Today, Jews constitute only tiny communities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, but the region has a rich and varied Jewish past that is now preserved in an extensive reservoir of material culture. Numerous synagogues, cemeteries, ritual objects and other Judaica, and writings are dispersed across Arab and Islamic countries.

In recent issues, JQR has run forums dedicated to the state of Jewish studies seen through a regional lens, each with a unique organizing framework: see, for example, those on Eastern Europe (JQR 112.2) and Latin America (JQR 111.4).