Mizrahim

Jews from Islamic countries. Mizrahim means "the easterners" in Hebrew. It is a term used in modern Israel to denote Jews whose origins extend back to North African, Middle Eastern, and West or South Asian Jewish communities. Some of these communities were quite ancient, especially those in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Yemen. Most of these communities moved to Israel after its creation in 1948. The term Mizrahim has started to replace "Sephardim," which for a long time was loosely used to denote all Jews who were not European ("Ashkenazim"), but which in a strict sense only refers to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. See also Sephardim and the encyclopedia entry Adot Ha-Mizrah.