Sephardic Jewish ethnicity indicates genetic origins of Jews who are called "Sephardim". North African Sephardic Jews are part of the broader Mizrahi (Eastern) Jewish population, denoting the Jewish populations of the lands east of Europe, including North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. The term Sephardic derives from Sepharad, the Hebrew word for Spain, signifying the geographic, ethnic, and liturgical connection between Sephardic Jews and the Iberian Peninsula. Jews from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia are collectively known as Maghrebi Jews — derived from the Arabic term Maghreb, literally meaning “west,” which refers to North Africa. After over 2 millennia of Jewish presence in North Africa, following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the vast majority of North African Jewry made its way to Israel in a series of small-scale and large-scale waves of immigration. A significant portion of North Africa’s Jews relocated to France; today, with the exception of a community numbering a few thousand people in Morocco and an even smaller community on the island of Djerba in Tunisia, very few Jews remain in North Africa.
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Sephardic Jewish history
The first known Jewish settlement in North Africa dates back as early as the thirteenth century B.C.E. in Benghazi, a port city in the district of Cyrenaica, Libya. Later archeological evidence points to the presence of a Jews in Libya in the 10th century B.C.E., presumably as traders for the ancient Israelite kingdom, during the reign of King Solomon. A further wave of Jewish immigration into North Africa occurred in the sixth century B.C.E., following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Jews who fled to settle in the western reaches of North Africa among the local Amazigh (Berbers) tribes are the ancestors of modern Moroccan Jewry.
During Roman times, the first-century C.E. Great Jewish Revolt and the second-century C.E. Bar-Kokhba Revolt (and subsequent destruction of the Second Temple and the Roman province of Judea) prompted a major wave of Jewish migration into North Africa. The Roman-era Jewish emigration from Judea is commonly associated with the beginning of Jewish presence in Spain and Portugal. Under Visigoth rule (5th to early-8th centuries), Jews for the first time faced an ultimatum between converting to Christianity or being expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.
Between 647 and 711, forces of the newly established Islamic Caliphate in Arabia conquered North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Under Muslim rule, Jewish communities developed in important urban centers in North Africa. Under the Umayyad dynasty in Spain, Jews enjoyed a Golden Age of religious, philosophical, and cultural production. Following the reclaiming of the peninsula by Catholic forces, the Alhambra Decree issued in 1492 by Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon — which ordered the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Iberian Peninsula — triggered a massive migration from Spain and Portugal to North Africa.
Starting in the sixteenth century, Libya, Tunis, and Algeria came under Ottoman rule, while the Alaouite dynasty established themselves in Morocco. Jewish communities flourished in Ottoman territories, enjoying significant autonomy in matters of education and law. In Morocco, however, Jews did not enjoy the same luxuries: by the nineteenth century, most Jewish communities were impoverished and often scapegoated and targeted for reprisal during Morocco’s recurring internal conflicts.
Taking advantage of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, French troops seized Algeria in 1830, Tunisia in 1881, and Morocco in 1912, maintaining colonial rule until the second half of the twentieth century. French colonialism facilitated the assimilation of the Jews of Tunisia and Algeria into French culture. Jewish children increasingly attended state schools, leading to the adoption of French over Haketía and Maghrebi Arabic, and to the diffusion of French culture and lifestyle among Maghrebi Jews. During World War II, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya came under Nazi or Vichy occupation. Under France’s Vichy Regime, anti-Semitic measures were introduced to North Africa, and between 1942–1943, Tunisia came under direct Nazi control, leading to harsh treatment of the Jewish population.
The period that followed World War II saw a mass Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. Unlike in countries like Syria and Iraq, Maghrebi Jews for the most part did not face large-scale expulsion, asset confiscation, or any similar government persecution; Zionist agents were allowed relative freedom to encourage and facilitate emigration. Over the following decades, hundreds of thousands of Maghrebi Jews emigrated from North Africa to Israel (including most of over 250,000 Moroccan Jews) and France (including the bulk of 140,000 Algerian Jews).
Sephardic Jewish culture
Due to geographic and cultural proximity, North African Jewish cuisines are closely related in the ingredients and spices they employ, and differ mainly in preparation. For example, chraime — a dish of fish in spicy tomato sauce – has distinct Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian varieties, and couscous — steamed pellets of crushed durum wheat semolina — differs in the type of stew spooned on top. Other dishes are more local than regional, such as Moroccan pastilla (a sweet meat pie flavored with spices and dried fruit), Libyan mafrum (potato stuffed with ground meat cooked in tomato sauce) or Tunisian fricassé (a fried-bread sandwich with tuna and boiled eggs).
Sephardic Jewish culture reached its peak in Spain during the Ninth to Thirteenth centuries. During this period, known simply as the Golden Age, Jewish communities flourished in urban centers such as Granada, Toledo, and Cordoba. Many of history’s greatest chachamim — Jewish polymaths who broke ground in the fields of religious law, poetry, science, medicine, philosophy, and more — emerged during this period. Notable among them were the grammarian, philologist, and an influential poet Samuel HaNagid (993–1056); poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1058); physician, poet, and philosopher Judah Halevi (1075–1141); and the physician, astronomer, and philosopher Maimonides (1138–1204) — revered as one of the greatest minds of the medieval Jewish and Muslim worlds alike.
North African Jews have enormous cultural influence in Israel today. The popularity of North African cuisine is rivaled only by the achievements and popularity of Maghrebi Jews in the arts, including Moroccan-born singer/songwriter Joe Amar (1930–2009) — a pioneer of the Israeli Mizrahi and Mediterranean music genres — and Zehava Ben (b. 1968), a female vocalist of Moroccan descent and another formative figure in the Mizrahi music genre. Other notable contemporary artists include poet Roy Hasan (b. 1983), a leading figure in the anti-hegemonic Mizrahi poetry movement, and director and screenwriter Maor Zaguri (b. 1981), creator of the popular television series Zaguri Imperia.
Sephardic Jewish languages
Historically, Sephardic Jews spoke Judaeo-Spanish, a Romance language derived from Old Spanish and strongly infused with Hebrew and other Semitic influences. Originally spoken in Spain, following the Jewish expulsion from Iberia, Judeo-Spanish spread to other regions, including North Africa, where various dialects of it emerged. The most well-known of these is Ladino, the variety that was spoken in Greece, the Balkans, and Turkey. Hebrew served as a liturgical language, and was not commonly spoken among Jews. North African Jews also spoke their own version of Judeo-Spanish, Haketía, as well as local dialects of Maghrebi Arabic (known as darija) common to their region. nineteenth century French colonialism prompted the widespread adoption of French among North African Jews. Today, Hebrew and French are the most common languages spoken by Jews of North African descent.
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