Kurdish Jews in Israel

Kurdish Jews in Israel

Total population
(200,000)
Regions with significant populations
Mainly Jerusalem, also Tel Aviv and many other places.
Languages
Hebrew (Main language for all generations); Older generation: Kurdish language, Judeo-Aramaic
Religion
Judaism

Kurdish Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Kurdish Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number around 200,000.

Immigration history

Immigration of Kurdish Jews to the Land of Israel initiated during the late 16th century, with a community of rabbinic scholars arriving to Safed, Galilee, and a Kurdish Jewish quarter had been established there as a result. The thriving period of Safed however ended in 1660, with Druze power struggles in the region and an economic decline.

Since the early 20th century some Kurdish Jews had been active in the Zionist movement. One of the most famous members of Lehi (Freedom Fighters of Israel) was Moshe Barazani, whose family immigrated from Iraqi Kurdistan and settled in Jerusalem in the late 1920s.

The vast majority of Kurdish Jews were forced out of Iraqi Kurdistan and evacuated to Israel in the early 1950s, together with the Iraqi Jewish community. The vast majority of the Kurdish Jews of Iranian Kurdistan relocated mostly to Israel as well, in the 1950s.

The Times of Israel reported on September 30, 2013: "Today, there are almost 200,000 Kurdish Jews in Israel, about half of whom live in Jerusalem. There are also over 30 agricultural villages throughout the country that were founded by Kurdish Jews." Today, the large majority of the Jews of Kurdistan and their descendants live in Israel.

Notable people

• Moshe Barazani
• Zvi Bar
• Yosef Shiloach
• Yitzhak Mordechai
• Itzik Kala
• Mickey Levy

See also

• Aliyah
• Jewish ethnic divisions
• Iranian Jews in Israel
• Iraqi Jews in Israel
• Turkish Jews in Israel
• Iraqi Kurdistan–Israel relations
• One Million Plan