Jewish Kurds: An Influential Voice in the Kurdish Cause

There are over 300,000 Jewish Kurds in Israel, but their influence matches that of three million or more Kurds in the diaspora.

Aram Rafaat | Exclusive to iKurd.net
Translated by iKurd.net from Kurdish Hawlati

In this international coalition of the U.S., Turkey, and Arab states against the Kurds in Rojava, everyone remained silent. The only support came from Israel, at all levels, even at the United Nations, where it spoke in favor of Rojava. But there is a truth that most Kurds are unaware of: it was not Israel itself that raised its voice for the Kurds. In reality, that brave voice belongs to the Kurds themselves, the Jewish Kurds.

Jewish Kurds in Israel are more than 300,000 people, but their influence equals that of three million Kurds in the diaspora, or even more. This is largely because the world’s governments that host the largest Kurdish populations, particularly Germany, Britain, and France, have remained silent. These countries, which claim to be friends and heirs of revolutionary and communal traditions, did not speak out.

It may be said that these countries took no position because their interests lie elsewhere, and that Israel’s position is also based on its own interests. On the contrary, Israel’s interest lies in remaining more silent and more neutral than everyone else.

What Israel has gained in Syria under the rule of the Golani [Sharaa] gangs is something that no Jew, dead or alive, ever dreamed of. Israel’s position is one of principle and values, but not the principles and values of the Jewish state, rather, the principles and values of Jewish Kurds.

Most Jewish Kurds live in Jerusalem. For three quarters of a century, they have been separated from the body of their motherland and the breath of the Zagros oak forests, but their spirit stays in Kurdistan, and they still dream of its freedom.

Such is the destiny of the Kurds: In the Motherland of Kurdistan, for every one of the glorious Kurdish Jews in Israel, there are many ‘grey Kurds’ who are the primary beneficiaries of all of Kurdistan’s wealth and resources. However, in a complete reversal of the glorious Kurdish Jews, who are in Jerusalem in body but in Kurdistan in spirit, our own folks are in Kurdistan in body, but in Jerusalem in spirit.

Thousands of Kurds flee the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria, after Syrian government–aligned Islamist militias attack the area and designate it a closed military zone, January 7, 2026. Photo: AFP

In my first television interview after the attack on Sheikh Maqsoud, I said: just as October 7 divided the Jewish world into a before and after, so too has our Kurdish world been divided into a before and after January 6, the first day of the attack on Sheikh Maqsoud.

In our new world after January 6, only Kurds are brothers to one another, including Jewish Kurds. Jewish Kurds are those wounded, displaced, and forgotten brothers with whom we must reconcile and to whom we must open our arms of brotherhood.

In our new world after January 6, only Kurds are brothers to one another, and this includes Kurdish Jews. Kurdish Jews are those wronged, displaced, and forgotten brothers with whom we must reconcile, and to whom we must open our arms in brotherhood.

The Kurdish flag was raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, by Israeli Jews, as a statement against the brutal attacks on the Kurdish people carried out by Syrian government Islamist groups in Rojava, January 22, 2026. Photo: X/via iKurd.net

Even though they have not yet been reconciled with, and our arms of brotherhood have not yet been opened to them, they act like unknown soldiers in Israeli synagogues, in government offices, and in the corridors of Israeli lobbying groups. They lose sleep, grab people by the collar, and demand support, speaking out, and protection for Rojava. They are unknown soldiers of a weary and careless nation outside of history.

Though severed from the motherland for three-quarters of a century, they continue to remind us, we who are slumbering outside of history, that blood does not turn into water, and that a brother from the same mother is the only one who remains a brother unconditionally.

This article was originally published in the Kurdish language in Hawlari Newspaper on January 25, 2026.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.