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Kurdish Jews
Yitzhak Mordechai •Asenath Barzani
Total population
approx. 160,000
Regions with significant populations
Israel 150,000 [1][2][3] Iraqi Kurdistan 400 - 1000 Est.  United States unknown
Languages
As in their countries of residence, plus Mizrahi Hebrew (liturgical use) and traditional Kurdish and Aramaic dialects.
Religions
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Other Jewish groups (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, etc.) Kurds

Kurdish Jews or Jews of Kurdistan (Hebrew: יהדות כורדיסתאן‎; Kurdish: Kurdên cû) are the ancient Jewish communities inhabiting the region known as Kurdistan, roughly covering parts of Iran, northern Iraq, Armenia, Syria and eastern Turkey. Their clothing and culture is similar to neighbouring Muslim Kurds. Until their immigration to Israel in the 1940s and early 1950s, the Jews of Kurdistan lived as a closed ethnic community.

There is some evidence of very old bonds between Jews and Kurds. Tradition holds that Jews first arrived in the area of modern Kurdistan after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel during the 8th century BCE; they were subsequently relocated to the Assyrian capital.^[4] During the first century BC, the royal house of Adiabene, whose capital was Arbil (Aramaic: Arbala; Kurdish: Hewlêr), was converted to Judaism along with a considerable number of its Kurdish citizens.^[5] King Monobazes, his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates are recorded as the first proselytes.^[6]

Rabbi Asenath Barzani, who lived in Mosul (now in present-day Iraq) from 1590 to 1670, was a Kabbalist and among the very first Kurdish women to become a rabbi. She was the daughter of the illustrious Rabbi Samuel Barzani. (Until the modern era, very few women were given the title "Rabbi", unless their wisdom and learning were so exceptional.^[7] Folklore states that she saved the Amadiyah synagogue (in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan) from being burnt down by whispering God's secret name.^{[citation needed]}

Among the most important Jewish shrines in Kurdistan are the tombs of Biblical prophets, such as that of Nahum in Alikush, Jonah in Nabi Yunis (ancient Nineveh), and Daniel in Kirkuk. There are also several caves supposedly visited by Elijah. All are venerated by Jews today.^[8]

• Jewish ethnic divisions
• Mizrahi Jews
• Iraqi Jews
• Kurdish Christians
• Kurds

• Asenath, Barzani, "Asenath's Petition", First published in Hebrew by Jacob Mann, ed., in Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, vol.1, Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati, 1931. Translation by Peter Cole.
• Yona Sabar, The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
• Mahir Ünsal Eriş, Kürt Yahudileri - Din, Dil, Tarih , (Kurdish Jews) In Turkish, Kalan Publishing, Ankara, 2006
• Hasan-Rokem, G. , Hess, T. and Kaufman, S., Defiant Muse: Hebrew Feminist Poems from Antiquity: A Bilingual Anthology, Publisher: Feminist Press, 1999, ISBN 1-55861-223-8. (see page 65, 16th century/Kurdistan and Asenath's Petition)
• Berkovic, S., Straight Talk: My Dilemma as an Orthodox Jewish Woman, Ktav Publishing House, 1999, ISBN 0-88125-661-7.
• Rabbi Asenath Barzani in Jewish Storytelling Newsletter, Vol.15, No.3, Summer 2000
• Kurdish Jewry (יהדות כורדיסתאן) An Israeli site on Kurdish Jewry. (Hebrew)
• The Jews of Kurdistan Yale Israel Journal, No. 6 (Spr. 2005).
• Hadassah Magazine, Nov. 2003
• Towards a Sephardic Jewish Renaissance
• Judaism in Encycopaedia Kurdistanica
• Schwartz, Howard. The Day the Rabbi Disappeared. Jewish Holiday Tales of Magic. Illustrated by Monique Passicot. Viking, 2000. ISBN 0-67-088733-1. $15.99. 80 pp.
• Kurdish Jews; who are they? (Swedish)