Was your family there before 1492, or did it arrive with those expelled from Spain? The keys to reading 5200 lineages.
The Toshavim ("residents") are the native Jews of the Maghreb, present in North Africa long before 1492 — often since Roman antiquity, or even earlier.
Distinct rite, liturgy and customs: local nusach, Judeo-Arabic or Judeo-Berber as the vernacular language.
The Megorashim ("expelled") are the Jews driven out of Spain in 1492 and then from Portugal in 1497, who settled in large numbers in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and the Ottoman Empire.
They brought with them Ladino, the Iberian Sephardic rite, a prestigious rabbinic erudition (Abravanel, the Abulafia family…) and specific takkanot — notably the famous Takkanot of Castile (or of Fez, 1494) governing marriage, inheritance and dowry.
For centuries, in cities such as Fez, Tetouan, Salé or Algiers, the two communities coexisted without merging — separate synagogues, distinct rabbinic courts, rare intermarriages. The megorashim, more numerous and culturally dominant, often ended up imposing their rite and their halakha, but the toshavim preserved traditions that can still be found today in certain Moroccan piyutim and minhagim.
This distinction is precious for the Guardians of the Memory of the People of the Book: it bears directly on the manuscript transmission — responsa, takkanot, regional siddurim — that the platform strives to document. Each recorded lineage carries, where relevant, the T (Toshavim) or M (Megorashim) marker in the lineage directories.
Beyond the Toshavim / Megorashim polarity, Zakhor classifies lineages into 14 great historical and geographical families.
These categories reflect the geographical, historical and ritual diversity of the Jewish people. Each corresponds to a distinct basin of civilization, with its own liturgical, legal and cultural traditions.
| Category | No. | Category | No. | Category | No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maghrebi | 972 | Italian | 1212 | English | 78 |
| Ashkenazi | 1649 | Hasidic | 67 | French | 81 |
| Sephardic | 324 | Yemenite | 63 | Alsatian | 49 |
This classification reflects the diversity of Jewish communities throughout the world. A single family may sometimes belong to several categories depending on its branches and periods.
| Biblical |
| 97 |
| Ottoman |
| 66 |
| German |
| 72 |
| Mizrahi | 197 | Priestly | 58 |
Lineages originating in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya). These families, present since antiquity and reinforced by the arrival of those expelled from Spain in 1492, developed a distinct halakhic and liturgical tradition, marked by the Maghrebi rite and a rich Judeo-Arabic culture.
Lineages of Central and Eastern Europe (Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Hungary). Heirs to the tradition of the Rhenish Rishonim, these families forged Yiddish culture, the great yeshivot and the intellectual movements that shaped modern Judaism.
Lineages from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal) before and after the expulsions of 1492–1497. Dispersed toward the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, Italy and the Americas, they preserved Ladino and an exceptional legal and poetic tradition.
Lineages whose genealogical tradition goes back to the figures of the Hebrew Bible — patriarchs, tribes of Israel, the royal house of David. This category includes families claiming a documented tribal ancestry or one transmitted through ancient oral tradition.
Lineages of the Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Syria, Kurdistan, India). Heirs to the most ancient Babylonian communities of diasporic Judaism, they preserved liturgical and halakhic traditions dating back to the era of the Geonim and the Babylonian Talmud.
Lineages of the Italian peninsula, among the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. Present in Rome since the 2nd century BCE, they developed the Italian rite (minhag italki), distinct from the Ashkenazi and Sephardic rites, and played a major role in the Renaissance.
Dynastic lineages of the Hasidic movement founded by the Baal Shem Tov in the 18th century in Eastern Europe. Each dynasty bears the name of its founder's town and transmits the office of Rebbe from father to son, perpetuating a mystical and communal approach to Judaism.
Lineages of Yemen, one of the most isolated and ancient Jewish communities. Their tradition, preserved for more than two millennia, retains liturgical and linguistic practices considered the closest to the original biblical Hebrew.
Lineages established in the Ottoman Empire (Constantinople, Salonika, Izmir, the Balkans). After 1492, the Ottoman Empire welcomed in large numbers the Jews expelled from Spain, creating flourishing communities that became the intellectual and economic centers of Sephardic Judaism.
Cohanite and Levitical lineages, claiming a priestly ancestry going back to Aaron and the Levites. These families perpetuate specific ritual prerogatives (the priestly blessing, priority in the reading of the Torah) and often bear characteristic surnames (Cohen, Katz, Levi).
Lineages of the English Jewish community, dating from the return of the Jews to England under Cromwell (1656) after the expulsion of 1290. Blending Sephardim from Amsterdam and Ashkenazim from Central Europe, they formed a leading merchant, financial and intellectual elite in London, Manchester and Liverpool.
Jewish lineages of France, heirs to the medieval communities of the North (Champagne, Île-de-France) and the South (Provence, Comtat Venaissin). After the emancipation of 1791 and the Napoleonic consistorial reorganization, they form the foremost Judaism of Western Europe, enriched by the waves from North Africa since 1956.
Jewish lineages of Alsace and Lorraine, heirs to a continuous presence since the Middle Ages in the villages of the Bas-Rhin, the Haut-Rhin and the Moselle. Preserving a Western Yiddish (Judeo-Alsatian) and a minhag of their own, these families supplied emancipated France with much of its rabbinate and its Jewish bourgeoisie.
Jewish lineages of Germany, heirs to the medieval Rhenish communities (Speyer, Worms, Mainz) and then to the intellectual ferment of the Haskalah, the Wissenschaft des Judentums and the emancipation of the 19th century. Shattered by the Shoah, they scattered to Great Britain, the United States, France and Israel, where their descendants continued to shape science, philosophy, music and finance.
