where in the middle east was judaism founded
Religion in the Middle East For over 2,000 years a large portion of world Jewry lived the Muslim world. They are colloquially knows as Mizrahi Jews. They include descendants of Babylonian Jews and Mountain Jews from modern Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Uzbekistan, the Caucasus, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Yemen. Since the 1950s because of growing antisemitism most of these Jews fled to Israel where they make up the majority of Israel's Jewish population and roughly a third of total world Jewry. While they no longer live among a Muslim majority, they continue to follow many customs with strong Muslim and Middle Eastern influences making them distinct from European Jewry. Today Judaism in the Middle East is mostly practiced in Israel. Israel’s population is 75.3% Jewish, with the remainder made up of Muslims (20.6%), Christians, Druze, Bahá'í and various other minorities (4.1%).[43] There are few other countries in the Middle East with significant Jewish populations, but the communities are small and scattered.