Jewish ethnic divisions

They refer to both religious and ethnic divisions. (Some scholars hold that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of those who originally followed the Palestinian Jewish religious tradition, and Sephardic Jews are descendants of those who originally followed the Babylonian religious tradition.) Jews have historically been divided into four major groupings: Ashkenazim are Jews who migrated north from Italy into Germany and France , and later into Eastern Europe . Sephardim are Jews who migrated through North Africa into Spain or Portugal , where they lived for centuries before being expelled in 1492 ; they subsequently migrated to North Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America, Netherlands, and other parts of Europe. Oriental or "Mizrahi" Jews ( edut hamizrach in Hebrew) are Jews from the Middle East with some spreading to Central Asia and South Asia ). ( Note: In modern common usage, most Oriental Jews are now referred to as Sephardic , as the religious rites of Oriental and Sephardic Jews are similar.) Yemenite Jews are Oriental Jews whose geographical and social isolation from the rest of the Jewish community allowed them to develop a liturgy and set of practices sufficiently distinct from other Oriental Jewish groups so as to be recognized as a different group. Of these communities, the largest by far are the Ashkenazim , comprising approximately 70 percent of the Jewish total. Many Sephardim live in France (the majority of French Jews are Sephardic ), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (small numbers), and the United States , but most are in Israel (about 50 percent of Israeli Jews), where they have created their own large political party called Shas guided by rabbis such as Ovadia Yosef . (Note that not all Sephardim belong to or support Shas .) In Israel, Jews with origins in Western (Christian) countries are called Ashkenazi though many are not. The Jews of Italy are Bené Roma ; the Georgian are Gruzim ; the Greek are Romaniotes ; and many of the Dutch, Bulgarian, and Latin American are Sephardic . These groups claim distinct cultures and histories. Jews with origins in Muslim and Arab lands are commonly called Sephardi though many are not. None of these groups include the Beta Israel of Ethiopia who were brought to Israel during Operation Solomon and Operation Moses, as well as other groups.

Although considered one single self-identifying ethnicity , there are distinctive ethnic divisions among Jews , most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local populations, and subsequent independent evolutions. As long ago as Biblical times , cultural and linguistic differences between Jewish communities, even within the area of Ancient Israel and Judea , are observed both within the Bible itself as well as from archeological remains. In more recent human history, an array of Jewish communities were established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World , often at great distances from one another resulting in effective and often long-term isolation from each other. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments; political , cultural , natural and populational . Today, manifestation of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity , culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, as well as degrees and sources of genetic admixture. "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes" . PMID 10801975 . : Explicit use of et al. in: |author2= ( help ) ; Unknown parameter |displayauthors= ignored ( |display-authors= suggested) ( help ) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link ) Kate Yandell (October 8, 2013).

Although considered one single self-identifying ethnicity , there are distinctive ethnic subdivisions among Jews , most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local populations, and subsequent independent evolutions. As long ago as Biblical times , cultural and linguistic differences between Jewish communities, even within the area of Ancient Israel and Judea , are observed both within the Bible itself as well as from archeological remains. In more recent human history, an array of Jewish communities were established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World , often at great distances from one another resulting in effective and often long-term isolation from each other. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments; political , cultural , natural and demographic . Today, manifestation of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity , culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, as well as degrees and sources of genetic admixture. "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes" . PMID 10801975 . : Unknown parameter |displayauthors= ignored ( |display-authors= suggested) ( help ) Kate Yandell (October 8, 2013).

Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews , most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local communities, and subsequent independent evolutions. As long ago as Biblical times , cultural and linguistic differences between Jewish communities, even within the area of Ancient Israel and Judea , are observed both within the Bible and archeological remains. In more recent human history, an array of Jewish communities were established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World , often at great distances from one another, resulting in significant and often long-term isolation from each other. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora , the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments; political , cultural , natural and demographic . Today, the manifestation of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity , culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, and degrees and sources of genetic admixture. "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes" .

Although "Jewish" is considered an ethnicity itself, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews , most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local communities , and subsequent independent evolutions. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora , the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments; political , cultural , natural and demographic . Today, the manifestation of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity , culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, and degrees and sources of genetic admixture. "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes" .