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Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews[a] are a group of Jews who, following the involuntary displacement from Judea[18] in c. AD 70, lived in Central and Eastern Europe.

Ashkenazi Jews
(יהודי אשכנז Y'hudey Ashkenaz in Ashkenazi Hebrew)
Total population
10[1]–11.2[2] million
Regions with significant populations
22x20px United States5–6 million[3]
22x20px Israel2.8 million[1][4]
22x20px Russia194,000–500,000
22x20px Argentina300,000
File:Flag of the United Kingdom (3-5).svg United Kingdom260,000
22x20px Canada240,000
22x20px France200,000
22x20px Germany200,000
22x20px Ukraine150,000
22x20px Australia120,000
22x20px South Africa80,000
File:Flag of Belarus.svg Belarus80,000
22x20px Hungary75,000
File:Flag of Chile.svg Chile70,000
22x20px Belgium30,000
22x20px Brazil80,000
22x20px Netherlands30,000
 Moldova30,000
22x20px Poland25,000
22x20px Mexico18,500
22x20px Sweden18,000
22x20px Latvia10,000
22x20px Romania10,000
22x20px Austria9,000
22x20px New Zealand5,000
22x20px Azerbaijan4,300
22x20px Lithuania4,000
22x20px Czech Republic3,000
File:Flag of Slovakia.svg Slovakia3,000
File:Flag of Estonia.svg Estonia1,000
Languages
Yiddish[5]
Modern: Local languages, primarily English, Hebrew, Russian
Religion
Judaism, some secular, irreligious
Related ethnic groups
Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Samaritans,[6][7][8] Kurds,[8] other Levantines (Druzes, Assyrians,[6][7] Arabs[6][7][9][10]), Mediterranean groups (Italians,[11][12] Spaniards[13])[14][15][16][17]

Name

In Hebrew and Yiddish, Ashkenaz means German.

History

Classical antiquity

It is believed that after the Jews were expelled from the Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל, pronunciation: ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl / Eretz Yisrael) by the Romans, they were abducted to Italy as slaves, while some believe that they went there for trade.[19][20]

Middle Ages

After a few centuries, a founding group emigrated into Central Europe where a genetic bottleneck occurred, and then later into Eastern Europe and Russia, and most Ashkenazim can consider themselves the descendants of these few founding members.[19][20]

Due to pogroms in the Middle Ages, mainly in Germany, many Jews fled to Poland and Lithuania, and from there they spread over the rest of Eastern Europe. They then adopted the Yiddish language.[21][22] The Ashkenazi Jews joined together with a second Jewish population who are called West Knaanic Jews.[23] The language of the West Knaanic Jews had been Slavic.

Modern age

In the 17th century, avoiding persecution, many Jews moved to and settled in Western Europe. After that, two terms, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, became commonly used: The former indicates the Jews who worshiped in the German way and spoke Yiddish, the latter indicates the Jews who worshiped in the Spanish way and spoke the Ladino language. They differ in language, cultural tradition and worship style, yet both are closely related in terms of genetics.[19][20]

20th century

During World War II, at least 6,000,000 Jews, 4,000,000 of whom were Ashkenazim, were killed in the Holocaust. The Holocaust destroyed the once large Jewish communities and the Yiddish language in Europe.

Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to countries such as Israel, Canada, Argentina, Australia and the United States after the war.[19][20] As of 2018, Ashkenazim are around 75% of the 12.2 Million Jews of the world. They are also the mainstream of Israeli politics. Famous Ashkenazim include Albert Einstein, George Gershwin, Gustav Mahler and Franz Kafka.

Ashkenazi Jews Media

  • Jews from Worms (Germany) wearing the mandatory yellow badge, 16th century

  • The Old Synagogue in Erfurt, Germany is thought to be the oldest synagogue building intact in Europe

  • The distribution of Jews in Central Europe in 1881.

  • Western vs. Eastern Yiddish dialects

  • Prague's chevra kadisha, or burial society (oil, c. 1800)

Related pages

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Ashkenazim (-im is a Hebrew plural suffix

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Ashkenazi Jews". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  2. ↑ First genetic mutation for colorectal cancer identified in Ashkenazi Jews. Johns Hopkins University. 8 September 1997. http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/julsep97/sep0897/briefs.html. Retrieved 2013-07-24. 
  3. ↑ Feldman, Gabriel E. (May 2001). "Do Ashkenazi Jews have a Higher than expected Cancer Burden? Implications for cancer control prioritization efforts". Israel Medical Association Journal. 3 (5): 341–46. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  4. ↑ Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2009, CBS. "Table 2.24 – Jews, by country of origin and age" (PDF). Retrieved 22 March 2010.
  5. ↑ "Yiddish". November 19, 2019.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations From Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 8, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Jews Are The Genetic Brothers Of Palestinians, Syrians, And Lebanese. Science Daily. 2000-05-09. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000509003653.htm. Retrieved 2013-07-19. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Study Finds Close Genetic Connection Between Jews, Kurds". TheMarker. November 21, 2001 – via Haaretz.
  9. ↑ Wade, Nicholas (9 June 2010). "Studies Show Jews' Genetic Similarity". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html. Retrieved 2013-08-15. 
  10. ↑ "High-resolution Y chromosome haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs reveal geographic substructure and substantial overlap with haplotypes of Jews". Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-12-24. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  11. ↑ "Banda et al. "Admixture Estimation in a Founder Population". Am Soc Hum Genet, 2013". Archived from the original on 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  12. ↑ Bray, SM; Mulle, JG; Dodd, AF; Pulver, AE; Wooding, S; Warren, ST (September 2010). "Signatures of founder effects, admixture, and selection in the Ashkenazi Jewish population". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (37): 16222–16227. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10716222B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1004381107. PMC 2941333. PMID 20798349.
  13. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
  14. ↑ Seldin MF, Shigeta R, Villoslada P (September 2006). "European population substructure: clustering of northern and southern populations". PLOS Genet. 2 (9): e143. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0020143. PMC 1564423. PMID 17044734.[dead link]
  15. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
  16. ↑ "Jewish Women's Genes Traced Mostly to Europe – Not Israel – Study Hits Claim Ashkenazi Jews Migrated From Holy Land". The Jewish Daily Forward. 12 October 2013. http://forward.com/articles/185399/jewish-womens-genes-traced-mostly-to-europe-not/#. 
  17. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
  18. ↑ Later renamed by the Romans as Syria Palaestina (etymological origin of Palestine) following their crackdown on the Bar Kokhba revolt in AD 135 that killed 1,100,000 Jews
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3
    • Brook, Kevin A. "The Origin of East European Jews". Russian History. Leiden: Brill. 30: 1–22. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
    • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3
  21. ↑ Weinryb, Bernard Dov (1973). The Jews of Poland. Bernard Dov Weinryb. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 978-0-8276-0016-4. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  22. ↑ "Where Did the East European Jews Come From?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  23. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
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