Arab Jews

Arab Jews (Arabic: اليهود العرب al-Yahūd al-ʿArab; Hebrew: יהודים ערבים Yehudim `Aravim) is a term for Jews living in or originating from the Arab world. Many left or were expelled from Arab countries in the decades following the founding of Israel in 1948, and took up residence in Israel, Western Europe, the United States and Latin America. The term is controversial and politically contested in the diaspora and Israel, where the term "Mizrahi Jews" was adopted by the early state instead. However, a minority of anti-Zionist Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin actively elect to call themselves "Arab Jews". However, many Jews living in Arab lands have historically not identified themselves as Arabs or Arab Jews, and many would take offense at being labeled as such. Jews living under Muslim rule were both viewed as, and understood themselves to be, a distinct group.

Jews living in Arab-majority countries historically mostly used various Judeo-Arabic dialects as their primary community language, with Hebrew used for liturgical and cultural purposes (literature, philosophy, poetry, etc.). Many aspects of their culture (music, clothes, food, architecture of synagogues and houses, etc.) have commonality with local non-Jewish Arab populations, while also reflecting a distinct diasporic Jewish identity (Cuisine, languages etc.) They usually follow Sephardi Jewish liturgy, and are (counting their descendants) by far the largest portion of Mizrahi Jews.

Though Golda Meir, in an interview as late as 1972 with Oriana Fallaci, referred to Jews from Arab countries as "Arab Jews", the use of the term is controversial, as the vast majority of Jews with origins in Arab-majority countries do not identify as Arabs, and most Jews who lived amongst Arabs did not call themselves "Arab Jews" or view themselves as such. A closely related, but older term denoting Arabic-speaking Jews is Musta'arabi Jews.