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Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach (Communities of the East) are Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
, North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
, Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
 and the Caucasus
Caucasus

The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region located between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It is home to Europe's highest mountain ....
. The term Mizrahi is used in Israel for Jews from the Arab world
Arab world

The Arab World refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast....
 and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority
List of Muslim majority countries

This is a list of countries in which Islam is the majority religion of the people. In a geopolitical sense these countries are often considered to form the Muslim world....
 countries. This includes Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews
Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited the region of today's Syria from the History of Ancient Israel and Judah and those Sephardim who fled to Syria after the Alhambra decree ....
, Lebanese Jews, Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
, Persian Jews
Persian Jews

|||}Persian Jews or Iranian Jews are Jews historically associated Iran, which was known internationally as Persia until 1935.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran and dates back to the late biblical times....
, Afghan Jews
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, Bukharian Jews, Maghrebi Jews
Maghrebim

Maghrebim are Jews who traditionally lived in the Arab-Berber Maghreb region of North Africa , established Jewish communities long before the arrival of Jews expelled from Spain , mainly in the Sharif kingdom of Morocco....
, Berber Jews
Berber Jews

Berber Jews are the Berber Jewish communities inhabiting the region of the Maghreb in North Africa. The region coincides with the Atlas Mountains in what today is Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia....
, Kurdish Jews
Kurdish Jews

Kurdish Jews or Jews of Kurdistan are the ancient Jewish communities inhabiting the region known as Kurdistan, roughly covering parts of Iran, northern Iraq, Armenia, Syria and eastern Turkey....
, Mountain Jews
Mountain Jews

Mountain Jews, Juvuro, Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or more uncommonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part of Caucasus, though there were also historical settlements...
 and Georgian Jews
Georgian Jews

The Georgian Jews are from the nation of Georgia , in the Caucasus. Georgian Jews are one of the oldest communities in Georgia, tracing their migration into the country during the Babylonian captivity in 6th century BC....
. It would also include the Jews of India
Indian Jews

Indian Jews are a religious minority of India. Judaism was one of the first non-Dharmic religions to arrive in India in recorded history. The better-established ancient communities have assimilated a large number of local traditions through cultural diffusion....
, Jews of Pakistan, and Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews

The Baghdadi Jews are one of the main Jewish communities of India.The "Baghdadi" Jewish community of India is so called because its members were chiefly descended from Iraqi Jewish immigrants to India who moved to that country during the British Raj....
 who settled in the last few centuries (in contrast to Jewish communities of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of the land lying substantially on the Indian Plate. The subcontinent includes parts of various countries in South Asia, including those on the continental crust , an Island#Continental islands country on the continental shelf , and an Island#Oceanic islands countr...
 established millennia earlier).

Despite their heterogeneous origins, Mizrahi Jews generally practise rites identical or similar to traditional Sephardic Judaism
Sephardic Judaism

Sephardic Judaism is the practice of Judaism as observed by the Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews, so far as it is peculiar to themselves and not shared with other Jewish groups such as the Ashkenazi Jews....
 although with some differences among the minhag
Minhag

Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the Jewish services....
im of the particular communities.






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Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach (Communities of the East) are Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
, North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
, Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
 and the Caucasus
Caucasus

The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region located between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It is home to Europe's highest mountain ....
. The term Mizrahi is used in Israel for Jews from the Arab world
Arab world

The Arab World refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast....
 and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority
List of Muslim majority countries

This is a list of countries in which Islam is the majority religion of the people. In a geopolitical sense these countries are often considered to form the Muslim world....
 countries. This includes Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews
Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited the region of today's Syria from the History of Ancient Israel and Judah and those Sephardim who fled to Syria after the Alhambra decree ....
, Lebanese Jews, Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
, Persian Jews
Persian Jews

|||}Persian Jews or Iranian Jews are Jews historically associated Iran, which was known internationally as Persia until 1935.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran and dates back to the late biblical times....
, Afghan Jews
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, Bukharian Jews, Maghrebi Jews
Maghrebim

Maghrebim are Jews who traditionally lived in the Arab-Berber Maghreb region of North Africa , established Jewish communities long before the arrival of Jews expelled from Spain , mainly in the Sharif kingdom of Morocco....
, Berber Jews
Berber Jews

Berber Jews are the Berber Jewish communities inhabiting the region of the Maghreb in North Africa. The region coincides with the Atlas Mountains in what today is Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia....
, Kurdish Jews
Kurdish Jews

Kurdish Jews or Jews of Kurdistan are the ancient Jewish communities inhabiting the region known as Kurdistan, roughly covering parts of Iran, northern Iraq, Armenia, Syria and eastern Turkey....
, Mountain Jews
Mountain Jews

Mountain Jews, Juvuro, Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or more uncommonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part of Caucasus, though there were also historical settlements...
 and Georgian Jews
Georgian Jews

The Georgian Jews are from the nation of Georgia , in the Caucasus. Georgian Jews are one of the oldest communities in Georgia, tracing their migration into the country during the Babylonian captivity in 6th century BC....
. It would also include the Jews of India
Indian Jews

Indian Jews are a religious minority of India. Judaism was one of the first non-Dharmic religions to arrive in India in recorded history. The better-established ancient communities have assimilated a large number of local traditions through cultural diffusion....
, Jews of Pakistan, and Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews

The Baghdadi Jews are one of the main Jewish communities of India.The "Baghdadi" Jewish community of India is so called because its members were chiefly descended from Iraqi Jewish immigrants to India who moved to that country during the British Raj....
 who settled in the last few centuries (in contrast to Jewish communities of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of the land lying substantially on the Indian Plate. The subcontinent includes parts of various countries in South Asia, including those on the continental crust , an Island#Continental islands country on the continental shelf , and an Island#Oceanic islands countr...
 established millennia earlier).

Despite their heterogeneous origins, Mizrahi Jews generally practise rites identical or similar to traditional Sephardic Judaism
Sephardic Judaism

Sephardic Judaism is the practice of Judaism as observed by the Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews, so far as it is peculiar to themselves and not shared with other Jewish groups such as the Ashkenazi Jews....
 although with some differences among the minhag
Minhag

Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the Jewish services....
im of the particular communities. This has resulted in a conflation of terms, particularly in Israel and in religious usage, in which "Sephardi" is used in a broad sense to include Mizrahi Jews as well as Sephardim proper.

History and usage

"Mizrahi" is literally translated as "Eastern", ???? (Mizrach), Hebrew for "east." In the past the word "Mizrahim", corresponding to the Arabic word Mashriq
Mashriq

Mashriq or Mashreq is derived from the Arabic consonantal root sh-r-q relating to the east or the sunrise, and essentially means "east" ....
iyyun (Easterners), referred to the natives of Syria, Iraq and other Asian countries, as distinct from those of North Africa (Maghrabiyyun
Maghreb

The Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea....
). For this reason some speakers still object to the use of "Mizrahi" to include Moroccan Jews. The term Mizrahim or Adot Hamizrah - Oriental communities- was born especially in Israel in the circumstances of the meeting there of waves of immigrants from both the Ashkenazi and the Sefardic and Oriental Jewish collectivities. In modern Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i usage, it refers to all Jews from North African and West Asian countries, many of them Arabic-speaking Muslim-majority countries. The term came to be widely used by so-called Mizrahi activists in the early 1990s, and since then has become an accepted designation.

Many "Mizrahi", in translation - "Oriental" Jews today reject this (or any) umbrella and simplistic description and prefer to identify themselves by their particular country of origin, or that of their immediate ancestors, e.g. "Iranian/Persian Jew", "Iraqi Jew", "Tunisian Jew", etc.

Other designations

Many people, especially in Israel, identify all non-Ashkenazi Jews as Sephardim
Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews are a subgroup of Jews originating in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, usually defined in contrast to Ashkenazi or Mizrahi Jews....
. The reason for this classification is that most Mizrahi communities use much the same religious rituals as Sephardim proper. The prevalence of the Sephardic rite among Mizrahim is partly a result of Sephardim joining some of their communities following the 1492 expulsion from Sepharad
Alhambra decree

The Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year....
 (Spain
History of the Jews in Spain

Spanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain, before they were expelled in 1492....
 and Portugal
History of the Jews in Portugal

The history of the Jews in Portugal is directly related to Sephardi Jews history, a Jewish ethnic divisions that represents communities who have originated in the Iberian Peninsula ....
), so that ultimately, over the last few centuries, the previously distinctive rites of the Mizrahi communities were influenced, superimposed or altogether replaced by the more prestigiously perceived rite of the Sephardim. It should also be noted that, even before this assimilation, the original rite of many Jewish Oriental communities was already closer to the Sephardi rite than to the Ashkenazi one. This broader definition of "Sephardim" as including all or most Mizrahi Jews is also common in Jewish religious circles, especially those associated with the Shas
Shas

Shas is a List of political parties in Israel in Israel, primarily representing Haredi Judaism Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews Judaism. Following the Israeli legislative election, 2006 in which Shas won 12 seats, it joined Ehud Olmert's coalition government and holds four cabinet posts....
 political party. The Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders in Israel have also joined the Mizrahi -Sefardic rite collectivity and the Shas party circles.

Additionally, many of the Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain
Alhambra decree

The Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year....
 resettled in greater or lesser numbers in many Arabic-speaking countries
Arab world

The Arab World refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast....
 such as Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
 and Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
. In Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, most eventually intermarried with and assimilated into the larger established community of Arabic-speaking Jews
Arab Jews

Arab Jews is a controversial term referring to Jews living in the Arab World, or Jews descended from such persons.The term was occasionally used in the early 20th century, mainly by Arab nationalists, to describe the 1 million Jews living in the Arab world at the time....
. In North African countries, by contrast, where the Sephardim came to outnumber the pre-existing Arab and Berber Jews
Berber Jews

Berber Jews are the Berber Jewish communities inhabiting the region of the Maghreb in North Africa. The region coincides with the Atlas Mountains in what today is Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia....
, it was some of the latter that assimilated into the more prosperous and prestigious Sephardic communities, though in Morocco a distinction remained between the purely Sephardic Gerush Castilia of the Spanish-speaking northern strip and the more ethnically mixed Arabic or Berber-speaking communities of the interior. Either way, this assimilation, combined with the use of the Sephardic rite, led to the popular designation and conflation of most non-Ashkenazic Jewish communities from the Middle East and North Africa as "Sephardic", whether or not they are actually descended from Spanish Jews, which is what the terms "Sephardic Jews" and "Sepharadim" properly imply when used in the ethnic as opposed to the religious sense. Thus in the broader sense, "Sephardim" is used to mean not "Spanish Jews" but "Jews of the Spanish rite", just as "Ashkenazim
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
" is used for "Jews of the German rite", whose ancestors spoke the Judeo-German, Yiddish language, whether or not they originate from Germany.

In many Arab countries, older Arabic-speaking communities distinguished between themselves and the newer arrivals speaking Judeo-Romance languages
Judeo-Romance languages

Judeo-Romance languages are Jewish languages derived from Romance languages, spoken by various Jewish communities originating in regions where Romance languages predominate, and altered to such an extent to gain recognition as languages in their own right....
, that is, Sephardim expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
 in 1497. The established Arabic-speaking Jews called themselves Musta'arabim
Musta'arabim

Musta'arabi Jews are a group of Arabic-speaking Jews who lived in the Middle Eastern lands prior to the Alhambra decree in 1492. Following the expulsion, Sephardic exiles moved into the Middle East and settled amongst their Arabic-speaking, or Judaeo-Arabic-speaking, co-religionists....
 (Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 for Arabizers), while the newer Sephardi arrivals called them Moriscos (Ladino for Moorish).

Language

Most of the so-called Oriental Jewish or Mizrahi communities spoke Arabic and a number of Judeo-Arabic dialects such as Maghrebi
Maghreb Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic is a cover term for the Varieties of Arabics of Arabic language spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya....
, though these are now mainly used as a second language, especially by the older generation. Most of the many notable philosophical, religious and literary works of the Jews in the Orient were written in Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 using a modified Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word....
.

Among other languages associated with Mizrahim are Judeo-Persian (Dzhidi
Dzhidi language

Jud?o-Persian or Jidi , refers to both a group of Jewish dialects spoken by the Jews living in Iran and Jud?o-Persian texts . As a collective term, Dzhidi refers to a number of Iranian languages languages or dialects spoken by Jewish communities throughout the formerly extensive Persian Empire....
), Georgian
Georgian

Georgian may refer to:* Something from or related to Georgia , a country in the Caucasus** Georgian people** Georgian language** Georgian alphabet...
, Bukhori, Kurdish
Kurdish language

The Kurdish language is a term used for the language spoken by Kurdish people. It is mainly concentrated in the parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey....
, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri, Marathi, Judeo-Malayalam
Judeo-Malayalam

Judeo-Malayalam is the traditional language of the Cochin Jews , from Kerala, in southern India, spoken today by about 8,000 people in Israel and by probably fewer than 100 in India....
 and Judeo-Aramaic dialects. Most Persian Jews
Persian Jews

|||}Persian Jews or Iranian Jews are Jews historically associated Iran, which was known internationally as Persia until 1935.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran and dates back to the late biblical times....
 speak standard Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
.

Aramaic is closely related to Hebrew. It is identified as a "Jewish language", since it is the language of major Jewish texts such as the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
 and Zohar
Zohar

The Zohar is widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. It is a mystical commentary on the Torah , written in medieval Aramaic language....
, and many ritual recitations such as the Kaddish
Kaddish

Kaddish refers to an important and central prayer in the Jewish Jewish services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of Names of God in Judaism's name....
. Traditionally Aramaic has been a language of Talmudic debate in yeshivoth
Yeshiva

Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
, as many rabbinic texts are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. As spoken by the Jews of Kurdistan
Kurdish Jews

Kurdish Jews or Jews of Kurdistan are the ancient Jewish communities inhabiting the region known as Kurdistan, roughly covering parts of Iran, northern Iraq, Armenia, Syria and eastern Turkey....
, Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects are descended from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic is the form of Aramaic language#Middle Aramaic employed by Jewish writers in Babylonia between the 4th century and the 11th century CE....
, as could be seen from its hundreds of reflexes in Jewish Neo-Aramaic. In addition to Judeo-Aramaic, some Kurdish Jews speak an unrelated language called "Judeo-Kurdish" which is a "Jewish" form of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 Kurdish language
Kurdish language

The Kurdish language is a term used for the language spoken by Kurdish people. It is mainly concentrated in the parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey....
.

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 — relocated to Israel. The vast majority of Kurdish Jews, who were primarily concentrated in northern Iraq, left Kurdistan in the mass aliyah (emigration to Israel) of 1950-51. This ended thousands of years of Jewish history in what had been Assyria
Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
 and Babylonia
Babylonia

Babylonia was a state in Lower Mesopotamia , Babylon as its franklin. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad....
.

Post-1948 dispersal

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, known by the Israelis predominantly as War of Independence and War of Liberation , and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the Declaration of Independence State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict....
 and subsequent establishment of the state of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, most Mizrahi Jews (900 000) were either expelled by their Arab rulers or chose to leave and emigrated to Israel. Roughly half of Israeli-Jews are of Mizrahi origin.

Anti-Jewish actions by Arab governments in the 1950s and 1960s, including the expulsion of 25,000 Mizrahi Jews from Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 after the 1956 Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by United Kingdom, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
, led to the overwhelming majority of Mizrahim leaving Arab countries. They became refugees
Jewish refugees

In the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought political asylum from antisemitism numerous times....
. Most went to Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
. Many Moroccan and Algerian Jews went to France. Thousands of Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian Jews emigrated to the United States.

Today, as many as 40,000 Mizrahim still remain in communities scattered throughout the non-Arab Muslim world
Muslim world

.The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a Culture sense it refers to the worldwide community of Muslims, adherents of Islam. This community Islam by country, roughly one-fifth of the world population....
, primarily in Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, but also Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan , is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, located partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia....
, and Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
 . There are few remaining in the Arab world. About 5,000 remain in Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 and fewer than 2,000 in Tunisia
Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast....
. Other countries with remnants of ancient Jewish communities with official recognition, such as Lebanon
Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
, have 1,000 or fewer Jews. A trickle of emigration continues, mainly to Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. 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.

Absorption into Israeli society


Refuge in Israel was not without its tragedies: "in a generation or two, millennia of rooted Oriental civilization, unified even in its diversity,” had been wiped out, writes Mizrahi scholar Ella Shohat. The trauma of rupture from their countries of origin was further complicated by the difficulty of the transition upon arrival in Israel; Mizrahi immigrants and refugees were placed in rudimentary and hastily-erected tent cities (Ma'abarot
Ma'abarot

The Ma'abarot were refugee camps in Israel in the 1950s. The Ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of new Aliyah arriving in the newly independent state of Israel....
) and later sent to development towns on the peripheries of Israel. Settlement in Moshav
Moshav

Moshav is a type of Israeli settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms settlered by the Labor Zionisms during the second aliyah ....
im (cooperative farming villages) was only partially successful, because Mizrahim had historically filled a niche as craftsmen and merchant
Merchant

Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit....
s and most did not traditionally engage in farmwork. As the majority left their property behind in their home countries as they journeyed to Israel, many suffered a severe decrease in their socio-economic status. Also because the did not receive the same government help that Ashkenazi Jews did. Furthermore, a policy of Austerity
Austerity in Israel

Austerity in Israel: From 1949 to 1959, the state of Israel was, to a varying extent, under a regime of austerity , during which rationing and similar measures were enforced....
 was enforced at that time due to economic hardships.

Mizrahi immigrants arrived with many mother tongues. Many, especially those from North Africa and the fertile crescent, spoke Arabic dialects; those from Iran spoke Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
; Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews

The Baghdadi Jews are one of the main Jewish communities of India.The "Baghdadi" Jewish community of India is so called because its members were chiefly descended from Iraqi Jewish immigrants to India who moved to that country during the British Raj....
 from India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and Gruzinic
Gruzinic

Judaeo-Georgian is the traditional language spoken by the Georgian Jews, the ancient Jewish community of the Caucasus nation of Georgia ....
 arrived with English; the Bene Israel
Bene Israel

The Bene Israel are a group of Jews who migrated in the nineteenth century from west Maharashtra to the nearby Indian cities, primarily Mumbai, but also to Pune, Ahmedabad, and Karachi ....
 from Maharashtra
Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a States and territories of India located on the western coast of India. Maharashtra is a part of Western India. It is India's List of states of India by area and List of states of India by population....
, India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 arrived with Marathi, Mizrahim from elsewhere brought Georgian
Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
, Tajik
Tajik language

The Tajik language, or Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. An Indo-European languages language of the Iranian languages language group, most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan....
, Juhuri
Juhuri language

Juhuri, Juvuri or Jud?o-Tat is a form of the Tat language language and is the traditional language of the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan and Dagestan....
 and various other languages with them. Hebrew had historically been a language only of prayer for most Jews not living in Israel, including the Mizrahim. Thus, with their arrival in Israel, the Mizrahim retained culture, customs and language distinct from their Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
 counterparts, but with time they became more assimilated, creating a new, Israeli identity.

Disparities and Integration

The cultural differences between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews impacted the degree and rate of assimilation into Israeli society, and sometimes the divide between European and Middle Eastern Jews was quite sharp. Segregation, especially in the area of housing, limited integration possibilities over the years. Intermarriage between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim is now relatively common in Israel, however, it has been found that intermarriage does not tend to decrease ethnic differences in socio-economic status.

It appears that despite increased social integration, disparities persist. A study conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), Mizrahi Jews are less likely to pursue academic studies than Ashkenazi Jews. Israeli-born Ashkenazi are up to twice more likely to study in a university than Israeli-born Mizrahim. Furthermore, the percentage of Mizrahim who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as Russians. According to a survey by the Adva Center, the average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004. This difference is declining as the communities integrate.

Notable Mizrahim


Medicine

  • Yisrael Mordechai Safeek, American Physician: Teiman Jew


Politicians and military

  • Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
    Binyamin Ben-Eliezer

    Brigadier-General Binyamin "Fuad" Ben-Eliezer is an Israeli politician and former soldier. He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Israeli Labor Party, and as the country's National Infrastructure Minister of Israel....
    , current Israeli minister of Infrastructure, former minister of Defense and Israel Labor Party
    Labor (Israel)

    The Israeli Labor Party , generally known in Israel as Avoda is a center-left political party in Israel. It is a social democracy and Labor Zionism party, a member of the Socialist International and an observer member of the Party of European Socialists....
     chairman, (Iraqi Jew), commonly called by his Arabic name "Fuad"
  • Aryeh Deri
    Aryeh Deri

    Aryeh Deri is an Israeli politican, and former leader of Israel's Shas. After Deri was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as Interior Minister of Israel and given a three-year jail sentence, he was replaced by Eli Yishai....
    , former leader of Shas
    Shas

    Shas is a List of political parties in Israel in Israel, primarily representing Haredi Judaism Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews Judaism. Following the Israeli legislative election, 2006 in which Shas won 12 seats, it joined Ehud Olmert's coalition government and holds four cabinet posts....
     Party and minister of Internal Affairs, (Moroccan Jew)
  • Yisrael Yeshayahu
    Yisrael Yeshayahu

    Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi was a Yemen-born Israeli politician, Cabinet of Israel and the fifth List of Knesset speakers.Born in Sa'dah, Yemen, Yeshayahu was a member of the Dor Daim movement, before making aliyah in 1929....
     Sharabi, Minister of Post and Speaker of Knesset
    Knesset

    The Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem....
     1970s and 80s, ethnicity/country of origin: Yemen
  • Dalia Itzik
    Dalia Itzik

    Dalia Itzik , born 20 October 1952, is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Kadima. She has previously served in several minsterial positions, and on 4 May 2006 became the first female speaker of the Knesset on 4 May 2006, and has since served as President of Israel in an interim capacity on two occasions....
    , current Knesset speaker
  • Avigdor Kahalani
    Avigdor Kahalani

    Brigadier-General Avigdor Kahalani is a former Israeli soldier and politician....
    , former minister of Internal Security and decorated IDF tank commander
  • Moshe Katsav
    Moshe Katsav

    Moshe Katsav , born 5 December 1945) is a former President of Israel and member of the Knesset. The end of his term of President was marked by controversy, and from 25 January 2007 until his resignation on 1 July 2007, he was on a leave of absence amid impending charges of crimes stemming from his alleged rape of one female subordinate which...
    , former President of the State of Israel
    President of Israel

    The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely a ceremonial Figurehead role, with executive real power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister of Israel....
     and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iran
  • David Levy
    David Levy (Israeli politician)

    David Levy is an Israeli politician.Levi was born in Morocco and made Aliyah to Israel in 1957. A construction worker originally, his background as a leader of Beit Shean's working-class population composed of many fellow Jews of North African descent earned Levy a huge advantage in his early career as a union activist when he began to cam...
    , former minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister (Moroccan Jew)
  • Shaul Mofaz
    Shaul Mofaz

    is the current Israeli Transportation Minister of Israel and a Deputy Prime Minister, and a former Defense Minister of Israel. Previously he was the 16th Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, and was the second Israeli of a Mizrahi background to achieve that post....
    , former Israeli Minister of Defense and chief of the IDF General Staff, Iranian Jew
  • Yitzhak Mordechai
    Yitzhak Mordechai

    Yitzhak Mordechai was an Israeli general, and later Defense Minister of Israel and Transportation Minister of Israel. He retired from political life in 2000 after being indicted for sexual misconduct during his military service....
    , retired IDF general, former minister of Defense and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iraq
  • Dorrit Moussaieff
    Dorrit Moussaieff

    Dorrit Moussaieff , is the Israeli-born United Kingdom-Icelandic First Lady of Iceland, a jewelry designer, editor, businesswoman, and socialite....
    , First Lady of Iceland
    First Lady of Iceland

    Wives and husbands of the presidents:*Georgia Bj?rnsson wife of Sveinn Bj?rnsson*D?ra ??rhallsd?ttir wife of ?sgeir ?sgeirsson*Halld?ra Eldj?rn wife of Kristj?n Eldj?rn...
     (Bukharian Jew)
  • Yitzhak Navon
    Yitzhak Navon

    Yitzhak Navon is an Israeli politician, diplomat and author. He was the fifth President of Israel....
    , fifth president of Israel and former minister of Education
    Education

    File:Inukshuk Monterrey 1.jpgEducation can be seen as a product or a process and considered in a broad sense or a technical sense. According to philosophy of education George F....
  • Shlomo Hillel
    Shlomo Hillel

    Shlomo Hillel is an Iraqi-born Israeli diplomat and politician who served as Speaker of the Knesset, Internal Security Minister of Israel and Interior Minister of Israel....
    , was speaker of the Knesset, minister
  • Amir Peretz
    Amir Peretz

    Amir Peretz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for the Israeli Labor Party. He is a former Defense Minister of Israel and former leader of the Labour Party, having left those positions in June 2007....
    , current Knesset member and former Israeli Minister of Defense, Labor Party chairman, and chairman of the Histadrut
    Histadrut

    The Histadrut or HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael is the Israeli trade union congress.It was founded in December 1920 in Haifa as a Jewish trade union which would also provide services for members such as an employment exchange, sick pay, and consumer benefits....
    , ethnicity/country of origin: Morocco
  • Silvan Shalom
    Silvan Shalom

    is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Likud. He previously served as the country's Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel and Finance Minister of Israel....
    , former Israeli minister of Foreign Affairs, minister of Treasury and Deputy Prime Minister, Tunisian Jew
  • Meir Sheetrit
    Meir Sheetrit

    Meir Sheetrit is an Israeli politician who currently serves a member of the Knesset for Kadima, and as the country's Interior Minister of Israel....
    , current Israeli minister of Internal Affairs and former Deputy Prime Minister, minister of Treasury and of Education
  • Moshe Levi
    Moshe Levi

    Gen. Moshe Levi was the 12th Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces . He served in this position from 1983-1987. He was the first Chief of Staff of Mizrahi Jews origin....
    , Israeli general, chief of the Idf General Staff
  • Shlomo Ben Ami , Israeli historian, diplomat and diplomat
  • Gabi Ashkenazi
    Gabi Ashkenazi

    Rav Aluf Gabi Ashkenazi , born 1954 in Hagor, Israel, is the 19th Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defence Forces ....
    , Israeli general, chief of the IDF General Staff
  • Dan Halutz
    Dan Halutz

    is an Israeli Air Force Lt. General and former Israeli Air Force commander. Halutz was appointed as Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces on June 1, 2005....
    , Israeli general , chief of the IDF General Staff
  • Moshe Shahal
    Moshe Shahal

    Moshe Shahal is a former Israeli politician....
    ,minister and lawyer
  • Moshe Nissim
    Moshe Nissim

    Moshe Nissim is a former Israeli politician, minister and Deputy leaders of Israel#Deputy Prime Minister....
    , was Israeli finance and justice minister
  • Eli Cohen
    Eli Cohen

    Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy....
    , Israeli spy in Syria
  • JFR Jacob, Indian general


Writers and academics

  • Jacques Derrida
    Jacques Derrida

    Jacques Derrida was a France philosophy born in Algeria, who is known as the founder of deconstruction, which was originally a translation of a Heideggerian term from Being and Time, also translated as 'De-structuring'....
    , French philosopher (of Algerian Jewish descent)
  • Sami Michael
    Sami Michael

    Sami Michael is an Israeli author and the president of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel. He was born as Sallah Menasse in Baghdad, Iraq....
    , Israeli Hebrew writer
  • Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
    Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

    Dr. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is an United States author, residing in New Zealand. Masson is known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis....
    , psychotherapist
  • Samir Naqqash
    Samir Naqqash

    Samir Naqqash was an Iraqi Jewish novelist, short-story writer, and playwright living in Israel. He received his degree in Arabic literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was one of the last and probably the most important Jewish writers to continue writing in Arabic language throughout his career....
    , writer
  • Yehouda Shenhav
    Yehouda Shenhav

    Yehouda Shenhav is an Israeli sociologist and critical theorist. He is known for his contributions in the fields of bureaucracy, management and capitalism, as well as for his research on ethnicity in Israeli society and its relationship with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....
    , Israeli sociologist
  • Saba Soomekh
    Saba Soomekh

    Dr. Saba Soomekh is an Iranian-born American professor and writer.Soomekh was born in Teheran, Iran to a Persian Jewish family that moved to Los Angeles, California to escape the Islamic Revolution of Iran....
    , professor/writer
  • A.B. Yehoshua, author and professor
  • Ella Shohat
    Ella Shohat

    Ella Habiba Shohat is an Israeli author, activist, orator and Professor of Cultural Studies and Women's Studies at New York University. She is of Iraqi Jewish descent....
    , Israeli-American sociologist and author
  • Albert Memmi
    Albert Memmi

    Albert Memmi is a Tunisian Jewish writer and essayist who migrated to France.Born in colonial Tunisia, he spoke Arabic language as his mother tongue....
    , French-Tunesian writer
  • Eli Amir
    Eli Amir

    Eli Amir is an Israeli writer and activist....
    . Israeli Hebrew writer
  • Helene Cixous
    Hélène Cixous

    H?l?ne Cixous is a professor, Feminism in France writer, poet, playwright, Philosophy, Literary criticism and rhetorician....
    , French writer
  • Jacques Attali
    Jacques Attali

    Jacques Attali is a France economist and scholar.From 1981 to 1991, he was an advisor to President Fran?ois Mitterrand.He subsequently cast doubt on Mitterand's past as a mid-level Vichy government functionary in his retrospective of Mitterrand's career, C'?tait Fran?ois Mitterrand, published in 2005....
    , French thinker and author
  • Shimon Adaf
    Shimon Adaf

    Shimon Adaf is an Israeli poet and author born in Sderot.Shimon Adaf's first book of poetry, Icarus' Monologue won a prize from the Israeli Ministry of Education....
    , Israeli Hebrew poet and writer
  • Ronit Matalon
    Ronit Matalon

    Ronit Matalon is an Israeli fiction writer.Matalon was born in Ganei Tikva, Israel, the daughter of Egyptian-Jewish immigrants. Matalon studied literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and worked as a journalist for Haaretz newspaper, where she covered Gaza and the West Bank in 1987-1993 ....
    , Israeli Hebrew writer
  • Orly Castel Bloom, Israeli Hebrew writer
  • Jean Pierre Changeux, French biology researcher
  • Baruj Benacerraf
    Baruj Benacerraf

    Baruj Benacerraf is a Venezuelan immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the Major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self"....
    , American-Venezuelian medical scientist, Nobel Prize
  • Tobi Nathan, French psychotherapist
  • Roni Somek, Israeli Hebrew poet
  • Sasson Somekh
    Sasson Somekh

    Sasson Somekh is a professor of Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University and 2005 Israel Prize recipient in Middle East studies....
    , Israeli Arabologist
  • Moshe Mani, Israeli physician
  • Nissim Ezekiel
    Nissim Ezekiel

    Nissim Ezekiel was a poet, playwright, editor and art critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English language....
    , Indian poet and art critic
  • Shlomo Laniado, Israeli physician
  • David Ohana, Israeli historian
  • Andre Chouraqui
    André Chouraqui

    Nathan Andr? Chouraqui was born in A?n Temouchent, Algeria, on August 11, 1917 and died on July 9, 2007 in Jerusalem. His parents, Isaac Chouraqui and Meleha Meyer, both descended from Spanish Jewish families who, as early as the 16th century, contributed to North African Judaism judges, theologists, rabbis and poets as well as scientists....
    , French-Israeli thinker and writer
  • Meir Basri, Iraqi poet


Entertainers

  • Elliott Yamin
    Elliott Yamin

    Elliott Yamin , is an American singing known for his hit single "Wait for You" and placing third on the American Idol of American Idol....
    , American singer (Jewish Iraqi father)
  • Sarit Hadad
    Sarit Hadad

    Sarit Hadad is a popular Israeli singer. She comes from a musical family and was recognized as a child prodigy.Sarit Hadad ) was born to Mountain Jews from Azerbaijan in a traditonal Jewish household....
    , Israeli singer from Dagestan, Russian Federation (Mountain Jew)
  • Zohar Argov
    Zohar Argov

    Zohar Argov was a popular Israeli singer and a distinctive voice in the Mizrahi music music scene....
    , Israeli born King of Mizrahi music (Yemenite)
  • Gali Atari
    Gali Atari

    file:Gali Atari.jpgAvigail "Gali" Atari is an Israeli actress and singer. She first appeared on the international scene in 1971 when she represented Israel at the World Popular Song Festival in Japan with the songs "All free" and "Give love away"....
    , Israeli singer and actress, won the Eurovision Song Contest
    Eurovision Song Contest

    The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition....
     (Yemenite family)
  • Ehud Banay, Israeli singer and composer
  • Evyatar Banay, Israeli singer and composer
  • Yuval Banay, Israeli rock singer and composer
  • Gabri Banay, Israeli stand up comedian from "Hagashash Ha'iver" group
  • Yossi Banay, Israeli singer and actor
  • Meir Banay, Israeli singer
  • Shlomo Bar
    Shlomo Bar

    Shlomo Bar is an Music of Israel, composer, and social activist. A pioneer of World music in Israel....
    , Israeli singer and composer
  • Yizhar Cohen, Israeli singer, won the Eurovision Song Contest (Yemenite family)
  • Emmanuelle Chriqui
    Emmanuelle Chriqui

    'Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui' is a Canada actor who has appeared on both television and the big screen. Her roles on HBO's Entourage as Sloan and as Dalia Hakbarah, the Palestinian hair stylist and love interest to the title character in You Don't Mess With The Zohan and Unscripted as herself, along with two appearances on T...
    , Canadian actress
  • Shoshana Damari
    Shoshana Damari

    Shoshana Damari was an Israeli singer and actress....
    , Israeli singer (Yemen born)
  • Malika Kalantarova, Famous Tajik-Bukharian dancer (People's Artist of USSR)
  • Fatima Kuinova
    Fatima Kuinova

    Fatima Kuinova is a Bukharian Jewish Shashmakom singer. She was named "Merited Artist of the Soviet Union." Kuinova was born in Samarkand but moved to Dushanbe, Tajikistan at a very young age....
    , Soviet-Bukharian singer (Merited Artist of USSR)
  • Boaz Sharabi
    Boaz Sharabi

    Boaz Sharabi is an iconic Israeli singer-songwriter, composer, guitarist, crooner, pianist, International DJ, MC, dancer, political activist, poet, actor, tenor, Film director, film producer, impresario, chazan and lyricist, well-known for such integral Israeli classics as Latet, Halavai, ''At Li Laila, ''Pamela, ''Lashir Itach...
     Israeli singer (born, Yemenite, Tunisian & Moroccan ancestry)
  • Dana International
    Dana International

    Sharon Cohen , professionally known as Dana International is an Israeli Pop music singer of a Yemenite Jewish origin. She is most famous for having won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Diva ." She is arguably one of the most famous transsexual celebrities in the world....
    , Israeli pop singer
    Pop music

    Pop music is a music genre that features a noticeable rhythmic element, melodies and hook , a mainstream style and a conventional structure.The term "pop music" was first used in 1926 in the sense of "having popular appeal" , but since the 1950s it has been used in the sense of a musical genre, originally characterized as a lighter alternat...
    , won the Eurovision Song Contest (Yemenite family)
  • Haim Ouliel, Israeli pop singer and composer
  • Kobi Oz
    Kobi Oz

    Kobi Oz is the lead singer of Israeli group Teapacks.Born in Sderot, Oz began creating and playing music at the age of 15. He started out playing keyboards for the band Sfatayim, which performed traditional Morocco music....
    , pop singer,composer and writer
  • Ninette Tayeb
    Ninette Tayeb

    Ninet Tayeb is an Israeli pop rock singer who came to fame as the first winner of Kochav Nolad . Additionally, Ninet acted for three seasons in the Israeli television drama HaShir Shelanu ....
    , Israel singer, won "A Star is Born" (Kokhav Nolad) Contest (Moroccan/Tunisian descent)
  • Avi Toledano
    Avi Toledano

    Born in Morocco April 4, 1948, Avi Toledano is known to European audiences for his involvement with the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1982 he represented Israel in Harrogate, UK with the uptempo revivalist number Hora....
    , Israeli pop singer and composer
  • Bracha Tzefira, Israeli singer
  • Ofra Haza
    Ofra Haza

    Ofra Haza was a popular Israelis singer, actress and international recording artist.Of Yemenite Jews ancestry, Haza was born the youngest of nine children in the poor Tel Aviv neighborhood of Hatikvah ....
    , Israeli pop and oriental singer (Yemenite family)
  • Shoista Mullojonova, Bukharian legendary Shashmakom Folk Singer (People's Artist of Tajikistan
    Tajikistan

    Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
  • Idan Yaniv
    Idan Yaniv

    Idan Yaniv is an Israeli singer of Bukharian Jewish descent, born in Tel Aviv. He has successfully recorded two albums with many popular singles from both albums....
    , Israeli singer of Bukharian descent (Israeli Artist of 2007)
  • Yaffa Yarkoni, Israeli singer
  • Farhat Ezekiel Nadira (Nadira
    Nadira

    Nadira is a name shared by:...
    ), Bollywood
    Bollywood

    Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry in India. The term is often used to refer to the whole of Cinema of India....
     actress of the 1940s and 50s (Baghdadi Jew from India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
    )
  • Achinoam Nini
    Achinoam Nini

    Achinoam Nini , also known by her professional name, Noa, is a leading Israeli international concert and recording artist....
    , Israeli born, Yemenite pop singer
  • Rita
    Rita Kleinstein

    Rita , is a stage name of a Iranian-born Israelis pop singer and actress....
    , Iranian born, Israeli pop singer
  • Bahar Soomekh
    Bahar Soomekh

    Bahar Soomekh is an Iranian- born United States Screen Actors Guild Awards-winning actor and environmental activist. She began acting in the early 2000s, and is perhaps best known for her film roles in the films Crash , Mission: Impossible III , and Saw III ....
    , Persian Jewish-American actress
  • Subliminal
    Subliminal

    Subliminal may refer to:* Subliminal messages* Subliminal , an American Electronica group from New York* Subliminal , an Israeli rapper and producer...
    , Israeli rapper of Persian/Tunisian descent
  • Harel Skaat
    Harel Skaat

    Harel Skaat is an Israelis singer of Yemenite Jewish descent who quickly rose to fame as the runner-up of the second season of Kokhav Nolad in 2004....
    , Singer and "Kokhav Nolad" ("Israeli Idol") contestant (Yemenite descent)
  • Chemda Khalili, singer and co-host of Keith and the Girl
    Keith and The Girl

    Keith and The Girl, abbreviated as either KaTG or KATG, is a popular comedy podcast that began on 7 March 2005. It is hosted by comedian Keith Malley and singer Chemda, an unmarried couple living in Queens, New York....
  • Haim Moshe
    Haim Moshe

    Haim Moshe is an Israelis singer whose musical style has crossed over from Yemenite and Mediterranean "ethnic" music to include mainstream Israeli and western pop elements....
    , Israeli-born Mizrahi singer (Yemenite)
  • Hanna Aharoni, Israeli singer, born in Yemen
  • Sasha Baron Cohen, Persian Jewish-British Actor
  • Zion Golan
    Zion Golan

    Zion Golan is an Israeli singer of Yemenite Jews origin....
    , Israeli singer (Yemenite descent)
  • Gila Beshari, Israeli singer (Yemenite descent)
  • Ariel Zilber
    Ariel Zilber

    Ariel Zilber is an Israeli singer-songwriter and composer. He is considered one of the most prominent musicians and singer-songwriters in Israeli music, known for his highly literate lyrics and for his simple yet profound style....
    , Israeli singer and composer
  • Layla Murad, Egyptian singer
  • Enrico Macias
    Enrico Macias

    Enrico Macias is a Jewish-France singer....
    , French singer and composer
  • Salah al Kuweiti, Iraki-Israeli violinist
  • Lili Boniche
    Lili Boniche

    Lili Boniche , born to a Sephardic Jewish family in the Kasbah area of Algiers, is a singer of Andalusian classical music music. He died in Paris, France....
    , French-Algerian singer
  • Filfil al Masri, Israeli singer
  • Yaniv Bitton, Israeli comedian
  • Berry Sakharof
    Berry Sakharof

    Berry Sakharof is an Israeli Rock music guitarist, songwriter and singer. His playing style incorporates techniques from Electronic music and dance music....
    , Israeli singer and composer
  • Yehezkel Lazarov
    Yehezkel Lazarov

    Yehezkel Lazarov is an Israeli actor, dancer and choreographer. He played in Three Mothers next to Miri Mesika and The Debt ....
    , Israeli actor
  • Miki Gabrielov, Israeli pop composer and singer
  • Ilana Avital, Israeli singer
  • Moshe Amar, Israeli singer
  • Zahra al Fassia - Moroccan singer
  • Reinette l'Oranaise
    Reinette L'Oranaise

    Reinette l'Oranaise was an Algerian singer, who helped preserve Andalusian classical music, as well as introducing the genre to European audiences....
     - Algerian singer
  • Sami Moghrabi, Moroccan singer
  • Shimi Tabori, Israeli singer
  • Rivka Michaeli, Israeli comedian and radio and TV mediator
  • Yosef Bardanashvili Israeli-Georgian composer
  • Hélène Grimaud
    Hélène Grimaud

    H?l?ne Grimaud is a France pianist.She was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. She is descended from Sephardi Jews from Corsica on her mother's side and from Berber Jews on her father's side....
     French-born concert pianist/author of Berber-Jewish mother & Algerian-Jewish father


Business people

  • Charles Saatchi
    Charles Saatchi

    Charles Saatchi was the co-founder with his brother Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, which became the world's biggest before the brothers were forced out of their own company in 1995....
    , advertising executive and art collector (born in Iraq)
  • Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi
    Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi

    Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is the co-founder, with his brother Charles Saatchi, of the advertising agencies Saatchi and Saatchi and M&C Saatchi, where he currently serves as Executive Director....
    , advertising executive and chairman of the British
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
     Conservative Party
    Conservative Party (UK)

    The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
  • Michael Kadoorie
    Michael Kadoorie

    The Hon. Sir Michael David Kadoorie, Hong Kong honours system, born 1941 in Hong Kong, is a business executive, one of the world's foremost tycoons and philanthropists....
    , businessman from Hong-Kong
  • Shlomo Moussaieff
    Shlomo Moussaieff

    Shlomo Moussaieff may refer to:* Shlomo Moussaieff , one of the founders of the Bukharan Quarter in Jerusalem* Shlomo Moussaieff , Israeli born millionaire businessman....
    , Jewellery Designer/ Judaic Collector and Expert (Bukharian)
  • Lev Leviev
    Lev Leviev

    Lev Avnerovich Leviev is a Chabad Orthodox Judaism Bukharian Jewish billionaire. Leviev is ranked 210th among the world?s wealthiest people, with an estimated personal net worth of $6.5 billion , although his associates put the figure closer to $8 billion....
    , Israeli businessman of Bukharian descent
  • David and Simon Reuben
    David and Simon Reuben

    David and Simon Reuben are well known United Kingdom businessmen and philanthropists. The brothers moved to London as teenagers. Despite coming from an impoverished background, in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK the brothers were placed in the top ten with an estimated fortune of ?4.3 billio...
    , British businessmen born in India, from a family of Baghdadi Jews
    Baghdadi Jews

    The Baghdadi Jews are one of the main Jewish communities of India.The "Baghdadi" Jewish community of India is so called because its members were chiefly descended from Iraqi Jewish immigrants to India who moved to that country during the British Raj....
  • Edmond Safra
    Edmond Safra

    Edmond J. Safra was a Jewish Brazilian-naturalized, Lebanese banker who continued the family tradition of banking in Lebanon, Brazil and Switzerland....
    , banker from Lebanon
  • Ben Biggio, Haiti
    Haiti

    Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
    an businessman (Syrian Jewish
    Syrian Jews

    Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited the region of today's Syria from the History of Ancient Israel and Judah and those Sephardim who fled to Syria after the Alhambra decree ....
     ancestry)
  • Jacques Nasser
    Jacques Nasser

    Jacques Al-Salawat Nasruddin Nasser nicknamed "Jac The Knife" because of his penchant for cost-cutting, is a business executive, most known for his infamous tenure as Chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company, serving from 1999 until 2001....
    , American businessman of Lebanese
    Lebanon

    Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
     origin
  • Nissim Gaon. Swiss businessman of Sudan
    Sudan

    Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
    ese origin
  • Yitzhak Teshuva, Israeli businessman of Libya
    Libya

    Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
    n origin
  • Shlomo Eliyahu, Israeli businessman
  • Tzadik Bino, Israeli bankier and businessman


Religious figures

  • Ovadia Yosef
    Ovadia Yosef

    Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is a Sephardi Jews Haredi Judaism rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and recognized halakha authority. He is the former Sephardi Jews Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the current spiritual leader of the Shas political party in the Israeli Knesset....
    , former Sephardic Chief Rabbi
    Chief Rabbi

    Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities....
     of Israel
    Israel

    Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
     and spiritual leader of Shas
    Shas

    Shas is a List of political parties in Israel in Israel, primarily representing Haredi Judaism Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews Judaism. Following the Israeli legislative election, 2006 in which Shas won 12 seats, it joined Ehud Olmert's coalition government and holds four cabinet posts....
  • Mordechai Eliyahu
    Mordechai Eliyahu

    Mordechai Eliyahu is a former Sephardi Jews Chief Rabbi of Israel....
    , former Sephardic Chief Rabbi
    Chief Rabbi

    Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities....
     of Israel
    Israel

    Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
  • Amnon Yitzhak
    Amnon Yitzhak

    Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak , is a well-known Orthodox Judaism Haredi Judaism Israeli rabbi of Yemenite origin.Rabbi Yitzhak is widely involved in "kiruv" ....
    , Orthodox rabbi of Yemenite origin
  • Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi)
    Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi)

    Shlomo Moussaieff was born in the city of Bukhara in 1852 in what is today Uzbekistan and was one of the founders of the Bukharian Quarter in Jerusalem....
    , Co-founder of Bukharian Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem
    Jerusalem

    Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
  • Shalomim Y. HaLahawi (Ordained Jerusalem Rabbi), Licensed Naturopathic Physician and Rabbi of Ha' Yisrayli Torah Brith Yahad, a Mizrahi Jewish Organization


Others

  • Isaac Mizrahi
    Isaac Mizrahi

    Isaac Mizrahi is an United States fashion designer and the creative director of Liz Claiborne....
    , fashion designer
  • J. F. R. Jacob, celebrated Indian Army
    Indian Army

    The Indian Army is the largest branch of the Indian Armed Forces of India and has the responsibility for army military operations. Its primary objectives include defending India from external aggression, maintaining peace and security within the country, patrolling borders and conducting counter-terrorist operations....
     officer and participant in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
    Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

    The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a major military conflict between India and Pakistan. The war is closely associated with the Bangladesh Liberation War ....
     (Baghdadi Jew from India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
    )
  • Robert Mizrachi
    Robert Mizrachi

    Robert Mizrachi is an United States professional poker player.Robert Mizrachi was a former poker dealer at a South Miami casino. He introduced the game of poker to his younger brother, World Poker Tour champion Michael Mizrachi....
    , poker player, Iraqi Jew.
  • Michael Mizrachi
    Michael Mizrachi

    Michael Mizrachi is an United States professional poker player.Growing up, Mizrachi wanted to become a Physician but dropped out of college to play poker full-time....
    , poker player, Iraqi Jew.


See also

  • Arab Jews
    Arab Jews

    Arab Jews is a controversial term referring to Jews living in the Arab World, or Jews descended from such persons.The term was occasionally used in the early 20th century, mainly by Arab nationalists, to describe the 1 million Jews living in the Arab world at the time....
  • Arab Jewish tribes
  • History of the Jews under Muslim rule
  • History of the Jews in Algeria
    History of the Jews in Algeria

    Jews and Judaism have a rather long history in Algeria, but the country's Jewish population was severely depleted by emigration during the political tensions of the late twentieth century....
  • History of the Jews in Egypt
    History of the Jews in Egypt

    Egyptian Jews constitute perhaps the oldest Jewish community outside Israel in the world. While no exact census exists, the Jewish population of Egypt was estimated at fewer than a hundred in 2004,...
  • History of the Jews in Iran
    History of the Jews in Iran

    The beginnings of Jewish history in Iran date back to late Biblical times. The biblical books of Book of Isaiah, Book of Daniel, Book of Ezra, Book of Nehemiah, Book of Chronicles, and Book of Esther contain references to the life and experiences of Jews in Persian Empire....
  • History of the Jews in Iraq
    History of the Jews in Iraq

    Iraqi Jews are Jews born in Iraq or of Iraqi heritage. The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c....
  • History of the Jews in Morocco
    History of the Jews in Morocco

    Morocco Jews constitute an ancient community. Before the founding of Israel in 1948, there were about 250,000 Jews in the country, but fewer than 7,000 or so remain....
  • History of the Jews in Tunisia
    History of the Jews in Tunisia

    Tunisia has had a Jewish minority since Roman Empire. In 1948 the Jewish population was an estimated 105,000, but by 1967 most Tunisian Jews had left the country for France and Israel, and the population had shrunk to 20,000....
  • History of the Jews in Syria
    History of the Jews in Syria

    Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited Syria from early times and the Sephardim who fled to Syria after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain ....
  • Jews of the Bilad el-Sudan (West Africa)
    Jews of the Bilad el-Sudan (West Africa)

    Jews of the Bilad al-Sudan describes West African Kehilla who were connected to known Jewish communities from the Middle East, North Africa, or Spain and Portugal....
  • Mountain Jews
    Mountain Jews

    Mountain Jews, Juvuro, Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or more uncommonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part of Caucasus, though there were also historical settlements...
  • Palestinian Jew
    Palestinian Jew

    A Palestinian Jew is a Jewish inhabitant of Palestine throughout certain periods of Middle Eastern history. According to the written record, Jews of the region referred to themselves in Hebrew as "The Jewish community in the Land of Israel" , rather than "Palestinian Jews."...
  • Sephardi Jews
    Sephardi Jews

    Sephardi Jews are a subgroup of Jews originating in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, usually defined in contrast to Ashkenazi or Mizrahi Jews....
  • Yemenite Jews
    Yemenite Jews

    Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
  • Mizrahi Music
    Mizrahi music

    Mizrahi music refers to the genre of Middle Eastern style of Music of Israel. It combines elements and flavours of Arabic Musicic, Turkish music and Greek music brought to Israel by Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews....
  • Iran-Israel relations
    Iran-Israel relations

    Relations between Iran and Israel have alternated from close political alliances between the two states during the era of the Pahlavi dynasty to hostility following the rise to power of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini....
  • Israeli Black Panthers
    Israeli Black Panthers

    The Black Panthers are an Israeli protest movement of second-generation Jewish immigrants from Middle Eastern countries. They were one of the first organizations in Israel with the mission of working for social justice for the Mizrahi Jews....
  • Jewish ethnic divisions
    Jewish ethnic divisions

    Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct communities within the world's ethnicity Jewish population. Although considered one single Identity ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic divisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, and subsequent independen...
  • Jewish exodus from Arab lands
    Jewish exodus from Arab lands

    The Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews background, from Arab and Islamic countries....
  • To my Sister, Mizrahi Feminist Politics
    To my Sister, Mizrahi Feminist Politics

    To My Sister: Mizrahi Feminist Politics is an anthology of poetry, short story, speech, article and research on the subject of Identity and Social class from a Mizrahi feminist perspective....
  • Outcast (novel)
    Outcast (novel)

    Outcast, is a 1991 novel by Baghdad-born Mizrahi Israeli author Shimon Ballas. The novel was translated into English in 2005....


Bibliography

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


External links


Organizations

  • Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa
  • - An organization of Mizrahi Jews in Israel


Articles

  • - Nancy Hawker on Samir Naqqash, one of Israel’s foremost Arab-language Mizrahi novelists
  • A chronicle of Mizrahi refugees by Semha Alwaya
  • The story of an Iraqi Jew in the Israeli Navy and his survival on the war-ship Eilat
  • Yeheskel Kojaman describes his life as a Mizrahi Jew in Iraq in the 50s and 60s
  • Tel-Aviv Univ. M.A in the Unit for Culture Research, 2003. (Hebrew, with summary in English.)


Communities

  • Persian Jewish community
  • (????? ?????????) Kurdish Jewry (Hebrew)
  • Disseminating the 3000 year old heritage of Babylonian Jewry (English and Hebrew)
  • (????? ????? - ???? ??????) Iraqi American Jewish Community in New York. Perpetuating the history, heritage, culture and traditions of Babylonian Jewry.
  • Tunisian Jewish site (French)
  • Algerian Jewish site (French)
  • Moroccan Jewish site (French)