Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews are Jews whose communities have historical roots in the Middle East and North Africa. The term encompasses diverse populations shaped by distinct local histories, languages, and customs.

Babylonian Jews: Jews whose community in Babylonia dates to antiquity and persisted in Iraq until the twentieth century. Iraqi Jewish history is one of the region’s oldest continuous Jewish traditions.
Jewish diaspora: The dispersed Jewish communities living outside the historical land of Israel. Mizrahi histories are part of the broader history of Jewish life across regions.
Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries: The migration and displacement of Jewish communities from Middle Eastern and North African countries, especially during the twentieth century. It transformed the size and geography of many Mizrahi communities.
Mizrahi music: Popular Israeli music shaped by Middle Eastern and North African musical traditions. Its sounds became a prominent expression of Mizrahi cultural identity in Israel.
Mizrahi studies: An interdisciplinary field examining Mizrahi histories, cultures, identities, and political conditions. It develops scholarship on communities often grouped together despite distinct histories.
Jews of Yemen: A Jewish community with a long history in Yemen and distinctive religious traditions. Yemenite Jews exemplify the distinctive histories encompassed by Mizrahi identity.
Sephardi Jews: Jews whose traditions derive historically from the Iberian Peninsula and its diaspora. Sephardi and Mizrahi identities overlap in some communities but describe different histories.
Operation Ezra and Nehemiah: The 1950–1952 airlift that brought most Iraqi Jews to Israel. This mass migration reshaped Iraqi Jewish life and Israel’s population.
Mizrahi literature: Literature by Mizrahi writers addressing memory, migration, language, and belonging. Writers have challenged narratives that marginalized Mizrahi histories and voices.
Decolonization: The ending of colonial rule and the continuing transformation of political and cultural relations shaped by colonialism. Debates ask how colonial categories shaped the study and representation of Mizrahi Jews.

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