Ashkenazi Jews are Jews from Europe.
Over the centuries, many European pagans and Christians converted to Judaism, and their descendants are referred to as Ashkenazi Jews. Of course, there had always been some Jews in Europe who were descendants from the original immigrants from Judea. Apart from those who fled to Spain to avoid persecution, their descendants are also called Ashkenazi Jews.
Yes, but Ashkenazi Jews are stricter than Sephardi Jews.
An Ashkenazi is an alternative term for an Ashkenazi Jew, a group of Jews of German and Eastern European origin.
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Yes, they are.
of course
Ashkenazi Jews are an ethnic group comprised of Jews who went to Europe after the expulsion. Ashkenaz was the word for Germany in the Middle Ages, but it generally applies to Jews with a European ancestry.
Ashkenazi Jews are one of the two main groups of Jews, the other being Sephardi Jews. Ashkenazi Jews differ from Sephardi Jews in that they do not eat legumes, grains, and rice, but they have generally less strict rules for kosher meats and combining fish and dairy. They also more permissive of married and widowed women wearing wigs and do not name their children after living relatives.
Reform Judaism had its origins in the Ashkenazi community, but there are plenty of Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews and plenty of Reform Jews with Sephardic backgrounds. In Europe, you can find Liberal synagogues (analogous to the Reform movement in the United States) that are dominated by Sephardic Jews, predominantly in French speaking countries that welcomed many Algerian Jews after the collapse of French North Africa.
Ashkenazi Jews live all over the world and speak the languages of their countries. The most common languages spoken by Ashkenazi Jews are:EnglishHebrewFrenchRussianSpanishYiddish**Yiddish was once the main daily language of Ashkenazi Jews, but today less than 1 million can speak it fluently, and most of these speakers are elderly. Fluent Yiddish speakers mainly live in Belarus, Israel, and Argentina.
Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews
Rice (regardless of type) is classified as 'kitniyot'. This means that Ashkenazi Jews will not eat it during Passover but some Sephardi and Mizrachi groups will.