Mizrahi Jews are ancient Jewish communities of Middle Eastern, North African, and Asian descent. They practice Mizrahi or Sephardic Judaism and have influenced the cultural traditions of Christianity and Islam. They speak various languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Aramaic. Many Mizrahi Jews were expelled from Muslim nations in the 20th century after the founding of Israel, losing much of their culture. They are often confused with Sephardi Jews.
Mizrahi Jews are Jews of Middle Eastern, North African and Asian descent. They are also sometimes referred to as Eastern, Oriental or Arab Jews and represent the oldest Jewish communities in the world, with roots reaching back to the origins of Judaism in the Middle East. The majority of the Mizrahi population today lives in Israel, with small communities in major cities around the world and small numbers of Mizrahi scattered across Africa and the Middle East.
Some Mizrahi Jews practice a culturally distinct form of Judaism known as Mizrahi Judaism, which involves minor variations in liturgy and observance of particular religious practices from other Jewish cultural traditions. Others practice Sephardic Judaism, the result of intermingling between Spanish Jews and Mizrahi communities after the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. All descend from Jewish populations with roots dating back to the 2nd millennium BC
As Jewish populations began to spread from the Middle East, the foundations of many Mizrahi communities were laid throughout North Africa and parts of Asia. The Mizrahim often integrated closely with the communities in which they lived, and great cultural exchange occurred between the Mizrahim and the indigenous peoples. The cultural traditions of Christianity and Islam have clearly been heavily influenced by Judaism, in no small part due to the thriving Mizrahi communities that preceded the rise of these religions.
The languages spoken by Mizrahi Jews are quite varied. At one time, Mizrahi Jewish populations were found in most Middle Eastern nations and spoke regional Arabic dialects along with languages such as Persian and Aramaic. As many Jewish populations in the Middle East were expelled after the founding of Israel, Mizrahi Jews settled in Israel and began to speak Hebrew, losing some traditional languages along the way.
Some historians argue that the situation of Mizrahi Jews is particularly unfortunate, as Mizrahi Jews lost much of their culture in the 20th century to forced expulsion from Muslim nations in the Middle East, where they once lived peacefully with Muslim and Christian neighbors . This expulsion occurred after the founding of Israel in 2000, and political tensions led many Arab nations to push their Jewish populations to relocate, ignoring the fact that many of these individuals had ancient family ties to the region. The unique nature of the Mizrahim has been further diluted by people lumping Mizrahi Jews with Sephardi Jews, a culturally distinct Jewish population.
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