Kurdish Jews lived for centuries in the mountains and towns of Kurdistan, a region now divided among Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Unlike almost every other Jewish community, they spoke Aramaic, the language of the Talmud, as their everyday tongue. Nearly all of them moved to Israel in the early 1950s, and Kurdish Jews and their descendants in Israel now number close to 200,000. They are counted among the Mizrahi communities. See also Iraqi Jews and Iranian Jews.
Origins
Kurdish Jews hold that they descend from the Israelites exiled by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE to “Halah, Habor and the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6), lands that lie in and around Kurdistan; that tradition cannot be proven. History records that in the 1st century CE, Queen Helena of Adiabene, whose capital was Arbela, today’s Erbil, converted to Judaism with her son, according to the historian Josephus.
For most of their history Kurdish Jews lived in small communities in towns such as Zakho, Amadiya, Aqra, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq, and Urmia and Sanandaj in Iran. Many were craftsmen, weavers, traders and farmers, and their communities depended on the protection of local Kurdish chieftains.
Learning and leadership
Kurdistan’s Jewish communities were remote but not cut off from learning. Rabbi Samuel Barzani founded a yeshiva in Mosul, and after the death of her husband, Rabbi Jacob Mizrahi, his daughter Asenath Barzani (1590–1670) became its head, teaching Torah and Talmud. She is regarded as the first recorded woman rabbinical scholar in Jewish history. Kurdish Jews also venerated the tomb of the prophet Nahum in the town of Alqosh, for whose restoration the United States pledged $500,000 in 2019.
Modern era and departure
- Before 1948. Some Kurdish Jewish families had already settled in Jerusalem, among them the family of Moshe Barazani in the late 1920s.
- 1950–1951. Most Kurdish Jews in Iraq left with the rest of Iraqi Jewry in the airlifts of 1950–1951; see Iraqi Jews. Almost all the Jews of Iranian Kurdistan moved to Israel in the same years.
- In Israel. Kurdish Jews founded more than 30 agricultural villages, and about half of the community lives in Jerusalem.
Religious life
Kurdish Jews prayed in a Sephardi-influenced rite and kept their own customs and melodies. Their traditional spring festival, Seharane, a celebration with outdoor gatherings and feasting held after Passover, was revived in Israel in the 1970s and is now celebrated during the intermediate days of Sukkot, so that it does not clash with the Moroccan Mimouna.
Language, music and food
Kurdish Jews spoke Jewish Neo-Aramaic, in dialects that differed from town to town: the Zakho dialect in northern Iraq, the Barzani dialect near Aqra, and others around Erbil and in Iranian Kurdistan. Most first-language speakers now live in Israel, and the dialects are giving way to Hebrew. The linguist Yona Sabar, born in Zakho, recorded the community’s folk literature and compiled a Jewish Neo-Aramaic dictionary. Kurdish Jewish cooking is known for kubbeh, dumplings served in soup. See our Sephardic recipes.
The community today
No organized Jewish community remains in Kurdistan. In Israel, Kurdish Jews, numbering close to 200,000 with their descendants, keep their heritage alive through associations, the Seharane festival and the study of their Aramaic dialects.
Notable people
- Asenath Barzani 1590–1670 · Kurdistan Head of a yeshiva and poet; the first recorded woman rabbinical scholar.
- Moshe Barazani 1926–1947 · Baghdad Lehi fighter of Kurdish Jewish family from Barzan; died in a British prison in Jerusalem awaiting execution.
- Yona Sabar b. 1938 · Zakho Linguist and UCLA professor; author of The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews and A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary.
- Yitzhak Mordechai b. 1944 · Aqra IDF major general; Israel’s minister of defense, 1996–1999.
Sources and further reading
- Erich Brauer, The Jews of Kurdistan, ed. Raphael Patai (Wayne State University Press, 1993).
- Yona Sabar, The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews: An Anthology (Yale University Press, 1982).
- Ariel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq (Algonquin, 2008).
- “Kurdish Jews”, “Seharane” and “Asenath Barzani”, Wikipedia.
Revised October 2026 to correct errors in an earlier version of this page.
