Berber Jews
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Berber Jews | ||||||||||||
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| Total population | ||||||||||||
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550,000 |
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| Regions with significant populations | ||||||||||||
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| Languages | ||||||||||||
| •Liturgical: Mizrahi Hebrew •Traditional: Judeo-Berber Modern: typically the language of whatever country they now reside in, including Modern Hebrew in Israel |
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| Judaism | ||||||||||||
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| 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 emigrated to Israel. Some 2,000 of them, all elderly, still speak Judeo-Berber.[1]
Their garb and culture was similar to neighbouring Berbers.
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[edit] History
A small pre-Islamic presence of Jews in that region is historically attested to, 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, occurred over time.
At the time of the Arab conquests in northwestern Africa, there were, according to Arab historian Ibn Khaldoun, some Berber tribes that professed Judaism. Supposedly, the female Berber military leader, Dihya, was a Berber Jew. She is said to have 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.
Following the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the tensions between the indigenous Jewish communities and the Arab communities increased. Jews in the Maghreb were compelled to leave due to these increased tensions. Today, the indigenous Berber Jewish community no longer exists in Morocco. The Moroccan Jewish population rests at about 5,000 persons with most residing in Casablanca.
[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 and some cultural habits — 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).[citation needed]
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.
[edit] See also
- Jewish ethnic divisions
- Mizrahi Jews
- History of the Jews in Morocco
- History of the Jews in Algeria
- History of the Jews in Tunisia
- History of the Jews of Bilad el-Sudan
- Berbers
- Berber beliefs
- Berbers and Islam
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- THE AMAZIGHS JEWS
- [1] article in French about Berber Jews
