Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews (/ˌɑːʃkəˈnɑːzi, ˌæʃ-/ A(H)SH-kə-NAH-zee; also known as Ashkenazic Jews) or Ashkenazim form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages, originating from the Jewish communities who lived in the 10th century in the Rhineland valley and in neighbouring France before they migrated eastward to Slavic lands after the Crusades during the 11th and 13th centuries.

They traditionally follow the German rite synagogue ritual and speak Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic influence. Hebrew, on the other hand, was primarily used as a literary and sacred language until its 20th-century revival as a common language in Israel.

Facing persecution in Western Europe, particularly following the Black Death in the 14th century, the bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews migrated to the Kingdom of Poland, at the encouragement of Casimir III the Great and his successors, making Poland the main centre of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions to Europe, and underwent a transformation in their interpretation of Judaism. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Jews who remained in or returned to historical German lands experienced a cultural reorientation. Under the influence of the Haskalah and the struggle for emancipation, as well as the intellectual and cultural ferment in urban centres, some gradually abandoned Yiddish in favor of German and developed new forms of Jewish religious life and cultural identity. Throughout the centuries, Ashkenazim made significant contributions to Europe's philosophy, scholarship, literature, art, music, and science.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930 near the population's peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II, which killed some six million Jews, affecting practically every European Jewish family. In 1933, prior to World War II, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3 million. Israeli demographer and statistician Sergio D. Pergola implied that Ashkenazim comprised 65–70% of Jews worldwide in 2000, while other estimates suggest more than 75%. As of 2013^[update], the population was estimated to be between 10 million and 11.2 million.

The name Ashkenazi derives from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, son of Japhet, son of Noah, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). The name of Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenaz is usually derived from Assyrian Aškūza (cuneiform Aškuzai/Iškuzai), a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates; the name Aškūza is identified with the Scythians. The intrusive n in the Biblical name is likely due to a scribal error confusing a vav ו‎ with a nun נ‎.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as one of three kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni and Ararat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon. In Talmud (b. Yoma 10a; y. Megillah 71b) the name Gomer is rendered as Germania, which elsewhere in rabbinical literature was identified with Germanikia in northwestern Syria, but later became associated with Germania. In Genesis Rabbah, Rabbi Berechiah mentions Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah as German tribes or as German lands. Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia, viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, as early as a 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius.