Arabic has been the main language of communication for Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa for over 1,000 years, and was the first language of scholars such as Maimonides and Saadia Gaon. Just like Arabic as a whole, Judeo-Arabic has many variants and dialects. What makes Jewish Arabic distinct from other varieties of Arabic? How has Judeo-Arabic historically been used, and what is its status today? Join Dr. Assaf Bar-Moshe to learn about the origins and development of Judeo-Arabic through the lens of the Jewish Arabic dialect of Baghdad.

Dr. Assaf Bar-Moshe is a researcher and teacher of Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic. He is the author of The Arabic Dialect of the Jews of Baghdad: Phonology, Morphology, and Texts (2019).