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=== [[Korean War]] ===
{{otheruses4|Ashkenazi Jews|the Russian-born pianist and conductor|Vladimir Ashkenazy}}
I have been editing this article for a few days. I ran down through the article and fixed any grammer mistakes I could find. I would appreciate any suggestions on what to do and how I can really improve it further. Thanks a lot. [[User:Mr. Killigan|Mr. Killigan]] 06:17, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
{{Ethnic group| image=
|group=Ashkenazi
|poptime=11.2 million (est.)<ref>{{cite web| url=http://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/pppress.html| title=UC Genetics of Absolute Pitch Study - Press| year=2002| publisher=University of California| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref>
|popplace=[[American Jews|United States]]: '''''app. 5 mil.'''''<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.sefarad.org/publication/lm/040/0.html| title=SEPHARDIC TEMPLE-TIFERETH ISRAEL| accessdate=2006-05-24| year=2000| first=Moïse| last=Rahmani}}</ref>
[[Israel]]: '''''app. 3.7 mil.'''''<ref>{{cite web| url=http://lexicorient.com/e.o/index.htm| title=Encyclopaedia of the Orient| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref>
<br />
[[Europe]]: '''''app. 1.7 mil.'''''<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html| title=The Jewish Population of the World (2005)| publisher=Jewish Virtual Library| accessdate=2006-05-24}} - This is a copy of [[Jews by country]], so we're actually referencing ourselves here. Replace with a source citation from that article instead.{{citation needed}}</ref>
<br />
[[Argentina]]: '''''nn'''''
<br />
[[South Africa]]: '''''nn'''''
<br />
[[Oceania]]: '''''nn'''''
<br />
|langs=• Liturgical: [[Ashkenazi Hebrew]]<br />
• Traditional: [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] and various other languages<br />
• Modern: typically the language of whatever country they now reside in, including most numerously [[English language|English]] in the English-speaking countries of the [[Diaspora]], primarily the [[United States]], and [[Modern Hebrew]] in [[Israel]]
|rels=[[Judaism]]
|related=• [[Jew]]s<br />
• [[Sephardi Jews]]<br />
• [[Mizrahi Jews]]<br />
• [[Jewish ethnic divisions|Other Jewish groups]]
}}
'''Ashkenazi Jews''', also known as '''Ashkenazic Jews''' or '''Ashkenazim''' ([[Standard Hebrew]]: sing. אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי, pl. אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים; pronounced sing. [{{IPA|ˌaʃkəˈnazi}}] pl. [{{IPA|ˌaʃkəˈnazim}}], ''not'' with [{{IPA|ʦ}}] as in [[Tzar]]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנָז ''Yehudei Ashkenaz'', "the Jews of [[Ashkenaz]]"), are thought to be descended from the [[medieval]] Jewish communities of the [[Rhineland]].
==== Kirill Lokshin ====
Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in [[Germany]], [[Hungary]], [[Poland]], [[Russia]], [[Eastern Europe]] and elsewhere between the [[10th Century|10th]] and [[19th Century|19th]] centuries. From medieval times until the mid-20th century, the [[lingua franca]] among Ashkenazi Jews was [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] or [[Slavic languages]] such as [[Knaanic language|Knaanic]] (now defunct), and they developed a distinct culture and liturgy influenced by interaction with surrounding nations.
There are a number of areas to work on, at this point; keep in mind, though, that this is a very high-profile article, so you should be careful to move slowly and carefully to avoid getting entangled in any editorial conflicts here.
Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3% of the world's [[Jewish population]], Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their highest) 92% of the world's [[Jews]] in 1931 and today make up approximately 80% of Jews worldwide.<ref name="sephardic">{{cite web| url=http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles3/sephardic.htm| title=Can Sephardic Judaism be Reconstructed?| publisher=Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs| first=Daniel J.| last=Elazar| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref> Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the [[Mediterranean]] region. A significant portion of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Eastern Ashkenazim, particularly in the [[United States]].
* <s>The article is, in my opinion, simply too long; we're looking at 72K (~12,000 words) of prose. The "Legacy" section, in particular, is ripe for splitting out into a separate [[Legacy of the Korean War]] article, with a much shorter summary left in the main one.</s>
* <s>"Korean War (1950 – 1953)" should really be something like "Course of the war"; you probably don't want to repeat the article title as a section heading.</s>
* The citations need cleanup; at a minimum, all of the embedded external links should be converted to footnotes. There are also a number of "citation needed" tags floating around. Beyond that, more thorough citation would be appropriate throughout the article; see [[WP:MILHIST#CITE]] for some guidelines.
* <s>The "Depictions" section should be turned into prose, rather than a laundry list of films; see also [[WP:MILHIST#POP]].</s>
* <s>The "Names" section, as it's presently constituted, would work much better as a narrow sidebar; it's of some interest, but I doubt there's enough material to sustain a separate section.</s>
* <s>The "See also" section should be eliminated. If something isn't worth linking from the text, it's generally not worth linking at all. </s>
* <s>The rump "Bibliography" section should be removed as well.</s>
* The "External links" section could use trimming.
Hope that helps! [[User:Kirill Lokshin|Kirill]] 04:08, 13 July 2007 (UTC)<s>cool</s>
::Thank you very much for offering your opinion! [[User:Mr. Killigan|Mr. Killigan]] 00:57, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
==Who is an Ashkenazi Jew?==
There is currently a debate regarding "[[Who is a Jew?]]" This makes it especially difficult to define who is an Ashkenazi Jew, because an Ashkenazi Jew can be defined religiously, culturally, or ethnically. Since the overwhelming majority of Ashkenazi Jews no longer live in Eastern Europe, the isolation that once favored a distinct religious tradition and culture has vanished. Furthermore, the word "Ashkenazi" is itself evolving and taking on new meanings, especially in Israel. In Israel, it is frequently used in ways that do not fit any of the traditional definitions.
===Religious definition===
In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition and ritual follows Ashkenazi practice. When the Ashkenazi community first began to develop in the [[Early Middle Ages]] and until the [[9th century]], the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at [[Baghdad]] and in Islamic Spain. Ashkenaz was so distant geographically that it developed a [[minhag]] of its own, and Ashkenazi Hebrew came to be pronounced in ways distinct from other forms of Hebrew.
In this respect, the counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic, since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they are ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a [[Sephardic]] or [[Mizrahi]] woman who marries into an [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] or [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her children to be Ashkenazi Jews, and a [[gentile]] who converts to Judaism and takes on Ashkenazi religious practices becomes an Ashkenazi Jew.
Jewish law or [[Halakha|Halacha]] does not define [[who is a Jew]] confessionally, by faith. No central authority or ruling body in Judaism determines who is a Jew. Nor does membership in a [[synagogue]] or local Jewish community make one a Jew. Furthermore, a person who no longer wishes to be a Jew is still considered to be Jewish. It should come as no surprise that many famous Ashkenazi Jews have denied being Jewish.
By tradition, being a Jew follows the maternal lineage. Therefore, even if one doesn't know they have Jewish blood or if they convert to another religion, from the Jewish point of view, their genetic heritage makes them and their own descendants Jews.
The following examples illustrate this aspect of Jewish identity.
[[Image:Mendelssohn Bartholdy.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]]
[[Image:Karl_Marx.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Karl Marx]]
*'''Apostasy'''. A Jew who converts to another religion is considered an apostate, but he is still a Jew. [[Felix Mendelssohn]], who converted to [[Protestantism]] and dedicated a symphony to the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] was an Ashkenazi Jew.
*'''Atheism'''. A Jew who becomes an atheist is still considered a Jew. [[Karl Marx]], an atheist whose Jewish mother and father had converted to [[Christianity]] before he was born, was an Ashkenazi Jew.
*'''Hidden Identity'''. A Jew whose identity was hidden, who was raised in another religion, is still a Jew. [[Madeleine Albright]], the former American [[Secretary of State]] whose Jewish parents converted to [[Catholicism]] to escape persecution in the [[Holocaust]] and then hid their ancestry, is an Ashkenazi Jew by a traditional halakic definition, even though she did not know of her identity until she became an adult, and was already a professing Catholic.
*'''Renunciation'''. A Jew who renounces and even condemns Judaism is still a Jew. [[Bobby Fischer]], the international chess star who has claimed that the [[Holocaust]] was a Jewish invention and a lie, is an Ashkenazi Jew.
With the reintegration of Jews from around the world in [[Israel]], North America, and other places, the religious definition of an Ashkenazi Jew is blurring, especially outside of [[Orthodox Judaism]]. Many Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews have joined liberal movements that originally developed within Ashkenazi Judaism. At least in recent decades, the congregations they have joined have often embraced them, and absorbed new traditions into their minhag. [[Rabbi]]s and [[Cantor]]s in all non-Orthodox movements study [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in [[Israel]], learning Sephardic rather than Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation. Ashkenazi congregations are adopting Sephardic or modern Israeli melodies for many prayers and traditional songs. Since the middle of the 20th century there has been a gradual [[syncretism]] and fusion of traditions, and this is affecting the [[minhag]] of all but the most traditional congregations.
New developments in Judaism often transcend differences in religious practice between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. For example, there has been increased interest in [[Kabbalah]] in recent years. Judaism is an evolving religious tradition in which new layers of commentary are constantly being added to the existing body of literature. Even portions of the scripture that have been canonized, like the [[Tanakh]], are constantly being offered in new editions and translations, with new interpretations. Another trend is the new popularity of [[ecstatic]] worship in the [[Jewish Renewal]] movement and the [[Carlebach]] style [[minyan]], both of which are nominally of Ashkenazi origin.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.kehilathadar.org/Aboutus/forward08-10-01.html| year=August 10, 2001| title=Any Old Shul Won't Do for the Young and Cool| first=Rachel| last=Donadio| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref>
===Cultural definition===
In a cultural sense, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of ''Yiddishkeit'', a word that literally means “Jewishness” in the [[Yiddish]] language. Of course, there are other kinds of Jewishness. ''Yiddishkeit'' is simply the Jewishness of Ashkenazi Jews. Before the [[Haskalah]] and the [[Jewish Emancipation|emancipation of Jews]] in Europe, this meant the study of [[Torah]] and [[Talmud]] for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. From the [[Rhineland]] to [[Riga]] to [[Romania]], most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, and spoke some dialect of [[Yiddish]] in their secular lives.
But with modernization, ''Yiddishkeit'' now encompasses not just Orthodoxy and [[Hasidism]], but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and somehow retained a sense of Jewishness. Although few Jews still speak Yiddish, ''Yiddishkeit'' can be identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association. Broadly speaking, a Jew is one who associates culturally with Jews, supports Jewish institutions, reads Jewish books and periodicals, attends Jewish movies and theater, travels to Israel, visits ancient synagogues in [[Prague]], and so forth. It is a definition that applies to Jewish culture in general, and to Ashkenazi Yiddishkeit in particular.
Contemporary population migrations have contributed to a reconfigured Jewishness among Jews of Ashkenazi descent that transcends Yiddishkeit and other traditional articulations of Ashkenazi Jewishness. As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Eastern Europe, settling mostly in Israel, North America, and other English speaking countries, the geographic isolation which gave rise to Ashkenazim has given way to mixing with other nocultures, and with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales. For Ashkenazi Jews living in Eastern Europe, chopped liver and [[gefiltefish]] were archetypal Jewish foods. To contemporary Ashkenazi Jews living both in [[Israel]] and in the [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora]], Middle Eastern foods such as [[hummus]] and [[falafel]], neither traditional to the historic Ashkenazi experience, have become central to their lives as Ashkenazi Jews in the current era. [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews.
===Ethnic definition===
In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. Modern human [[genetics|geneticists]] indicate a complicated model of Jewish male migration into Europe with significant intermarriage with females from other co-extant European populations. These early migration and intermarriage patterns then persisted in a relatively closed Ashkenazi population for over a thousand years in Europe. Specifically, [[Y chromosome]] (male) [[haplotypes]] indicate a [[Middle Eastern]] origin for the majority of Ashkenazi male lineages. However, [[mitochondrial DNA]] studies, which follow [[matrilineal]] lineages, paint a somewhat more complicated picture. The majority of matrilineal mitochondrial markers (~60%) are consistent with intermarriage with local European women. The remaining 40% of matrilineal markers are consistent with at least four separate haplotypes with possible origins in the Middle East. The Ashkenazi [[Yiddish]] tongue, which traces back to [[Middle High German]], may represent a vestige of these early intermarriage patterns.{{cn}} Currently in the U.S. census and other goverment records, Ashkenazi are counted as white Caucasians.
[[Image:Ashk_mizrahi_couple.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Married. An Ashkenazi Jewish man with a [[Persian Jew]]ish woman, whose ancestors lived in Iran, in San Francisco (2003). As Jews from different ethnic backgrounds marry one another, the ethnic differences in Judaism are blurring.]]
[[Image:Ashk_sephard_couple.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Married. An Ashkenazi Jewish man with a Sephardic Jewish woman, whose ancestors lived in Morocco, in the Meron Forest in Israel (2003). Cultural and religious differences that separated the older generations in Israel are disappearing in the younger generations, creating a new Israeli identity.]]
But since the middle of the 20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities and with people of other nations and faiths, while some Jews have also adopted children from other ethnic groups or parts of the world and raised them as Jews. Conversion to Judaism, rare for nearly 1500 years, has once again become common. Jewish women and families who choose artificial insemination often choose a biological father who is not Jewish, to avoid common autosomal recessive genetic diseases. Orthodox religious authorities actually encourage this, because of the danger that a Jewish donor could be a [[momzer]]. Thus, the concept of Ashkenazi Jews as a distinct ethnic people, especially in ways that can be defined ancestrally and therefore traced genetically, has also blurred considerably.
===Realignment in Israel===
In Israel the term ''Ashkenazi'' is now used in ways that have nothing to do with its original meaning. In practice, the label Ashkenazi is often applied to all Jews of European background living in Israel, including those whose ethnic background is actually [[Sephardic]]. Jews of any non-Ashkenazi background, including Mizrahi, Yemenite, Kurdish, and others having no connection at all with the [[Iberian Peninsula]], have similarly come to be lumped together as [[Sephardic]]. Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, partly because of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi partners, and partly because some do not identify with such historic markers as relevant to their lived experiences as Jews.
Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in [[halakha|halakhic]] matters. In this respect, a religiously Ashkenazi Jew is an Israeli who is more likely to support certain religious interests in Israel, including certain political parties. These political parties result form the fact that a portion of the Israeli electorate votes for Jewish religious parties: although the electoral map changes from one election to another, there are generally several small parties associated with the interests of religious Ashkenazi Jews. The role of religious parties, including small religious parties which play important roles as coalition members, results in turn from Israel's composition as a complex society in which competing social, economic, and religious interests stand for election to the [[Knesset]], a unicameral legislature with 120 seats. Each political party in Israel produces a list, and members stand for election as a party. Since Israel is a democracy, all citizens are voters, whether they are Jewish, [[Muslim]], [[Christian]], [[Druze]], or [[Samaritan]]. After an election is held, the party with the most seats negotiates with other parties to create a majority coalition.
{{neutrality}}
==Origins of Ashkenazim==
Although the historical record itself is very limited, there is a consensus of cultural, linguistic, and genetic evidence that the Ashkenazi Jewish population originated in the Middle East. When they arrived in northern France and the Rhineland sometime around 800-1000 CE, the Ashkenazi Jews brought with them both [[Rabbinic Judaism]] and the Babylonian Talmudic culture that underlies it. The [[Yiddish language]], once spoken by the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jewry, is a [[Middle High German]] dialect heavily influenced by [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], but not by [[Greek language|Greek]] or [[Latin]]. Recent research in human genetics has also demonstrated that a significant component of Ashkenazi ancestry is Middle Eastern. An alternate theory is that Ashkenazis are predominately decscended from [[Khazars]]. Several genetic studies support this theory.
European Jews became called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in [[Germany]]. "Ashkenaz" is a [[Medieval Hebrew]] name for Germany.
===Background in the Roman Empire===
After the forced Jewish exile from [[Jerusalem]] in 70 CE and the complete Roman takeover of Judea following the [[Bar Kochba rebellion]] of 132-135 CE, Jews continued to be a majority of the population in Palestine for several hundred years. However, the Romans no longer recognized the authority of the [[Sanhedrin]] or any other Jewish body, and Jews were prohibited from living in Jerusalem. Outside the Roman Empire, a large Jewish community remained in [[Mesopotamia]]. Other Jewish populations could be found dispersed around the Mediterranean region, with the largest concentrations in the [[Levant]], [[Egypt]], [[Asia Minor]], [[Greece]], and [[Italy]], including [[Rome]] itself. Smaller communities are recorded in southern [[Gaul]] (France), [[Spain]], and [[North Africa]].<ref>{{cite book|title="Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE |author=Schwartz, Seth |date=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press| id=ISBN 0-691-11781-0 |pages=103-128 }}</ref>
Jews were denied full Roman citizenship until [[212 AD|212 CE]], when Emperor [[Caracalla]] granted all free peoples this privilege. However as a penalty for the [[First Jewish-Roman War|first Jewish Revolt]], Jews were still required to pay a [[poll tax]] until the reign of Emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]] in 363 CE. In the late Roman Empire, Jews were still free to form networks of cultural and religious ties and enter into various local occupations. But after Christianity became the official religion of [[Rome]] and [[Constantinople]], Jews were increasingly marginalized.
In Palestine and Mesopotamia, where Jewish religious scholarship was centered, the majority of Jews were still engaged in farming, as demonstrated by the preoccupation of early Talmudic writings with agriculture. In [[diaspora]] communities, trade was a common occupation, facilitated by the easy mobility of traders through the dispersed Jewish communities.
Throughout this period and into the early Middle Ages, many Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures, mostly through conversion to [[Christianity]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Beginnings of Jewishness| author=Shaye J. D. Cohen |date=2001 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] | id=ISBN 0-520-22693-3}}</ref> In Palestine and Mesopotamia, the spoken language of Jews continued to be [[Aramaic]], but elsewhere in the diaspora, most Jews spoke Greek. Conversion and assimilation were especially common within the Hellenized or Greek speaking Jewish communities, amongst whom the [[Septuagint]] and [[Aquila of Sinope]] (Greek translations and adaptations of the [[Tanakh]] or Hebrew Bible) were the source of scripture. A remnant of this Greek speaking Jewish population (the [[Romaniotes]]) survives to this day.
The Germanic invasions of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in the 5th century by tribes such as the [[Visigoths]], [[Franks]], [[Lombards]], and [[Vandals]] caused massive economic and social instability within the western Empire, contributing to its decline. In the late Roman Empire, Jews are known to have lived in [[Cologne]] and [[Trier]], as well as in what is now [[France]]. However, it is unclear whether there is any continuity between these late Roman communities and the distinct Ashkenazi Jewish culture that began to emerge about 500 years later. King [[Dagobert]] of the [[Franks]] expelled the Jews from his [[Merovingian]] kingdom in 629. Jews in former Roman territories now faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were enforced.
===Rabbinic Judaism moves to Ashkenaz===
In Mesopotamia, in Persian lands free of Roman imperial domination, Jewish life fared much better. Since the conquest of [[Judea]] by [[Nebuchadrezzar II]], this community had always been the leading [[diaspora]] community, a rival to the leadership of Palestine. After conditions for Jews began to deteriorate in Roman controlled lands, many of the religious leaders of [[Judea]] and the [[Galilee]] fled to the east. At the academies of [[Pumbeditha]] and [[Sura (city)|Sura]] near Babylon, [[Rabbinic Judaism]] based on [[Talmud|Talmudic]] learning began to emerge and assert its authority over Jewish life throughout the diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism created a religious mandate for literacy, requiring all Jewish males to learn Hebrew and read from the Torah. This emphasis on literacy and learning a second language would eventually be of great benefit to the Jews, allowing them to take on commercial and financial roles within Gentile societies where literacy was often quite low.
After the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa, new opportunities for trade and commerce opened between the Middle East and western Europe. The vast majority of Jews in the world now lived in Islamic lands. Urbanization, trade, and commerce within the Islamic world allowed Jews, as a highly literate people, to abandon farming and live in cities, engaging in occupations where they could use their skills.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/5571.html| title=From Farmers to Merchants, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History| last=Botticini| first=Maristella| coauthors= Zvi Eckstein| year=March 2006| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref> The influential, sophisticated, and well organized Jewish community of Mesopotamia, now centered in Baghdad, became the center of the Jewish world. In the Caliphate of Baghdad, Jews took on many of the financial occupations that they would later hold in the cities of Ashkenaz. Jewish traders from Baghdad began to travel to the west, renewing Jewish life in the western Mediterranean region. They brought with them Rabbinic Judaism and Babylonian [[Talmud|Talmudic]] scholarship.
After 800 CE, [[Charlemagne|Charlemagne's]] unification of former Frankish lands with northern Italy and Rome brought on a brief period of stability and unity in western Europe. This created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle once again north of the Alps. Charlemagne granted the Jews in his lands freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the [[Roman Empire]]. Returning once again to Frankish lands, many Jewish merchants took on occupations in finance and commerce, including moneylending or [[usury]]. (Church legislation banned Christians from lending money in exchange for [[interest]].) From Charlemagne's time on to the present, there is a well documented record of Jewish life in northern Europe, and by the 11th century, when [[Rashi]] of [[Troyes]] wrote his commentaries, Ashkenazi Jews had emerged also as interpreters and commentators on the [[Torah]] and [[Talmud]].
===DNA clues===
Efforts to identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis began in the 1990s. Like most DNA studies of human migration patterns, these studies have focused on two segments of the human genome, the [[Y chromosome]] (inherited only by males), and the mitochondrial genome (DNA which passes from mother to child). Both segments are unaffected by recombination. Thus, they provide an indicator of paternal and maternal origins, respectively.
A study of [[haplotypes]] of the Y chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer ''et al''<ref name="hammer">{{cite journal| title=Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes| first=M. F.| last=Hammer| coauthors=A. J. Redd, E. T. Wood, M. R. Bonner, H. Jarjanazi, T. Karafet, S. Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. Oppenheim, M. A. Jobling, T. Jenkins, H. Ostrer, and B. Bonné-Tamir| journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| month=May 9| year=2000}}</ref> found that the [[Y chromosome]] of some Ashkenazi and [[Sephardic Jews]] contained mutations that are also common among [[Palestinian]]s, Central Asian, North East African, and Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that some male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to regions outside of Europe.
The first research on Ashkenazi maternal ancestry was less conclusive. A 2002 study by Goldstein ''et al''<ref name="goldstein">{{cite journal| url=http://www.humanitas-international.org/perezites/news/jewish-dna-nytimes.htm| title=In DNA, New Clues to Jewish Roots| first=Nicholas| last=Wade| journal=The New York Times| month=May 14| year=2002| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref> found that "the women's origins cannot be genetically determined", but that "his own speculation" was that "most Jewish communities were formed by unions between Jewish men and local women."
More recent research indicates that a significant portion of Ashkenazi maternal ancestry is also of Middle Eastern origin. A 2006 study by Behar ''et al''<ref name="behar">{{cite journal| url=http://www.ftdna.com/pdf/43026_Doron.pdf| title=The Matrilineal Ancestry of Ashkenazi Jewry: Portrait of a Recent Founder Event| first=Doron M.| last=Behar| coauthors=Ene Metspalu, Toomas Kivisild, Alessandro Achilli, Yarin Hadid, Shay Tzur, Luisa Pereira, Antonio Amorim, Lluı´s Quintana-Murci, Kari Majamaa, Corinna Herrnstadt, Neil Howell, Oleg Balanovsky, Ildus Kutuev, Andrey Pshenichnov, David Gurwitz, Batsheva Bonne-Tamir, Antonio Torroni, Richard Villems, and Karl Skorecki| journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics| month=March| year=2006| volume=78| issue=3| pages=487-97| id=PMID 16404693}}</ref>, based on [[haplotype]] analysis of [[mitochondrial DNA]] (mtDNA), suggested that about 40% of the current Ashkenazi population is descended matrilineally from just four women. These four "founder lineages" were "likely from a [[Hebrews|Hebrew]]/[[Levant]]ine mtDNA pool" originating in the Near East in the first and second centuries CE. According to the authors, "The observed global pattern of distribution renders very unlikely the possibility that the four aforementioned founder lineages entered the Ashkenazi mtDNA pool via gene flow from a European host population."
:''Both the extent and ___location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Here, using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we show that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only four women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important exception of low frequencies among non-Ashkenazi Jews. We conclude that four founding mtDNAs, likely of Near Eastern ancestry, underwent major expansion(s) in Europe within the past millennium.''<ref name="behar"/><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/12/jewish.descent.ap/index.html| title=404 error| publisher=CNN.com| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref>
David Goldstein of [[Duke University]] has argued that sample populations in these studies were small and not randomly selected, and that the results may not be statistically significant.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Wade| first=Nicholas| title=[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/14/science/14gene.html?ex=1294894800&en=d17eda8e09ca32a4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss New Light on Origins of Ashkenazi in Europe]| journal=New York Times| month=January 14| year=2006}}</ref>
==Ashkenazi migrations throughout the High and Late Middle Ages==
Historical records show evidence of Jewish communities north of the [[Alps]] and [[Pyrenees]] as early as the [[8th Century|8th]] and 9th Century. (Cochran et. al., p.11) By the early 900s, Jewish populations were well-established in [[Northern Europe]], and later followed the [[Norman Conquest]] into [[England]] in 1066, also settling in the [[Rhineland]]. With the onset of the [[Crusades]], and the expulsions from [[England]] (1290), France (1394), and parts of [[Germany]] (1400s), Jewish migration pushed eastward into [[Poland]], [[Lithuania]], and [[Russia]]. Over this period of several hundred years, some have suggested, Jewish economic activity was focused on trade, business management, and financial services, due to [[Christian]] European prohibitions restricting certain activities by Jews, and preventing certain financial activities (such as "[[usury|usurious]]" loans) between Christians. (Ben-Sasson, H. (1976) A History of the Jewish People. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.)
By the 1400s, the Ashkenazi Jewish communities in [[Poland]] were the largest Jewish communities of the [[Diaspora]].<ref name="Ashkenazim">{{cite web| url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Ashkenazim.html| title=Ashkenazim| first=Shira| last=Schoenberg| publisher=Jewish Virtual Library| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref> It would remain that way until the [[Holocaust]].
===Usage of the name===
In reference to the Jewish peoples of Northern Europe and particularly the [[Rhineland]], the word ''Ashkenazi'' is often found in medieval [[rabbinic literature]]. References to Ashkenaz in [[Yosippon]] and Hasdai's letter to the king of the [[Khazars]] would date the term as far back as the tenth century, as would also [[Saadia Gaon]]'s commentary on Daniel 7:8.
The word "Ashkenaz" first appears in the genealogy in the [[Tanakh]] (Genesis 10) as a son of [[Gomer]] and grandson of [[Japheth]]. It is thought that the name originally applied to the [[Scythia#Scythians in the Bible|Scythians]] (Ishkuz), who were called ''Ashkuza'' in Assyrian inscriptions, and lake [[Ascanius]] and the region [[Ascania]] in [[Anatolia]] derive their names from this group. The "Ashkuza" have also been linked to the [[Oghuz Turks|Oghuz]] branch of Turks including nearly all Turkic peoples today from Turkey to Turkmenistan.{{fact}}
''Ashkenaz'' in later [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] tradition became identified with the peoples of Germany, and in particular to the area along the Rhine where the ''[[Alamanni]]'' tribe once lived (compare the French and Spanish words ''Allemagne'' and ''Alemania'', respectively, for Germany).
The [[autonym]] was usually ''[[Yid]]n'', however.
===Medieval references===
In the first half of the eleventh century, [[Hai Gaon]] refers to questions that had been addressed to him from "Ashkenaz", by which he undoubtedly means [[Germany]]. [[Rashi]] in the latter half of the eleventh century refers to both the language of Ashkenaz<ref>Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:9; idem on [[Talmud]] tractate Sukkah 17a</ref> and the country of Ashkenaz.<ref>Talmud, Hullin 93a</ref> During the twelfth century the word appears quite frequently. In the ''Mahzor Vitry'', the kingdom of Ashkenaz is referred to chiefly in regard to the ritual of the synagogue there, but occasionally also with regard to certain other observances.<ref>ib. p. 129</ref>
In the literature of the thirteenth century references to the land and the language of Ashkenaz often occur. See especially [[Solomon ben Aderet]]'s Responsa (vol. i., No. 395); the Responsa of [[Asher ben Jehiel]] (pp. 4, 6); his ''Halakot'' (Berakot i. 12, ed. Wilna, p. 10); the work of his son [[Jacob ben Asher]], ''Tur Orach Chayim'' (chapter 59); the Responsa of Isaac ben Sheshet (numbers 193, 268, 270).
In the ''[[Midrash]]'' compilation ''Genesis Rabbah'', Rabbi Berechiah mentions "Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah" as [[Germany|German]] tribes or as German lands. It may correspond to a [[Greek language|Greek]] word that may have existed in the Greek dialect of the Palestinian Jews, or the text is corrupted from "Germanica." This view of Berechiah is based on the Talmud (Yoma 10a; Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 71b), where Gomer, the father of Ashkenaz, is translated by ''Germamia'', which evidently stands for Germany, and which was suggested by the similarity of the sound.
In later times the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern and western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany and [[Poland]]. Thus the prayer-book of [[Isaiah Horowitz]], and many others, give the [[piyyutim]] according to the [[Minhag]] of Ashkenaz and Poland.
== Customs, laws and traditions ==
The ''[[Halakha|Halakhic]]'' practices of Ashkenazi Jews may differ from those of [[Sephardi Jews]], particularly in matters of custom. Differences are noted in the ''[[Shulkhan Arukh]]'' itself, in the gloss of [[Moses Isserles]]. Well known differences in practice include:
*Observance of ''[[Passover|Pesach]]'' (Passover): Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, corn, millet, and rice, whereas Sephardi Jews typically do not prohibit these foods.
*In the case of ''[[kashrut]]'' for meat, conversely, Sephardi Jews have stricter requirements - this level is commonly referred to as ''[[Shulkhan Arukh#Beth Yosef|Beth Yosef]]''. Meat products which are acceptable to Ashkenazi Jews as kosher may therefore be rejected by Sephardi Jews. Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the actual slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper [[Halakha|Halakhic]] removal of the [[sciatic nerve]], while many Ashkenazi Jews do not. This is not because of different interpretations of the law; rather, slaughterhouses could not find adequate skills for correct removal of the sciatic nerve and found it more economical to separate the hindquarters and sell them as non-kosher meat.
*Ashkenazi Jews frequently name newborn children after deceased family members, but not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews, on the other hand, often name their children after the children's grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. (See [[Sephardi#Names|Sephardi Names]]). A notable exception to this generally reliable rule is among [[Dutch Jews]], where Ashkenazim for centuries used the naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim. (See [[Chuts]].)
*Ashkenazi Jews have a custom for the bride and groom to refrain from meeting one week prior to their wedding.
== Relationship to other Jews ==
{{Jew}}
The term ''Ashkenazi'' also refers to the ''[[nusach]]'' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], "liturgical tradition") used by Ashkenazi [[Jew]]s in their ''[[Siddur]]'' (prayer book). A ''nusach'' is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers.
This phrase is often used in contrast with [[Sephardi]] Jews, also called Sephardim, who are descendants of Jews from [[Spain]] and [[Portugal]]. There are some differences in how the two groups pronounce Hebrew and in points of ritual.
Several famous people have this as a surname, such as [[Vladimir Ashkenazi]]. Ironically, most people with this surname are in fact Sephardi, and usually of [[Syrian Jew]]ish background. This family name was adopted by the families who lived in [[Sephardi]] countries and were of Ashkenazic origins, after being nicknamed Ashkenazi by their respective communities. Some have shortened the name to Ash. Other spellings exist, such as [[Eskenazi]] by the Syrian Jews who relocated to [[Panama]] and other [[South-American]] Jewish communities.
Literature about the alleged Turkic origin of the Ashkenazi population appeared mainly after 1950, but it has been claimed faulty by most recent scholars.
See also: [[Jew]], [[Judaism]], [[Rabbenu Gershom]]
==Population genetics==
===Specific diseases===
The Ashkenazi Jewish population has, like many other [[endogamy|endogamous]] populations, a higher incidence of specific [[hereditary]] [[disease]]s. [[Genetic counseling]] and [[genetic testing]] are recommended for couples where both partners are of Ashkenazi ancestry. Some organizations, most notably [[Dor Yeshorim]], organize screening programs to prevent [[homozygote|homozygosity]] for the [[gene]]s that cause these diseases. A large number of these diseases are neurological. See [http://www.jewishgeneticscenter.org Jewish Genetics Center] for more information on testing programmes.
Diseases with higher incidence in Ashkenazim include, in alphabetical order:
* [[Bloom syndrome]]
* [[Breast cancer]] and [[ovarian cancer]] (due to higher distribution of [[BRCA1]] and [[BRCA2]]).
* [[Canavan disease]]
* [[Colorectal cancer]] due to [[hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer]] (HNPCC).
* [[Congenital adrenal hyperplasia]] (non-classical form)
* [[Crohn's disease]] (the ''NOD2/CARD15'' locus appears to be implicated)
* [[Cystic fibrosis]]
* [[Familial dysautonomia]] (Riley-Day Syndrome)
* [[Fanconi anemia]]
* [[Gaucher's disease]]
* [[Hemophilia C]]
* [[Mucolipidosis IV]]
* [[Niemann-Pick disease]]
* [[Pemphigus vulgaris]]
* [[Tay-Sachs disease]]
* [[Torsion dystonia]]
* [[Von Gierke disease]]
==Modern history==
In an essay on [[Sephardi]] Jewry, Daniel Elazar at the [[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs]]<ref name="sephardic"/> summarized the demographic history of Ashkenazi Jews in the last thousand years, noting that at the end of the 11th Century, 97% of world Jewry was Sephardic and 3% Ashkenazic; in the mid-seventeenth century, "Sephardim still outnumbered Ashkenazim three to two," but by the end of the 18th Century "Ashkenazim outnumbered Sephardim three to two, the result of improved living conditions in Christian Europe versus the Muslim world."<ref name="sephardic"/> By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for nearly 92 percent of world Jewry.<ref name="sephardic"/>
Ashkenazi Jews developed the [[Hasidic]] movement as well as major Jewish academic centers across Poland, Russia, and Lithuania in the generations after emigration from the west. After two centuries of comparative tolerance in the new nations, massive westward emigration occurred in the 1800s and 1900s in response to [[pogrom]]s and the economic opportunities offered in other parts of the world. Ashkenazi Jews have made up the majority of the [[American Jew]]ish community since 1750.<ref name="Ashkenazim"/>
Ashkenazi cultural growth led to the ''[[Haskalah]]'' or Jewish Enlightenment, and the development of [[Zionism]] in modern Europe.
===Ashkenazi Jewry and the Holocaust===
Of the estimated 8.8 million Jews living in Europe at the beginning of [[World War II]], the majority of whom were Ashkenazi, about 6 million — more than two-thirds — were systematically murdered in [[the Holocaust]]. These included 3 million of 3.3 million Polish Jews (91%); 900,000 of 1.1 million in [[Ukraine]] (82%); and 50-90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, France, Hungary, and the Baltic states. The only non-Ashkenazi community to have suffered similar depletions were the Jews of Greece.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/killedtable.html| title=Estimated Number of Jews Killed in The Final Solution| publisher=Jewish Virtual Library| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref> Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews [[Human migration|emigrated]] to countries such as [[Israel]] and the [[United States]] after the war.
Today, Ashkenazi Jews constitute approximately 80% of world Jewry,<ref name="sephardic"/> but probably less than half of [[Sabra (person)|Israeli Jews]] (see [[Demographics of Israel]]). Nevertheless they have traditionally played a prominent role in the media, economy and politics of Israel. Tensions have sometimes arisen between the mostly Ashkenazi [[upper class|elite]] whose families founded the state, and later [[aliyah|migrants]] from various non-Ashkenazi groups, who argue that they are [[discrimination|discriminated]] against.
===Achievement===
Ashkenazi Jews have a noted history of achievement. Though only 0.25% of the world population, [[:Category:Jewish scientists|Jewish scientists]] make up 28% of [[Nobel prize]] winners in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics, and have accounted for more than half of [[World Chess Championship|world chess champions]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html| title=Jewish Nobel Prize Winners| publisher=Jinfo| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref> In the United States, Ashkenazi Jews represent 2% of the population, but have won 40% of the US [[Nobel Prize]]s in science, and 25% of the [[Turing Award|ACM Turing Awards]] (the Nobel-equivalent in computer science). A significant decline in the number of Nobel prizes awarded to Europeans and a corresponding increase in the number of prizes awarded to US citizens occurred at the same time as Nazi persecutions of Jews during the 1930s and the Holocaust during the 1940s.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.smith.umd.edu/faculty/wjank/NobelShares.pdf| format=PDF| title=Old World vs. New World: Evolution of Nobel Prize Shares| first=Wolfgang| last=Jank| coauthors=Bruce L. Golden, Paul F. Zantek| year=December 2, 2004| accessdate=2006-05-24}}</ref>
Many studies show Ashkenazi Jews as having the highest average [[IQ]] of any tested ethnic group.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://homepage.mac.com/harpend/.Public/AshkenaziIQ.jbiosocsci.pdf| format=PDF| accessdate=2006-05-24| title=Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence| first=Gregory| last=Cochran| coauthors=Jason Hardy, Henry Harpending}}</ref> These studies also indicate that this advantage is primarily in verbal and mathematical, but not spatial, areas. This difference correlates well with, and helps to explain, the disproportionate achievements of Ashkenazi Jews as a group.
It has been suggested that this difference in achievement and IQ may be due not only to a culture of study and vocational training, but partially to a difference in population history. One recent theory suggests European Jews' history of persecution and subsequent working in high proportion in occupations requiring higher intelligence which were forbidden to gentiles by the church resulted in selective pressure for intelligence-enhancing genes, as well as genetic mutations that cause genetic disease when inherited from both parents (Cochran et al. 2005).<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/science/03gene.html?ex=1275451200&en=efcc603583e17b54&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss| title= Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes| publisher=The New York Times| accessdate=2006-08-16}}</ref> Another theory notes that for Jews to be socially successful in their peer group, expertise at [[Torah study]] has traditionally been an advantage, and since [[the Enlightenment]], those Jews lacking the intellectual skills for this endeavour may have been more prone to assimilate into general culture, thus leaving the reproductively-isolated Jewish population. (Murray 2003, Shafran 2005) Torah study would be consistent with the distribution of cognitive skills (with exceptional verbal and mathematical performance but average spatial performance) that account for the higher measured intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews. (See also [[Ashkenazi intelligence]].)
== Ashkenazi Chief Rabbis in the Yishuv and Israel ==
* [[Abraham Isaac Kook]] : (23 Feb 1921 - 1 Sep 1935)
* [[Isaac Halevi Herzog]] : (1937 - 25 Jul 1959)
* [[Isser Yehuda Unterman]] : (1964 - 1972)
* [[Shlomo Goren]] : (1972 - 1983)
* [[Avraham Shapira]] : (1983 - 1993)
* [[Israel Meir Lau]] : (1993 - 3 Apr 2003)
* [[She'ar-Yashuv Cohen]] (acting): (3 Apr 2003 - 14 Apr 2003)
* [[Yona Metzger]] : (14 Apr 2003 - present)
==See also==
*[[Jewish ethnic divisions]]
*[[List of Ashkenazi Jews]]
*[[Oberlander Jews]]
*[[The Thirteenth Tribe]]
==Notes==
<div class="references-small"><references/>
==References for "Who is an Ashkenazi Jew?"==
* {{cite book| last=Goldberg| first=Harvey E.| year=2001| title=The Life of Judaism| publisher=University of California Press| id=ISBN 0-520-21267-3}}
*{{cite book| last=Silberstein| first=Laurence| year=2000| title=Mapping Jewish Identities| publisher=New York University Press| id=ISBN 0-8147-9769-5}}
*{{cite book| last=Wettstein| first=Howard| year=2002| title=Diasporas and Exiles: Varieties of Jewish Identity| publisher=University of California Press| id=ISBN 0-520-22864-2}}
*{{cite book| last=Wex| first=Michael| year=2005| title=Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods| publisher=St. Martin's Press| id=ISBN 0-312-30741-1}}
==Other References==
* Beider, Alexander (2001): ''A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciations, and Migrations''. Avotaynu. ISBN 1-886223-12-2.
* Biale, David (2002): ''Cultures of the Jews: A New History''. Schoken. ISBN 0-8052-4131-0
* Brook, Kevin Alan (2003): "The Origins of East European Jews" in ''Russian History/Histoire Russe'' vol. 30, nos. 1-2, pp. 1-22.
* [[Gregory Cochran|Cochran, Gregory]]; Hardy, Jason; and [[Henry Harpending|Harpending, Henry]] (2005): "[http://homepage.mac.com/harpend/.Public/AshkenaziIQ.jbiosocsci.pdf Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence]" ([[PDF]]). ''Journal of Biosocial Science'' (Forthcoming).
* Gross, N. (1975): ''Economic History of the Jews''. Shocken Books, New York.
* Haumann, Heiko (2001): ''A History of East European Jews''. Central European University Press. ISBN 963-9241-26-1.
* Lewis, Bernard (1984): ''The Jews of Islam''. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05419-3
* [[Charles Murray|Murray, Charles]]. ''[[Human Accomplishment]]''. HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-019247-X.
* Shafran, Avi. ''Are Jews Smarter?'' Am Echad Resources, 2005, [http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Are_Jews_Smarter$.asp online version].
* Vital, David (1999): ''A People Apart: A History of the Jews in Europe''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821980-6
</div>
==External links==
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Ashkenazim.html Ashkenazi history at the Jewish Virtual Library]
* [http://jogg.info/11/coffman.htm A Mosaic of a People: The Jewish Story and a Reassessment of the DNA Evidence] by Ellen Levy-Coffman
[[Category:Ashkenazi Jews topics| ]]
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[[no:Askenasiske jøder]]
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