In the 20th century, some 900,000 Jews left [1], fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries. Of these, slightly less than two-thirds resided in North Africa, 15 to 20% in Iraq, about 10% in Egypt, and about 7% in Yemen. Turkey and Iran were also home to 200,000 Jews. An exodus of Iranian Jews occurred shortly after the 1979-1980 Islamic Revolution, but the majority of these migrations took place between 1948 and the early 1970s[2]. Of these Jews, approximately 650,000 settled in Israel. Emigrations from other North African nations peaked in the 1960s, whereas the departure from Egypt peaked in 1956 after the Suez Crisis. Due to an inflow of Jews from other Arab nations, Lebanon's Jewish population briefly grew before declining by the middle of the 1970s. By 1972, 600,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim nations had moved to Israel, while an additional 300,000 had moved to France, the US, and Canada. More than half of Israelis today are descended from Jews who came to Israel from other parts of the Middle East (known as Mizrahi Jews and Sephardic Jews)[3]. According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, there were 27,000 Jews living in Arab and Muslim nations in 2023[4], with 14,200 of them residing in Turkey and 9,100 in Iran.

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Many Jews lived in established communities that flourished culturally, religiously, and economically in Arab and Middle Eastern nations for hundreds or even thousands of years prior to the creation of the State of Israel. However, after the state was established and the Arab-Israeli conflict began, the situation for Jews in Arab nations became complicated and frequently dangerous, resulting in widespread exodus, expulsion, and community desertion.

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The majority of Jewish communities in the Arab countries were established in the first millennium. Certain villages were founded after Jewish merchants and immigrants arrived, while others were founded after exiles like the Babylonian exile. Jewish communities preserved their Jewish identity and way of life as protectors under a law that imposed fees, limitations, and prohibitions on them as Islam expanded throughout the Middle East in the seventh century. Islamic law states that the People of the Book ( Jews, Christians) are permitted to live as protected, or dhimmis[5], whose obligations and restrictions were outlined in the Pact of Omar[6], an old Islamic text. This status is an inferior legal status that imposes a number of restrictions on its members, but it also permits them to dwell in Islamic countries and does not prohibit them from practicing their religion. The status of Jews under Muslim rule was complex and subject to constant change across different periods, regions, and rulers[7]. While some rulers viewed the Jews as a productive factor that could help the government achieve its goals, there were rulers who violated the Treaty of Umar badly and persecuted the Jews with violence. 

During the Middle Ages, threats, robbery, property burning, stoning, beatings, and large-scale killings were all regular forms of persecution against Jews in Islamic nations. This occasionally resulted in hundreds of thousands of Jews dying. The Granada pogrom[8], the Fez massacre (1033)[9], and the Almohad persecution[10] are some of the biggest Jewish killings that occurred in Islamic nations throughout the Middle Ages.

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Someone who fulfills all of the following criteria is considered a Jewish refugee under the Law for the Protection of the Rights to Compensation of Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran[11] :

• An Israeli citizen, including if he was a resident of the Land of Israel before the establishment of the state

• He lived in Iran or one of the Arab nations, but he left for a variety of reasons, including being persecuted for being Jewish and being helpless against it.

• Property he possessed in his home country was left behind. 

Members of the group "Justice for Jews from Arab Countries" assert in a 2007 paper[12] that Jews who were forced to leave Arab nations due to persecution and human rights abuses throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s are entitled to refugee status.​