Kurdish Jews
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ~200,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Israel
|
200,000 |
 Kurdistan
|
400-730 families |
| Languages | |
| Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects (particularly Judeo-Aramaic), Kurdish (mainly Kurmanji dialects), Mizrahi Hebrew (liturgical use) and some Azeri (in Iran). | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Assyrians, Mandeans | |
Jews of Kurdistan (Hebrew: יהודי כורדיסטן, Yehudei Kurdistan, lit. Jews of Kurdistan; Aramaic: אנשא דידן, Nashi Didan, lit. our people; Kurdish: Kurdên cihû) are the ancient Eastern Jewish communities, inhabiting the region known as Kurdistan in northern Mesopotamia, roughly covering parts of northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey. Their clothing and culture is similar to neighbouring Kurdish Muslims. Until their immigration to Israel in the 1940s and early 1950s, the Jews of Kurdistan lived as closed ethnic communities. The Jews of Kurdistan largely spoke Aramaic and Kurdish dialects, in particular the Kurmanji dialect in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Today, the vast majority of Kurdistan's Jews live in Israel.
Tradition holds that Israelites of the tribe of Benjamin first arrived in the area of modern Kurdistan after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel during the 8th century BC; they were subsequently relocated to the Assyrian capital. During the first century BC, the royal house of Adiabene - which, according to Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, was ethnically Assyrian and whose capital was Arbil (Aramaic: Arbala; Kurdish: Hewlêr) - was converted to Judaism. King Monobazes, his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates are recorded as the first proselytes.
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Wikipedia