Maghrebi Jews
Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan Jews
North Africa has been home to Jews for thousands of years. Jews lived in North Africa before the Christian age, and certainly before the Moslem age. When Israel was sacked by the Romans, many Jews fled to North Africa. Jewish communities flourished in Libya, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco until the foundation of the state of Israel.
When North Africa became predominantly Moslem, life became more difficult for the Jewish population. Periodically, persecution of the Jews led to forced conversions and conversions of choice.
The Jewish communities in North Africa were complicated. There were Arab and Berber Jews living in North Africa when the Jews were expelled from Spain. Many Spanish Jews fled to North Africa and called it home for 500 years. In the colonial age, Northern European Jews moved to North Africa to open businesses in the thriving colonies.
In this sense, the term North African Jew is not terribly valid. Because the Arab, Berber, Spanish, and colonial French Jewish communities were quite separate and did not mix all that much. So, if you think you have North African Jewish ancestry, the question would become, which kind?
Fairly recently a case of Hidden Jewish Ancestry was in the press. George Allen was running for Governor of Virginia when he discovered his mother and all of her family were Jews from Tunisia. She and Allen's father decided to never tell their children of her Jewish heritage. And they never did. Until reporters scrutinized the family, and like Madeleine Albright, George Allen found out late in life he was a North African Jew.
From the early days of Moslem rule in North Africa, through the liberation of North African countries from European rule, Jews were forced to convert to save their lives. Below you will find a very interesting paper written by Janice Levi on the subject of conversion in North Africa.