Ashkenazi Jews

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.

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.

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. The Ashkenazi Jews joined together with a second Jewish population who are called West Knaanic Jews. 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.

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. 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.