Nadene Goldfoot
Remember the "OTHERS" included in the Exodus of Jacob's original family of 70 that had grown in Egypt and were rescued by Moses with the Exodus? Well, Israel has still taken in some "others" in today's revised Israel. One such group, though quite small, are the Kurds. Interestingly enough, they are the very closest match of DNA to the Jewish people.
Genetic studies suggest a close relationship between Kurds and Jewish populations, with some research indicating they share common ancestry in the northern Fertile Crescent. Specifically, these studies have found that Jewish populations, including Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Kurdish Jews, exhibit a closer genetic connection to Kurds than to some other Middle Eastern groups like Arabs.
The changing of populations caused by Assyria in 721 BCE and then almost a repeat over 100 years later by Babylon in 586 BE brought in new DNA as well as taking our people to other places in the Middle East.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of non-Jewish Kurds living in Israel, but it is generally understood to be a small community, likely in the hundreds. While there is a significant population of Kurdish Jews in Israel, the number of non-Jewish Kurds is much smaller, consisting mainly of refugees and their descendants who fled conflict in Turkey and Iraq. (You see, there are refugees that get out of the UN facilities and try to make a life for themselves. )
The Kurdish population in Israel is small and is mainly composed of individuals and families, who fled Iraq and Turkey during the Iraqi–Kurdish and the Kurdish–Turkish conflicts during the 20th century. In 2006, the number of Kurdish refugees from Turkey was estimated at 200. Another estimate for both Iraqi and Turkish Kurds was 150 persons in 2007.
- Overlap with Arab Population Statistics: Many non-Jewish Kurds in Israel have assimilated into Arab culture and may be included in the overall Arab population figures, which stand at approximately 2.1 million, constituting 21.1% of Israel's population in 2024.
In March 2001, a group of 19 Kurdish men entered Israel via Lebanon, asking for asylum, but were denied. In mid-2001, a group of 42 Kurdish refugees attempted to enter Israel via Lebanon, illegally crossing the Israeli–Lebanese border, but were returned to Lebanon.
In 2007, 40 Iraqi Kurdish children, mostly from Iraqi Kurdistan, were hosted with their parents and medically treated in Israel, as part of the project initiated by Israeli Save a Child's Heart Organization (SACH). In 2013, it was reported that Israel accepted three Kurdish children from Iraqi Kurdistan for medical treatment. The children were settled into Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, southern Tel Aviv area. They were some of the 183 children with Iraqi nationality, entering Israel for medical treatment since the establishment of the program.
The majority of Kurds are Muslim, with a large portion adhering to Sunni Islam, specifically the Shafi'i school. However, there's also a significant minority of Kurds who follow Alevism and Shia Islam. Additionally, some Kurds practice other religions like Yazidism, Yarsanism, and Zoroastrianism, or have no religious affiliation.
However, The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at between 30 and 45 million, with another one or two million living in the Kurdish diaspora. Kurds comprise anywhere from 18 to 25% of the population in Turkey, 15 to 20% in Iraq; 10% in Iran; and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after Arabs, Persians, and Turks.
The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 24% in Iran, 18% in Iraq, and 4% in Syria.
Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries, about half of them in Germany.
A special case are the Kurdish populations in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia, displaced there mostly in the time of the Russian Empire, who underwent independent developments for more than a century and have developed an ethnic identity in their own right. This group's population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990.
We have Kurdish Jews. According to tradition, the 1st Jewish settlers went to Kurdistan as early as the time of Ezra. The early beginnings of Jewish immigration are attested by the Aramaic dialect spoken by Kurdish Jews up to modern times. It is close to the language of the Babylonian Talmud and the speech of the Nestorian Christians in Kurdistan. At the end of the 19th century, the Jewish community was estimate to number 12 to 18,000 scattered innumerous villages and townlets and living as merchants, peddlers and craftsmen. In the 20th century they increased in Persian Kurdistan to 12-14,000. After 1948, the great majority emigrated to Israel living in or near Jerusalem.
Israel is now a home to some 200,000 Jews of Kurdistani origins, who are mostly descended from nearly 50 thousand Kurdish Jews evacuated from Iraq during Operation Ezra and Nehemiah in the early 1950s. Israeli Jews of Kurdistani background preserve ties with the ethnic Kurdish communities in the Middle East, including with the Kurdish individuals residing in Israel.
Kurdish Jews in Israel are descendants of Jewish communities from Kurdistan who immigrated to Israel. They are part of the larger Mizrahi Jewish population and number around 300,000 in Israel according to Wikipedia. Many live in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other cities.
Jews are divided into Ashkenazi (speaking Yiddish-from German,Eastern Europe);
Sephardi-Spain, Portugal, etc speaking Ladino, and Mizrachi-from Egypt, Middle East speaking Arabic, etc.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurds_in_Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Autonomous_Administration_of_North_and_East_Syria
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