Editorials & Other Articles

It was actually under the rule of Mehmed V, that Jews were able to negotiate the ability to move to Palestine, the Ottoman sultan. Most of the Jews relocating directly into the region around Jerusalem at that time were Mizrahi, who were part of the diaspora in the immediate Middle Eastern region, primarily Syria, Iraq, Egypt, North Africa. Mizrahi are considered "indigenous," because they lived in the Middle East, as opposed to Sephardim, who lived in Southern Europe, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ashkenazi, the Eastern European Hassidic dynasties. Few Jews actually lived in Jerusalem or the area once known as Judea and Galilee, under Byzantine or Islamic empire rule.