Mizrahi Jews are the descendants of Jewish communities that lived in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia for centuries — in many cases predating the Arab conquest of those regions by a thousand years or more. Iraqi Jews trace their community to the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE. Iranian Jews have documented presence in Persia from the same period. Yemenite Jews maintained a community largely isolated from other Jewish populations for over two millennia. Moroccan, Syrian, Egyptian, and Libyan Jewish communities each developed distinct food traditions tied to their specific regional ingredient base and the surrounding food culture.

The establishment of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Arab-Israeli wars led to the mass exodus of Jewish communities from Arab countries — approximately 850,000 Jews left or were expelled from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco between 1948 and the early 1970s. This exodus brought distinct Mizrahi food traditions into contact with each other and with Ashkenazi food culture in Israel, producing both preservation and hybridization of these traditions.

Ma’amoul are shortbread cookies filled with dates, walnuts, or pistachios and shaped in carved wooden molds — made across Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian Jewish communities for Purim and Eid, reflecting the shared ingredient base across religious communities in the Levant. Jachnun is a Yemenite Jewish slow-cooked rolled pastry made from dough layered with butter or margarine, baked overnight for Shabbat morning — one of the most distinctly Yemenite Jewish preparations. Sfinj are Moroccan Jewish fried doughnuts made for Hanukkah, similar to other North African fried dough preparations. Malabi is a milk pudding set with cornstarch and topped with rose water syrup and pistachios, common across Iraqi and Iranian Jewish communities.

Halva — a dense sesame paste confection — appears across all Mizrahi communities in varying textures and flavors, and is also common in Turkish, Greek, and Arab food cultures, reflecting the shared ingredient base of the broader Middle Eastern pantry regardless of religious community.