Mizrahi Jews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
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

3.0 to 4 million (estimate)
Regions with significant populations
 Israel 2,500,000-3,000,000
 France 400,000
 United States 200,000-300,000
 England 70,000
 Canada 35,000
 Iran 25,000
 Chile 2,700
 Argentina 2,170
 Mexico 1,000
Languages
Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Judeo-Malayalam, Dzhidi, Judæo-Arabic, Georgian, Bukhori, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri and Judæo-Aramaic
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions and Arabs.
Part of a series of articles on
Jews and Judaism
Star of David Menorah
Who is a Jew? · Etymology · Culture
v • d • e

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, (Hebrew: מזרחים, Standard Mizraḥim Tiberian Mizrāḥîm ; "Easterners"), also referred to as Edot HaMizrach (Communities of the East) are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The term Mizrahi is used in Israel in the language of politics, media and some social scientists for Jews from the Arab world and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. This includes Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews, Lebanese Jews, Yemenite Jews, Persian Jews, Afghan Jews, Bukharian Jews, Maghrebi Jews, Berber Jews, Kurdish Jews, Mountain Jews and Georgian Jews. It would also include the Jews of India, Jews of Pakistan, and Baghdadi Jews who settled in the last few centuries (in contrast to Jewish communities of the Indian subcontinent established millennia earlier).

Despite their heterogeneous origins, Mizrahi Jews generally practise rites identical or similar to traditional Sephardic Judaism although with some differences among the minhagim 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. And indeed, from the point of view of the religious rite, the "Mizrahi Jewish" rabbis in Israel are submitted in fact to the "Sefardic" chief rabbi of Israel who, in most of the cases, is an "Oriental" or "Mizrahi" Jew.

Contents

[edit] History and usage

"Mizrahi" is literally translated as "Eastern", מזרח (Mizrach), Hebrew for "east." In the past the word "Mizrahim", corresponding to the Arabic word Mashriqiyyun (Easterners), referred to the natives of Syria, Iraq and other Asian countries, as distinct from those of North Africa (Maghrabiyyun).[1] 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 Israeli 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 more by so-called Mizrahi activists in the early 1990s, and since then has become an accepted semi-official and media designation.[2]

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, or prefer to use the old term "Sefardic" in its broader meaning.

[edit] Other designations

Many people, especially in Israel, identify all non-Ashkenazi Jews as Sephardim, in modern Hebrew "Sfaradim". 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 (Spain and Portugal), 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 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 resettled in greater or lesser numbers in many Arabic-speaking countries such as Syria and Morocco. In Syria, most eventually intermarried with and assimilated into the larger established community of Arabic-speaking Jews. In North African countries, by contrast, where the Sephardim came to outnumber the pre-existing Arab and Berber Jews, 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 only "Spanish Jews" but "Jews of the Spanish rite", just as "Ashkenazim" 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, that is, Sephardim expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. The established Arabic-speaking Jews called themselves Musta'arabim (Arabic for Arabizers), while the newer Sephardi arrivals called them Moriscos (Ladino for Moorish).

[edit] Language

Main article: Judeo-Arabic languages
Kurdish Jews in Rawanduz, northern Iraq, 1905.

Most of the so-called Oriental Jewish or Mizrahi communities spoke Arabic and a number of Judeo-Arabic dialects such as Maghrebi, 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 using a modified Hebrew alphabet.

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

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 and Zohar, and many ritual recitations such as the Kaddish. Traditionally Aramaic has been a language of Talmudic debate in yeshivoth, as many rabbinic texts are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. As spoken by the Jews of Kurdistan, Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects are descended from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, 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 Kurdish language.

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 and Babylonia.

[edit] 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 (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 after the 1956 Suez Crisis, led to the overwhelming majority of Mizrahim leaving Arab countries. They became refugees. Most went to Israel. 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, primarily in Iran, but also Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey [3]. There are few remaining in the Arab world. About 5,000 remain in Morocco and fewer than 2,000 in Tunisia. Other countries with remnants of ancient Jewish communities with official recognition, such as Lebanon, have 1,000 or fewer Jews. A trickle of emigration continues, mainly to Israel and the United States. 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. [4]

[edit] Absorption into Israeli society

 Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (April 2008)

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.[5] 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) and later sent to development towns on the peripheries of Israel. Settlement in Moshavim (cooperative farming villages) was only partially successful, because Mizrahim had historically filled a niche as craftsmen and merchants 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.[citation needed] Furthermore, a policy of Austerity 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; Baghdadi Jews from India and Gruzinic arrived with English; the Bene Israel from Maharashtra, India arrived with Marathi, Mizrahim from elsewhere brought Georgian, Tajik, Juhuri 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 counterparts, but with time they became more assimilated, creating a new, Israeli identity.

[edit] 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.[6] Intermarriage between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim is now relatively common in Israel,[citation needed] however, it has been found that intermarriage does not tend to decrease ethnic differences in socio-economic status.[7]

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.[8] Furthermore, the percentage of Mizrahim who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as Russians.[9] According to a survey by the Adva Center[10], the average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004.[11]

[edit] Notable Mizrahim

[edit] Medicine and therapy

[edit] Politicians and military

  • Yehezkel Adam, Israeli general (from a Caucasian Jewish family)
  • Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israeli general, current Israeli minister of Infrastructure, former minister of Defense and Israel Labor Party chairman, (Iraqi Jew), commonly called by his Arabic name "Fuad"
  • Aryeh Deri, former leader of Shas Party and minister of Internal Affairs, (Moroccan Jew)
  • Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi, Minister of Post and Speaker of Knesset 1970s and 80s, ethnicity/country of origin: Yemen
  • Dalia Itzik, current Knesset speaker
  • Avigdor Kahalani, former minister of Internal Security and decorated IDF tank commander
  • Moshe Katsav, former President of the State of Israel and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iran
  • David Levy, former minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister (Moroccan Jew), minister of housing and transports
  • Shaul Mofaz, former Israeli Minister of Defense and chief of the IDF General Staff, Iranian Jew
  • Yitzhak Mordechai, retired IDF general, former minister of Defense and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iraq
  • Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland (Bukharian Jew)
  • Yitzhak Navon, fifth president of Israel and former minister of Education, from a Sefardic Palestinian Jewish family
  • Shlomo Hillel, was speaker of the Knesset, minister
  • Amir Peretz, current Knesset member and former Israeli Minister of Defense, Labor Party chairman, and chairman of the Histadrut, ethnicity/country of origin: Morocco
  • Silvan Shalom, former Israeli minister of Foreign Affairs, minister of Treasury and Deputy Prime Minister, Tunisian Jew
  • Meir Sheetrit, current Israeli minister of Internal Affairs and former Deputy Prime Minister, minister of Treasury and of Education
  • Moshe Levi, Israeli general, chief of the Idf General Staff
  • Shlomo Ben Ami , Israeli historian, diplomat and diplomat, was minister of police
  • Gabi Ashkenazi, Israeli general, chief of the IDF General Staff
  • Dan Halutz, Israeli general , chief of the IDF General Staff
  • Moshe Shahal,minister and lawyer
  • Moshe Nissim, was Israeli finance and justice minister
  • Eli Cohen, Israeli spy in Syria
  • Shimon Sheetrit, Israeli lawman and politician, was justice minister, professor of law
  • Ran Cohen, politician from the left liberal party Meretz, former MK
  • Nissim Dahan, rabbi and politician from Shass party, was minister of health
  • Tzvi Bar, Israeli border guards general, mayor of the city of Ramat Gan, (from a Kurdish Jewish family settled in Palestine- Barzani)
  • Eli Ishai, rabbi and politician, minister of wealth affairs, vice-prime minister of Israel, leader of Shass party
  • Shalom Simhon, Israeli politician, from Labor party, minister of agriculture
  • Itzhak Peretz, Israeli rabbi and politician, one of the founders of Shass party, was minister of cults and inner affairs and MK

(not the soccer player Vicky Peretz)

[edit] Writers and academics

(born in Iraq)

(from a Sefardic family originating from Morocco and settled in Palestine)

[edit] Entertainers

(from Iraki Jewish family)

(from a Libyan Jewish family)

)

[edit] Business people

[edit] Religious figures

[edit] Others

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ In medieval and early modern times the corresponding Hebrew word ma'arav was used for North Africa. In Talmudic and Geonic times, however, this word "ma'arav" referred to the land of Israel as contrasted with Babylonia.
  2. ^ http://web.mit.edu/cis/www/mitejmes/issues/200105/download/Shohat.doc
  3. ^ The Jewish Population of the World, The Jewish Virtual Library
  4. ^ The Jews of Iran, The Jewish Virtual Library
  5. ^ Ella Shohat: “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims,” Social Text, No.19/20 (1988), p.32
  6. ^ Blackwell Synergy - Int J Urban & Regional Res, Volume 24 Issue 2 Page 418-438, June 2000 (Article Abstract)
  7. ^ Project MUSE
  8. ^ http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications/educ_demog_05/pdf/t16.pdf
  9. ^ 97_gr_.xls
  10. ^ Adva Center
  11. ^ Hebrew PDF [1]

[edit] Bibliography

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

[edit] External links

[edit] Organizations

[edit] Articles

[edit] Communities

v • d • e
Mizrahi Jews topics
By nationality
Afghanistan · Algeria · Bahrain · Egypt · Iran · Iraq · Jordan · Kuwait · Lebanon · Morocco · Oman · Qatar · Saudi Arabia · Tunisia · Syria · U.A.E.
History
By ethnicity
Languages
Religion and culture
Politics
v • d • e
Jews and Judaism
Denominations
Philosophy
Religious texts
Jewish leadership
Life and culture
Roles and places
Religious articles
Other religions
Languages
History
Politics
Antisemitism
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews"
Personal tools