Realignment in Israel
In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used in ways that have nothing to do with its original meaning; it is often applied to all Jews of European background living in Israel, including sometimes for those whose ethnic background is actually Sephardic 1st row: Maimonides•Isaac Abrabanel•Baruch Spinoza•David Nieto•Daniel Mendoza•David Ricardo . Jews of any non-Ashkenazi background including Mizrahi, Yemenite, Kurdish and others who have no connection with the Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas. It is bordered on the southeast and east by the, have similarly come to be lumped together as Sephardic 1st row: Maimonides•Isaac Abrabanel•Baruch Spinoza•David Nieto•Daniel Mendoza•David Ricardo . Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, partly because of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi, and partly because many do not see such historic markers as relevant to their life experiences as Jews.
Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in halakhic Halakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions matters. In this respect, a religiously Ashkenazi Jew is an Israeli who is more likely to support certain religious interests in Israel, including certain political parties. These political parties result from the fact that a portion of the Israeli electorate votes for Jewish religious parties; although the electoral map changes from one election to another, there are generally several small parties associated with the interests of religious Ashkenazi Jews. The role of religious parties, including small religious parties which play important roles as coalition members, results in turn from Israel's composition as a complex society in which competing social, economic, and religious interests stand for election to the Knesset The Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem, a unicameral legislature with 120 seats.
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