North African Sephardim

North African Sephardim are a distinct sub-group of Sephardi Jews, who descend from exiled Iberic Jewish families of the late 15th century and North African Maghrebi Jewish communities that had settled mostly in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Several Iberic jewish families also emigrated back to the Iberian Peninsula to form the core of the jewish community of Gilbraltar.

Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, most North African Sephardim have since relocated to either France or Israel.

There are many Jewish communities in the North of Africa including the communities of the Maghreb, Egypt, and the Horn of Africa. However, it is generally agreed today that North African Sephardic communities include those of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya due to their historical ties with Spain and the greater Iberic peninsula.

By the end of the Reconquista in 1492, 100,000 jews converted and 175,000 left in exile as they were forced to either leave or convert under the Spanish inquisition. The expulsions from Spain and Portugal were echoed in Sicily and many Italian states during the sixteenth century. Sicily's Jews suffered expulsion in the summer and autumn of 1492. Naples in turn expelled her Jews in 1497. Sephardi Jews faced great obstacles as France refused Jewish immigrants and the nearest refuge in North Africa was barred to Jews: the Spanish occupied the ports of Algeria and Tunisia, the Portuguese occupied northern Morocco. Furthermore, the independent Sheikhs of the coastal regions refused to grant access to the interior. The Sephardim who reached Morocco were the most fortunate of the exiles to North Africa. The King of Fez, Mulai Muhammed esh-Sheikh, had agreed to let them settle outside the city walls attracting 20,000 refugees alone. As they arrived local Maghrebi Jews welcomed them, paid their ransoms and supplied them with food and clothing despite the cholera Sephardi Jews came with. Even so life was harsh for Sephardi Jews in North Africa. As Judah Hayyat, a refugee intellectual recalled:

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