Early Jewish Presence in the Middle East and North Africa

Jews are an indigenous people of the Middle East, having lived in the region continuously for 2,500 years – over one thousand years before the advent of Islam. Under Islamic rule, for over 1,000 years, Jews were classified as dhimmis — as second-class citizens – and were subjected to social, legal, and economic discrimination.

From 1948, 1,000,000 Jews living in 10 Arab countries plus Iran, were uprooted from their countries of birth – one of the more significant cases of ethnic cleansing in modern history.

Country/Region Date of Jewish Community
Iraq1 6th century BCE
Iran2 6th century BCE
Egypt3 6th century BCE
Libya4 4th century BCE
Lebanon5 2nd century BCE
Yemen6 1st century CE
Morocco7 1st century CE
Algeria8 1st century CE
Syria9 1st century CE
Tunisia10 2nd century CE

Footnotes (Sources):

1. Meir, Esther. Iraq and the Jews of Iraq – a General Survey. In Haim Saadoun (Ed.), Iraq (Ben-ZviInstitute, 2002), pp. 11–12. [Hebrew]

2. Sahim, Haideh. Iran and Afghanistan. In Reeva Spector Simon, Michael Menachem Laskier, and Sara Reguer (eds.), The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in modern times (Columbia University Press, 2002), p. 368.

3. Ehrlich, Haggai. Egypt and its Jews. In Nahem Ilan (ed.), Egypt (Ben Zvi Institute, 2008), pp. 9–12, 14. [Hebrew]

4. Goldberg, Harvey. Libya and the Jews of Libya. In Haim Saadoun (Ed.), Libya. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2007, p. 11. [Hebrew]

5. Schulze, Kirsten E. The Jews of Lebanon: Between coexistence and conflict. (Sussex Academic Press, 2001), pp. 12–13.

6. Araqi Klorman, Bat-Zion. Introduction. In Haim Saadoun (ed.), Yemen (Ben-Zvi Institute, 2002), p. 17. [Hebrew]

7. Bashan, Eliezer. The Jews of Morocco, their past and culture (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2000), pp. 15–16. [Hebrew]

8. Cohen, David. Algeria. In Reeva Spector Simon, Michael Menachem Laskier & Sara Reguer (eds.), The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in modern times (Columbia University Press, 2002), pp. 458–470.

9. Harel, Yaron. Syria. (Jerusalem, Ben-Zvi Institute, 2009), p. 11. [Hebrew]

10. Les Juifs de Tunisie: Quelques repères historiques. Cultures Dialogue 10 (1994), pp. 149–154

These time periods are conservative projections, based on archeological and academic sources. Biblical and traditional sources claim an earlier presence of Jews in these countries.

What Happened to these Ancient
Jewish Communities?

The rise of Arab nationalism and growing opposition to Zionism unleashed a wave of discriminatory laws, violence, and state-backed repression. The situation worsened immediately before and after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, which led to nearly 1,000,000 Jews being uprooted from their countries of birth. Most fled to Israel, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people for millennia.

Today, some 99% of the descendants of the historic Jewish communities in 10 Arab countries plus Iran no longer reside in these vast regions.

Country 1948 Jewish Population 1958 Jewish Population 1968 Jewish Population 1976 Jewish Population 2001 Jewish Population 2025 Estimates
Aden 8,000 800 0 0 0 0
Algeria 140,000 130,000 3,000 1,000 0 0
Egypt 75,000 40,000 2,500 400 100 2
Iran 100,000 0 0 0 0 8,756
Iraq 135,000 6,000 2,500 350 100 5
Lebanon 5,000 6,000 3,000 400 100 50
Libya 38,000 3,750 500 40 0 0
Morocco 265,000 200,000 50,000 18,000 5,700 2,500
Syria 30,000 5,000 4,000 4,500 100 3
Tunisia 105,000 80,000 10,000 7,000 1,500 1,500
Yemen 55,000 3,500 500 500 200 1
Subtotal 956,000 475,050 76,000 32,190 7,800 12,817

Where Did They Go?

From 1948 – 1972, some 70% of Jews from Arab countries resettled in Israel. The rest immigrated to Western countries such as Britain, France, the USA, and Canada.

FAQs

Who are the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa?

  • Jews are an indigenous people of the Middle East having lived in the region continuously from pre-historic times to the present.  Jews and Jewish communities proliferated throughout the region, fully one thousand years before the advent of Islam.
  • Through a process of Arab colonialization, these regions are now known as the “Arab world.” Yet, non-Arab and non-Muslim minorities, the original indigenous inhabitants, remained as minorities in their own lands.

  • In 1948, there were roughly 1,000,000 Jews living in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Aden and Iran.
  • Today, fewer than 13,000 remain.  Close to 99% of their descendants now live elsewhere. These regions are now virtually “Jew Free.”

  • Jews were ruled by Muslims under the Pact of Umar as “dhimmi” a diminished status assigned to Christians and Jews, who were extended some degree of legal protection, while relegated to second-class status

Dhimmis by paying a special tax known as ‘jizya’ were allowed to practice their faith, and were permitted limited religious, educational, professional and business opportunities. They were also subject to discriminatory restraints.

Restrictions for the dhimmi under the Pact of Umar prohibited Jews and other religious minorities from holding public religious ceremonies; and the legal exclusion of Jews from holding public office.  The dhimmi could not raise himself above the Muslim nor could his synagogue be higher than the mosques. Non-Muslims could not ride horses, only donkeys and were required to dismount if he passed a Muslim.

  • Jews, where permitted, played significant roles contributed significantly to the societies in which they lived in numerous fields, These include: scientific, medical, economic, cultural, the arts, crafts, educational, etc.

  • Numerous factors contributed to Jews being uprooted from their countries of birth, including the rise of Arab nationalism, independence for Muslim states, and their opposition to Zionism and the birth of the State of Israel.

Arab regimes enacted legal, economic, political, and behavioral processes aimed at isolating Jews in society until their situation in Muslim countries was no longer tenable.

  • Denial of citizenship – Stripping legal status
  • Quarantine and Detention of People – restrictions on travel and movement
  • Legal Restrictions – discriminatory decrees violating civil and human rights
  • Economic Sanctions – foreclosures, nationalization of assets
  • Socioeconomic discrimination – in economic development
  • Pogroms – violence, rioting

  • Throughout their time in Muslim countries, Jews were victims of violence and  Immediately before and after the founding of the State of Israel, The rights and security of Jews resident in Arab countries came under legal and physical assault by governments and the general populations.
  • In Syria, anti-Jewish pogroms erupted in Aleppo in 1947. Of the town’s 10,000 Jews 7,000 fled in terror.
  • In Iraq, “Zionism” became a capital crime. In 1941, a violent pogrom – the Farhud – resulted in the death of 180 Jews.Homes, businesses and synagogues were looted and burned.
  • In 1948, more than 70 Jews were killed by bombs in the Jewish Quarter of Cairo, Egypt.
  • After the 1947 United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the Partition Plan, Muslim rioters engaged in bloody pogroms in Aden and Yemen, which killed 82 Jews.
  • In numerous countries, Jews were expelled or had their citizenship revoked (e.g. Libya).

  • Zionism and the desire for a safe haven motivated over 600,000 Jews from Arab countries to settle in Israel. An estimated 260,000 people immigrated to other countries (e.g. Britain, France, USA, Canada, etc.). In virtually all cases, as Jews left their homes and their countries of birth, individual and communal properties were confiscated without compensation.

  • Individual Assets – Urban and Rural Land, buildings and houses
    Property – Immoveable and moveable assets:
    Household and personal items, furniture etc.
    Financial assets: Bank accounts, pensions, securities etc
  • Business Business assets:
    Overall business value, including real estate, inventory, and commercial holdings
  • Communally-owned assets: All land and property communally owned by the Jewish community, including synagogues, mikvahs, cemeteries, schools, hospitals, social service clubs, etc

  • When Jews were expelled or forced to flee Arab countries, they left behind assets worth an estimated $263 billion in today’s currency. But what was truly lost goes far beyond money—it was a civilization, a rich tapestry of language, faith, and identity that has all but vanished from the lands it once helped shape.

  • This is not a campaign about money nor about initiating legal proceedings. It is a campaign to inject this the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries into the international political agenda as a quest for truth and justice.

  • Because they did not remain refugees for long and were successfully integrated by Israel and other host countries. These Jewish refugees are living proof that all refugees can start afresh provided their host countries have the will to resettle them

  • History: the truth about the Jewish refugees must be told. Too many people view the Middle East conflict through a distorted prism which expunges the Jewish refugee narrative.
  • Morality and legality: the plight of the Jewish refugees is an unresolved human rights issue. There is a moral imperative that justice be done and that the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries assumes its rightful place on the international agenda.
  • Peace: for any peace process to be credible and enduring, all outstanding issues must be addressed.

  • Two Middle East refugee populations were created as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict: one Palestinian and one Jewish. Both issues must be dealt with in the context of reconciliation in the Middle East.

  • Yes. Jewish refugees were economically and socially absorbed into Israel, whereas the Palestinian Arab refugees were deliberately herded into refugee camps by their host Arab states, to be used as a political weapon in their struggle against Israel.

Palestinian Arab refugees have received massive political and material support from the United Nations. Jewish refugees from Arab states received no financial support whatsoever from the international community and have not been granted any international political recognition of their plight.

  • Asserting rights and redress for Jewish refugees from Arab countries is not intended to deny Palestinian history nor to negate any of their suffering. It is a legitimate call to recognize that Palestinians were not the only Middle East refugees

  • The UN High Commissioner for Refugees recognized displaced Jews as bona fide refugees but offered no help. The UN General Assembly has not passed a single resolution on the plight of Jewish refugees.

  • UN Security Council Resolution 242, the Madrid peace conference, the Road Map and the bilateral agreements between Israel and Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians all refer to a just solution of the ‘refugee problem’—never distinguishing between Jews and Arabs.

  • Virtually no former Jewish refugees want to return to countries that persecuted them. Arab regimes remain hostile to Israel and Jews and anti Jewish discriminatory decrees remain in force.

  • In the spirit of the Abraham Accords, at a time of historic breakthroughs in political and economic ties between Muslim countries and Israe, the time has come for nations to unite in promoting truth, justice and reconciliation among all peoples in the region.