What are the major Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish communities in North America?

Major hubs include the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn and Deal, NJ; the Persian Jewish communities of Great Neck and Los Angeles; the Bukharian Jewish community of Queens; Moroccan Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto; Cuban and other Sephardic communities in South Florida; and a historic Syrian Jewish community in Mexico City.

Why did many Cuban Jews settle in South Florida?

Many Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews who had settled in Cuba fled to South Florida after Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959, founding congregations such as the Cuban Hebrew Congregation (1961) and Temple Moses (1968).

Is Mexico City home to a Sephardic community?

Yes. Mexico City has one of the oldest Syrian Jewish communities in North America, split since 1938 into two networks: Maguen David, founded by families from Aleppo, and a separate community founded by families from Damascus.

Do these communities share common religious practices?

Broadly, yes. Most follow a Sephardic halachic framework rooted in the Shulchan Aruch, though specific customs, melodies, and foods vary by country of origin, whether Syrian, Persian, Moroccan, Bukharian, or Cuban Sephardic.

Are Sephardic and Mizrahi communities growing in North America?

Many of these communities have grown steadily since their founding waves of immigration, supported by strong birth rates, tight-knit extended families, and continued migration between established hubs such as Brooklyn, Deal, Great Neck, Los Angeles, Queens, Montreal, Toronto, and South Florida.

Sephardic & Mizrahi Communities Across North America

Quick answer: Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish communities are spread across North America in distinct regional clusters — Syrian Jews in Brooklyn and Deal, NJ; Persian Jews in Great Neck and Los Angeles; Bukharian Jews in Queens; Moroccan Jews in Montreal and Toronto; and Cuban and other Sephardic communities in South Florida, alongside a historic Syrian Jewish community in Mexico City. Each brought its own regional customs while sharing a broader Sephardic and Mizrahi religious framework.

Beyond the General Overview

“Sephardic and Mizrahi” is often used as a single umbrella term, but it describes dozens of distinct communities, each shaped by a different country of origin, migration story, and set of customs. Looking city by city gives a clearer picture of just how varied — and how vibrant — this part of North American Jewish life really is.

Brooklyn and the Jersey Shore: Syrian Jewish Life

The largest single Syrian Jewish community outside the Middle East is centered in Brooklyn’s Gravesend and Ocean Parkway neighborhoods, where families trace their roots to Aleppo and Damascus. Congregation Shaare Zion, founded in 1941, remains a central synagogue for the community. Since the 1960s and ’70s, many of these same families have built a second home base in Deal, New Jersey, and nearby Monmouth County towns like Elberon and Long Branch, where Sephardi Jews now make up the large majority of the year-round and summer Jewish population.

Great Neck and Los Angeles: Persian Jewish Communities

Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, tens of thousands of Persian Jews resettled in the United States, with two communities absorbing the largest share. Great Neck, New York, became a hub with more than ten synagogues serving a Persian Jewish population that forms a majority in parts of the village of Kings Point. In Los Angeles, an area around Beverly Hills and Westwood nicknamed “Tehrangeles” became home to an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Persian Jews, anchored by institutions like Nessah Synagogue, founded in 1980, and the Iranian American Jewish Federation.

Queens: The Bukharian Jewish Community

Forest Hills and Rego Park, Queens, form the center of the largest Bukharian Jewish community outside Israel and Central Asia. Bukharian Jews, originally from the historic Silk Road region spanning present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, began arriving in the 1970s and grew rapidly after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. The commercial and cultural heart of the community is 108th Street, nicknamed “Bukharian Broadway,” home to markets, restaurants, and the Beth Gavriel Bukharian Jewish Center.

Montreal and Toronto: Moroccan Jewish Canada

Canada’s Sephardic story is largely a Moroccan one. Montreal absorbed the majority of the more than 3,000 Moroccan Jews who immigrated to Canada between 1957 and 1966, and today the Communauté Sépharade Unifiée du Québec supports roughly eight synagogues, Jewish day schools, and a Sephardic yeshiva across the city. Toronto’s Moroccan Jewish community, organized around synagogues like Petah Tikva Anshe Castilla (founded 1958) and Tiferet Israel (founded 1965), remains active in the Bathurst-Wilson area, supported by the Sephardic Rabbinate of Ontario.

South Florida: Cuban and Other Sephardic Communities

South Florida’s Sephardic story is shaped heavily by the wave of Jewish refugees who fled Cuba after Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959 — many of them Sephardic Jews of Turkish and Syrian origin who had settled in Cuba a generation earlier. The Cuban Hebrew Congregation was founded in Miami in 1961, and the Sephardic Congregation of Florida, today known as Temple Moses, was established in 1968 by Cuban Sephardic refugees. Aventura and North Miami Beach have since grown into thriving hubs with Sephardic synagogues such as the Sephardic Jewish Center of NMB alongside kosher supermarkets and a full range of Ashkenazi and Sephardic communal life.

Seattle: A Ladino-Speaking Sephardic Enclave

Seattle holds one of North America’s oldest and most distinctive Sephardic stories, unrelated to the Middle Eastern and North African migrations that shaped most other communities on this list. Beginning in 1902, Sephardic Jews from the Ottoman port town of Marmara and, starting in 1904, from the island of Rhodes settled in Seattle, eventually making up roughly a third of the city’s Jewish population by World War I — an extraordinary share for an American city. The two groups were distinct enough in custom that they founded separate congregations: Sephardic Bikur Holim in 1914 for the Marmara community, and Ezra Bessaroth in 1917 for those from Rhodes, often called “Rhodeslis.” Both congregations remain active today, and Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language carried from medieval Spain through the Ottoman Empire, is still remembered and celebrated by community elders.

Mexico City: A Divided Syrian Heritage

Mexico City is home to one of the oldest and largest Syrian Jewish communities in North America, dating to early 20th-century migration from the Ottoman Empire. In 1938, the community split along its city of origin into two separate congregational networks: Maguen David, founded by families from Aleppo, and a separate community founded by families from Damascus. Both networks have grown into some of the largest Jewish communities in Mexico, each maintaining multiple synagogues, schools, and community centers that remain closely connected to Sephardic communities in the United States.

What Ties These Communities Together

Despite their different origins — Syria, Iran, Central Asia, Morocco, Cuba, and beyond — these communities share a broadly Sephardic halachic framework, a strong emphasis on extended family and communal celebration, and synagogues that often serve as the true center of neighborhood life. Many families also maintain ties across these hubs, whether through marriage, business, or simply visiting relatives in another city’s Sephardic enclave.

Whether you’re relocating for family, faith, or opportunity, HeimishMart’s Community Explorer can help you get oriented in any of these neighborhoods. Browse homes for sale or rentals near a specific community, check upcoming Jewish events to see what’s happening locally, or find job listings close to home. Community organizations and neighbors offering support can also be found through chessed listings, and anyone with a home, rental, or service to share can post it directly through Add a Listing.

By the HeimishMart Community Desk — HeimishMart is the community marketplace for Jewish homes, jobs, and local life across North America.