Ashkenazi Jews

This article is about the Ashkenazi Jews. For the Russian pianist, see Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Ashkenazi

Regions with significant populations
United States: app. 5 mil. [1] Israel: app. 3.7 mil. [2] Europe: app. 1.7 mil. [3] Argentina: nn South Africa: nn Oceania: nn
Languages
Liturgical: Ashkenazi Hebrew *Traditional: Yiddish and various other languages *Modern: typically the language of whatever country they now reside in, including most numerously American English in the United States and Modern Hebrew in Israel
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
• Jews   • Sephardi Jews   • Mizrahi Jews   • Other Jewish groups

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים Standard Hebrew, Aškanazi, Aškanazim, Tiberian Hebrew, ʾAškănāzî, ʾAškănāzîm, pronounced sing. [ˌaʃkəˈnazi] pl. [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], not with [ʦ] as in Tzar), are Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Poland, Austria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. From medieval times until the mid-20th century, the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews was Yiddish or Slavic languages such as the (now extinct) Knaanic, and they developed a distinct culture and liturgy influenced by interaction with surrounding nations.

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 [4]. 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.

Origin of Ashkenazim

From Roman Empire to Dark Ages

After the forced Jewish exile from Judea in 70 CE and the complete Roman takeover of Judea following the Bar Kochba rebellion of 133-135 CE, most Jewish populations could be found dispersed throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with the largest populations in the Levant, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Greece, Southern Italy, Southern Gaul (France), Spain, and North Africa. Full Roman citizenship was denied to Jews until 212 CE, when Emperor Caracalla granted all free peoples this privilege. However as a penalty for the first Jewish Revolt, Jews were still required to pay a poll tax until the reign of Emperor Julian in 363 CE. Throughout the first three centuries of the Common Era, Jews were free to form networks of cultural and religious ties and entered into various local occupations, the most prevalent occupation being trade (due to easy mobility in the dispersed Jewish communities).

The Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century by such tribes as the Ostrogoths, Huns, and Vandals caused massive economic and social instability within the Empire, contributing to its decline. At that time, Jews were known to have lived in Cologne and Trier as well as what is now France, between 300 and 600, but they were expelled by King Dagobert of the Franks in 629. The Jews in these former Roman territories now faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were being enforced. New opportunities in trade and commerce in Northern Europe (once so-called "barbarian" lands) and Christian persecution were two likely factors that influenced the migration of Jewish traders from Southern Europe to towns along the Rhine River during the early Dark Ages. When these first Ashkenazi communities came under the rule of Charlemagne (c.800) he gave the Jews in his lands freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the Roman Empire, and these favorable conditions stimulated even more Jewish migration. This period also saw Jewish merchants taking on the occupation of money-lending when Church legislation banned Christians from the practice of "usury", defined as lending money in exchange for interest, making the Jewish presence a significant part of the economy.

Possible DNA Clues

DNA research on Ashkenazi origins may shed some light on the mechanism of Jewish migration from the Southern Mediterranean to the Northern European regions. One study ^[5] indicates that the Y chromosome of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews is of Middle Eastern origin, similar to Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian DNA types. Since the Y chromosome is only passed from father to son, it may be used to trace Jewish male origins. Another study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA ^[6] (mtDNA can only be passed from mother to child) allows the tracking of maternal origins. According to this study the mtDNA generally match that of local European populations and not Middle Eastern populations. These studies would indicate that male Jewish traders moved from Middle Eastern and Southern European communities into Northern European communities and intermarried local females in those regions. A more recent study has indicated that about 40% of the current Ashkenazi population are descended matrilineally from just four women.^[7]

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 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 "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 [8]. 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 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 branch of Turks including nearly all Turkic peoples today from Turkey to Turkmenistan.

Ashkenaz in later 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 Yidn, 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 (Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:9; idem on Talmud tractate Sukkah 17a) and the country of Ashkenaz (Talmud, Hullin 93a). 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 (ib. p. 129).

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 German tribes or as German lands. It may correspond to a 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 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 Pesach (Passover): Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, peanuts, 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 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 Halachic 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). 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

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the nusach (Hebrew, "liturgical tradition") used by Ashkenazi Jews 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 Jewish background. This family name was adopted by the families who lived in Sephardi countries and were of Askenazic origins, after being nicknamed Askenazi 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 endogamous populations, a higher incidence of specific hereditary diseases. 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 homozygosity for the genes that cause these diseases. A large number of these diseases are neurological. See 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
• Tay-Sachs disease
• Torsion dystonia
• Von Gierke disease

IQ and scientific achievement

According to many studies, Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average intelligence of any ethnic group as measured by IQ, leading East Asians, who also perform highly in IQ. Many of these studies indicate that the primary Ashkenazi advantage is in verbal reasoning and the East Asian advantage in spatial (mathematical) reasoning.

Ashkenazi Jews also perform highly in correlated areas. For example, while only 0.25% of the world population is Jewish, 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 champions.[9] In the U.S., Ashkenazi Jews represent 2% of the population, but have won 40% of the US Nobel Prizes in science, and 25% of the 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.[10]

Whether this difference in IQ and achievement is due entirely to a culture of study and vocational training (environment), or partially to a difference in genetic variables, is presently unknown and controversial. (See Race and intelligence)

"Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence"

See also Race and intelligence

A controversial 2005 paper [11] to be published in Cambridge's Journal of Biosocial Science, [12] hypothesizes that European Jews' history of persecution created social selection for high intelligence, leaving a positive effect on the hereditary component of their IQ.

The paper, by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending of the University of Utah, notes that European Jews were forbidden to work in many of the common jobs of the middle-ages from AD800 to 1700, such as agriculture, and subsequently worked in high proportion in meritocratic, IQ-intensive jobs, such as finance and trade, some of which were forbidden to gentiles by the church. Those who performed better are known to have raised more children to adulthood, thus passing on their genes in greater proportion than those who performed less successfully. The Jews rarely married outside of their faith, creating a reproductively isolated population in which this selective pressure would, in Cochran et al's statistical models, be able to effectively influence gene frequency in the 35 generations over these 9 centuries.

Cochran et. al. hypothesize that in this environment the social selection for intelligence was strong enough that mutations creating higher intelligence when inherited from one parent but creating disease when inherited from both parents would still be selected for, which could explain the unusual pattern of genetic diseases found in the Ashkenazi population, such as Tay-Sachs and other sphingolipid diseases. Some of these diseases have been shown to correlate with high IQ, and others are known to cause neurons to grow an increased number of connections to neighboring neurons.

Cochran comments in a New York Times article that he was drawn to the question when he noted that patients with torsion dystonia, relatively common in Ashkenazi Jews, had an average IQ of 122.[13] Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker states that the results are bound to be controversial but are hard to ignore. Others, such as geneticist Andrew Clark and mathematician Montgomery Slatkin, comment that the study seems far-fetched and is unsupported by direct evidence.

There have been other theories along similar lines. One 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)

Modern history

In an essay on Sephardi Jewry, Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs [14] 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 as against the Muslim world." [15] By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for nearly 92 percent of world Jewry. [16]

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 pogroms 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 [17].

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 were systematically murdered in The Holocaust; 3 million of 3.3 million Polish Jews, and 900,000 of 1.1 million in Ukraine, as well as 50-90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, France, and the Baltic states. [18] Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to countries such as France, the United States, and Israel after the war.

Today, Ashkenazi Jews constitute approximately eighty percent of world Jewry [19], but probably less than 50% of Israeli Jews. Nevertheless they play a very important role in the current state of Israel, where they occupy prominent positions in politics and in the media; in Israel some tensions arise from time to time between the Ashkenazim and other Jews who argue that they are being discriminated against.

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)

References

• Beider, Alexander (2001): A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciations, and Migrations. Avotaynu. ISBN 1886223122.
• Biale, David (2002): Cultures of the Jews: A New History. Schoken. ISBN 0805241310
• Brook, Kevin Alan (1999): The Jews of Khazaria. Jason Aronson. ISBN 0765762129.
• Cochran, Gregory; Hardy, Jason; and Harpending, Henry (2004?): "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" PDF.
• 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 9639241261.
• Murray, Charles. Human Accomplishment. HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 006019247X.
• Shafran, Avi. Are Jews Smarter? Am Echad Resources, 2005, online version.
• Vital, David (1999): A People Apart: A History of the Jews in Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198219806

1. <span class="citation wikicite" id="endnote_<Hammer>">^ Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes. M. F. Hammer, 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. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 9, 2000.
2. ^ http://www.humanitas-international.org/perezites/news/jewish-dna-nytimes.htm
3. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/12/jewish.descent.ap/index.html

See also

• Jewish ethnic divisions
• List of Ashkenazi Jews
• Oberlander Jews

External links

• Ashkenazi history at the Jewish Virtual Library