Arab Jews

Term for Jews originating from the Arab world

See also: Maghrebi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and Musta'arabi Jews

Part of a series on

Jews and Judaism

* Etymology
* Who is a Jew?
* Jewish studies

Religion

* God in Judaism (names)
* Principles of faith
* Mitzvot (613)
* Halakha
* Shabbat
* Holidays
* Prayer
* Tzedakah
* Land of Israel
* Brit
* Bar and bat mitzvah
* Marriage
* Bereavement
* Baal teshuva
* Philosophy
* Ethics
* Kabbalah
* Messiah
* Claimants
* Customs
* Rites
* Synagogue
* Rabbi

Texts

|  Tanakh

* Torah
* Nevi'im
* Ketuvim

Talmud

* Mishnah
* Gemara

Rabbinic

* Midrash
* Tosefta

* Targum
* Beit Yosef
* Mishneh Torah
* Tur
* Shulchan Aruch
* Zohar

History

|  General

* Timeline
* Land of Israel
* Name "Judea"
* Antisemitism
* Anti-Judaism
* Persecution
* Leaders
* Modern historiography
* Historical population comparisons

Ancient Israel

* Twelve Tribes of Israel
* Kingdom of Judah
* Kingdom of Israel
* Jerusalem (in Judaism
* timeline)
* Temple in Jerusalem (First
* Second)
* Assyrian captivity
* Babylonian captivity

Second Temple period

* Yehud Medinata
* Maccabean Revolt
* Hasmonean dynasty
* Sanhedrin
* Schisms (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii)
* Second Temple Judaism (Hellenistic Judaism)
* Jewish–Roman wars (Great Revolt, Diaspora, Bar Kokhba)

Rabbinic period and Middle Ages

* Rabbinic Judaism
* History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire
* Christianity and Judaism (Jews and Christmas)
* Hinduism and Judaism
* Islamic–Jewish relations
* Middle Ages
* Golden Age
* Expulsion from Spain

Modern era

* Haskalah
* Sabbateans
* Hasidism
* Jewish atheism
* Emancipation
* Old Yishuv
* Zionism
* Soviet Union
* The Holocaust
* Israel
* Arab–Israeli conflict

Communities

* Ashkenazim
* Galician
* Litvak
* Mizrahim
* Sephardim
* Teimanim (Yemenite Jews)
* Beta Israel
* Gruzinim (Georgian Jews)
* Juhurim (Mountain Jews)
* Bukharim
* Italkim
* Romanyotim
* Cochinim
* Bene Israel
* Berber
* Crimean Karaites
* Krymchaks
* Kaifeng Jews

Related groups

* Bnei Anusim
* Lemba
* Igbo Jews
* Samaritans
* Crypto-Jews
* Anusim
* Dönmeh
* Marranos
* Neofiti
* Xueta
* Mosaic Arabs
* Subbotniks
* Noahides

Population

* Judaism by country
* Lists of Jews
* Diaspora
* Historical population by country
* Population by city
* Genetic studies

Israel and Palestine

* Old Yishuv
* New Yishuv
* Israeli Jews
* Palestinian Jews

Africa

* Algeria
* Angola
* Bilad-el-Sudan
* Botswana
* Cameroon
* Cape Verde
* Benin
* Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Djibouti
* Egypt
* Ethiopia
* Beta Israel
* Eritrea
* Eswatini
* Gabon
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bissau
* Ivory Coast
* Kenya
* Libya
* Madagascar
* Malawi
* Mali
* Mauritius
* Morocco
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Nigeria (Igbo)
* Republic of the Congo
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* Sudan
* Tanzania
* Tunisia
* Uganda (Abayudaya)
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

Asia

* Afghanistan
* Bahrain
* Cambodia
* China
* Hong Kong
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Israel
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Kurdistan
* Kuwait
* Kyrgyzstan
* Lebanon
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Myanmar
* Nepal
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Philippines
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* South Korea
* Singapore
* Sri Lanka
* Syria
* Tajikistan
* Taiwan
* Thailand
* Turkey
* United Arab Emirates
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen

Europe

* Albania
* Armenia
* Austria
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Belgium
* Bosnia
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Cyprus
* Czechia
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Georgia
* Germany
* Greece
* Romaniote
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Italkim
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Moldova
* Montenegro
* Netherlands
* North Macedonia
* Norway
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* Soviet Union
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sephardim
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* England
* Scotland
* Wales

Northern America

* Canada
* United States
* Greenland

Latin America and Caribbean

* Argentina
* Bolivia
* Brazil
* Chile
* Colombia
* Costa Rica
* Cuba
* Dominican Republic
* Ecuador
* El Salvador
* Guatemala
* Guyana
* Haiti
* Honduras
* Jamaica
* Mexico
* Nicaragua
* Panama
* Paraguay
* Peru
* Puerto Rico
* Suriname
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

Oceania

* Australia
* Fiji
* Guam
* New Zealand
* Palau

Denominations

* Orthodox
* Modern
* Haredi
* Hasidic
* Reform
* Conservative
* Karaite
* Reconstructionist
* Renewal
* Science
* Haymanot
* Humanistic

Culture

|  Customs

* Minyan
* Wedding
* Clothing
* Niddah
* Pidyon haben
* Kashrut
* Shidduch
* Zeved habat
* Conversion to Judaism
* Aliyah
* Hiloni

Music

* Religious
* Secular

Art

* Ancient
* Yiddish theatre
* Dance
* Humour

Cuisine

* American
* Ashkenazi
* Bukharan
* Ethiopian
* Israeli
* Israelite
* Mizrahi
* Sephardic

Literature

* Israeli
* Yiddish
* Judeo-Tat
* American

Surnames

* Ashkenazi
* Mizrahi
* Sephardic

Languages

* Hebrew
* Biblical
* Mishnaic
* Medieval
* Modern
* Bukharian
* Ghardaïa Sign
* Jewish Koine Greek
* Judeo-Arabic
* Judeo-Aramaic
* Judeo-Berber
* Judeo-Gascon
* Judaeo-Georgian
* Judaeo-Iranian
* Judeo-Italian
* Judeo-Malayalam
* Judaeo-Spanish
* Judeo-Tat
* Knaanic
* Shassi
* Yeshivish
* Yevanic
* Yiddish
* Zarphatic

Politics

|  Jewish political movements

* Autonomism
* Bundism
* Feminism
* Leftism
* Secularism
* Territorialism
* World Agudath Israel

Zionism

* General
* Green
* Labor
* Kahanism
* Maximalism
* Neo-Zionism
* Religious
* Revisionist
* Post-Zionism

* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on

Arabic culture

Architecture

Styles

* Islamic
* Yemeni
* Nabataean
* Umayyad
* Abbasid
* Fatimid
* Moorish
* Mamluk

Features

* Ablaq
* Alfiz
* Arabesque
* Arabic dome
* Banna'i
* Gardens
* Girih
* Horseshoe arch
* Howz
* Hypostyle
* Islamic calligraphy
* Islamic geometric patterns
* Islamic ornament
* Iwan
* Liwan
* Mashrabiya
* Riad
* Mosaic
* Multifoil arch
* Muqarnas
* Nagash painting
* Qadad
* Reflecting pool
* Riwaq
* Sahn
* Socarrat
* Stucco decoration
* Tadelakt
* Vaulting
* Voussoir
* Windcatcher
* Zellij

Types

* Albarrana tower
* Alcázar
* Bazaar
* Caravanserai
* Bimaristan
* Hammam
* Kasbah
* Madrasa
* Maqam
* Mazar
* Mosque
* Medina quarter
* Qalat
* Ribat
* Sabil
* Shadirvan
* Tekyeh
* Well house
* Zawiya

Art

Styles

* Ancient South Arabian art
* Nabataean art
* Islamic art
* Fatimid art
* Mamluk art

Types

* Arabic calligraphy
* Arabic graffiti
* Arab carpet
* Arabic miniature
* Arabic pottery
* Palestinian wood carving
* Islamic embroidery
* Islamic hardstone carving
* Islamic garden
* Islamic glass
* Islamic ivory carving
* Islamic Metalwork

Features

* Arabesque
* Arabic geometric patterns
* Banna'i
* Damascus steel
* Damask
* Girih tiles
* Hedwig glass
* Kiswah
* Muqarnas
* Pseudo-Arabic
* Zellij

Cuisine

* Khalij (Arabian Peninsula)
* Arab Mashriq (Levant)
* Mashriq (Mesopotamia)
* Mawset (Egypt)
* Mawset (Sudan)
* Arab Maghreb (North Africa)

Dress

Headwear

* Agal
* Battoulah
* Haik
* Keffiyeh
* Litham
* Madhalla
* Sidara
* Taqiyah
* Tantour
* Tarboush (fez)
* Turban

Clothing

* Abaya
* Bisht
* Burnous
* Djellaba
* Durra'ah
* Fouta towel
* Izaar
* Jellabiya
* Kaftan
* Macawis
* Robe of honour
* Sirwal
* Takchita
* Thawb
* Tiraz

Music

Theory

* Arabic maqam
* Arab tone system
* Algerian scale
* Jins
* Lazma
* Quarter tone
* Rhythm in Arabic music
* Tarab
* Teslim
* Arabic musical instruments
* Great Book of Music
* Kitab al-Aghani

Genres

* Arabic pop
* Arabic hip hop
* Arabic rock
* Arabic jazz
* Classical Arab music
* Opera
* Al Jeel
* Khaliji
* Raï

Art music

* Andalusian classical music
* Andalusi nubah
* Bashraf
* Dawr
* Dulab
* Layali
* Malhun
* Iraqi maqam
* Mawwal
* Muwashshah
* Qasidah
* Qudud Halabiya
* Sama'i
* Tahmilah
* Taqsim
* Waslah

Folk

* Ataaba
* Algerian Raï
* Bedouin
* Chaabi (Algeria)
* Chaabi (Morocco)
* Egyptian folk
* Fann at-Tanbura
* Fijiri
* Gnawa (North Africa)
* Liwa
* Mawwal
* Mezwed
* Samri
* Sawt
* Shaabi
* Zajal

Dance

* Ardah
* Belly dance
* Dabke
* Deheyeh
* Guedra
* Hagallah
* Khaleegy
* Liwa
* Mizmar
* Ouled Nail
* Raqs Sharqi
* Samri
* Shamadan
* Schikhatt
* Tahtib
* Tanoura
* Yowlah
* Zār

Scripts

* Old Arabic
* Nabataean Arabic
* Paleo-Arabic
* Classical Arabic
* Modern Standard Arabic

Literature

Prose

* Epic literature
* Saj (ryhmed prose)
* Maqama
* Love in Arabic literature
* Arabic erotic literature
* Arabic grimoires
* Literary_criticism
* Arabic short story
* Tabaqat
* Tezkire
* Rihla
* Mirrors for princes

Islamic

* Quran
* Tafsir
* Hadith
* Sīra
* Fiqh
* Aqidah

Poetry

* Anthologies
* Poets
* Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
* Modern Arabic poetry

Genres

* Madih
* Hija
* Rithā'
* Waṣf
* Ghazal
* Khamriyyah
* Tardiyyah
* Khawal
* Fakhr
* Hamasah

Forms

* Diwan
* Qasida
* Muwashshah
* Urjūza
* Mathnawi
* Ruba'i
* Nasīb
* Riddles
* Kharja
* Zajal
* Mawwal
* Nabati
* Ghinnawa
* Humayni

Arabic prosody

* Bayt
* Ṭawīl
* Madīd
* Basīṭ
* Kamil
* Wāfir
* Hazaj
* Rajaz
* Ramal
* Munsariħ
* Khafīf
* Muqtaḍab
* Mujtathth
* Muḍāriʿ
* Sarīʿ
* Mutaqārib
* Mutadārik

National literatures of Arab States

* Algeria
* Bahrain
* Comoros
* Djibouti
* Egypt
* Iraq
* Jordan
* Kuwait
* Lebanon
* Libya
* Mauritania
* Morocco
* Oman
* Palestine
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* Somalia
* Sudan
* Syria
* Tunisia
* U.A.E.
* Yemen

Science

* Arabic chemistry
* Arabic astrology
* Arabic astronomy
* Arabic geography
* Arabic Golden Age
* Arabic mathematics
* Arabic medicine
* Arabic psychology
* Arabic technology

Philosophy

* Early Arabic Philosophy
* Islamic Aristotelianism
* Islamic Platonism
* Islamic Logic
* Kalam
* Sufi metaphysics
* Sufi philosophy
* Farabism
* Avicennism
* Averroism

Concepts

* Al-aql al-faal
* Aql bi-l-fi'l
* Al-Insān al-Kāmil
* Dhati
* Peace
* Arcs of Descent and Ascent
* Asabiyyah
* Hal
* Irfan
* Nafs
* Qadar
* Qalb

Texts

* Liber de Causis
* The Theology of Aristotle
* Al-isharat
* The Book of the Apple
* Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
* The Incoherence of the Philosophers
* The Incoherence of the Incoherence
* Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
* Theologus Autodidactus
* On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy
* Muqaddimah
* Sicilian Questions
* Fusus al-Hikam

Mythology

* Ababil
* Atlantis of the Sands
* Bahamut
* Beast of the Earth
* Book of Idols
* Book of Wonders
* Buraq
* Dandan
* Falak
* Ghoul
* Hinn
* Houri
* Ifrit
* Iram of the Pillars
* Jinn
* Karkadann
* Kujata
* Luqman
* Magic carpet
* Marid
* Mount Qaf
* Nasnas
* One Thousand and One Nights
* Qareen
* Qutrub
* Roc
* Shaddad
* Shadhavar
* Shams al-Ma'arif
* She-Camel of God
* Wāḳwāḳ
* Zulfiqar
* Zarqa al Yamama

Fictional Arab people

* Aladdin
* Abdul Alhazred
* Ali Baba
* Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad
* Battal Gazi
* Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
* Kara Ben Nemsi
* King Marsile
* Layla and Majnun
* Othello
* Palamedes
* Princess Jasmine
* Ra's al Ghul
* Sindbad
* Talia al Ghul

Spirituality

North Arabian deities

* Allah
* Al-‘Uzzá
* Al-Lat
* Manāt
* Dushara
* Chaabou
* Manaf
* Nuha
* Al-Kutbay
* Asira
* Awal
* Azizos
* Bajir
* Quzah
* Manāt
* Manāt
* A'ra
* Abgal
* Aglibol
* Al-Qaum
* Atarsamain
* Baalshamin
* Bēl
* Hubal
* Suwa'
* Theandrios
* Wadd
* Malakbel
* Orotalt
* Ruda
* Sa'd
* Yarhibol
* Isāf and Nā'ila

South Arabian deities

* Almaqah
* Amm
* Anbay
* Athtar
* Dhat-Badan
* Haubas
* Ta'lab
* Qaynan
* Basamum
* Dhul Khalasa
* Haukim
* Nasr
* Sīn
* Ya'uq
* Yaghūth
* Yatha

* v
* t
* e

Arab Jews (Arabic: اليهود العرب al-Yahūd al-ʿArab; Hebrew: יהודים ערבים Yehudim `Aravim) is a term for Jews living in or originating from the Arab world. Many left or were expelled from Arab countries in the decades following the founding of Israel in 1948, and took up residence in Israel, Western Europe, the United States and Latin America. The term is controversial and politically contested in the diaspora and Israel, where the term "Mizrahi Jews" was adopted by the early state instead. However, a minority of anti-Zionist Jews of Mizrahi origin actively elect to call themselves "Arab Jews".[1][2][3][4] However, Jews living in Arab lands have historically not identified themselves as Arabs or Arab Jews, and many would take offense at being labeled as such.[5][6][2] Jews living under Muslim rule were both viewed as, and understood themselves to be, a distinct group.[7]

Jews living in Arab-majority countries historically mostly used various Judeo-Arabic dialects as their primary community language, with Hebrew used for liturgical and cultural purposes (literature, philosophy, poetry, etc.). Many aspects of their culture (music, clothes, food, architecture of synagogues and houses, etc.) have commonality with local non-Jewish Arab populations, while also reflecting a distinct diasporic Jewish identity (Cuisine, languages etc.) They usually follow Sephardi Jewish liturgy, and are (counting their descendants) by far the largest portion of Mizrahi Jews.

Though Golda Meir, in an interview as late as 1972 with Oriana Fallaci, referred to Jews from Arab countries as "Arab Jews",[8] the use of the term is controversial, as the vast majority of Jews with origins in Arab-majority countries do not identify as Arabs, and most Jews who lived amongst Arabs did not call themselves "Arab Jews" or view themselves as such.[2][3][9][10] A closely related, but older term denoting Arabic-speaking Jews is Musta'arabi Jews.

The term can also sometimes refer to Jewish converts of Arab birth, such as Baruch Mizrahi or Nasrin Kadri, or people of mixed Jewish-Arab parentage, such as Lucy Ayoub.[11]

## Terminology

[edit]

The Arabic al-Yahūd al-ʿArab and Hebrew Yehudim `Aravim literally mean 'Arab Jews', a phrasing that in current usage is considered derogatory by Israelis of Mizrahi and Sephardic origin. It is to be distinguished from a similar term that circulated in Palestine in late Ottoman times, when Arab Palestinians referred to their Jewish compatriots as 'Arab-born Jews' (Yahud awlad ʿArab), which can also be translated as 'Arab Jews'.[12]

Historian Emily Benichou Gottreich has observed that the term 'Arab Jew' is largely an identity of exile and “was originally theorized from within frameworks of, and remains especially prominent in, specific academic fields, namely literary and cultural studies”.[13] Gottreich has also noted that the term "implies a particular politics of knowledge vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and larger Zionist narrative(s)" and post-Zionist discourse. However, she argues that the discourse about Arab Jews remains largely "limited to the semantic-epistemological level, resulting in a flattened identity that is both historically and geographically ambiguous".[13]

Prior to the creation of the State of Israel, between 700,000 and 850,000 Jews lived in the Middle East and North Africa, but by the end of the 20th century, all of these communities had faced "dislocation and dispersal" and largely vanished, according to Lital Levy, who has noted: "These were indigenous communities (in some cases present in the area for millennia) whose unique, syncretic cultures have since been expunged as a result of emigration." In Israel, these communities were subject to "deracination and resocialization", while in the West, the concept of Jews from the Arab World was, and remains, poorly understood.[14]

From a cultural perspective, the disappearance of the Jewish dialects of spoken Arabic, written Judeo-Arabic and the last generation of Jewish writers of literary Arabic "all silently sounded the death knell of a certain world", according to Levy,[14] or what Shelomo Dov Goitein dubbed the "Jewish-Arab symbiosis" in his work Jews and Arabs,[15] and which Ammiel Alcalay sought to recapture in her 1993 work After Jews and Arabs.[16]

According to Shenhav and Hever, the term "Arab Jews" was “widely used in the past to depict Jews living in Arab countries, but was extirpated from the political lexicon upon their arrival in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s.” The discourse then underwent a demise before its “political reawakening in the 1990s”.[17] Nevertheless, "very few Jews of Arab descent, in Israel, would label themselves 'Arab Jews'" due to it being a "marker of a cultural and political avant-garde."[17]

Gottreich has labelled the recent work on the subject by Ella Habiba Shohat as particularly pioneering, while also pointing to the significant contributions made by Gil Hochberg, Gil Anidjar and Sami Shalom Chetrit.[13] Other notable writers on the subject include Naeim Giladi and David Rabeeya.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Judeo-Arabic was commonly spoken. After arriving in Israel the Jews from Arab lands found that use of Judeo-Arabic was discouraged and its usage fell into disrepair. The population of Jews in Arab countries would decrease dramatically.[18] Even those who remained in the Arab world tended to abandon Judeo-Arabic.[19] Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin argues that Jews from Arab lands were Arab in that they identified with Arab culture even if they did not identity as Arab Jews or with Arab nationalism.[14]: 458–459

## Political history

[edit]

The terminology of Arab Jewishness held notable prevalence in the 19th century, when Jews living in Arab countries identified with the Arab national movement that emerged in the lead up to the dismantlement of the Ottoman empire – as early as the Ottoman administrative reforms of 1839 – owing to shared language and culture with their Muslim and Christian compatriots in Ottoman Syria, Iraq, and Egypt.[4]

The terminology became politically important during the First World War, when Jews of Middle Eastern origin living in Western countries used the term to support their case that they were not Turks and should not be treated as enemy aliens.[20]

In recent decades, some Jews have self-identified as Arab Jews, such as Ella Shohat, who uses the term in contrast to the Zionist establishment's categorization of Jews as either Ashkenazim or Mizrahim; the latter, she believes, have been oppressed as the Arabs have. Other Jews, such as Albert Memmi, say that Jews in Arab countries would have liked to be Arab Jews, but centuries of abuse by Arab Muslims prevented it, and now it's too late. The term is often used by post-Zionists and Arab nationalists.

Today, there is widespread rejection of the term within the Jewish community, with many considering it an affront to their identity.[21] In 2015, the question was posed as to the validity of the term versus alternatives, such as "Iraqi Israeli", in the context of Arab Jews from Iraq, or Mizrahi Jew.[22]

Today, some left-wing Israeli political activists identify themselves as Arab Jews, including Naeim Giladi, Ella Habiba Shohat, Sami Shalom Chetrit and David Rabeeya.

### In post-Zionism

[edit]

The term Arab Jews has become part of the language of post-Zionism.[23] The term was introduced by Ella Shohat.[24] Ella Shohat argues Zionist historiography could not accept a hyphenated Arab-Jewish identity and embarked on a program to remove the Arabness and Orientalness of the Jews from the Arab world after they arrived in Israel. To insure homogeneity Zionist focused on religious commonality and a romanticized past.[25] She argues that the use of the term Mizrahim is in some sense a Zionist achievement in that it created a single unitary identity separated from the Islamic world. Which replaced older multifaceted identities each linked to the Islamic world, including but not limited to identifying as Arab Jews.[26] She argues that when Sephardi express hostility towards Arabs it is often due to self-hatred.[27] Another argument that Shohat makes is that Israel is already demographically an Arab country.[24]

Yehouda Shenhav's works are also considered to be among the seminal works of post-Zionism.[23][28] Shenhav, an Israeli sociologist, traced the origins of the conceptualization of the Mizrahi Jews as Arab Jews. He interprets Zionism as an ideological practice with three simultaneous and symbiotic categories: "Nationality", "Religion" and "Ethnicity". In order to be included in the national collective they had to be "de-Arabized". According to Shenhav, Religion distinguished between Arabs and Arab Jews, thus marking nationality among the Arab Jews.[29]

David Rabeeya argues that while the Zionist movement succeed in creating a Jewish state it did irreparable harm to Arab Jews and Palestinians.: 23–26 He argues that Israel has already entered a post-Zionist era in which the influence of Zionist Ashkenazim has declined. With many Jews of European origin choosing to leave the country as Israel becomes less Western.[30]: 113–114 He also self-identified as an Arab Jew, extends that identification back even further, noting the long history of Arab Jews in the Arab world that remained in place after the dawn of Islam in the 7th century until midway through the 20th century.[30]: 49–50 He writes that Arab Jews, like Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, were culturally Arab with religious commitments to Judaism.[30]: 49–50 He notes that Arab Jews named their progeny with Arabic names and "Like every Arab, Arab Jews were proud of their Arabic language and its dialects, and held a deep emotional attachment to its beauty and richness."[30]: 49–50

David Tal argues that Shohat and her students faced great resistance from Mizrahim with few choosing to identify as Arab Jews. He argues that Shohat in a sense tried to impose an identity in the same way in which she criticized Ashkenazi jews for doing.[24]

Lital Levy argues that post-Zionism did more than revive the concept of the Arab Jew. Instead it created something new in so far as it is questionable that a pristine Arab Jew identity which could be reclaimed ever existed.[14]: 457 Levy suggests that the contemporary intellectuals who declare themselves to be Arab Jews are similar to Jewish intellectuals who between the late 1920s and 1940s did likewise; in both cases these intellectuals were small in number and outside the mainstream of the Jewish community. Likewise in both cases the term was used for political purposes.[14]: 462–463 A view shared by Emily Benichou Gottreich who argues that the term was used to push back against both Zionism and Arab nationalism which tended to view the categories of Jews and Arabs as mutually exclusive and as a way to show solidarity with the Palestinians.[13]: 436

## Criticism

[edit]

A common criticism of the term "Arab Jews", particularly among Jewish communities originating from Arab lands, is that Jews constitute a diaspora and ethnic group, which the term muddies.[31] Ca' Foscari University of Venice Lecturer Dario Miccoli states that he does not use the term, seeing it as an anachronism.[32] Princeton professor Jonathan Marc Gribetz cautions against the uncritical use of term in historiographical works, viewing it as non-typical.[33]

In 2019, a coalition of Mizrahi and Sephardic organizations issued a statement condemning statements of Jewish voice for Peace (a group which has been using the term) appropriation and distortion of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish history, accusing the group of seeking to deny Jewish indigenous origins and tokenize them for political reasons.[34]

Scholar Edith Haddad Shaked has criticized the concept of the Arab Jew, arguing that there are Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, but there was not such a thing as an Arab Jew or a Jewish Arab, when the Jews lived among the Arabs.[9] She has noted how Tunisia born historian, Professor Paul Sebag, stated that "these terms were never used in Tunisia, and they do not correspond/coincident to the religious and socio-historical context/reality of the Jews in Tunisia/the Arab world."[9]

In North Africa, she has argued, "Jews were always considered members of a socio-religious community minority, different and distinct from the Arab population, because of their Jewish cultural tradition, their common past, and the Judeo-arabic language—all of them separated them from the Arabs. And the Arabs saw the Jews, even the ones who spoke only Judeo-Arabic, as members of a socio-linguistic religious cultural community, different from theirs.[9]

In 1975, Albert Memmi wrote: "The term 'Arab Jews' is obviously not a good one. I have adopted it for convenience. I simply wish to underline that as natives of those countries called Arab and indigenous to those lands well before the arrival of the Arabs, we shared with them, to a great extent, languages, traditions and cultures ... We would have liked to be Arab Jews. If we abandoned the idea, it is because over the centuries the Moslem Arabs systematically prevented its realization by their contempt and cruelty. It is now too late for us to become Arab Jews."[35][36]

Others[who?] argue that in recent years, there has been a concerted effort by anti-Zionist groups to reinterpret Mizrahi Jewish history in ways that disconnect these communities from their identity, culture, and ancestral homeland. They argue that Anti-Zionist voices show limited engagement with Mizrahi experiences and have promoted the narrative of “Arab Jews” to serve their political agenda.[6]

Proponents of the argument against "Arab Jews" include most Jews from Arab lands.[22][better source needed]

## Arab Jews in Israel/Palestine

[edit]

Prior to the modern Zionist movement, Jewish communities existed in the southern Levant that are now known as the Old Yishuv. The Old Yishuv was composed of three clusters: Ladino-speaking Sephardi Iberian emigrants to the late Mamluk Sultanate and early Ottoman Empire following the Spanish Inquisition; Eastern European Hasidic Jews who emigrated to Ottoman Palestine during the 18th and 19th centuries; and Judeo-Arabic-speaking Musta'arabi Jews who had been living in Palestine since the destruction of the Second Temple and who had become culturally and linguistically Arabized. In the 20th century, as the society got polarised and the conflict intensified, the Musta'arabim were forced to choose sides, with some embracing the nascent Zionist movement and others embracing the Arab nationalist or Palestinian nationalist causes. Other Arab Jews left the Ottoman Empire entirely, joining Syrian-Jewish/Palestinian-Jewish emigrants to the United States.[37][page needed] The descendants of the Palestinian Musta'arabim live in Israel, but have largely assimilated into the Sephardi community over time.

## Arab-Jewish diaspora

[edit]

### Argentina

[edit]

Arab Jews were part of the Arab migration to Argentina and played a part as a link between the Arab and Jewish communities of Argentina. Many of the Arab Jews in Argentina were from Syria and Lebanon. According to Ignacio Klich, an Argentine scholar of Arab and Jewish immigration, "Arabic-speaking Jews felt themselves to have a lot in common with those sharing the same place of birth and culture, not less than what bound them to the Yiddish-speakers praying to the same deity."[38]

### France

[edit]

France is home to a large population of Arab Jews, predominantly with roots in Algeria.[39]

### United Kingdom

[edit]

According to the 2011 United Kingdom census, 0.25% of Arabs in England and Wales and 0.05% of Arabs in Scotland identified their religion as Judaism.[40][41]

### United States

[edit]

Many Arab-Jewish immigrants have settled in New York City and formed a Sephardi community. The community is centered in Brooklyn and is primarily composed of Syrian Jews. Other Arab Jews in New York City hail from Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and Morocco.[42] Arab Jews first began arriving in New York City in large numbers between 1880 and 1924. Most Arab immigrants during these years were Christian, while Arab Jews were a minority and Arab Muslims largely began migrating during the mid-1960s.[43] When Syrian Jews first began to arrive in New York City during the late 1800s and early 1900s, Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews on the Lower East Side sometimes disdained their Syrian co-coreligionists as Arabische Yidden, Yiddish for "Arab Jews". Some Ashkenazim doubted whether Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East were Jewish at all. In response, some Syrian Jews who were deeply proud of their ancient Jewish heritage, derogatorily dubbed Ashkenazi Jews as "J-Dubs", a reference to the first and third letters of the English word "Jew".[44] In the 1990 United States Census, there were 11,610 Arab Jews in New York City, comprising 23 percent of the total Arab population of the city.[45] Arab Jews in the city sometimes still face anti-Arab racism. After the September 11 attacks, some Arab Jews in New York City were subjected to arrest and detention because they were suspected to be Islamist terrorists.[46]

## Notable Arab Jews

[edit]

* Isaac Mizrahi, American fashion designer and actor
* Ariella Azoulay, an author, art curator, filmmaker, and theorist of photography and visual culture.
* Ella Shohat, who criticizes aspects of Zionism and uses the term in contrast to the Zionist establishment's categorization of Jews as either Ashkenazim or Mizrahim; Arab Jews, she believes, have been oppressed as the non-Jewish Arabs have.[47][48]
* Joseph Nakash, American billionaire businessman of Syrian descent, co-founder of Jordach
* Sasson Somekh, professor at Tel Aviv University, in a recent memoir.[49]
* André Azoulay, adviser to Moroccan King Mohammed VI.[50]
* Avi Shlaim, Israeli-British historian.[51]
* Jordan Elgrably, director of the Levantine Cultural Center.[52]
* Ammiel Alcalay, a professor at Queens College in New York who began emphasizing the importance of his identity as an Arab Jew in the 1990s.[53]
* Ilan Halevi, described himself as "100% Jewish and 100% Arab."[54]
* Rachel Shabi, journalist and author who has criticized the stigmatization of Arab-Jewish culture in Israel.[55]
* Shaoul Sassoon, Iraqi engineer in the government of Saddam Hussein
* Naji Salman Salih, former representative of Iraq Jews to Saddam Hussein

## See also

[edit]

* Arabization
* Canaanism
* Pan-Semitism
* History of the Jews under Muslim rule
* Jewish diaspora
* Jewish ethnic divisions
* Jewish tribes of Arabia
* Judeo-Arabic
* Mizrahi Jews
* Mozarabs
* Musta'arabi Jews
* Syrian Jews
* Palestinian Jews
* Yemenite Jews

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Schroeter, Daniel J. (2018). ""Islamic Anti-Semitism" in Historical Discourse". The American Historical Review. 123 (4): 1179. doi:10.1093/ahr/rhy026. Archived from the original on 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2021-09-21. "While a small group of anti-Zionist Mizrahi intellectuals and activists who defined themselves as "Arab Jews" reject the portrait of eternal anti-Semitism in the Islamic world, the idea that the flight of Middle Eastern and North African Jews from Islamic countries was primarily a consequence of the longer history of Muslim anti-Semitism has continued to shape discussions in the public sphere, and has influenced representations of Muslim anti-Semitism outside of Israel."
2. ^ a b c Tal, David (2017). "Between Politics and Politics of Identity: The Case of the Arab Jews". Journal of Levantine Studies. 7 (1). Archived from the original on 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2021-09-19. "proponents of the Arab Jew seek to separate the ethnic from the national, the Jew from the Zionist, and realign ethnic identities: Arabs, who include Jews and Muslims, vs. Ashkenazim/Zionists. They do so by creating an "imagined community," by rejecting an ascriptive identity based on an ethnic/national juxtaposition, and by suggesting their own kind of identity, a self-ascriptive identity that separates the ethnos from the nation. They have failed in their mission, as the majority of Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin reject the Arab Jew definer as representing their own identity.""
3. ^ a b Shenhav, Yehouda; Hever, Hannan (2012). "Arab Jews' after structuralism: Zionist discourse and the (de) formation of an ethnic identity" (PDF). Social Identities. 18 (1): 101–118\. doi:10.1080/13504630.2011.629517. S2CID 144665311. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2021-09-20. quote:"it is not surprising that very few Jews of Arab descent, in Israel, would label themselves ‘Arab Jews’. It has turned out to be the marker of a cultural and political avant-garde. Most of those who used it, did so in order to challenge the Zionist order of things (i.e., ‘methodological Zionism’; see Shenhav, 2006) and for political reasons (Levy, 2008)
4. ^ a b Salim Tamari. "Ishaq al-Shami and the Predicament of the Arab Jew in Palestine" (PDF). Jerusalem Quarterly. p. 11\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
5. ^ Julius, Lyn (2019-01-01). "The Myth of the 'Arab Jew'". JNS News.
6. ^ a b "The invention of Arab Jews erases Mizrahi Jewish history - opinion". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2021-11-08. Retrieved 2025-03-30.
7. ^ Beressi, Noémie Issan-Benchimol et Elie (2022-11-03). ""Arab Jews": Another Arab Denial ?". Jews, Europe, the XXIst century. Retrieved 2025-05-30.
8. ^ Yehouda A. Shenhav, The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity, Archived 2023-01-21 at the Wayback Machine Stanford University Press, 2006 ISBN 978-0-804-75296-1 p.9
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11. ^ "Jewish-Arab Slam Poet a Hit in Person and on YouTube". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2022-10-18. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
12. ^ Menachem Klein, 'Arab Jew in Palestine,' Archived 2021-11-10 at the Wayback Machine Israel Studies, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Fall 2014), pp.134-153, pp.135-136:'Arab–Jew was a living reality in Palestine, a local identity of belonging to people and place beyond residence location. This identity survived the collapse of the Ottoman Empire but not the 1948 war. Until then, Arab Palestinians defined their compatriot Jews as natives (Abna al-Balad) and Arab-born Jews (Yahud Awlad Arab).'
13. ^ a b c d Emily Benichou Gottreich, Historicizing the Concept of Arab Jews in the Maghrib, vol. 98, The Jewish Quarterly Review, pp. 433–451
14. ^ a b c d e Lital Levy, Historicizing the Concept of Arab Jews in the "Mashriq, vol. 98, The Jewish Quarterly Review, pp. 452–469
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16. ^ Ammiel Alcalay (1993). After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978081668468-7. JSTOR 10.5749/j.cttttbh5. Archived from the original on 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
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18. ^ Matthias Brenzinger (2007). Language Diversity Endangered. Walter de Gruyter. p. 132\. ISBN 9783110170504. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
19. ^ Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (2010). "Judeo-Arabic". Archived copy. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier. p. 568\. ISBN 9780080877754. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-09-21.`{{cite encyclopedia}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
20. ^ Collins, Pedigrees and Pioneers: The Sephardim of Manchester.
21. ^ Philologos [Hillel Halkin] (31 January 2008). "Rejecting the 'Arab Jew'". Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
22. ^ a b Vered Lee. "Conference Asks: Iraqi Israeli, Arab Jew or Mizrahi Jew?". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
23. ^ a b Eran Kaplan (2015). Beyond Post-Zionism. SUNY Press. p. 99\. ISBN 9781438454351. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
24. ^ a b c David Tal, ed. (2013). Israeli Identity: Between Orient and Occident. Routledge. pp. 1–2\. ISBN 9781134107452. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
25. ^ Ella Shohat (2006). Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices. Duke University Press. p. 344\. ISBN 0822337711. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
26. ^ Ella Shohat (1999). "The Invention of the Mizrahim". Institute for Palestine Studies: 5, 14.
27. ^ Ella Shohat (1988). Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims. Duke University Press. p. 25.
28. ^ Eli Lederhendler (2011). Ethnicity and Beyond: Theories and Dilemmas of Jewish Group Demarcation. Oxford University Press. p. 206\. ISBN 9780199842353. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
29. ^ Shenhav, Yehouda (2006). The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity. Stanford University Press. p. 280\. ISBN 0-8047-5296-6.
30. ^ a b c d David Rabeeya (2000). The Journey of an Arab-Jew in European Israel. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 0-7388-4331-8. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2021-11-14.
31. ^ John A. Shoup III (17 October 2011). Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 133\. ISBN 978-1-59884-363-7. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
32. ^ Dario Miccoli (2015). Histories of the Jews of Egypt: An Imagined Bourgeoisie, 1880s-1950s. Routledge. p. 186\. ISBN 9781317624226. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
33. ^ Jonathan Marc Gribetz (2014). Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter. Princeton University Press. pp. 36–38\. ISBN 9781400852659. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
34. ^ Shemtov, Maya (2019-01-23). "Sephardic and Mizrahi Communal Response to Jewish Voice for Peace". JIMENA. Retrieved 2025-05-30.
35. ^ Who is an Arab Jew? Archived 2013-07-28 at the Wayback Machine by ALBERT MEMMI
36. ^ Malka Hillel Shulewitz (ed.). Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands. p. xii.
37. ^ Abramovitch, Ilana; Galvin, Seán; Galvin, Seǹ (2002). Jews of Brooklyn. UPNE.
38. ^ "Jews and Arabs in Argentina: A Study of the Integration, Interactions and Ethnic Identification of Argentina's Migrant Groups". Trinity College. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
39. ^ "Judaism in France". Harvard Divinity School. Archived from the original on 2020-03-23. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
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42. ^ "The Syrian Jewish Community, Then and Now". Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Archived from the original on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
43. ^ "Exhibit Spotlights Being Arab-American in New York City - 2002-03-28". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 2021-05-15. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
44. ^ Chafets, Zev (14 October 2007). "The Sy Empire". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
45. ^ "A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City". American Journal of Islam and Society. Archived from the original on 2021-05-15. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
46. ^ "KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS FOR UNDERSTANDING U.S. ISLAMOPHOBIA". Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
47. ^ Ella Shohat, "Dislocated Identities: Reflection of an Arab Jew," Movement Research: Performance Journal #5 (Fall-Winter, 1992), p.8
48. ^ Shohat, Ella (2003). "Rupture and Return". Social Text. 21 (2): 49–74\. doi:10.1215/01642472-21-2_75-49. ISSN 0164-2472. S2CID 143908777. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
49. ^ Adam Shatz review of Sasson Somekh. Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jew, in 'Leaving Paradise', London Review of Books, Nov 6 2008 Archived 2019-07-29 at the Wayback Machine.
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55. ^ "The loss of inheritance". Gulf News. 15 September 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-10-12. Retrieved 2019-10-11.

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