(Germany) wearing the mandatory
yellow badge, 16th century Like other
Jewish ethnic groups, the Ashkenazim originate from the
Israelites and
Hebrews of historical
Israel and Judah. Ashkenazi Jews share a significant amount of ancestry with other Jewish populations and derive their ancestry mostly from populations in the Levant and Southern Europe. The question of how Ashkenazi Jews came to exist as a distinct community is unknown, and has given rise to several theories.
Early Jewish communities in Europe Beginning in the fourth century BCE, Jewish colonies sprang up in Southern Europe, including the Aegean Islands, Greece, and Italy. Jews left ancient Israel for a number of causes, including a number of
push and
pull factors. More Jews moved into these communities as a result of wars, persecution, unrest, and for opportunities in trade and commerce. Following
Alexander the Great's conquests, Jews migrated to Greek settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean, spurred on by economic opportunities. Jewish economic migration to southern Europe is also believed to have occurred during the Roman period. In 63 BCE, the
Siege of Jerusalem saw the
Roman Republic conquer Judea, and thousands of Jewish prisoners of war were brought to Rome as slaves. After gaining their freedom, they settled permanently in Rome as traders. It is likely that there was an additional influx of Jewish slaves taken to southern Europe by Roman forces after the
capture of Jerusalem by the forces of
Herod the Great with assistance from Roman forces in 37 BCE. It is known that Jewish war captives were sold into slavery after the suppression of a minor Jewish revolt in 53 BCE, and some were probably taken to southern Europe. Regarding Jewish settlements founded in southern Europe during the Roman era,
E. Mary Smallwood wrote that "no date or origin can be assigned to the numerous settlements eventually known in the west, and some may have been founded as a result of the dispersal of Palestinian Jews after the revolts of AD 66–70 and 132–135, but it is reasonable to conjecture that many, such as the settlement in
Puteoli attested in 4 BC, went back to the late republic or early empire and originated in voluntary emigration and the lure of trade and commerce." The Diaspora Jews maintained ties with the Land of Israel, embarking on pilgrimages and making voluntary donations to the Temple via the
half-shekel tax. Following the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, this internal contribution was replaced by the
fiscus Judaicus, a coerced Roman tax redirected toward the construction and maintenance of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome.
Jewish–Roman Wars The first and second centuries CE saw a series of unsuccessful large-scale
Jewish revolts against Rome. The Roman suppression of these revolts led to wide-scale destruction, a very high toll of life and enslavement. The
First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) resulted in the
destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Two generations later, the
Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE) erupted. Judea's countryside was devastated, and many were killed, displaced or sold into slavery. Jerusalem was rebuilt as a
Roman colony under the name of
Aelia Capitolina, and the province of Judea was renamed
Syria Palaestina. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death. Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt. With their national aspirations crushed and widespread devastation in Judea, despondent Jews migrated out of Judea in the aftermath of both revolts, and many settled in southern Europe. In contrast to the earlier Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, the movement was by no means a singular, centralized event, and a Jewish diaspora had already been established before. During both of these rebellions, many Jews were captured and sold into slavery by the Romans. According to the Jewish historian
Josephus, 97,000 Jews were sold as slaves in the aftermath of the first revolt. In one occasion,
Vespasian reportedly ordered 6,000 Jewish prisoners of war from
Galilee to work on the
Isthmus of Corinth in Greece. Jewish slaves and their children eventually gained their freedom and joined local free Jewish communities.
Late antiquity In the late Roman Empire, Jews were free to form networks of cultural and religious ties and enter into various local occupations. They also continued to send
voluntary contributions to the
Nesi'im in Israel, in accordance with Roman law.) After
Christianity became the official religion of Rome and Constantinople
in 380 CE, Jews were increasingly marginalized and the contributions were banned. Archaeological evidence from this period illustrates the presence of the Jewish Diaspora across the Greco-Roman world. For instance, the
Ostia Synagogue near Rome is one of the oldest synagogues yet found outside the Land of Israel, dating to the first century CE. The
Synagogue in the Agora of Athens is dated to the period between 267 and 396 CE. The Stobi Synagogue in
Macedonia was built on the ruins of a more ancient synagogue in the 4th century, while later in the 5th century, the synagogue was transformed into a Christian basilica.
Hellenistic Judaism thrived in
Antioch and
Alexandria, and many of these
Greek-speaking Jews would convert to Christianity. Sporadic
epigraphic evidence in gravesite excavations attest to the presence of Jews after the 2nd and 3rd centuries where Roman garrisons were established, particularly in Brigetio (
Szőny), Aquincum (
Óbuda), Intercisa (
Dunaújváros), Triccinae (
Sárvár), Savaria (
Szombathely), Sopianae (
Pécs) in Hungary, and Mursa (
Osijek) in Croatia. There was a sufficient number of Jews in
Pannonia to form communities and build a synagogue. Jewish troops were among the Syrian soldiers transferred there, and replenished from the Middle East. After 175 CE Jews came from
Antioch,
Tarsus, and
Cappadocia. Others came from Italy and the Hellenized parts of the Roman Empire. The excavations suggest they first lived in isolated enclaves attached to Roman legion camps and intermarried with other similar oriental families within the military orders of the region. No evidence has yet been found of a Jewish presence in antiquity in Germany beyond its Roman border, nor in Eastern Europe. In Gaul and Germany itself, with the possible exception of
Trier and
Cologne, the archeological evidence suggests at most a fleeting presence of very few Jews, primarily itinerant traders or artisans. A substantial Jewish population emerged in northern Gaul by the Middle Ages, but Jewish communities existed in 465 CE in
Brittany, in 524 CE in
Valence, and in 533 CE in
Orléans. Throughout this period and into the early Middle Ages, some Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures, mostly through conversion to Christianity. King
Dagobert I of the
Franks expelled the Jews from his
Merovingian kingdom in 629. Jews in former Roman territories faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were enforced.
Population estimate Estimating the number of Jews in the Roman Empire is difficult due to a lack of accurate documentation. The 13th-century author
Bar Hebraeus gave a figure of 6,944,000 Jews in the first-century Roman world and one million beyond.
Salo Wittmayer Baron considered the figure convincing. However, contemporary scholars now accept that Bar Hebraeus based his figure on a census of total Roman citizens and thus included non-Jews, the figure of 6,944,000 being recorded in
Eusebius' Chronicon.
Louis Feldman, previously an active supporter of the figure, now states that he and Baron were mistaken.
Brian McGing rejects Baron's figures entirely, arguing that we have no idea as to the size of the Jewish demographic in the ancient world. The idea of ancient Jews trying to convert Gentiles to Judaism is nowadays rejected by several scholars.
Early and High Middle Ages Historical records show evidence of Jewish communities north of the
Alps and
Pyrenees as early as the 8th and 9th centuries.
Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire around 800, including northern Italy and Rome, brought on a brief period of stability and unity in
Francia. This created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle again north of the Alps. Charlemagne granted the Jews freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the
Roman Empire. In addition, Jews from southern Italy, fleeing religious persecution, began to move into Central Europe. Returning to Frankish lands, many Jewish merchants took up occupations in finance and commerce, including moneylending (then commonly referred to as
usury, as medieval Church law prohibited Christians from charging interest on loans). Additional Jewish merchants arrived under
Louis the Pious, with Jewish communities emerging in southern France, and from there north along the Rhone River. in
Erfurt, Germany is thought to be the oldest synagogue building intact in Europe Germany too saw new Jewish communities by the Rhine and Danube Rivers, and
Persian Jews) and
Maghrebi Jewish traders from North Africa, who had contacts with their Ashkenazi brethren and had visited each other from time to time in each's domain. Jews migrated to these cities often in response to new economic opportunities and at the invitation of local Christian rulers. Thus
Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, invited Jacob ben Yekutiel and his fellow Jews to settle in his lands; and soon after the
Norman conquest of England,
William the Conqueror likewise extended a welcome to continental Jews to take up residence there. Bishop
Rüdiger Huzmann called on the Jews of
Mainz to relocate to
Speyer. In all of these decisions, the idea that Jews had the know-how and capacity to jump-start the economy, improve revenues, and enlarge trade seems to have played a prominent role. Typically, Jews relocated close to the markets and churches in town centres, where, though they came under the authority of both royal and ecclesiastical powers, they were accorded administrative autonomy. In the ninth through eleventh centuries, diaspora Jews from Europe embarked on pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the holiday of Sukkot and attended the annual
Mount of Olives Hoshana Rabbah ceremony. According to 16th-century mystic
Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, Ashkenazi Jews lived in
Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the
First Crusade came to siege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to
Worms to repay the favor. Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of
halakhic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the 11th century. In the 11th century, the "
Rabbinic mode of thought and life" and the culture of the
Babylonian Talmud that underlies it became established in southern Italy and then spread north to Ashkenaz. However, many traditions and customs from the
Jerusalem Talmud and other
Land of Israel rabbinic sources were known and practiced in Ashkenaz long before the 11th century—so long before that the sources of these practices were forgotten by 11th century Ashkenazi writers, and the practices regarded simply as "
minhag". '' (1493) depicts
Jews being burned alive in Deggendorf, 1338. Numerous massacres of Jews occurred throughout Europe during the Christian
Crusades. Inspired by the preaching of a First Crusade, crusader mobs in France and Germany perpetrated the
Rhineland massacres of 1096, devastating Jewish communities along the Rhine River, including the SHuM cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. Nonetheless, Jewish life in Germany persisted, while some Ashkenazi Jews joined Sephardic Jewry in Spain.
Late Middle Ages Expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), and parts of Germany (15th century), gradually pushed Ashkenazi Jewry eastward, to
Poland (10th century),
Lithuania (10th century), and Russia (12th century). Over this period of several hundred years, some have suggested, Jewish economic activity was focused on trade, business management, and financial services, due to several presumed factors:
Christian European prohibitions restricting certain activities by Jews, preventing certain financial activities (such as "
usurious" loans) between Christians, high rates of literacy, near-universal male education, and ability of merchants to rely upon and trust family members living in different regions and countries. In Poland, Jews were granted special protection by the
Statute of Kalisz of 1264. By the 15th century, the Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Poland were the largest Jewish communities of the Diaspora. This area, which eventually fell under the domination of Russia,
Austria, and
Prussia (Germany) following the
Partitions of Poland, and was later largely regained by reborn Poland in the
interbellum, would remain the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the
Holocaust. The answer to why there was so little assimilation of Jews in central and eastern Europe for so long would seem to lie in part in the probability that the alien surroundings in central and eastern Europe were not conducive, though there was some assimilation. Furthermore, Jews lived almost exclusively in
shtetls, maintained a strong system of education for males, heeded rabbinic leadership, and had a very different lifestyle to that of their neighbours; all of these tendencies increased with every outbreak of
antisemitism. In parts of Eastern Europe, before the arrival of the Ashkenazi Jews from Central Europe, some non-Ashkenazi Jews were present who spoke
Leshon Knaan and held various other Non-Ashkenazi traditions and customs. In 1966, the historian
Cecil Roth questioned the inclusion of all Yiddish speaking Jews as Ashkenazim in descent, suggesting that upon the arrival of Ashkenazi Jews from central Europe to Eastern Europe, from the Middle Ages to the 16th century, there were a substantial number of non-Ashkenazim Jews already there who later abandoned their original Eastern European Jewish culture in favor of the Ashkenazi one. However, according to more recent research, mass migrations of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews occurred to Eastern Europe, from Central Europe in the west, who due to high birth rates absorbed and largely replaced the preceding non-Ashkenazi Jewish groups of Eastern Europe (whose numbers the demographer
Sergio Della Pergola considers to have been small). Genetic evidence also indicates that Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews largely descend from Ashkenazi Jews who migrated from central to eastern Europe and subsequently experienced high birthrates and genetic isolation. By the late-fourteenth century, the Ashkenazi population in Jerusalem had grown, and a yeshiva for them was established by
Isaac Asir HaTikvah. They prayed in the same synagogue as the Sephardim, however. Additional European Jews arrived in the 15th century, such as
Elijah of Ferrara. Some Jewish immigration from Southern Europe to Eastern Europe continued into the early modern period. During the 16th century, as conditions for Italian Jews worsened, many Jews from Venice and the surrounding area migrated to Poland and Lithuania. During the 16th and 17th centuries, some
Sephardi Jews and
Romaniote Jews from throughout the
Ottoman Empire migrated to Eastern Europe, as did Arabic-speaking
Mizrahi Jews and
Persian Jews.
Modern history Material relating to the history of German Jews has been preserved in the communal accounts of certain communities on the Rhine, a
Memorbuch, and a
Liebesbrief, documents that are now part of the
Sassoon Collection.
Heinrich Graetz also added to the history of German Jewry in modern times in the abstract of his seminal work,
History of the Jews, which he entitled "Volksthümliche Geschichte der Juden". In an essay on Sephardi Jewry,
Daniel Elazar at the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs summarized the demographic history of Ashkenazi Jews in the last thousand years. He noted that at the end of the 11th century, 97% of world Jewry was Sephardic and 3% Ashkenazi; in the mid-17th century, "Sephardim still outnumbered Ashkenazim three to two"; by the end of the 18th century, "Ashkenazim outnumbered Sephardim three to two, the result of improved living conditions in Christian Europe versus the Ottoman Muslim world." In the generations after emigration from the west, Jewish communities in places like Poland, Russia, and Belarus enjoyed a comparatively stable socio-political environment. A thriving publishing industry and the printing of hundreds of biblical commentaries precipitated the development of the
Hasidic movement as well as major Jewish academic centers. After two centuries of comparative tolerance in the new nations, massive westward emigration occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries in response to
pogroms in the east and the economic opportunities offered in other parts of the world. Ashkenazi Jews have made up the majority of the
American Jewish community since 1750. As a reaction to increasing antisemitism and assimilation following the emancipation,
Zionism developed in central Europe. Other Jews, particularly those in the
Pale of Settlement, turned to
socialism. These tendencies would be united in
Labor Zionism, the founding ideology of the State of Israel.
The Holocaust in
Buenos Aires,
Argentina, founded in 1932. 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 1.5 million in Ukraine (60%); and 50–90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, Hungary, and the Baltic states, and over 25% of the Jews in France. Sephardi communities suffered similar devastation in a few countries, including Greece, the Netherlands and the former Yugoslavia. As the large majority of the victims were Ashkenazi Jews, their percentage dropped from an estimate of 92% of world Jewry in 1930 Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to countries such as Israel, Canada, Argentina,
Australia,
United Kingdom, and the United States after the war. Following the Holocaust, some sources place Ashkenazim today as making up approximately 83–85% of Jews worldwide, while
Sergio DellaPergola in a rough calculation of
Sephardic and
Mizrahi Jews, implies that Ashkenazi make up a notably lower figure, less than 74%.
Israel From the 1880s onwards, Ashkenazi Jews from Russia, Poland and Germany
immigrated to the
Land of Israel in large numbers. By 1948, they comprised 80% of the Jewish population of Israel, shortly before the
Jewish exodus from the Muslim world brought more Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews into Israeli society. Today, Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, and many no longer see such historic markers of identity as relevant to their life experiences. Between the 1950s and late 1990s, intermarriage increased, such that the number of Jewish Israelis with multiethnic parents doubled from 14% to 28%. Relations between the Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi communities have also been tense at times, marred by claims of
racism on all sides. This has given rise to protest movements such as the Israeli
Black Panthers, led by
Saadia Marciano, a
Moroccan Jew. That is to say, all Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel were strongly encouraged to "meltdown" their own particular exilic identities within the general social "pot" in order to become Israeli. Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in
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 from 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 that 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.
United States As of 2020, 66% of American Jews identify as Ashkenazic, compared to 4% who identify as Sephardic or Mizrahi, and 6% who claim mixed heritage. A disproportionate number of Ashkenazi Americans are religious compared to American Jews of other ethnic groups. They live in large populations in the states of
New York,
California,
Florida, and
New Jersey. The majority of American Ashkenazi Jewish voters vote for the
Democratic Party; Orthodox Ashkenazim tend to support the
Republican Party, while Conservative, Reform, and non denominational Ashkenazim tend to support the Democratic Party. Though Ashkenazi Jews have never exceeded 3% of the American population, as of 2006, Jews accounted for 37% of the winners of the U.S. National Medal of Science, 25% of the American Nobel Prize winners in literature, and 40% of the American Nobel Prize winners in science and economics. ==Definition==