Berber Jews

Ethnic group|

group=Berber Jews
poptime=550,000
region1 = flagcountry|Israel
pop1 = 350,000
region2 = flagcountry|USA
pop2 = 50,000
region3 = flagicon|EU Europe
pop3 = 150,000
region4 = flagicon|AU Africa
pop4 = 5,000
langs= •Liturgical: Mizrahi Hebrew •Traditional: Judeo-Berber Modern: typically the language of whatever country they now reside in, including Modern Hebrew in Israel
rels=Judaism
related=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. [ [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=jbe Ethnologue: "Judeo-Berber"] .]

Their garb and culture was similar to neighbouring Berbers.

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 Mountains in modern day Algeria, to a last, although fruitless resistance to the Arab general Hasan ibn Nu'man.

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 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.

Origin

In the past, it would have been 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. DNA evidence today showsFact|date=September 2008 they were originally of Jewish descent. That Jews do not proselytize further discredits the conversion theory.

The question on the origins of the Berber Jews is also further complicated by the likelihood of intermarriage. However this may have been, they shared much with their non-Jewish brethren in the Berber territory, and, like them, fought against the Arab conquerors.

ee 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

References

External links

* [http://www.mondeberbere.com/juifs/indexc-en.htm THE AMAZIGHS JEWS]
* [http://www.mondeberbere.com/juifs/schroeter.htm] article in French about Berber Jews