Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews , also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים Standard Hebrew , Aškanazi,Aškanazim, Tiberian Hebrew , ʾAškănāzî, ʾAškănāzîm), are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of Germany , Poland , Austria , and Eastern Europe mostly established between the 10th and 19th centuries. In historical times and through the mid- 20th Century , Ashkenazi Jews usually spoke Yiddish or Slavic languages such as the (now extinct) Knaanic , and developed a distinct culture and liturgy influenced by their native countries. Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3% of the world's Jewish population, today Ashkenazi Jews account for approximately 80% of world Jewry.

Ethnic group The Jews in Central Europe (1881) Ashkenazi Jews , also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ( , , singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi] ; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנָז , Yehudei Ashkenaz , "the Jews of Ashkenaz"), are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany. Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews." Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe came to be called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany. (See Usage of the name for the term's etymology.) Ashkenaz is also a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations ( Genesis 10 ). Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Hungary , Poland , Belarus , Lithuania , Russia , Ukraine , Eastern Europe , and elsewhere between the 11th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish , a basically Germanic language with Hebrew influence (see Jewish language ). It had developed in medieval times as the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. The Jewish communities of three cities along the Rhine: Speyer , Worms and Mainz , created the SHUM league (SHUM after the first Hebrew letters of Spira, Warmatia and Magentza). The SHUM-cities are considered the cradle of the distinct Ashkenazi culture and liturgy . Although in the 11th century, they comprised only 3 percent of the world's Jewish population , at their peak in 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for 92 percent of the world's Jews. Today they make up approximately 80 percent of Jews worldwide. 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 of the 5.3 million American Jewish population is Ashkenazi, representing the world's single largest concentration of Ashkenazim. "Ashkenazi Jews" , Hebrew University of Jerusalem website. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs .

Jewish ethnic group Ethnic group The Jews in Central Europe (1881) Ashkenazi Jews ( / ˌ æ ʃ -, ɑː ʃ k ə ˈ n ɑː z i / ASH -, AHSH -kə- NAH -zee ), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or, by using the Hebrew plural suffix -im, Ashkenazim ( / ˌ æ ʃ -, ɑː ʃ k ə ˈ n ɑː z ɪ m / ASH -, AHSH -kə- NAH -zim ; , Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singular: , Modern Hebrew: ; also , Y'hudey Ashkenaz ), are a Jewish diaspora population who coalesced in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium . The traditional diaspora language of Ashkenazi Jews is Yiddish (a Germanic language with elements of Hebrew , Aramaic and Slavic languages ), developed after they had moved into northern Europe: beginning with Germany and France in the Middle Ages. Throughout their time in Europe, Ashkenazim have made many important contributions to its philosophy, scholarship, literature, art, music and science. The term "Ashkenazi" refers to Jewish settlers who established communities along the Rhine river in Western Germany and in Northern France dating to the Middle Ages. Once there, they adapted traditions carried from Babylon, the Holy Land , and the Western Mediterranean to their new environment. The Ashkenazi religious rite developed in cities such as Mainz , Worms , and Troyes . The eminent French Rishon rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki ( Rashi ) would have a significant influence on the Jewish religion. In the late Middle Ages , due to religious persecution, the majority of the Ashkenazi population shifted steadily eastward, moving out of the Holy Roman Empire into the areas later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , comprising parts of present-day Belarus , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Moldova , Poland , Russia , Slovakia and Ukraine . In the course of the late 18th and 19th centuries, those Jews who remained in or returned to the German lands generated a cultural reorientation; under the influence of the Haskalah and the struggle for emancipation, as well as the intellectual and cultural ferment in urban centers, they gradually abandoned the use of Yiddish and adopted German , while developing new forms of Jewish religious life and cultural identity. The Holocaust of the Second World War decimated the Ashkenazim, affecting almost every Jewish family. It is estimated that in the 11th century Ashkenazi Jews composed three percent of the world's total Jewish population , while an estimate made in 1930 (near the population's peak) had them as 92 percent of the world's Jews. Immediately prior to the Holocaust, the number of Jews in the world stood at approximately 16.7 million. Statistical figures vary for the contemporary demography of Ashkenazi Jews, ranging from 10 million to 11.2 million. Sergio Della Pergola , in a rough calculation of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews , implies that Ashkenazi Jews make up 65–70% of Jews worldwide. Other estimates place Ashkenazi Jews as making up about 75% of Jews worldwide. Genetic studies on Ashkenazim —researching both their paternal and maternal lineages, as well as autosomal DNA—point to a predominantly Levantine ancestry with varying degrees of European (mainly Southern European) admixture. These studies have arrived at diverging conclusions regarding both the degree and the sources of their European admixture, with some focusing on the extent of the Southern European genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi maternal lineages, which is in contrast to the predominant Middle Eastern genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi paternal lineages. Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Implications for cancer control prioritization efforts" . Israel Medical Association Journal . 3 (5): 341– 46. Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2009, CBS . The New York Times . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 107 (37): 16222– 27. "The genetic legacy of religious diversity and intolerance: paternal lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula" . "Sequencing an Ashkenazi reference panel supports population-targeted personal genomics and illuminates Jewish and European origins" . Ashkenaz, based on Josephus . AJ . 1.6.1. , Perseus Project AJ1.6.1 , . and his explanation of Genesis 10:3 with invalid book , is considered to be the progenitor of the ancient Gauls (the people of Gallia, meaning, mainly the people from modern France , Belgium and the Alpine region) and the ancient Franks (of, both, France and Germany ). These places, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 1:9 [10a], were also called simply by the diocese "Germamia". Germania , Germani , Germanica have all been used to refer to the group of peoples comprising the Germanic tribes, which include such peoples as Goths, whether Ostrogoths or Visigoths, Vandals and Franks, Burgundians, Alans, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi and Alamanni. The entire region east of the Rhine river was known by the Romans as "Germania" (Germany). Nationalism and economic development in modern Eurasia . In general the Ashkenazim originally came out of the Holy Roman Empire, speaking a version of German that incorporates Hebrew and Slavic words, Yiddish. Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life . "Encouraged to move out of the Holy Roman Empire as persecution of their communities intensified during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Ashkenazi community increasingly gravitated toward Poland." Harshav, Benjamin (1999). The Meaning of Yiddish . "From the fourteenth and certainly by the sixteenth century, the center of European Jewry had shifted to Poland, then ... comprising the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (including today's Byelorussia), Crown Poland, Galicia, the Ukraine and stretching, at times, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from the approaches to Berlin to a short distance from Moscow." Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel, et al (2007). Demographie – Demokratie – Geschichte: Deutschland und Israel (in German). Jewish Virtual Library . , based on American Jewish Year Book . " "Sephardic and Oriental" Jews in Israel and Countries: Migration, Social Change, and Identification" . Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews . Della Pergola does not analyze or mention the Ashkenazi statistics, but the figure is implied by his rough estimate that in 2000, Oriental and Sephardi Jews constituted 26% of the population of world Jewry. Focus on Genetic Screening Research , ed. PMID 24901650 . : CS1 maint: article number as page number ( link ) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI ( link )

Their traditional diaspora language is Yiddish (a West Germanic language with Jewish and Slavic linguistic elements, which uses the Hebrew alphabet ), which developed during the Middle Ages after they had moved from Germany and France into Northern Europe and Eastern Europe. Throughout their numerous centuries living in Europe, Ashkenazim have made many important contributions to its philosophy , scholarship, literature , art , music , and science . The rabbinical term Ashkenazi refers to diaspora Jews who established communities along the Rhine in western Germany and northern France during the Middle Ages. Upon their arrival, they adapted traditions carried over from the Holy Land , Babylonia , and the western Mediterranean to their new European environment. The Ashkenazi religious rite developed in cities such as Mainz , Worms , and Troyes . The eminent rishon from medieval France , Rashi , has had a significant influence on the interpretations of Judaism by Ashkenazim. In the late Middle Ages, due to widespread persecution , the majority of the Ashkenazi population steadily shifted eastward, moving out of the Holy Roman Empire into the areas that later became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ; these areas today comprise parts of present-day Belarus , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Moldova , Poland , Russia , Slovakia , and Ukraine . Over the course of the late-18th and 19th centuries, those Jews who remained in or returned to historical German lands generated a cultural reorientation; under the influence of the Haskalah and the struggle for emancipation as well as the intellectual and cultural ferment in urban centres, they gradually abandoned the use of Yiddish and adopted German while developing new forms of Jewish religious life and cultural identity . It is estimated that in the 11th century, Ashkenazim comprised 3 percent of the global Jewish population , while an estimate made in 1930 (near the population's peak) listed them as comprising 92 percent of the world's Jewish population. However, the Ashkenazi population was largely destroyed as a result of the Holocaust that was carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II , which affected almost every Jewish European family. Immediately prior to the Holocaust, the worldwide Jewish population stood at approximately 16.7 million people. Statistical figures vary for the contemporary demography of Ashkenazi Jews, ranging from 10 million to 11.2 million. Israeli demographer and statistician Sergio D. Pergola , in a rough calculation of Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews , implies that Ashkenazi Jews made up 65–70 percent of Jews worldwide in 2000. Other estimates place the Ashkenazim as comprising upwards of 75 percent of the global Jewish population. Genetic studies on Ashkenazi Jews —researching both their paternal and maternal lineages as well as autosomal DNA —indicate that they are of mixed Levantine and European (mainly southern European) ancestry. These studies have arrived at diverging conclusions regarding both the degree and the sources of their European admixture , with some focusing on the extent of the European genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi maternal lineages, which is in contrast to the predominant Middle Eastern genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi paternal lineages. Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Implications for cancer control prioritization efforts" . Israel Medical Association Journal . 3 (5): 341– 46. Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2009, CBS . The New York Times . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 107 (37): 16222– 27. "The genetic legacy of religious diversity and intolerance: paternal lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula" . "Sequencing an Ashkenazi reference panel supports population-targeted personal genomics and illuminates Jewish and European origins" . Ashkenaz, based on Josephus . AJ . 1.6.1. , Perseus Project AJ1.6.1 , . and his explanation of Genesis 10:3 , is considered to be the progenitor of the ancient Gauls (the people of Gallia, meaning, mainly the people from modern France, Belgium, and the Alpine region) and the ancient Franks (of, both, France, and Germany). These places, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 1:9 [10a], were also called simply by the diocese "Germamia". Germania , Germani , Germanica have all been used to refer to the group of peoples comprising the Germanic tribes, which include such peoples as Goths, whether Ostrogoths or Visigoths, Vandals and Franks, Burgundians, Alans, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi and Alamanni. The entire region east of the Rhine river was known by the Romans as "Germania" (Germany). Nationalism and economic development in modern Eurasia . In general the Ashkenazi originally came out of the Holy Roman Empire, speaking a version of German that incorporates Hebrew and Slavic words, Yiddish. Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life . Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture . The Oxford History of Modern Europe . In Berenbaum, Michael ; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). "Encouraged to move out of the Holy Roman Empire as persecution of their communities intensified during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Ashkenazi community increasingly gravitated toward Poland." Harshav, Benjamin (1999). The Meaning of Yiddish . "From the fourteenth and certainly by the sixteenth century, the center of European Jewry had shifted to Poland, then ... comprising the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (including today's Byelorussia), Crown Poland, Galicia, the Ukraine and stretching, at times, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from the approaches to Berlin to a short distance from Moscow." Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel; et al. In Berenbaum, Michael ; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). The cultural and intellectual reorientation of the Jewish minority was closely linked with its struggle for equal rights and social acceptance. While earlier generations had used solely the Yiddish and Hebrew languages among themselves, ... the use of Yiddish was now gradually abandoned, and Hebrew was by and large reduced to liturgical usage. Demographie – Demokratie – Geschichte: Deutschland und Israel (in German). Contemporary Jewries: Convergence and Divergence . " "Sephardic and Oriental" Jews in Israel and Countries: Migration, Social Change, and Identification" . Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews . Della Pergola does not analyze or mention the Ashkenazi statistics, but the figure is implied by his rough estimate that in 2000, Oriental and Sephardi Jews constituted 26% of the population of world Jewry. Focus on Genetic Screening Research , ed. PMID 24901650 . : CS1 maint: article number as page number ( link ) Xue J, Lencz T, Darvasi A, Pe'er I, Carmi S (April 2017). "Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century" . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).

Jewish diaspora of Central Europe "Ashkenazi" redirects here. Ethnic group History Communities Population Denominations Orthodox Modern Haredi Hasidic Reform Conservative Karaite Reconstructionist Renewal Science Haymanot Humanistic Culture Languages Hebrew Biblical Mishnaic Medieval Modern Bukharian Ghardaïa Sign Jewish Koine Greek Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Berber Judeo-Gascon Judaeo-Georgian Judaeo-Iranian Judeo-Italian Judeo-Malayalam Judaeo-Spanish Judeo-Tat Knaanic Shassi Yeshivish Yevanic Yiddish Zarphatic Politics Category Portal v t e Ashkenazi Jews ( / ˌ ɑː ʃ k ə ˈ n ɑː z i , ˌ æ ʃ -/ A(H)SH -kə- NAH -zee ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora , that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE . They traditionally speak Yiddish , a language that originated in the 9th century, and largely migrated towards northern and eastern Europe during the late Middle Ages due to persecution . Hebrew was primarily used as a literary and sacred language until its 20th-century revival as a common language in Israel. Ashkenazim adapted their traditions to Europe and underwent a transformation in their interpretation of Judaism. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Jews who remained in or returned to historical German lands experienced a cultural reorientation. Under the influence of the Haskalah and the struggle for emancipation , as well as the intellectual and cultural ferment in urban centres, some gradually abandoned Yiddish in favor of German and developed new forms of Jewish religious life and cultural identity . Throughout the centuries, Ashkenazim made significant contributions to Europe's philosophy , scholarship, literature , art , music , and science . As a proportion of the world Jewish population , Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930 near the population's peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II , which killed some six million Jews, affecting practically every European Jewish family. In 1933, prior to World War II, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3 million. Israeli demographer and statistician Sergio D. Pergola implied that Ashkenazim comprised 65–70% of Jews worldwide in 2000, while other estimates suggest more than 75%. As of 2013 , the population was estimated to be between 10 million and 11.2 million. Genetic studies indicate that Ashkenazim have both Levantine and European (mainly southern and eastern European ) ancestry. These studies draw diverging conclusions about the degree and sources of European admixture , with some focusing on the European genetic origin in Ashkenazi maternal lineages, contrasting with the predominantly Middle Eastern genetic origin in paternal lineages. Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Implications for cancer control prioritization efforts" . Israel Medical Association Journal . 3 (5): 341– 46. Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2009, CBS . Ashkenaz, based on Josephus . AJ . 1.6.1. , Perseus Project AJ1.6.1 , . and his explanation of Genesis 10:3 , is considered to be the progenitor of the ancient Gauls (the people of Gallia, meaning, mainly the people from modern France, Belgium, and the Alpine region) and the ancient Franks (of, both, France, and Germany). These places, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 1:9 [10a], were also called simply by the diocese "Germamia". Germania , Germani , Germanica have all been used to refer to the group of peoples comprising the Germanic tribes, which include such peoples as Goths, whether Ostrogoths or Visigoths, Vandals and Franks, Burgundians, Alans, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi and Alamanni. The entire region east of the Rhine river was known by the Romans as "Germania" (Germany). Nationalism and economic development in modern Eurasia . In general the Ashkenazi originally came out of the Holy Roman Empire, speaking a version of German that incorporates Hebrew and Slavic words, Yiddish. "Encouraged to move out of the Holy Roman Empire as persecution of their communities intensified during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Ashkenazi community increasingly gravitated toward Poland." Harshav, Benjamin (1999). The Meaning of Yiddish . In Berenbaum, Michael ; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). The cultural and intellectual reorientation of the Jewish minority was closely linked with its struggle for equal rights and social acceptance. While earlier generations had used solely the Yiddish and Hebrew languages among themselves, ... the use of Yiddish was now gradually abandoned, and Hebrew was by and large reduced to liturgical usage. Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life . Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture . The Oxford History of Modern Europe . Demographie – Demokratie – Geschichte: Deutschland und Israel (in German). Contemporary Jewries: Convergence and Divergence . " "Sephardic and Oriental" Jews in Israel and Countries: Migration, Social Change, and Identification" . Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews . Della Pergola does not analyze or mention the Ashkenazi statistics, but the figure is implied by his rough estimate that in 2000, Oriental and Sephardi Jews constituted 26% of the population of world Jewry. Focus on Genetic Screening Research , ed. PMID 24901650 . : CS1 maint: article number as page number ( link ) Xue J, Lencz T, Darvasi A, Pe'er I, Carmi S (April 2017). "Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century" . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).