Ashkenazi Jews or Ashkenazim are the group of Jews and their descendants whose trace their origins to Germany many centuries ago. The term has also come to refer to Jews from Central and Eastern Europe.
Many Jewish communities fled east out of Germany due to violence. As they moved, Ashkenazi culture thrived and Yiddish became their main language.
Ashkenazim have different traditions, language practices, literatures, foods, material cultures, histories, songs, stories, and forms of worship from Sephardic and other Jews.
Today, about three quarters of the world’s Jews are Ashkenazim.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
Istanbul Ashkenazi Sinagogue interior by Alaexis on Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 2.5.
