User:Danielmharris/The Evolution of North African Jewry in the 20th Century

The 20th Century was a turning point for the Jewish populations across North African nations. About halfway through the 20th Century, around the time of the establishment of Israel, there were sizable Jewish populations in each North African nation. Morocco, the North African nation with the largest population both at the start of the 20th Century and today, had a Jewish population of ~275,000 at its peak around the time of the establishment of Israel. Today, the Jewish population of Morocco is estimated to be just over 2,000. As the vast majority of Moroccan Jews emigrated to Israel, the mass exodus of the Jewish population from Morocco began around the time of the establishment of Israel; very few Moroccan Jews immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.

In the mid 20th Century, the Arab World (in this case North Africa) began to undergo some vast internal changes. The notion of Pan-Arabism came about in the earlier years of the 20th Century, and the cultural, linguistic, and political influences of colonial powers (primarily France and Great Britain) began to die off. A sentiment of Arab unity that opposed any forms of colonialism arose quickly throughout the 20th Century. With this new sentiment across North Africa and the rest of the Arab World, Zionism became a heavily opposed movement, as many Arab leaders saw the movement as simply more Western colonialism, due to the vast majority of early Zionist settlers being European.