Berber Jews
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Berber Jews |
|---|
| Total population |
|
nn |
| Regions with significant populations |
| United States: nn |
| Languages |
| •Liturgical: Mizrahi Hebrew •Traditional: Judeo-Berber Modern: typically the language of whatever country they now reside in, including Modern Hebrew in Israel |
| Religions |
| Judaism |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Jews Mizrahi Jews Sephardi Jews Other Jewish groups Berbers |
Berber Jews are the Berber Jewish communities inhabiting the region of the Maghreb in North Africa. The region coincides with the Atlas Mountains in what today is Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Between 1950 and 1960 most immigrated to Israel. Some 2,000 of them, all elderly, still speak Judeo-Berber.[1] Their garb and culture was similar to neighbouring other Berbers.
[edit] History
A small pre-Islamic presence of Jews in that region is historically attested, and these Jewish settlers are said to have mingled with the indigenous Berber population, the acceptance by the Berbers of Judaism as a religion, and its embrace by many including many powerful tribes.
At the time of the Arab conquests in northwestern Africa, there were, according to the Arab historians, many powerful Berber tribes which professed Judaism. Supposedly, Dahiyah who aroused the Berbers in the Aures(Chaoui territory), in the eastern spurs of the Atlas in modern day Algeria, to a last although fruitless resistance to the Arab general Hasan ibn Nu'man. She was, and remains to this day, celebrated as a Berber Jewess.[citation needed]
In post-colonial North-Africa, Judaism, as well as Christianity and other local historical belief-systems were banned, and their practitioners persecuted by the newly formed pro-Baathist regimes. The persecution continues until today under various decrees such as the latest in Algeria referred to as "Law against proselytism against Islam" which is the official State Religion since 1976. Numerous state and Islamist militias sponsored or allowed by the regime have engaged in hate speech, and calls to fight the revival of various local Christian Churches whose support by Western Churches(mostly American Evangelists) is seen and accused as foreign manipulation.
[edit] Origin
It would be very difficult to decide whether these Jewish Berber tribes were originally of Jewish descent and had become assimilated with the Berbers in language, habits, mode of life — in short, in everything except religion — or whether they were native Berbers who in the course of centuries had been converted by Jewish settlers. It is the second option which is considered as more likely by most researchers (such as André Goldenberg or Simon Levy).
The question on the origins of the Berber Jews is also further complicated by the likelihood of intermarriage. However this may have been, they at any rate shared much with their non-Jewish brethren in the Berber territory, and, like them, fought against the Arab conquerors.
