Assyrian Jews



Assyrian Jews (יהודים אַשּׁוּרִים) first appeared in the territory of Assyria when the Israelites were exiled to Assyria in approximately 740 BCE. Jews have been continuously living alongside the Assyrian people in the territories of Assyria since the Assyrian exile.

History


Assyrian Jews are Aramaic-speaking Mizrahi Jewish communities native to the geographic region of Mesopotamia the Zagros Mountains, roughly covering parts of northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey. Assyrian Jews lived as closed ethnic communities until they were expelled from Arab and Muslim states from the 1940s–1950s onward. The community largely speaks Judeo-Aramaic. Many Assyrian Jews, especially the ones who hailed from larger cities of Iraq, went through a Sephardic Jewish blending during the 18th century.