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Jewish Peoples

From ProleWiki, the proletarian encyclopedia
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Jews
יְהוּדִים‎ (Yehudim)
ייִדן (Yidn)
ג׳ודיוס (Djudíos)
יהוד (Yahud)
Magen David, a common Jewish symbol
Percentage of Jews by Country (2021 est.)
Total population
15.2 Million (2021 est.)
Languages
Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, others
Religion
Judaism, Irreligion

Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‎, Yehudim; Yiddish: ייִדן, Yidn; Ladino: ג׳ודיוס, Djudíos; Judeo-Arabic: יהוד, Yahud) are an ethnoreligious group comprising multiple related peoples, united through a shared relationship to Judaism and a variety of cultural traditions and customs. Although Jewish peoplehood and religious traditions are closely interconnected, many Jews are secular and do not actively practice Judaism[1]. Across most Jewish traditions, converts to Judaism are accepted as equal members of the community.

Jews emerged in the Southern Levant from the pre-existing Canaanite peoples, as Judaism developed in its early monotheistic form during the 6th century BCE. Beginning in the Hellenistic period, Jews migrated throughout the Mediterranean, a process that continued after the Roman Empire conquered the region, giving rise to the Jewish diaspora, which comprises many diverse communities which spread as far west as Iberia and as far east as China.

In the following centuries, the European Jewish diasporas coalesced into two major groups: the Ashkenazim (Central and later Eastern Europe) and the Sephardim (Iberian Peninsula). Other Jewish communities in regions such as North Africa, West Asia, Iran, Central Asia, and India remained distinct. Following the violent expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Portugal and Spain in the late 15th century, Sephardim migrated to North Africa, West Asia, and the Balkans, where they often blended with existing Jewish communities.

Global Jewish population peaked at around 16.5 million[2] before the Second World War, during which approximately six million Jews in Europe were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany and its allies during the Shoah. Since then, the population has gradually recovered, estimated at 15.2 million as of 2021[3].

A variety of languages and dialects developed among the Jewish peoples of each region, including Bukharian (Bukharan Jews of Central Asia), Judeo-Arabic (Arabic Jews), Judeo-Berber (Berber Jews), Qivruli (Georgian Jews), Judeo-Iranian (Iranian Jews), Ladino (Iberian Jews), Knaanic (West Slavic Jews), Yevanic (Greek Jews), Yiddish (Ashkenazi Jews), and Zarphatic (French Jews).

Demographics[edit | edit source]

Ethnic Divisions[edit | edit source]

Jews do not form a monolithic group, and as such are composed of a variety of ethnic divisions, most of which are the result of subsequent evolutions from Jewish communities established in various geographically distant places around Eurafrasia, resulting in the long-term isolation from one another and the development of a plurality of political, cultural and social developments under the influence of their environments. These manifest in various different cultural expressions, linguistic diversity, regional culinary and different liturgical practices and interpretations.

Jewish ethnic groups are as followed:

  • Arab Jews: Arab Jews are the Jewish peoples and communities that originated in the Arab world, whose modern historical form developed following the rise of Islam in the 7th century, encompassing groups such as Iraqi, Egyptian, Syrian, and Moroccan Jews. For much of history, Arab Jews experienced better and more stable conditions than their counterparts in Europe, though their status varied by time and place. Being seen as Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book), they were permitted to practice their faith and participate in wider society, a sharp contrast to the general conditions of European Jews for much of the same period[4]. Their traditional languages include Judeo-Arabic, which describes various regional Arabic dialects influenced by Hebrew and often written in Hebrew script, and Judeo-Aramaic, derived from the Neo-Aramaic languages. Across the Arab world, these Arab Jews developed diverse local cultures shaped by their surrounding societies, resulting in significant cultural diversity[5].
  • Ashkenazi: The Ashkenazim as a Jewish ethnocultural group originated in the Holy Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages from Jews living in the Rhineland valley and neighbouring regions (an area known at the time as "Ashkenaz" to Jews). Although first centered in Germany, the bulk of Ashkenazi Jews migrated to the Kingdom of Poland and Eastern Europe in the next centuries due to an increase in antisemitism from the Crusades and the Black Death[6]. Although initially one of the smallest Jewish groups (representing 3% of Jews in the 11th century), they rose to become the largest, representing 80% of all Jews today. They follow the German synagogue rite and have Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German with significant Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic influence, as their traditional language[7].
  • Bene Israel: The Bene Israel arean Indian Jewish community also known as the Shanivar Teli, derived from "Teli", one of the castes. Their history is ancient and they practice a more unique form of Judaism until broader Sephardi traditions were introduced to them during the 18th century.[8]
  • Berber Jews: Berber Jews describe the Jewish peoples and communities of the Maghreb region of North Africa. They traditionally spoke Berber languages, also using Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Berber.
  • Beta Israel: Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews, form a community that originated in the northern regions of Ethiopia. Jewish presence in Ethiopia is ancient, and the Beta Israel have developed various unique traditions. After the conversion of the region's kings to Christianity, Ethiopian Jews experienced varied periods of autonomy and persecution, though the community survived through time and maintained links with other Jewish peoples in neighbouring regions[9]. Their practice of Judaism gradually became one of the most distinct in the world, known as Haymanot, leading to Zionists spending decades denying their Jewish identity. Later, in the 1980s and 1990s, the State of Israel did a mass population transfer to itself, airlifting tens of thousands under very harzadous conditions. Once there, Israel attempted birth control of their population[10], leading to a demographic decline. To this day, the group suffers systemic racism and poverty[11].
  • Bukharim: The Bukharim, also known as the Bukharan Jews are one of the oldest Jewish peoples, comprising a branch of Persian-speaking Jews. The community may date to the times of the Achaemenid Empire, but it was only consolidated between the 6th and 9th centuries, growing communities in Central Asian cities such as Balkh, Khwarezm, and Merv. Relations between Bukharan Jews and their Iranian counterparts were gradually eroded starting in the 16th century, dividing the two peoples and formalising the Bukharim as a separate people to the Iranian Jews. For many centuries they followed the Persian liturgical tradition, but gradually adopted Sephardic liturgy starting in the late 18th century. Bukharan Jews developed a series of unique customs integrated with their environment, such as the development of the Bukharan kippah. They also developed unique musical and culinary traditions[12].
  • Crimean Karaites: The Crimean Karaites are a Turkic Jewish people native to the Crimean Peninsula. Differently to most other Jewish communities, the Crimean Karaites adhere to Karaite Judaism, a Jewish sect which rejects Rabbinic authority and traditions. They traditionally speak, among others, the Karaim language, a Kipchak-derived language. Due to their large cultural and religious[13] differences with other Jewish groups, they were historically exempted from anti-Jewish measures, such as the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire[14].
  • Gruzinim: Gruzinim, also known as Georgian Jews, compose one of the oldest Jewish groups in the world, thought to have emerged more than two thousand years ago. They have assimilated various Georgian practices into their culture and suffered little antisemitism throughout their history. Beyond a different liturgy and unique cultural traditions, the Gruzinim also have Qivruli, also known as Gruzinic or Judeo-Georgian, as their traditional language[15].
  • Iranian Jews: Iranian Jews, also known as Persian Jews, are one of the oldest Jewish peoples, with origins dating back to the Achaemenid Empire. Various passages in the Tanakh refer to Jewish life in Iran, and the region has played a major role in Jewish history, most notably when Cyrus the Great ordered the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Iranian Jews continued to live across the region afted the fall of the Achaemenids and remained integrated into broader Persian society following the Arab conquest in the 7th century, continuing to grow for many more centuries thereafter[16]. During World War II, Iran served as refuge for many Jewish refugees from Poland[17]. After the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the protection of Jews[18], who are now a recognized religious minority with an allocated seat in the Iranian Parliament. Iranian Jews have long been one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, and Iran continues to have the second-largest Jewish population in West Asia. They speak a variety of Iranian languages, most notably Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Bukharic, and have developed a distinct culture influenced by wider Iranian society.
  • Italkim: Italkim, also known as Italian Jews are a jewish people that emerged in Italy. They have their oldest roots in the ancient jewish communities that exist in the region since Roman times, and have since then developed a unique Italian liturgy for Judaism. Italian Jews often intermingled with Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews during their history, but managed to maintain and develop a series of unique cultural traditions through these[19]. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an important Jewish rabbi and philosopher of the 18th century, was an Italian Jew.
  • Juhurim: The Juhurim, also known as Mountain Jews, are a Jewish community linked with that of Iran. Although Jews lived in the mountains of the Caucasus for millennia, the modern community was formed between the 18th and 19th centuries. They have developed a unique military tradition, similar to some customs of Iranian Jews, and also adopted dressing similar to their muslim neighbours in the Caucasus. Additionally, they developed many differences in liturgy. The Mountain Jews speak Juhuri, also known as Judeo-Tat, a subset of the Judeo-Persian language[20]. Qırmızı Qəsəbə, a Juhurim village in Azerbaijan, is considered to be the last surviving shtetl in the world[21].
  • Kaifeng Jews: Kaifeng Jews are a jewish people that originated in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China. Despite being one of the most isolated Jewish communities, they managed to practice and maintain traditional Jewish customs for centuries, though they were gradually assimilated by the 19th century. Their origin is debated, but most likely comes from the period of the Song dynasty, descended from Jewish merchants which settled in China, likely of Jewish-Iranian origin. Their faith and traditions gradually intermingled with those of the peoples of China[22].
  • Kochinim: The Kochinim, also known as Malabar Jews, are an Indian Jewish community that originated in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, today part of Kerala[23]. They have existed since as early as the 12th century. Some Sephardi Jews made their way to Cochin in the 16th century after their expulsion from Iberia, joining the community and becoming known as Paradesi Jews, retaining their own cultural distinctions. Their traditional language is Judeo-Malayalam[24]. They developed a series of unique cultural traditions and adaptations, such as one of singing devotional hymns (piyyutim) on festive occasions.
  • Krymchaks: The Krymchaks are a Turkic Jewish people of Crimea. Differently to the Crimean Karaites, they traditionally follow Rabbinic Judaism. They speak the Krymchak language, with derives from Crimean Tatar. Although their origin is debated, Jewish communities have existed in Crimea as early as the 1st century BCE. They were likely influenced during the Middle Ages by medieval Jewish merchants from other regions and the Khazars, who dominated the peninsula for much time[25]. They have developed their own liturgical rite based on the Romaniote one. Almost 75% of their population was exterminated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
  • Kurdistani Jews: Kurdistani Jews are the Jewish communities that have originated in the region of Kurdistan. Much like in the broader Muslim world, Jews in Kurdistan were fairly integrated into their societies, and the region served as refuge for Jews fleeing Syria and Palestine in the aftermath of the Crusades. This situation remained, and even improved, under Ottoman rule starting in the 16th century, with many Jews across the region migrating to the Empire, including to Kurdistan[26]. Their traditional languages are those of the Judeo-Aramaic dialect continuum, and they have developed unique cultural traditions from their interactions with wider Kurdish society, though they experienced a blending with Sephardic Jews during the 18th century.
  • Palestinian Jews: The term Palestinian Jew describe the Jewish communities who inhabited Palestine prior to the State of Israel and Zionism. They later became known as the Old Yishuv, in reference to the Yishuv, which describes the Jews that migrated and lived in Palestine after doing aliyah, prior to the State of Israel. The Palestinian Jewish community lived alongside the Chrisian and Muslim inhabitants of Palestine, living in cities such as Safed, Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias[27]. They were supported by diasporic Jewish communities through a charity-like system known as Halukka, which would later be heavily criticised and eventually dismantled by Zionists. They lived alongside the other peoples of Palestine and saw themselves as part of them. Zionists typically saw Palestinian Jews, and the broader Judeo-Arabic community, as backwards and uncapable, in need of European salvation.
  • Romanyotim: The Romaniotes are a Greek Jewish people who form the oldest Jewish people in Europe. Jewish presence in Greece dates back to the times of Alexander the Great and have survived since, developing a wide array of unique cultural traditions and their own Romaniote liturgical rite. After their expulsion from Iberia, some Sephardi Jews migrated to Greece, which was under Ottoman rule at the time, but remained culturally distinct from their Romaniote counterparts, which speaks Yevanic, a greek-derived language, which itself originated from Jewish Koine Greek, which was spoken during the Hellenistic period[28].
  • Sephardi: Sephardim Jews emerged in Medieval Iberia during the times of Al-Andalus. Under muslim rule, Sephardim Jews flourished under the so-called Sephardic Golden Age, a period in which Jewish culture and philosophy prospered, with Iberia seen as the cultural center of Judaism at the time[29]. Many famous medieval Jewish thinkers were Sephardic, most notably Maimonides. This period ended in the late 15th century, when the Christian kingdoms of Iberia expelled their Muslim and Jewish populations. Many of the Sephardim found refuge in North Africa and the rising Ottoman Empire, mingling with the Jewish populations that already existed there[30]. A traditional language of Sephardi Jews is Ladino, a Hebrew and Arabic influenced mixture of Old Spanish and Old Portuguese.
  • Temanim: The Temanim, also known as Yemenite Jews, are a Jewish group that originated in the region of Yemen. The first records of Jews in the region date to the 1st century BCE, when it was ruled by the Kingdom of Himyar, with the community growing and prospering over the following centuries. At one point in the late 4th century its kings became converts to Judaism. The Yemenite Jewish community continued to prosper after Muslim conquest in the 7th century, with general prosperity over the next centuries, though with exceptions. During their two milennia of existence, the Temanim developed a series of unique cultural traditions[31]. Zionists forced much of the community to migrate to Occupied Palestine in the 1950s and later attempted to erase them as an independent ethnic group during the so-called Yemenite Children Affair[32][33]. Despite that, they continue to observe unique customs and traditions to this day.

Identity[edit | edit source]

Jewish Peoplehood[edit | edit source]

Historically, definitions of Jewish identity have been based on halakhic (jewish religious law) definitions, which state that one is a Jew if their mother is a Jew or if they went through a halakhic conversion. Since the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment of the 18th and 19th centuries, halakhic definitions of identity began to be questioned. Today, certain streams of Judaism, such as Reform and Reconstructionist, accept both matrilineal and patrilineal descent.

Today, the majority of Jews in the United States consider Jewish identity to be primarily about culture than religion[34]. Jews have been described as composing an ethnoreligious group[35], which is defined as a group of people with a common religious and ethnic background which are associated with each other. Despite being considered an ethnoreligious group, Jews do not form a single monolithic ethnic or national identity, but rather compose a plural diversity of many peoples united through this ethnoreligious background.

Zionism and Identity[edit | edit source]

The rise of Zionism in the late 19th century led to large-scale attempts to redefine Jewish identity as belonging to a national sense rather than an ethnic, cultural or religious one. By that point Jews were finally being emancipated across Europe and were integrating into broader society, with many seeing their national identity as separate to their ethnic or religious one, considering their nation-state as their homeland rather than an idealised Zionist one. As put by Edwin Montagu, the only Jew in a senior British government at the time of the Balfour Declaration:

"If the government endorsed the Zionist memorandum … it would mean that the country for which I have worked ever since I left the University — England — the country for which my family have fought, tells me that my national home … is Palestine."[36]

A key feature of Zionism is Shiliat Ha-Golah, or "Negation of the Diaspora", meaning that Zionists wish to end and destroy the Jewish diaspora and replace it with a single Jewish national homeland. Through this process they sought to redefine Jewish identity in nationalist and secular terms. According to Zionists, the Diaspora Jew was mentally unstable, weak, self-centered, 'feminine' and degenerate, while the Zionist Jew would be primarily be defined by ethnic-nationalism rather than the Jewish faith, following 'Muscular Judaism' in accordance to more militaristic, 'masculine' and nationalistic terms, ideas that were later absorbed by the "New Jew" or "Sabra" identity created to represent Israeli Jews.

Zionists also attempted to define Jews in terms of racial identity, incorporating antisemitic talking points by reversing them, as if Jews had "purer blood" and that biology "proved" their ethnonationalist myths. All of these ideas would later serve as the basis of Jewish Exceptionalism.

As Zionism was created as an European movement, described by Theodor Herzl as "something colonial"[37], Zionists pioneered Ashkenormativity, a form of discrimination against non-Ashkenazi Jews. This led to the Zionist conception that Jews were divided into just three groups (not peoples or ethnicites): Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahim. Indeed, the concept of "Mizrahi Jews" was born in the Zionist movement as an oversimplified and generalised term to refer to any Jew that wasn't Ashkenazi or Sephardi, primarily those of the Muslim world. The word "Mizrahi" translates simply as "Easterner" (in reference to them being east of Europe), and was mass applied to any and all Jews of North Africa, Central Asia, West Asia and the Caucasus, sometimes also including Indian Jews, flattening countless cultures and identities as a single identifier due to bigotry and a desire to avoid using terms such as "Arab Jews"[38]. Nonetheless, the word has been used by some anti-Zionist Jews as means to fight against discrimination and promote their own histories against eurocentric and ashkenormative ones.

In a sharp contrast to Zionism, Bundism, an anti-Zionist Jewish socialist movement, sought to promote the principle of Doikayt, that is, wherever they live, Jews have a right to live and organise. Other policies such as Autonomism promoted the flourishing of Jewish culture and identity as multifaceted and localised, rejecting any nationalist focus and ethnic or religious separatism.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ "Jews in U.S. are far less religious than Christians and Americans overall, at least by traditional measures" (2021-05-13). Pew Research. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  2. ↑ Sergio DellaPergola (2022). World Jewish Population 2021. The American Jewish Year Book.
  3. ↑ "Number of Jews in the World". Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  4. ↑ "How Were Jewish-Muslim Relations During the Islamic Golden Age?" (2025-12-23). The Collector. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  5. ↑ Norman Stillman (2018). The Jews of the Medieval Islamic West: Acculturation and its limitations. [PDF] doi: 10.1080/21520844.2018.1519768 [HUB]
  6. ↑ Mark Juergensmeyer, Wade Clark Roof (2012). Encyclopedia of Global Religion. doi: 10.4135/9781412997898.n40 [HUB]
  7. ↑ "Ashkenazi". Britannica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  8. ↑ "Bene Israel". Britannica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  9. ↑ "Beta Israel". Britannica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  10. ↑ "Outcry in Israel over injection of Ethiopian Jews with birth control drug" (2013-01-28). Al Arabiya. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  11. ↑ Mustafa Deveci (2019-07-09). "Ethiopian Jews suffer racism in Israel" Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  12. ↑ Michael Zand (2018-04-04). "BUKHARA vii. Bukharan Jews" Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  13. ↑ "An acquaintance with native Crimean culture" (2016-02-07). Russia Beyond. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  14. ↑ "Somewhat Jewish, Fully Russian: Crimea Karaites Recall Past Glory" (2014-03-30). Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2024-10-10. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  15. ↑ Z. Davarashvili, Z. Kiknadze, E. Mamistvalishvili, Sh. Tsitsuashvili. "Jews in Georgia" Georgian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  16. ↑ Ariel Gold (2019-12-24). "The Fascinating History and Political Lives of Jews in Iran" CODEPINK. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  17. ↑ Polish Refugees in Iran during World War II. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum - Holocaust Encyclopedia. Archived from the original. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  18. ↑ Trita Parsi (2007). Treacherous alliance (pp. 8-9). [PDF] New Haven: Yale University Press.
  19. ↑ "The Jews of Italy". Morashá. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  20. ↑ "The Mountain Jews". Morashá. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  21. ↑ "How the Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan Endure" (2022-10-25). New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  22. ↑ "Kaifeng Jew". Britannica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  23. ↑ Shaju Phillip (2024-08-13). "Once thriving, now all but gone: a history of Kerala’s Jewish communities" The Indian Express. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  24. ↑ "Cochin Jews". Britannica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  25. ↑ Kazimierz Banek (2014). Anthropos (pp. 235-243). [PDF] Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.
  26. ↑ Ora Shwartz-Be'eri, Muzeʼon Yiśraʼel (2000). The Jews of Kurdistan: Daily Life, Customs, Arts and Crafts. ISBN 9652782386
  27. ↑ Salim Tamari (2004). Ishaq al-Shami and the Predicament of the Arab Jew in Palestine. [PDF]
  28. ↑ "Greece". JGuideEurope. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  29. ↑ "Sephardi". Britannica. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  30. ↑ "Ottoman lands provided safe haven for Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain" (2022-08-02). Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  31. ↑ Yehuda Altein. "18 Facts You Should Know About Yemenite Jews" Chabad. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  32. ↑ Ofer Aderet (2016-07-31). "Hundreds of Yemenite Children Were Abducted in State's Early Years, Says Israeli Cabinet Minister" Haaretz. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  33. ↑ Yolande Knell (2017-06-20). "Missing babies: Israel's Yemenite children affair" BBC News. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  34. ↑ Michael Lipka (2016-03-16). "A closer look at Jewish identity in Israel and the U.S." Pew Research. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  35. ↑ Jacob Neusner (2003). Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity: 'Jew and Judaist, Ethnic and Religious'. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814767016
  36. ↑ Rima Najjar (2017-08-25). "The enemy of Palestinian Arabs is Jewish supremacy" Medium. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  37. ↑ "Zionism as described by Zionists". The Zionism Observer. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  38. ↑ Hadar Cohen (2022-11-29). "Mizrahi Remembrance Month: Reclaiming our stories" The New Arab. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
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