Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews
(יהודי אשכנז Y'hudey Ashkenaz in Ashkenazi Hebrew)

Total population
10[1]–11.2[2] million
Regions with significant populations
United States	5–6 million[3]
Israel	2.8 million[1][4]
Russia	194,000–500,000
Argentina	300,000
United Kingdom	260,000
Canada	240,000
France	200,000
Germany	200,000
Ukraine	150,000
Australia	120,000
South Africa	80,000
Belarus	80,000
Hungary	75,000
Chile	70,000
Belgium	30,000
Brazil	80,000
Netherlands	30,000
Moldova	30,000
Poland	25,000
Mexico	18,500
Sweden	18,000
Latvia	10,000
Romania	10,000
Austria	9,000
New Zealand	5,000
Azerbaijan	4,300
Lithuania	4,000
Czech Republic	3,000
Slovakia	3,000
Estonia	1,000
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 (Druze, Assyrians,[6][7] Arabs[6][7][9][10]), Mediterranean groups (Italians,[11][12] Spaniards[13])[14][15][16][17]

Ashkenazi Jews, or Ashkenazim, are the group of Jews who, after leaving Palestine circa 70 CE, lived in Central and Eastern Europe. "Ashkenazi" means "German" in Hebrew. 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.^[18][19]

After a few centuries, a founding group emigrated into Central and then later Eastern Europe and Russia where a genetic bottleneck occurred, and most Ashkenazim can consider themselves the descendants of these few founding members.^[18][19]

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.^[20][21] 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.^[18][19]

During World War II, at least 6,000,000 Jews, 5,000,000 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.^[18][19] As of 2018, Ashkenazim are around 75% of the 14.6 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.

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". The Gazette. Johns Hopkins University. 8 September 1997. 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
5. ↑ "Yiddish". 19 November 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 8 May 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. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} "Study Finds Close Genetic Connection Between Jews, Kurds". TheMarker. 21 November 2001 – via Haaretz.
9. ↑ Wade, Nicholas (9 June 2010). "Studies Show Jews' Genetic Similarity". The New York Times. 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" (PDF). 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. ↑ Adams SM, Bosch E, Balaresque PL (December 2008). "The genetic legacy of religious diversity and intolerance: paternal lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula". American Journal of Human Genetics. 83 (6): 725–736. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.11.007. PMC 2668061. PMID 19061982.
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.^{[permanent dead link]}
15. ↑ M. D. Costa and 16 others (2013). "A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages". Nature Communications. 4: 2543. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.2543C. doi:10.1038/ncomms3543. PMC 3806353. PMID 24104924.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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.
17. ↑ Shai Carmi; Ken Y. Hui; Ethan Kochav; Xinmin Liu; James Xue; Fillan Grady; Saurav Guha; Kinnari Upadhyay; Dan Ben-Avraham; Semanti Mukherjee; B. Monica Bowen; Tinu Thomas; Joseph Vijai; Marc Cruts; Guy Froyen; Diether Lambrechts; Stéphane Plaisance; Christine Van Broeckhoven; Philip Van Damme; Herwig Van Marck (September 2014). "Sequencing an Ashkenazi reference panel supports population-targeted personal genomics and illuminates Jewish and European origins". Nature Communications. 5: 4835. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.4835C. doi:10.1038/ncomms5835. PMC 4164776. PMID 25203624.
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3}
    • Brook, Kevin A. "The Origin of East European Jews". Russian History. 30. Danbury: Brill: 1–22. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • van Straten, Jits (2011). The Origin of Ashkenazi Jewry: The Controversy Unraveled. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110236064. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • Efron, John M. (June 1, 2013). "Jewish Genetic Origins in the Context of Past Historical and Anthropological Inquiries". Human Biology. 85 (6). Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press: 901–918. doi:10.3378/027.085.0602. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3}
    • "Ashkenazi | Definition & Facts". Britannica. November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • "Jewish Communities before and during the Holocaust". Yad Vashem. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • "Evidence Found of Jewish Holocaust Victims at the Nazi Death Camp in Sobibór". Thermo Fisher Scientific. December 15, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • Posner, Menachem. "Ashkenazi Jewish People and Culture: 17 Facts You Should Know". Chabad. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
    • "Who Are Ashkenazi Jews?". Aish.com. March 4, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
20. ↑ Cite error: The named reference The Jews of Poland was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
21. ↑ Cite error: The named reference yale was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).