Jews of the Middle East and North Africa: Empire, Colonialism, and Identity

Empire, Hierarchy, and the Dhimmi System

From the rise of Islam in the seventh century CE into the twentieth century, Jewish communities lived, and even flourished, in many Islamic empires. These empires had hierarchical legal and social systems that privileged Muslims but generally offered Jews and Christians, known as dhimmis, a secure, though subordinate, status. Key Jewish legal texts and rich forms of Jewish culture emerged in locales ranging from modern-day Iran and Iraq in the east to al-Andalus (Arab-ruled parts of Spain and Portugal) and Morocco in the west. Jews in these lands had a wide array of experiences and relationships with Muslims. Some Jewish communities spoke dialects of local languages such as Arabic, Persian, Aramaic, and Amazigh (Berber). Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, became an important Jewish language as well. 

Over the course of the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, al-Andalus was gradually reconquered by Christian monarchies. In 1492, Spain expelled its Jews, as did Portugal in 1497. The exiles and their descendants, known as Sephardic (“Spanish”) Jews, dispersed throughout Mediterranean lands, including North Africa and the Ottoman Empire and beyond. The term Sephardic came to refer to all non-Ashkenazic (Central and Eastern European) Jewish religious traditions, and at times has been used to refer to all Jews of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), although most have not had roots in medieval Spain. Sephardic Jews became an important presence in many cities in the Islamic world. Salonika (now Thessaloniki, Greece, but then in the Ottoman Empire), and Baghdad, in modern Iraq, had among the highest proportions of Jews in the world, and their Jewish communities played an important role in imperial and transregional economics. 

Colonialism Nationalism and Migration in the  Middle East and North Africa

The ascent of European colonial influence in the Middle East and North Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries challenged preexisting hierarchies, creating both opportunities and new dilemmas for MENA Jews and fomenting some local resentments against them. In the mid-twentieth century, a convergence of factors prompted the mass migration of Jews from the Arab world. These included simmering colonial-era resentments, antisemitic World War II propaganda, decolonization, and nationalism in the forms of both Arab nationalism and Zionism. Even Jews who had long seemed part of the fabric of their home Arab societies found themselves treated as foreigners by their governments and some of their Muslim and Christian neighbors. Meanwhile, the new State of Israel offered itself as a home to many of these MENA Jews. Roughly 750,000 Jews from Islamic lands moved to Israel from the 1940s to the 1980s, leaving only a small number remaining in their native countries. 

Aliyah to Israel and the Making of Mizrahi Identity

In Israel, MENA Jews faced discrimination by the Ashkenazic (Eastern and Central European Jewish) establishment, and were labeled Mizrahi (“Oriental” or “Eastern” Jews). Though this label glossed over the many differences among the diverse communities of Middle Eastern and North African origin, most MENA Jews in Israel accepted or have reclaimed the label “Mizrahi,” and it is the most common term used for these Jews today. Despite facing discrimination, especially in Israel’s early decades, and systemic economic disadvantages that still endure, Mizrahi Jews increasingly shape Israeli culture, and roughly half of Israeli Jews have family roots in current or former Muslim-controlled lands, including a small fraction with families who lived in Ottoman Palestine/Erets Yisrael for centuries before the advent of Zionism in the late 1800s..

Why MENA Jewish History Matters Today

Jewish communities that trace their roots to the Middle East and North Africa have diverse histories and have been referred to by a variety of labels, including Sephardic, Mizrahi, Arab (in the case of Jews from Arab states), and Persian (in the case of Jews from Iran). The experience of these communities shows how self-identification and external identification can be malleable, changing over time and place. The MENA Jewish story also highlights how Jewish history has intersected with forces such as Islamic rule, European colonialism, and modern nationalist movements.