Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews / Ashkenazic Jews / Ashkenazim are Jews who originally lived in northern and eastern Europe. They once lived in the area of Rhineland and France and after the crusades they moved to Poland, Lithuania and Russia. In the 17th century, avoiding persecution, many Jews moved to and settled in Western Europe.

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]

Scientists believe that Ashkenazi Jews originally came from the Land of Israel and initially went to Italy, France, and Germany. Later, during pogroms in the middle ages, mainly in Germany, they fled to Poland and Lithuania, and from there they spread over the rest of Eastern Europe. They then adopted the Yiddish language.^[18][19]

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 (pronunciation), cultural tradition and worship style.

During World War II, about 6 million Jews, 5 million of whom were Ashkenazi, were killed in the Holocaust. The Holocaust destroyed or greatly reduced the 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 14.6 million Jews of the world. They are also the mainstream of Israeli politics. Famous Ashkenazim are Albert Einstein, George Gershwin, Gustav Mahler, Franz Kafka.