Jewish Communities Around the World
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Jews living outside of Israel are often referred to as Jews in the Diaspora (the dispersion, or scattering). There have been several scatterings of Jews beginning with the destruction of the first Temple in 587 BCE (Before the Common Era). There a several sub-ethnic groups within Judaism though these groupings overlap and are not always clearly defined. However, whereever Jews live today, they all originated in the Middle East or converted to Judaism.
Ashkenazim --'Ashkenaz' refers
to Germany and Ashkenazi Jews come from Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine
and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Today most of the world's Jews
trace their ancestry to Ashkenazi roots.
- Sephardim -- Jews originating in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) are referred to as Sephardic Jews (literally, Spanish Jews). Sephardim lived in Spain and later Portugal for 1500 years before they were finally expelled in 1492 from Spain and 1497 from Portugal. From Iberia the Sephardim went to North Africa, Turkey, South America and even India.
- Mizrahim -- Mizrahi means "eastern" in Hebrew and Mizrahim are the Jewish inhabitants of Arab North Africa, the Middle East, and even parts of Central Asia (for example the Bukharan Jews, Georgian Jews and the Mountain Jews of the Caucus Mountains). In many cases, Sephardim and Mizrahim lived in the same countries, with the Mizrahim being the earlier population. For example, the Berber Jews lived in Morocco for as much as 1000 years before the Sephardim arrived beginning in 1492.
- Indian Jews -- Before 1948 there was a large and very old Jewish community in India. In fact, there were three main groups in India: the Bene Israel, the Cochin Jews and the Baghdadi Jews who were originally Mizrahim from Iraq. Today there are only about 6000 Jews remaining in the Bene Israel community in Mombai and perhaps a handful of families remaining in Cochin.
- African Jews -- There are several small African Jewish communities (other than North African). The most well known population are the Ethiopian Jews who were largely cutoff from the rest of the Jewish world for many years. The South African community is the largest remaining group in Africa and this community largely originates from Europe. Many smaller communities, some as small as a few families are dispersed across Africa including the Ugandan Jews and the Ghanaian Jews. Some of these small communities claim ancestry from one of the lost tribes and others converted to Judaism in the early 20th century.
- American Jews -- North American Jews now comprise the largest population of Jews worldwide outside of Israel. For Jews in America, as for many other ethnic groups, America is a melting pot with Jews able to trace ancestry to Sephardi, Mizrahi, Ashkenazi and other roots. In South America, the largest Jewish populations exist in Argentina and Brazil -- the result of migrations after the Spanish Inquisition and later European migrations.