Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and other Jewish ethnic divisions.
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, pronounced [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנָז, Yehudei Ashkenaz, "the Jews of Ashkenaz"), are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland valley (in the west of Germany) and northern France. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for the region which in modern times encompasses the country of Germany and German-speaking borderland areas. Ashkenaz is also a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews."
Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a Germanic Jewish language that had since medieval times been the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. To a much lesser extent, the Judaeo-French language Zarphatic and the Slavic-based Knaanic (Judaeo-Czech) were also spoken. The Ashkenazi Jews developed a distinct culture and liturgy; influenced, to varying degrees, by interaction with surrounding peoples of Central and Eastern Europe.
Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3 percent of the world's Jewish population, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their peak) 92 percent of the world's Jews in 1931 and today make up approximately 80 percent of Jews worldwide.[4] Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashkenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular. This is especially true in the United States, where most out of the 5.3 million American Jewish population[5] – is Ashkenazi, representing the world's single largest concentration of Ashkenazim.
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ScienceBlogs
One group of whites, Ashkenazi Jews , exhibit a whole lot of illnesses which are specific to that group. Labeling Jews as whites and using studies which used ...
Kyung Fan
Sun, 31 May 2009 12:52:07 GM
Ashkenazi Jews share a history rich in eastern European traditions and a strong sense of community. But they also share an increased incidence of Jewish genetic disorders (JGD) such as Gaucher, Tay-Sachs, familial dysautonomia, ...
