Jewish ethnic divisions - Definition and Overview

Jewish ethnic divisions:

The most commonly used terms to describe ethnic divisions among Jews presently are: Ashkenazi (meaning "German" in Hebrew, denoting the Central European base of Jewry); and Sephardi (meaning "Spanish" in Hebrew, denoting their Spanish and North African location). They refer to both religious and ethnic divisions. (Some scholars hold that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of those who originally followed the Palestinian Jewish religious tradition, and Sephardic Jews are descendants of those who originally followed the Babylonian religious tradition.)

Jews have historically been divided into four major ethnic groups:

• Ashkenazim are Jews who lived in Germany or France before migrating to Eastern Europe.
• Sephardim are Jews who lived in Spain or Portugal before their explusion in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella.
• Oriental or "Mizrahi" Jews (edut hamizrach in Hebrew are Jews who lived in the Middle East and North Africa, but later spread to Central Asia and South Asia). (Note: In common usage, most Oriental Jews are now referred to as Sephardic, as the religious rites of Oriental and Sephardic Jews are essentially the same.)
• Yemenite Jews are Oriental Jews whose geographical and social isolation from the rest of the Jewish community allowed them to develop a liturgy and set of practices sufficiently distinct from other Oriental Jewish groups so as to be recognized as a different group.

Of these communities, the largest by far are the Ashkenazim, comprising approximately 70 percent of the Jewish total, with Oriental Jews comprising most of the remainder. Many Sephardim live in France (the majority of French Jews are Sephardic), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (small numbers), and the United States (a very small number), but most are in Israel (about 50 percent of Israelis), where they have created their own large ethnic political party called Shas guided by rabbis such as Ovadia Yosef. (Note that not all Sephardim belong to or support Shas.)

Smaller groups

These groups are described in terms of their historic geography; significant numbers of these Jews live today in Israel.

• Gruzim are Georgian-speaking Jews from Georgia in the Caucasus.
• Juhurim are mountain Jews mainly from Daghestan in the eastern Caucasus.
• Bene Israel are the Jews of Mumbai, India.
• Cochin Jews are also Indian Jews.
• Romaniotes are Greek-speaking Jews living in the Balkans from the Hellenistic era until today.
• Ethiopian Jews and various other small African Jewish populations are also found.
• Bukharan Jews are Jews from Central Asia. They get their name from the Uzbek city of Bukhara, which once had a large community.
• Baghdadi Jews [1] (http://adaniel.tripod.com/baghdadi.htm) Those Jews camr from Arab countries mainly Iran and settled in India in 18th Century.

These smaller groups number in the thousands or tens of thousands, with the Gruzim being most numerous at about 100,000. Many members of these groups have now emigrated from their traditional homelands, largely to Israel. For example, only about 10 percent of the Gruzim remain in Georgia.