Sephardic vs Ashkenazic

In summary: Ashkenazic has come to mean Jews from Germany or other countries in Europe, and Sephardic are Jews from the Iberian Peninsula (Modern Spain and Portugal) and the Near East such as Turkey and Egypt. Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim are African Jews. Please read on.

Ashkenazi Jews In Detail:A Jewish ethnic division which coalesced in the Holy Roman Empire around the turn of the first millennium. The traditional language of Ashkenazi Jews consisted of various dialects of Yiddish. They established communities throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The copious number of genetic studies on Ashkenazim — researching both their paternal and maternal lineages — all point to ancient Levantine origins.

The Yiddish language, which many people think of as the international language of Judaism, is really the language of Ashkenazic Jews.

Sephardi Jews ("The Jews of Spain") In Detail: A Jewish ethnic division whose ethnogenesis and emergence as a distinct community of Jews coalesced in the Iberian Peninsula around the start of the 2nd millennium. They established communities throughout Spain and Portugal, evolving what would become their distinctive characteristics and diasporic identity. Their millennial residence as an open and organised Jewish community in Iberia was brought to an end starting with the issuance of the Alhambra Decree by Spain's Catholic Monarchs in the late 15th century, which resulted in a combination of internal and external migrations, mass conversions, and executions.

As stated in www.jewfaqorg/ashkseph.htm, Sephardic Jews have their own international language: Ladino, which was based on Spanish and Hebrew in the same way that Yiddish was based on German and Hebrew. Further, Sephardic Jews have a different pronunciation of a few Hebrew vowels and one Hebrew consonant, though most Ashkenazim are adopting Sephardic pronunciation now because it is the pronunciation used in Israel. See Hebrew Alphabet. Sephardic prayer services are somewhat different from Ashkenazic ones, and Sephardim use different melodies in their services. Sephardic Jews also have different holiday customs and different traditional foods. For example, Ashkenazic Jews eat latkes (potato pancakes) to celebrate Chanukkah; Sephardic Jews eat sufganiot (jelly doughnuts).

Other Jewish Subcultures In Detail: There are some Jews who do not fit into this Ashkenazic/Sephardic distinction. Yemenite Jews, Ethiopian Jews (also known as Beta Israel and sometimes called Falashas), and Asian Jews also have some distinct customs and traditions. These groups, however, are relatively small and virtually unknown in America. For more information on Ethiopian Jewry, see the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry or Friends of Ethiopian Jews. For more information on Asian Jewry, see Jewish Asia.

Full credit for some of the text used above is given to http://www.jewfaqorg/ashkseph.htm; there is more information and possible updates/corrections at that site.

 
Jews expelled from Spain 527 yrs in Turkey
When the Spanish Inquisition expanded to the New World
Ladino in the air Sephardi foods Seattle
Jews in Turkey - Ladino’s musical heritage
Sephardic Birthright - Spanish and Portuguese Citizenship
A good history of Sephardim
Mizrahim
Mizrahi (in Hebrew, "Eastern" or "Oriental") Jews come from Middle Eastern ancestry. Their earliest communities date from Late Antiquity, and the oldest and largest of these communities were in modern Iraq (Babylonia), Iran (Persia), and Yemen.
Ashkenazic and Sephardic Disputes on Passover
About types - areas - of diaspora
This may move to a different page, but relates to this page...
Cripto
Sephardic versus Ashkenazi
A good descriptive comparison
A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico
A book, beginning with the origins of Jews and crypto Jews in Iberia from 200 BCE to 1492, and the second the crypto-Jewish experience in New Spain from 1521 to 1649
New Mexico´s Hidden Jews -
Crypto Jews, Sephardic
Wikipedia: Sephardic
Very good detail
Wikipedia: Ashkenazi
Very good detail
Differences in customs and quirks
Passover customs and quirks vary tremendously between Ashkenazi, Sephardi
Understanding sephardi-ashkenazi split
Huffington post
Ashkenazim - Jewish Virtual Library
focus on Ashkenazim - biblical and Talmudic studies
Ashkenazi Jews-Wikipedia
study of origin of Ashkenazim
What is difference between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews
Deals with various topics related to differences in origin of types
Part X Sephardic Jews and the LDS Connection
Conversos in America.
Sephardic Jews - Wikipedia
Jews who follow Sephardic Halakha
 

Etymology -Ashkenazi
The name Ashkenazi derives from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). Gomer has been identified with the Cimmerians, while the biblical term Ashkenaz here may be an error for 'Ashkuz', from Assyrian Aškuza (A/Is-k/gu-zu-ai/Asguzi in cuneiform inscriptions) a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. This ethnonym perhaps denoted the Scythians, though the identification is problematic. Just as Greek authors sometimes called the little-known peoples of the North 'Scythians' and other times 'Sarmatians', the Jews from the South (the Mediterranean and Middle East) said 'Ashkenaz' meaning the peoples of the North (i.e., Khazaria). The Assyrian name a-sh-k-z, pronounced as 'Ashkuz', later came to read erroneously as 'Ashkenaz', mistaking the inserted Hebrew vowel ?, pronounced as u, for the Hebrew consonant ?, pronounced as n.

Etymology - Sephardi
The name Sephardi essentially means "Spanish" or "Hispanic". It comes from Sepharad, a Biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, the Iberian Peninsula, what in modern times is Spain and Portugal. Sepharad still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew.