hebrew was a language of prayer only for most Jews not living in Israel, including the Mizrahim.

The Mizrahim were at first accommodated in rudimentary and hastily erected tent cities and later sent to development towns. Settlement in Moshavim (cooperative farming villages) was only partially successful, because many Mizrahim had been craftsmen and merchants with little farming experience.

Mizrahi Jews do have specific cultural differences from Ashkenazi Jews and from each other which can make assimilation into Israeli society a difficult, decades-long process. Sociologists have noted many factors that influence the rate of integration, among them the amount of education a community possesses before it arrives and the presence or lack of a professional class within each community. However intermarriage between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim is now relatively common in Israel and the Hebrew language is so universal among the most recent generations that later newcomers, such as immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopians, consider Mizrahim to be a branch of Israeli society.

According to a survey by Adva Center, the average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004 (Hebrew PDF - [4]), but this difference is declining as the communities integrate.

According to a study conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Mizrahi Jews are less likely to pursue academic studies than Ashkenazi Jews, and the percentage of Arabs or Mizrahi Jews pursuing a doctorate is less than 10% of the total among doctoral students. [5],[6].

Although most of the Mizrahi Jews in Israel are second-generation immigrants, the percentage who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as the Russians. According to the CBS study, Ashkenazi immigrants of post-high school age are up to 10 times more likely to study in a university than an Israeli-born Mizrahi.[7]

Prominent Mizrahi figures

Politicians

Writers and Academics

  • Sasson Somekh, professor
  • Sami Michael, author
  • Daniel Ben Simon, journalist
  • Yehouda Shenhav, professor
  • Sasson Sofer, professor
  • Shlomo Ben Ami, professor and diplomat

Entertainers

Business people

Others

Bibliography

  • Ella Shohat, "The Invention of the Mizrahim" in: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1. (Autumn, 1999), pp. 5-20.

See also

External links

Religious Zionism, or the Religious Zionist Movement, a branch of which is also called Mizrachi, is an ideology that combines Zionism and Judaism, basing Zionism on the principles of Torah, Talmud et al and authentic heritage.
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The term Mizrachi (Hebrew: מזרחי‎, ''Mizraḥi) is used in references to a few things:
  • Mizrachi (Religious Zionism) is a religious Zionist movement.

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Anthem
Hatikvah
The Hope


Capital
(and largest city) Jerusalem

Official languages Hebrew, Arabic
Demonym Israeli
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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Anthem
Sorūd-e Mellī-e Īrān Â²


Capital
(and largest city) Tehran

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Motto
Por la Razón o la Fuerza
(Spanish: "By right or might")
Anthem
Himno Nacional de Chile
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Motto
En unión y libertad   (Spanish)
"In Union and Freedom"
Anthem
Himno Nacional Argentino
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Hebrew}}} 
Writing system: Alefbet Ivri abjad 
Official status
Official language of:  Israel
Regulated by: Academy of the Hebrew Language

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Judæo-Persian or Jidi (IPA: /ʤiːdiː/, also spelled as Dzhidi), is the Jewish language spoken by the Jews living in Iran. As a collective term, Dzhidi refers to a number of Iranian languages or dialects spoken by Jewish communities throughout the
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The Judeo-Arabic languages are a collection of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Arabic-speaking countries; the term also refers to more or less classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages.
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Judæo-Georgian (also known as Kivruli and Gruzinic) is the traditional language spoken by the Georgian Jews, the ancient Jewish community of the Caucasus nation of Georgia.
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History]]
Dialects
  • Dialects and varieties
*Persian language
**Grammar
***Phonology
***Nouns
***Verbs
**Vocabulary
**Pronunciation

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Judeo-Berber is a term used primarily for the Berber varieties traditionally spoken by the Jewish communities of certain parts of central and southern Morocco. While mutually comprehensible with the Tamazight spoken by most inhabitants of the area (Galand-Pernet et al.
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Juhuri, Juwri or Judæo-Tat is the traditional language of the Juhuro or Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan and Dagestan.
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Judæo-Aramaic is a collective term used to describe several Hebrew-influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages. Aramaic, like Hebrew, is a Northwest Semitic language, and the two share many features.
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Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, based on principles and ethics embodied in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Talmud. According to Jewish tradition, the history of Judaism begins with the Covenant between God and Abraham (ca.
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Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Standard Hebrew: sing. אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי, pl.
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Sephardi Jews (Hebrew: ספרדי, Standard Səfardi Tiberian Səp̄arədî; plural ספרדים, Standard
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Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct Jewish communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population.

By sheer numbers, the overwhelming majority of Jews fall into only a handful of communities.
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Hebrew}}} 
Writing system: Alefbet Ivri abjad 
Official status
Official language of:  Israel
Regulated by: Academy of the Hebrew Language

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Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was given written form by masoretic scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the 8th century.
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Historical Jewish languages
Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others
Liturgical languages:
Hebrew and Aramaic
Predominant spoken languages:
The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and
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Middle East is a historical and political region of Africa-Eurasia with no clear boundaries. The term "Middle East" was popularized around 1900 in Britain, and has been criticized for its loose definition.
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Arab World (Arabic: العالم العربي; Transliteration: al-`alam al-`arabi) stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea
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100,000 (est.)
Regions with significant populations Georgia: 13,000 (est.)
Israel: 60,000-75,000 (est.)
United States: 5,000 (est.)
Russia: 56 (2002 census)
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Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and historically significant Jewish communities. It was to Babylon that the Jews were exiled around 600 BCE. The descendants of these exiles ensured that Babylonia became the most important Jewish community after the Roman
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