Mizrahi Jews
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt
There has been a Jewish presence in this part of the world for thousands of years. Jews lived in these regions long before Islam came into existence. Their history predates Islam, includes life under Islam, and life after most Jews immigrated.
As ever, if you suspect you have Jewish ancestry, and your family comes from one of these countries, the best way to start is to familiarize yourself with the history of the Jews from that part of the world. The cheapest and the easiest way to do this is to check out the topic in Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews
For the beginner, this story is a bit complicated. The Middle East is the home of the Jewish people. Thus, it only stands to reason there would be very old Jewish communities in places like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, etc. For thousands of years, these places did have thriving Jewish communities.
However, when Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Edict of Expulsion, in 1492, the worlds largest Jewish population was suddenly on the move. And they went east. They moved to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and beyond. So, there are "Arab" Jews in these lands and Sephardic Jews. Sometimes these communities kept to themselves, sometimes they mixed. But, if you are from one of these countries, there is a distinct possibility you have Sephardic heritage.
This is the reason so many of the books on the subject stick Mizrahi Jews and Sephardic Jews in the same book.
An excellent resource for Mizrahi Jews is Les Fleur de L'Orient. You can search names and find family trees.
https://www.farhi.org/genealogy/index.html
A Place to Start
www.JewishGen.com
If you have a list of last names you have collected from your family tree, and you suspect they are Jewish last names, or were once Jewish surnames, the place to look is www.jewishgen.com Once you are in that site, you can enter a last name into the general search, search bar, and all the records for people with that last name will come up.
The results will tend to be sorted by country. Using my family as an example, if you enter Winkler into the general search bar, the result was records for Winklers living in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, etc. Birth records, death records, marriage records, and sadly holocaust records. As I knew my Winklers lived in Germany, I clicked on the German file, and up came a list of Winklers that lived in Germany. I was able to find some Winklers on my family tree that were listed in records for Jews named Winkler who lived in Germany.
Looking at the results from a general search will immediately give you an idea where Jewish people with that last name lived. If you know your family came from Poland, the general search has a listing for say, Winklers in Poland, that file or files would be a good place to have a look. You may find an ancestor. Or you may find that there were quite a few Winklers in Poland, and you Winkler may very well have been a Jew named Winkler who lived in Poland. The general search is a great place to do fast name checking. Whatever you find, will begin to fill in some gaps in your story.
