Maghrebi Jews

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
See
Western Asia
.

Egyptian Jews
as well.

Maghrebi Jews (מַגּרֶבִּים‎ or מַאגרֶבִּים‎, Maghrebim) or North African Jews (יהודי צפון אפריקה‎ Yehudei Tzfon Africa) are ethnic

Egyptian Jews as well, even though there are important cultural differences between the history of Egyptian and Maghrebi Jews.[1] These Jews originating from North Africa constitute the second largest Jewish diaspora group.[2]

Primary, secondary, and tertiary Jewish centers in the Maghreb

Maghrebi Jews lived in multiple communities in North Africa for over 2,000 years,

Punic colonies of the Ancient Carthage period. Maghrebi Jews largely mixed with the newly arrived Sephardic Jews, beginning from the 13th century until the 16th century, eventually being overwhelmed by Sephardim and embracing the Sephardic Jewish identity
in most cases.

The mixed Maghrebi-Sephardic Jewish communities collapsed in the mid-20th century as part of the

Muslim countries: the Mizrahim left nations of the Middle East, and the Maghrebi-Sephardics left nations of North Africa in the mid-20th century. Among Arab countries, the largest Jewish community now exists in Morocco with about 2,000 Jews and in Tunisia about 1,000.[3]

Early history

Pre-1492

El Ghriba synagogue
on Djerba island, Tunisia

Some Jewish settlements in North Africa date back to pre-Roman times, possibly correlating with the late Punic settlements in the area.

Earlier mentions of Jewish presence go back to

capitation tax of 2 shekels
.

During the Kitos War, Jews must have suffered losses, but they continued to thrive in parts of North Africa under the Late Roman Empire. After 429 CE, with the fairly tolerant Vandals, the Jewish residents of the North African province increased and prospered to such a degree that African Church councils decided to enact restrictive laws against them. Berber lands east of Alexandria were relatively tolerant and were historically very welcoming for Christians and Jews during the Roman Empire notably. After the overthrow of the Vandals by Belisarius in 534 CE, Justinian I issued his edict of persecution, in which the Jews were classed with the Arians and heathens.

A community settled in

Cohanim, they notably built the Ghriba synagogue with stones coming directly from Jerusalem
. 'La Ghriba' is still to this day annually visited by many North African Jews.

Under Muslim domination Jewish communities developed in important urban centers such as

Merinids, Zianides and Zirides.[4]

In the seventh century, the Jewish population was augmented by

Alhambra decree
edict of expulsion and persecution in Spain and Portugal.

Sephardic
rabbinical centers, well until the early 20th century, when most Jewish populations emigrated to Israel, France, Canada and Latin America.

Expulsion from Spain after 1492

While there has been a presence of Jews in the Maghreb region of North Africa in both Berber and Arabic speaking communities for millennia, many

Spanish Jews were driven out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.[6]

The Spanish Inquisition was ultimately a religiously motivated movement that strove to maintain and strengthen the Catholic presence in Spain. The rulers,

Ferdinand and Isabella, ordered the expulsion of the Spanish Jews in January 1492, and on 30 July 1492, hundreds of thousands of Spanish Jews were driven out of Spain, relocating primarily to the Maghreb region due to its close proximity to Spain, but also to other places such as Greece, Italy, and Turkey.[7]

Around the time of the Spanish Inquisition the Counter-Reformation was taking place. The Counter-Reformation was the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation, a movement in Europe that strived to popularize the newer sect of Christianity, Protestantism, throughout Europe. The Counter-Reformation mostly took place in Southern Europe, which is a large reason as to why Southern Europe is, for the most part, far more Catholic and far less Protestant than the majority of Northern Europe.[8] The Counter-Reformation, being a movement to preserve and strengthen the Catholic influence on society, was opposed not only to Protestantism but to any non-Catholic belief that was seen as a threat to the Catholic society.[9] Thus, the Jews of Spain overwhelmingly moved directly south to the Maghreb Region of North Africa and quickly prospered.

Recent history

World War II and the Holocaust

See also: Jews outside Europe under Axis occupation

On the eve of World War II, 400,000 Jews resided in the Maghreb; throughout this time, each country differed in its treatment of its respective Jewish population.[1]

Algerian Jews (approximately 35,000) had been granted French citizenship by the

Cremieux Decree in 1870. France's Vichy Regime, then, oversaw the Jewish community in Algeria during World War II and imposed anti-Semitic measures such as stripping Jews of their civil rights, forcing them to wear identification markers, and putting quotas on their admission to primary schools.[10]

Tunisia was the only country with direct contact with the German army; Germany occupied the country for six months from 1942 to 1943 until it was recaptured by the

Allied forces.[1] Under German occupation, the Jewish population, then 89,000, endured the Nazi regime and were subjected to harsh mistreatment.[10]

In Morocco, there were anti-Jewish laws put into effect and at least 2,100 Jews were forcibly interned in work camps.[1]

Emigration

See also:
Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries

The creation of the state of Israel in 1948 led to many countries promoting anti-Jewish behavior especially in Muslim-majority areas. This contributed significantly to the emigration of Jews from the countries of the Maghreb. This exodus was a combination of push and pull, augmented with the independence of the Maghreb countries in the 1950s and early 1960s, as Jews were seen as being supportive of the previous colonial French.

Tunisia was a French protectorate since 1881, and the country fought for independence from 1952 to 1956, after which many of the 105,000 Jews within the community emigrated.[10] In recent decades, the Jewish community has continued to shrink as many emigrated to Israel, France, and other countries.[11]

After Morocco declared independence in 1956, most of the 225,000 Jews in Morocco emigrated to Israel, France and Canada.[10]

In Algeria, the National Liberation Front fought and won independence from France in 1961. After Algeria won independence, the Jewish population of 140,000 began a massive and definitive exodus mainly to France due to increased animosity towards Jews.[10]

Maghrebi Jews in Israel

The early Zionists were majority

Tel-Aviv; in Israel until after Israel was established as a state.[13] The early Zionists tended to be secular, as Zionism (as Herzl founded it) was a secular nationalist movement that recognized Jews as a whole Nation, and saw the Land of Israel as the ancestral homeland of the Jews.[14]

In the mid 20th Century, the

Arab World (in this case North Africa) began to undergo some vast internal changes. The notion of Pan-Arabism came about in the earlier years of the 20th Century, and the cultural, linguistic, and political influences of European colonial powers in the region began to sharply decline. As Arab unity increased, so did the opposition to any form of colonialism. With this new sentiment, the 20th century North African and Arab countries heavily opposed Zionism and many Arab leaders saw the movement as simply a continuation of European colonialism, due to the vast majority of early Zionist migrants coming from Europe.[12]

Maghrebi Jews have an enormous cultural influence in Israel. Falafel is widely known as the National Food of Israel,[15] and due to falafel's origins in the Middle East and North Africa, Maghrebi Jews, along with other Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, played an enormous role in making falafel an Israeli staple. Mizrahi music, one of Israel's most popular genres, carries a lot of influence from Maghrebi Jews. Some popular Mizrahi music singers of Maghrebi descent include: Eyal Golan, Sarit Hadad, Moshe Peretz, Dana International, Zehava Ben, and Kobi Peretz, all of Moroccan descent.

Religiously, Maghrebi Jews (along with Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews as a whole) are heavily classified as Masortim, contrasting Israelis of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, whom are more secular.[16] Politically, Maghrebi Jews tend to vote Likud.[17]

Communities

Morocco

Further information:
History of the Jews in Morocco
Moroccan Jewish women

Morocco, the North African nation with the largest Jewish population both at the start of the 20th Century and today,[18] had a Jewish population of ~275,000 at its peak around the time of the establishment of Israel.[19] A significant number of Moroccan Jews are descendants of the Berber-speaking Jews who once lived in the Atlas Mountains.[20] Today, the Jewish population in Morocco is estimated to be just about 2,000.[21] Since the expulsion from Spain after 1492, Moroccan Jews shared many customs of everyday life and a common spoken language (Berber or Moroccan Arabic) with their Muslim neighbours, which led to a rich mutual cultural heritage of music, poetry, food and crafts.[22]

After the establishment of Israel, a mass

exodus of the Jewish population began and the vast majority of Moroccan Jews emigrated to Israel,[23] as very few Moroccan Jews had left before to Mandatory Palestine.[23] Israel launched a series of operations to bring Jews, who were facing persecution[citation needed], to Israel from various Middle Eastern and North African countries. A famous operation that brought nearly 100,000 Moroccan Jews to Israel from 1961 to 1964 was Operation Yachin
.

Today, Jews of Moroccan descent in Israel tend to identify with their background and remain in touch with their traditional culture. A part of Moroccan Jewish culture revolves around Sephardic music and food. Shakshouka, a traditional Maghrebi dish, has become popular in Israel through the influence of Moroccan Jews.

Algeria

Further information: History of the Jews in Algeria

Algerian Jews are quite similar to Moroccan Jews in many regards due to the proximity of Algeria and Morocco. Both communities were intertwined linguistically, culturally, and historically. A Jewish presence in Algeria existed since before the Roman-era,[20] but most Algerian Jews trace a significant amount of their history back to the culture of al-Andalus
.

Since 1848, Algeria had been part of the French motherland, and with the 1870 Crémieux Decree Algerian Jews were granted French citizenship. Meanwhile, the indigenous Muslim Arab and Berber populations remained under second-class status, giving rise to Muslim friction that culminated in the 1934 Constantine riots. After the German invasion of France, Algeria came under Vichy rule: Jews had their French citizens’ rights taken away, were sacked from public service jobs and subject to quotas and restrictions.[24]

The Crémieux Decree and thereby Jewish citizenship were reinstated after World War II, keeping Algerian Jews committed to their French status throughout the

pieds-noirs leaving Algeria for France.[27][29]

At the time of World War II, there were around 130,000 Jews living in Algeria. More recently, their number is estimated by the

Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries; instead, the majority of Algerian Jews chose France as their destination.[31] Their "repatriation" represents a unique case in the history of Jewish migration given that even though they were psychologically uprooted, they "returned" to France as citizens and not as refugees.[31]

Tunisia

Further information: History of the Jews in Tunisia
The Grand Synagogue of the Hara in 1960.

Like its neighboring Algeria, Tunesia came under Vichy rule in July 1940, subjecting Tunesian Jews to the same antisemitic Statut des Juifs as in mainland France which restricted Jews in the public service, in educational institutions and journalism, and in liberal professions. In May 1941, the worst outbreak of violence against Jews in North Africa during World War II occurred in Gabès in a riot that killed seven Jews and wounding twenty.

After the

extermination camps in Eastern Europe due to the distance from Tunisia as well as the short time span of the German occupation, which ended in May 1943.[32]

The population of Tunisian Jews stood at around 105,000 in 1948. Shortly after independence in 1956, a government decree meant to eliminate all confessional tribunals, including courts based on Sharia law, also abolished rabbinical tribunal and Jewish community councils, which the Jewish community understood as a curtailment of their autonomy.[34] While Habib Bourguiba continuously worked to reassure the Jews of their safe and equal position within Tunisian society, going so far as to include a Jewish nationalist, Albert Bessis, in his first cabinet,[35] he failed to curb the increasing instances of violent anti-Jewish outburst, particularly following the Six-Day War in 1967, when the Grand Synagogue of Tunis was looted and burned to the ground. The number of Tunisian Jews decreased to around 20,000 by 1967. A further 7,000 Jews immigrated to France. As of 2021, the population of Jews in Tunisia is numbered at around 1,000.[21]

In 2018, the first Jewish minister since Bessis, René Trabelsi, was appointed to lead the Ministry of Tourism.[36]

Libya

Further information: History of the Jews in Libya

Libyan Jews are the smallest community of all Maghrebi Jews, yet the community is still rich in history, tradition, and culture. The history of Libyan Jews is one that is approximately 2,300 years old, and the population of Jews in Libya peaked at around 40,000 in 1945.[37]

As Libya was occupied by Italy throughout most of the first half of the 20th century, the

racial laws that targeted Jews and minimized their freedoms were enacted in Libya. As the Italians enacted laws that directly exploited and suppressed Jews, the Jews of Libya were more welcoming to the arrival of the Allies of World War II's entering Libya. Italy saw the Jews as enemies, and Mussolini sought to cleanse Libya of its Jewish population, a movement called Sfollamento. Through the movement of Sfollamento, Libyan Jews were sent to concentration camps; the location of those camps depended on if they had British, French, or Libyan-Italian citizenship.[38]

Libya was liberated by the

1945 Anti-Jewish riots in Tripolitania sparked a pogrom that killed 140 Jews. Riots and anti-semitic violence did not subside, leaving the Jews of Libya with very little choice but to leave.[39] Today, there are no more Jews living in Libya.[37]

Genetics

Further information:
Genetic studies on Jews

In 2012, a study by Campbel et al.[40] found that North African Jews were more closely related to each other and to European and Middle Eastern Jews than to their non-Jewish host populations.The genome-wide ancestry of North African Jewish groups was compared with respect to European (Basque), Maghrebi (Tunisian non-Jewish), and Middle Eastern (Levant) origins. The Middle Eastern component was found to be comparable across all North African Jewish and non-Jewish groups (around 40%), while North African Jewish groups showed increased European (35-40%) and decreased level of North African (Maghrebi) ancestry (20%)[40][41] with Moroccan and Algerian Jews tending to be genetically closer to Europeans than Djerban Jews, the latter being a highly endogamous group.[40]

See also

References

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  6. ^ "The Spanish Inquisition". chabad.org. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
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  11. ^ "El Ghriba Synagogue, Djerba, Tunisia | Beit Hatfutsot". bh.org.il. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  12. ^ a b "Zionism". HISTORY. 21 August 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  13. ^ "Mizrahi Jews in Israel". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  14. ^ "Books & Authors – 96.11". The Atlantic. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  15. ^ "No Matter Where It Originated, Falafel Is Still Israel's National Food". Haaretz. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  16. ^ Miller, Stephan. "Traditional Jews vote Likud-Beytenu, while the Orthodox choose Bennett". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  17. ^ "Ethnic tensions between Israeli Jews fuel Netanyahu victory". Associated Press News. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  18. ^ "Morocco Virtual Jewish History Tour". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  19. ^ "Morocco is a trove of Jewish history if you know where to go". Associated Press News. 18 April 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  20. ^ a b Congress, World Jewish. "World Jewish Congress". worldjewishcongress.org. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  21. ^ a b "Jewish Population Rises to 15.2 million Worldwide". Jewish agency. 15 September 2021.
  22. ^ Tahar Ben Jelloun and Edmond A. El Maleh (18 February 1980). "Quand juifs et musulmans chantaient ensemble". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 23 November 2021.
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  24. ^ "Finally Recognized as Holocaust Survivors, Algerian Jews Recount Their Persecution by the Nazis". Haaretz. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
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  36. ^ "Tunisia's Next Tourism Minister Will be Jewish". Algemeiner.com. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  37. ^ a b "The Diaspora: Egyptian and Libyan Jews During WWII". arcgis.com. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  38. ^ a b "The Jews of Libya | www.yadvashem.org". the-jews-of-libya.html. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
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  41. ^ Campbel et al. 2012. Fig. 5. Fraction of genome with ancestry labeled as reference population

Further reading

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