Kurds in Israel

In the available literature, Kurds in Israel usually refers to Jewish Israelis descended from communities of Kurdistan, especially Iraqi Kurdistan, rather than to a single officially counted ethnic category. Sources variously describe Kurdish Jews, people of Kurdish Jewish origin, or “Kurds living in Israel,” producing estimates that are not directly comparable.[3][4]

The community’s history in Israel includes migration before statehood, mass arrival from Iraq in 1950–1951, settlement in Jerusalem and rural communities, and the preservation of Neo-Aramaic speech, festivals, oral traditions, and ties to places of origin.[1][5]

The Jewish communities of Kurdistan lived across a region that, depending on its definition, spans areas from Syria and Turkey to Iran; most Kurdish Jews lived in Iraq. Their historical ties with Kurdish neighbors are studied through limited written documentation, oral traditions, travelers’ accounts, and later scholarship. A study of those relations says firmer evidence is available from the 16th century onward, while emphasizing the limits of the historical record.[6][7]

Some accounts describe the community’s roots through a tradition that traces Kurdish Jews to the Babylonian exile. Mosaic presents this as a community history rather than an independently established date, while another reference describes descent from Israelites exiled by Assyrian kings as an ancient tradition, not a confirmed demographic finding. Benjamin of Tudela, who visited around 1170, recorded the tradition and reported more than 100 Jewish communities; accurate statistics for the historical Jewish population are unavailable.[7][5]

Kurdish Jews spoke Aramaic dialects and used Kurdish in interactions with surrounding people. The Aramaic varieties contained influences from Turkish, Persian, Kurdish, Arabic, and Hebrew. Jewish dialects including Bohtan, Sanandaj, Urmi, and Challa were known as lishan didan, meaning “our language,” and were in common use until the 1950s. In Israel, the community’s Aramaic speech is commonly called “Kurdi,” although that name is also used scientifically for an Iranian language spoken by Muslim Kurds.[8][9]

A Mosaic overview says the community tended to be illiterate into the 20th century. Kurdish Jewish communities were relatively secluded, with distinctive religious, cultural, and linguistic practices. Small rural communities depended on traditional farming, in which women and men worked in the fields; the society was patriarchal, although women were treated with considerable respect.[7][10]

Migration from Kurdistan to the Land of Israel long predated the mass movement of the 1950s. One account traces arrivals to the 16th century, when migrants from Kurdistan settled in Safed.[5] Later arrivals are dated to 1812 in one account, while another describes temporary Kurdish Jewish lodgings in Jerusalem around 1895. These records may refer to different stages of settlement, and the sources do not reconcile the chronology.[11][12]

Migration increased over time, with periodic persecution identified as one factor in some accounts. Records give 1,900 Kurdish Jews migrating to Palestine between 1920 and 1926 and 2,500 in 1935. A 1971 encyclopedia instead gives a period of 1920–1929 for the first figure and says the additional arrivals in 1935 brought the number of settlers to 8,000. These figures refer to different time periods and are not directly interchangeable.[5][11]

Some early migrants followed complex routes. After 1925, some traveled to Baghdad to obtain passports for Syria, continued to Sidon in Lebanon, and were then secretly sent by camel to Safed. The migration included people from Iraqi Kurdistan—among them Mosul, Erbil, Zakho, Amadia, Kirkuk, Akra, and Dehok—as well as later arrivals from Persian and Turkish Kurdistan. Kurdish Jews also lived in Tel Aviv-Yafo and Safed before Israel’s establishment, alongside a much larger concentration in Jerusalem.[11]

Jerusalem became an important center of Kurdish Jewish life before the mass migration. Some immigrants lived in a poor western Jerusalem neighborhood nicknamed the “Tin Quarter,” where dwellings were made from discarded kerosene cans, boards, and similar materials; a Kurdish Jewish synagogue was built there in 1908. Temporary lodgings were established around 1895 in Shaarei Rahamim, a small quarter in Nahlaot, and more people settled there after World War I. Residents initially lived in tents or makeshift dwellings, with outdoor kitchens, outhouses, and sewage running through the streets.[13][12]

More than 6,000 Kurdish Jews lived in Jerusalem before Israel’s establishment. They bought land and built homes in quarters including Zikhron Yosef, Zikhron Ya‘akov, and Sha‘are Rahamim. The community developed local institutions: a union representing 350 families from Urmia and Azerbaijan was established in 1923; a Kurdish community committee followed in 1924 and was renamed the Union of the Jews of Kurdistan in 1935. In 1945, community committees merged under that union, which maintained its own burial society. Organizations also formed around towns and provinces of origin, including 500 Zakho families with five synagogues and 70 farming families from Sindur.[11]

Some immigrants who had farmed in Kurdistan worked in fields and vineyards, and Kurdish immigrants lived in agricultural settlements in Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee. Some villages, including Alroy, were settled entirely by Kurdish Jews.[11] An account of a 1898 meeting between Theodor Herzl and Kurdish Jews from Shaarei Rahamim says Herzl was astonished by their strength, photographed them, and remarked that enough Jews like them could build a country.[12]

The largest wave of Kurdish Jewish migration came with the mass departure of Iraqi Jews in the early 1950s. After Iraq legalized Jewish emigration in 1950, the Jewish Agency and Israeli government organized Operations Ezra and Nehemiah. Approximately 110,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to Israel between May 1950 and August 1951, including 18,000 Kurdish Jews.[1] A separate academic abstract gives a broader estimate of about 125,000 Jews immigrating from Iraq during 1950–1951, representing 95% of Iraq’s Jewish community; that figure is for Iraqi Jews overall, not a Kurdish-specific count.[14]

Other references give different totals for the Iraqi migration and the Kurdish subgroup. About 105,000 Jews had arrived in Israel by July 5, 1951, again describing overall arrivals rather than a Kurdish count. Another account says 125,000 Jews from Iraq immigrated during the operation and that all the Jews of Iraqi Kurdistan were included, estimating the Iraqi Kurdish Jewish population at the time as tens of thousands. The sources agree on a large, rapid movement but do not provide one consistent subgroup total.[5][15]

Most Kurdish Jews emigrated in 1950–1951, after earlier migration by individuals, families, and sometimes entire villages had begun in the early 20th century. One reference estimates the pre-migration Jewish population of Kurdistan at about 25,000 across roughly 200 villages and small towns. Another gives a range of 20,000–30,000 Jews in Kurdistan before Israel’s establishment. The estimates concern populations spread across a broad region and are not presented with a shared methodology.[4][5]

For many Iraqi Kurdish Jews, the route led first from towns and villages to Baghdad and then by air to Israel. After a 1950 law permitted Iraqi Jews to obtain exit visas, Kurdish Jews left their home communities for Baghdad and then Israel, and the Jewish community of Iraqi Kurdistan disappeared. One family’s account describes a journey from a village to Mosul and then Baghdad; the family immigrated around Passover and held a Seder at the airport before boarding its plane.[11][15]

The arrival was not always easy. Arriving families were reportedly sprayed with pesticides and sent to tent camps.[16] Rabbi Haim Yeshurun arrived at a Binyamina tent camp in 1950. Because few staff spoke Aramaic and nobody else on his flight spoke Hebrew, he became the group’s translator and representative.[17]

Migration from Iraq continued on a much smaller scale after the main exodus. Up to 300 Jews escaped across the Kurdish mountains to Iran in 1970. After Iraqi authorities began issuing passports in September 1971, about 1,300 Jews left legally, seeking refuge mainly in England, Canada, the United States, and Israel.[5]

Published estimates of the Kurdish Jewish population in Israel vary considerably. Encyclopedia.com estimates about 100,000, including people born in Israel.[4] A 2017 analysis estimated around 200,000 Kurdish Jews.[18] Other reports have offered 100,000–150,000 and approximately 300,000.[17][19] These figures should be understood as estimates rather than a reconciled count, because their definitions and methods are not supplied consistently.

The labels used in reporting also differ. A 2015 World Jewish Congress report quotes researcher Zach Huff estimating about 200,000 “Kurds living in Israel,” with close to 100,000 in and around Jerusalem. The report does not specify whether that figure counts only people identifying as Kurdish Jews. Huff also said that people in the second and third generations still wanted to connect with their roots in Kurdistan. The wording and scope of this estimate therefore should not be assumed to match estimates explicitly referring to Kurdish Jews.[3]

Sherzad Omer Mamsani was named Jewish Affairs Representative in Kurdistan in late 2015 to foster relations with Jews of Kurdish origin, most of whom were said to live in Israel. The source gives a figure of nearly 300,000 people of Kurdish Jewish origin but does not explain how the estimate was calculated.[5] By contrast, an Encyclopedia.com entry says that in 2002, 171,700 Jews were registered as being of Iraqi origin, including 2,000–3,000 of Kurdish extraction. That narrower registration-based figure differs sharply from broader estimates, and the source does not reconcile them.[13]

Settlement in Israel was geographically varied. Before statehood, Jerusalem was the principal center, but Kurdish Jews also lived in Tel Aviv-Yafo and Safed. Kurdish agricultural settlements were established in Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee, while rural communities established during the 1960s included Agur, Avital, Elkosh, Even Sapir, Nes Harim, Yardena, and Z’kharya. Internal migration made the community’s total difficult to determine, since many people were registered as Iraqi Jews.[11]

After migration, committees continued to organize around towns and provinces of origin. Kurdish Jews formed associations in Israel, and a large share lived in and around Jerusalem. Jews from Iranian Kurdistan maintained separate organizations from Kurdish Jews originating in other countries, and a periodical shared by these groups was called Hitḥadshut.[5] Agricultural villages and communities throughout the country reflected both collective settlement and dispersal into varied local settings.[11]

Kurdish Jews contributed to Israel’s economy through a range of occupations. Many men initially worked in manual trades as porters, masons, stonecutters, quarry workers, or construction laborers; others became peddlers and small tradespeople. Some continued farming in rural areas around Jerusalem and in the Jordan Valley. Some workers who entered the building trades later became wealthy business owners, and Kurdish Jews became prominent in Jerusalem’s construction business. Kurdish Jews also served in the Israeli army, government offices, and city councils.[4][11]

Occupations varied by setting and over time. Some Kurdish Jews worked as porters in cities or helped Second Aliyah immigrants establish settlements in Lower Galilee. Others used prior agricultural experience in fields and vineyards. The community’s economic life thus included manual labor, farming, commerce, construction, and public service rather than a single occupational pattern.[13][11]

Language is a central marker of Kurdish Jewish heritage. The community’s Aramaic dialects differed across places of origin and were influenced by the languages of the surrounding region. Kurdish was also used in contact with neighboring populations. Jewish dialects such as Bohtan, Sanandaj, Urmi, and Challa belonged to the broader set of Neo-Aramaic varieties called lishan didan. Jews and Christians across southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran spoke related Neo-Aramaic dialects, and the Jewish varieties were commonly used until the 1950s.[8][9]

The Aramaic spoken by Jews from Iraqi Kurdistan who found refuge in Israel has been described as having especially close affinities to Syriac. Kurdish Jewish Aramaic also differed somewhat from the dialect spoken by neighboring Christian communities, even where the communities lived in the same villages. The language was transmitted orally across generations; a 2014 account said that remaining speakers were then in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, with little transmission to younger generations.[9][20]

Oral expression remained creative after migration. A study of folk songs and tales among immigrants from Zakho in Israel between 1971 and 1974 tested the expectation that migration and modernization would weaken Kurdish Jewish oral literature. The recordings instead showed creative incorporation of Israeli or Zionist themes alongside the continued use of traditional expressive forms. The study describes the literature as linguistically diverse and shaped by both Jewish and Islamic literary and historical sources.[21]

Seharaneh, also called Saharane or Saharana in some accounts, is a prominent Kurdish Jewish communal celebration. Traditionally held after Passover, it brought people together for several days of camping, walks in nature, singing, dancing, feasting, and storytelling. Accounts also describe special prayers, Torah scrolls, matchmaking and engagement ceremonies, and the passing of community traditions from elders to younger generations. The celebration’s relationship to spring and nature was part of its original setting.[22][23]

After migration, the festival’s calendar changed. One account says Kurdish Jews brought the post-Passover celebration to Israel, where it was moved to after Sukkot from the 1950s to avoid competition with the Moroccan Mimouna. A Times of Israel report attributes the move to community leader Aviv Shimoni in 1975, while Ynet dates a move by community leaders and politicians to 1972. Ynet also reports a later revival effort that returned the celebration to Passover timing and says it had been recognized in Israel as an official holiday. These accounts differ on the precise date and subsequent calendar practice.[22][23]

In Israel, Seharane gatherings have served as occasions for community-wide reunions and cultural transmission. More than 13,000 attendees reportedly gathered at a Jerusalem festival in Sacher Park, including Kurdish Jews from across Israel and visitors from Syria and Iraq. Sukkot gatherings in Yokne’am featured traditional Aramaic, food, stories, song, and dance. In 2014, the celebration was also marked by concern for Kurds fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Sima Levy, who had immigrated from Qamishli, Syria, in 1962 at age 18, said she taught her 11 children the customs and dialect of Syrian Kurdish Jews.[16][24]

Religious and communal practices also connect Israeli Kurdish Jews to places of origin. A 2003 account describes visits to the tomb of the prophet Nahum at Alqosh, especially around Shavuot, and reports a belief that sick people who slept in the room containing the tomb had a better chance of recovery. Israeli visitors also went to former Jewish villages and sites; one traveler said many former Jewish residents of Aqra lived in Tiberias. Local Muslim custodians maintained or opened some Jewish sites and synagogues.[15]

A surviving marriage document offers a rare glimpse into one small community. A ketubbah from Bijar, in Iranian Kurdistan, is the only known Jewish marriage document from that community. Bijar had approximately 650 Jews before their immigration to Israel. The ketubbah records the marriage of Zikher Khanom Bradarani and Musa Khalami on June 25, 1936, and states a dowry in toman issued under Reza Shah Pahlavi.[25]

Kurdish Jewish identity in Israel has remained connected to relationships with Kurdish communities beyond Israel. A 2022 scholarly article argues that Kurdistani Jews in Israel have largely retained their identity, culture, and traditions, and that they have influenced Israeli policy toward the Kurds. It describes oral traditions as a means through which positive relations between Jews and Kurds were transmitted, and notes parallels in oral, linguistic, and literary practices.[6]

The article places those connections within a broader history of ties between Israel and Kurdish movements. It characterizes relations with the Kurdish movement in Iraq from 1960 onward as often secret and interprets those ties as having regional security consequences: in its account, they helped keep Baghdad from entering the Arab–Israeli conflict and helped the Kurdish liberation movement in Iraqi Kurdistan survive. These are the article’s interpretations of disputed geopolitical history, rather than a settled account established by the material summarized here.[6]

An INSS analysis says Israeli assistance to Iraqi Kurds included training and weapons, much of it passing through Iranian territory with the knowledge of Iranian authorities. It also reports that in the 1970s, when approximately 5,000 Jews remained in Iraq, Israel sought to facilitate their smuggling through northern Iraq. The analysis presents the two histories—assistance to Kurdish forces and efforts related to the movement of Jews—as overlapping in a politically sensitive period.[2]

The same INSS analysis identifies the presence of a large Jewish community originating in Kurdistan, Israel’s history of support for Kurds, and shared narratives as factors contributing to empathy between Israelis and Kurds. It describes a 150,000-strong Jewish community that emigrated from Kurdistan but does not specify the date or route of that migration. The estimate is therefore distinct in framing from accounts that count Kurdish Jews currently living in Israel.[2]

The scholarly article links later episodes to the development of these relations, including the aftermath of the 1988 Halabja massacre, the 1991 U.S.-led coalition operation against Iraq, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It says that perceived common experiences, solidarity, mutual strategic interests, humanitarian concerns, and economic considerations reinforced ties. After the Arab Spring, the campaign against Islamic State, and the 2017 referendum on Kurdish independence in northern Iraq, the article suggests that relations involving Israel may have extended to Kurdish communities in Syrian and Iranian Kurdistan.[6]

That article also characterizes Israel as the only state to publicly support an independent Kurdish state. This politically sensitive statement is the article’s own characterization; the material summarized here does not independently establish its date or scope. The wider history of Israel–Kurdish relations should likewise be distinguished from the history of Jewish Israelis of Kurdish origin: shared identity and family or cultural connections do not make the two subjects identical.[6][7]

Personal and cultural links have continued through visits, festivals, and efforts to reconnect with ancestral communities. A 2017 analysis says some Kurdish Jews in Israel have visited Iraqi Kurdistan for historical, cultural, and business reasons.[18] A World Jewish Congress report quoted researcher Zach Huff saying that second- and third-generation people still longed to connect with their roots in Kurdistan. These accounts describe continuing interest rather than a single organized pattern of return or travel.[3]

There is no single population figure in the available sources that can be treated as a definitive count of Kurdish Jews in Israel. Published estimates include about 100,000 and around 200,000.[4][18] Other sources describe a 150,000-strong community that emigrated from Kurdistan or about 200,000 “Kurds living in Israel,” which may not represent the same population or measure.[2][3] Additional reports have offered 100,000–150,000 and approximately 300,000.[17][19] The sources do not provide common definitions, dates, or methods that would make the estimates directly comparable.

A particularly narrow figure appears in an Encyclopedia.com entry reporting that 2,000–3,000 people of Kurdish extraction were included among Jews registered as being of Iraqi origin in 2002. The entry does not explain how that category was recorded or reconcile it with broader community estimates. Given the differences in definitions and registration practices, the number should not be presented as a census of all Israelis of Kurdish Jewish background.[13]

Some accounts also give differing dates or totals for earlier settlement and mass migration. References date arrivals to 1812 and describe temporary lodgings in Jerusalem around 1895; these may refer to distinct phases, but the accounts do not settle the discrepancy.[11][12] Estimates of the pre-migration Jewish population in Kurdistan include about 25,000 and a range of 20,000–30,000.[4][5] Overall Iraqi migration totals of approximately 110,000 and 125,000 must not be mistaken for Kurdish subgroup counts.[1][14]

A separate historiographical dispute concerns claims that terrorist attacks in Baghdad in 1950–1951 were an Israeli provocation intended to prompt Jewish emigration. The academic abstract says archival-based historical studies refute that explanation, while noting that it continues to have supporters. It describes the mass migration as surprising to the governments of Iraq, Israel, and Britain, as well as to Iraqi Jews themselves. This dispute concerns explanations of the broader Iraqi Jewish exodus, not a Kurdish-specific account of migration.[14]