Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Middle East | |
Israel | 3,200,000 |
Iran | 8,756 (2012) |
Egypt | 200 (2008) |
Yemen | 50 (2016) |
Iraq | 8 in Baghdad (2008) 400–730 families in Iraqi Kurdistan (2015) |
Syria | >20 (2015) |
Lebanon | <100 (2012) |
Bahrain | 37 (2010) |
Central and South Asia | |
Kazakhstan | 15,000 |
Uzbekistan | 12,000 |
Kyrgyzstan | 1,000 |
Tajikistan | 100 |
Europe and Eurasia | |
Russia | Over 30,000 |
Azerbaijan | 11,000 |
Georgia | 8,000 |
United Kingdom* | 7,000 |
Belgium* | 800 |
Spain* | 701 |
Armenia | 100 |
Turkey | 100 |
East and Southeast Asia | |
Hong Kong | 420 |
Philippines | 150 |
Japan | 109 |
China | 90 |
The Americas | |
United States | 250,000 |
Brazil | 7,000 |
Canada | 3,522 |
Argentina | 2,000 |
Oceania | |
Australia | 1,000 |
Languages | |
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Religion | |
Judaism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Ashkenazi Jews, Maghrebi Jews, Arabs, Assyrians, Sephardi Jews other Jewish ethnic divisions. | |
* denotes the country as a member of the EU |
Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahim (Hebrew: מזרחים) or Mashriqiyyun (Arabic: المشرقيون), also referred to as Edot HaMizrach (עֲדוֹת-הַמִּזְרָח; Communities of the East; Mizrahi Hebrew: ʿEdot(h) Ha(m)Mizraḥ), Bene HaMizrah ("Sons of the East") or Oriental Jews, are Jews descended from local Jewish communities of the Middle East from biblical times into the modern era. They include descendants of Babylonian Jews and Mountain Jews from modern Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Uzbekistan, the Caucasus, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Yemeni Jews are sometimes also included, but their history is separate from Babylonian Jewry.
The use of the term Mizrahi can be somewhat controversial. The term Mizrahim is sometimes applied to descendants of Maghrebi and Sephardic Jews, who had lived in North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco), the Sephardi-proper communities of Turkey and the mixed Levantine communities of Lebanon, Israel and Syria. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Mizrahi Jews did not identify themselves as a separate Jewish subgroup. Instead, Mizrahi Jews generally characterized themselves as Sephardi, as they follow the traditions of Sephardic Judaism (but with some differences among the customs of particular communities). That has resulted in a conflation of terms, particularly in Israel and in religious usage, with "Sephardi" being used in a broad sense and including Mizrahi Jews and North African Jews as well as Sephardim proper. From the point of view of the official Israeli rabbinate, any rabbis of Mizrahi origin in Israel are under the jurisdiction of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel.