The Mizrahim are the descendants of Jews who lived for thousands of years in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia in countries like Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco since the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE. Expelled from the Arab and Muslim world, the Mizrahim are now residents in Israel.

Although the United States is a “melting pot” of diverse peoples, we are not a group of separate tribes like the Middle East. By contrast, the Middle East is a region of competing tribes, jockeying for position and power, where relationships to the land are thousands of years old.