Where Jewish Sephardis of Israel Came From Part II

Nadene Goldfoot          

               Jewish Exodus From The Muslim World                                     

At least, we can imagine that Moses and the Exodus had camels and donkeys to help out.  

The impedus for Sephardim Jews to make Aliyah to Israel came on May 14, 1948 when Israel became

a State by being granted Statehood through the League of Nations and then the  UN.  They were virtually kicked out of the countries they had 

adopted when their ancestors had fled from Jerusalem in 70 CE.  Sephardic Jews trace their ancestry to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily Spain and Portugal.    They spoke Ladino, a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish/Portugal, which 

is still used in Israel and the Balkans.  

 According to available information, approximately 1.4 million Sephardic Jews live in Israel, making up a significant portion of the country's Jewish population; most Sephardic Jews residing outside of Israel live in France and the United States. 

"The Banishment of the Jews", by Roque Gameiro, in Quadros da História de Portugal ("Pictures of the History of Portugal", 1917).  It was a matter of religion;  the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 caused Spanish Jews to move to Portugal who adopted their rules against Jews living in their land like Spain did.  

Who are Sephardic Jews?  In the Middle Ages, the term was applied to the Jews of Spain, their descendants wherever they resided.  Exiles from Jerusalem 

were deportedto Sepharad (an Asiatic region north of Palestine)  when the 1st Temple was destroyed Obad.1:20.  Included in the Sephardi group are the Mizrachim Jews (יהודי מצרים), or Jews of the Middle East, as Egypt's name is Mizrach. 

Sephardi Jews, originating from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), and later from North Africa and parts of the Middle East, made Aliyah (immigration) to Israel from countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.  

       Sephardim during Holocaust in their own Synagogue  

The Nazi Holocaust that devastated European Jewry and virtually destroyed its centuries-old culture also wiped out the great European population centers of Sephardi (or Judeo-Spanish) Jewry and led to the almost complete demise of its unique language and traditions. Sephardi Jewish communities from France and the Netherlands in the northwest to Yugoslavia and Greece in the southeast almost disappeared.

The Jewish exodus from the Muslim world occurred during the 20th century, when approximately 900,000 Jews migrated, fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries throughout Africa and Asia, primarily as a consequence of the establishment of the State of Israel. 

Large-scale migrations were also organized, sponsored, and facilitated by Zionist organizations such as Mossad LeAliyah Bet, the Jewish Agency, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. The mass movement mainly transpired from 1948 to the early 1970s, with one final exodus of Iranian Jews occurring shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979–1980. An estimated 650,000 (72%) of these Jews resettled in Israel.  

In Israel, roughly half of the Jewish population identifies as either Sephardi or Mizrahi, while the other half identifies as Ashkenazi. 

Likewise, over 25% of Jewish children and 35% of Jewish newborns in Israel are of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardic or Mizrahi descent, and these figures have been increasing by approximately 0.5% annually:   over 50% of Israel's entire Jewish population identifies as having Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi admixture. 

The majority of Turkish Jews are of Sephardi origin, with deep historical ties to Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and the Ottoman Empire.  We have Turkish Jews in our Ashkenazi family, a male marrying our female.  They are West Coast Americans of Portland and Seattle, in the fish business.  

The CBS traces the paternal country of diaspora origin of Israeli Jews (including non–Halachically Jewish immigrants who arrived on the Law of Return) as of 2010 is as follows.

Country of origin	Born abroad	Israeli born	Total	%
Total	1,610,900	4,124,400	5,753,300	100.0%
Asia	201,000	494,200	695,200	12.0%
Turkey	25,700	52,500	78,100	1.4%
Iraq	62,600	173,300	235,800	4.1%
Yemen	28,400	111,100	139,500	2.4%
Iran/Afghanistan	49,300	92,300	141,600	2.5%
India/Pakistan	17,600	29,000	46,600	0.8%
Syria/Lebanon	10,700	25,000	35,700	0.6%
Other	6,700	11,300	18,000	0.3%
Africa	315,800	572,100	887,900	15.4%
Morocco	153,600	339,600	493,200	8.6%
Algeria/Tunisia	43,200	91,700	134,900	2.3%
Libya	15,800	53,500	69,400	1.2%
Egypt	18,500	39,000	57,500	1.0%
Ethiopia	81,600	38,600	110,100	1.9%

Today, the Egyptian Jewish community is very small, with estimates suggesting only around 12-20 members remaining, mostly in Cairo and Alexandria. The Egyptian Jewish community was once much larger, numbering around 80,000 in 1948. However, after the founding of Israel and subsequent conflicts, many Jews emigrated or were expelled, leading to a dramatic decline. The remaining members are primarily elderly, and the community is on the verge of extinction. 

By 1950, nearly 40% of Egypt's Jewish population had emigrated. About 14,000 of them went to Israel, and the rest to other countries.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_the_Muslim_world#:~:text=A%20number%20of%20small-scale

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Egypt#:~:text=As%20of%202016%2C%20the%20president,Jews%20were%20living%20in%20Cairo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Jews#:~:text=Likewise%2C%20over%2025%25%20of%20Jewish,%2C%20Sephardic%2C%20and%20Mizrahi%20admixture.