Maghrebim

Ethnic group
group=Maghrebim


poptime= c.1,500,000
|region1 = flagcountry|Israel
pop1 = 1,000,000
region2 = flagcountry|
pop2 = 250,000
region3 = flagcountry|United States
pop3 = 90,000
region4 = flagcountry|Canada
pop4 = 30,000
region5 = flagcountry|Morocco
pop5 = 40,000
region6 = flagcountry|Tunisia
pop6 = 10,000
langs=Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic.
rels=Judaism
related=Jews
• Maghrebim • Mizrahi Jews
• Berber Jews
• Sephardi Jews

Maghrebim (hebrew|מַגּרֶבִּים or hebrew|מַאגרֶבִּים) are Jews who traditionally lived in the Arab-Berber Maghreb region of North Africa ("al-Maghrib", Arabic for "the west"), established Jewish communities long before the arrival of Jews expelled from Spain (see Alhambra decree), mainly in the Sherifian kingdom of Morocco.

The term "Maghrebim" is formed analogously to "Ashkenazim" and "Sephardim". The Sephardi population in Maghreb was urbanised and wealthier, so most Maghrebim chose to assimilate into the Sephardic Jewish community. Today most of Moroccan Jews consider themselves to be Sephardi.

"Cave-dwelling Jews" of southern Tripolitania, whose fate is uncertain after 1960, were probably an early and isolated offshoot of Maghrebim.

The relationship with the Sunni Muslim majority has suffered in recent years as Arab hostilities engendered by the Arab-Israeli conflict have worsened relations between Arabs and Jews throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

ee also

*History of the Jews of Bilad el-Sudan
*Jews and Judaism in Africa
*Jewish ethnic divisions
*Mizrahi Jews
*Berber Jews