#haredi — Public Fediverse posts

Ashkenazi Jews

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of Nazis, the Holocaust, & Nazi Germany. We completely understand if you wish to skip over this post. We’ll catch you in the next one!

Also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim.

This is a form of distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish Diaspora. Emerging from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (Western Germany) & northern France. They migrated there from centers such as the Italian peninsula & the Southern Levant. This includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, & Jordan.

After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire & the favorable policies of Casimir the Great & others.

This diaspora ramped up after the persecution during the Black Death of the 14th century. The bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland (which includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & parts of Russia). This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites, & customs to Europe. They traditionally followed the German rite synagogue ritual & until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, & Slavic influences.

The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages & Hebrew, being stigmatized by assimilationists & later also Zionists. Though it was spoken by over 11 million people worldwide before the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve & revive the language, faded through the 20th century. Including Duolingo adding Yiddish as a language.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930, near the population’s peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during WWII, which killed around 6 million Jews. Before WWII, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3-16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10-13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.

The name Ashkenazi comes from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. He’s the 1st son of Gomer, grandson of Japhet, great-grandson of Noah, & a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. The name for Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenazis are usually derived from Assyrian Askuza, a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. The name Askuza is identified with the Scythians.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as 1 of 3 kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni (or Mannaea), an ancient kingdom that flourished in northwestern Iran, & Arrat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon.

Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia (usually identified with Scandinavia), viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, in the 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th century, in the History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertci, Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia.

As it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Chimea, & areas to the east. They’re also identified with the Slavim or Slavs. In keeping with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was called Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (I Kings 17:9), & Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan.

Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France & Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of both medieval Germany & France.

In later times, the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern & western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany & Poland. Thus, the prayer book of Isaiah Horowitz (a prominent rabbi & mystic), & many others, give the piyyutim (a Jewish liturgical poem), according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz & Poland. A Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition & synagogue ritual follow Ashkenazi practices (German rite). Until the Ashkenazi community 1st began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad & Islamic Spain. German Ashkenaz was so geographically distant that it developed a minhag of its own.

The counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic. Since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they’re ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi (a.k.a. Oriental Jews; Jews who lived in the Muslim world) who married into an Orthodox or Haredi (a.k.a. ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her kids to be Ashkenazi Jews.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazi woman who married a Sephardi or Mizrahi is expected to take on Sephardic practices & the kids will “inherit” a Sephardic identity. Though in practice, many families do compromise. A “convert” usually follows the practice of the rabbinical court (beth din) that converted them.

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means “Jewishness” in the Yiddish language. Before the Haskalah (a.k.a. the Jewish Enlightenment) & the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of the Torah & the Talmud for men, & communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men & women.

From the Rhineland to Riga (the largest city in Latvia) to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, & spoke Yiddish in their secular (worldly) lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now includes not just Orthodoxy & Hasidism, but a broader range of movements, ideologies, practices, & traditions in which Ashkenazi have participated & somehow kept a sense of Jewishness. Although pockets of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, styles of humor, & in patterns of association.

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel. Or immigration to North America, South Africa, Europe (particularly France), & Latin America, the geographic isolation has given way to mixing with other cultures, & with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews. Although many Hasidic & Hareidi groups still use Yiddish in daily life. Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographic Land of Israel or the Palestine region, where the State of Israel was established.

France’s blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that’s going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were 2 distinct Jewish populations.

One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition (which no one expects! Sorry, we’re Monty Python fans here.) & concentrated in the southwest. While the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, & mainly speaking a German dialect similar to Yiddish.

The 3rd community of Provencal Jews living in Comtat Venaissin was technically outside France, & was later absorbed into the Sephardim. Comtat Venaissin (called Comtat, for short) was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. (We’ll be doing a post about the Dreyfus Affair.) In the 1920s & 30s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian Revolution, & the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, & many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years & the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, 1st by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, & later by Sephardi immigrants & refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Francophone refers to people/organizations who use French (language) regularly.

Ashkenazi Jews didn’t transmit their traditions or achievements by text. Instead, these traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The desire to maintain pre-Holocaust traditions relating to Ashkenazi culture has often been met with criticism by Jews in Eastern Europe.

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of the Jews who settled in the Central European region of “Ashkenaz.” For roughly 1,000 years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe.

Despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow of countries from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Since the mid-20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities & non-Jews.

Religious persecution of the Jews in Western & Central Europe led to a significant migration of the Ashkenazi Jews into Eastern Europe. This resulted in a major cultural divide between Western/Central & Eastern Ashkenazi communities. In particular, this was reflected in the division of Yiddish into Western & Eastern Yiddish dialects. As well as in other cultural distinctions: traditions, food, dress, etc.

Initially, the Jews of Eastern Europe enjoyed relative freedom in terms of movement, being invited by the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, the situation was reversed. By the 19th century, the Jews in the West had gradually been integrated into the general society.

While the Eastern Ashkenazi maintained their strict Jewish traditions & were mostly confined to ghettos, especially in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, which incorporated a considerable amount of land where the Eastern Ashkenazi lived: Poland & Lithuania.

Well-known differences in practices include:

• Observance of Passover (Pesach)
  • Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, & rice. Quinoa has become accepted as a food grain in North American communities. Sephardi Jews typically don’t prohibit these foods.
• Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the ACTUAL slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve. While many Ashkenazi Jews don’t.
• Ashkenazi Jews often name newborns after deceased family members, not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews often name their kids after their grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. An exception to this is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazi for centuries used naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim, such as Chuts. Chuts is the name given to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the 1850s-1860s.
• Ashkenazi tefillins are wound toward the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim put on the tefillin while standing up. Other Jews generally do so while sitting down. A tefillin(s) is/are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps having scrolls of parchment written with verses of the Torah inside.
• The prayer shawl (tallit/tallis) is worn by all Ashkenazi men AFTER marriage. Except for Western European Ashkenazi men who wear it from the bar mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the Nusach Ashkenaz, the liturgical tradition used by Ashkenazi Jews in their siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition’s choice of prayers, the text of prayers & melodies used in the singing of prayers. 2 other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazi Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, used by those in Chabad.

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‘Freedom, dignity, and a future’: Why Gazans are planning a mass mobilization
The ‘June 26 movement’ may bring thousands to the streets. But threats and manipulations are distorting its message — as has happened before.
https://www.972mag.com/wp-content/themes/rgb/newsletter.php?page_id=8&section_id=193019&utm_source=972+Magazine+Newsletter&utm_campaign=53e36d12d9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_12_2022_11_20_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1fe821d25-53e36d12d9-1401528606

from +972’s Sunday Recap
#972Magazine [published in #Israel]
June 28, 2026

Also:

• The #Haredi draft revolt threatening to bring Israel to a standstill
• Hundreds of #Bedouin left homeless as Israel ramps up Naqab expulsions
• The only logical outcome of a completely irrational war
• ‘This sport has taught us not to lower our eyes in fear’
• PODCAST: Why ‘ungrounding’ is the defining feature of Israel’s #genocide
  

#SanctionIsrael
#StopStarvingGaza
#FreePalestine
#RestoreFundsToUNRWA
#IsraeliCrimesAgainstHumanity
#USHandsOffICC
#StopGazaGenocide
#AllEyesOnWestBank
#SettlersOut
#StopArmingIsrael
#AntiZionismIsNotAntisemitism
#BDS #DivestFromIsrael
#SolidarityWithPalestineIsNotAntisemitism
#Gaza #Palestine
#news #politics

What the fuck is wrong with these people???
#israel #theocracy #haredi #cult #judaism #religiousextremism #pedophiles #rapists #psychopaths
https://www.shomrim.news/eng/how-sexual-abuse-is-covered-up-in-ultra-orthodox-communities

Haredi derangement. And it's not just in Israel. #israel #theocracy #haredi #cult #judaism #religiousextremism #pedophiles #rapists #psychopaths
https://guyschell.substack.com/p/the-ritual-raping-rabbis-of-religious

Did not have this on my 'what in the fucking world' bingo card.

"In a significant gesture of outreach to #America's #Haredi community, #President #DonaldTrump's personal #Jewish liaison traveled to #KiryasJoel last week to present the #Satmar #Rebbe with an official presidential declaration bearing #Trump's signature.

#MartinMarks, who serves as the administration's primary connection to #Orthodox Jewish communities nationwide, arrived at the Rebbe's residence in #Monroe, #NewYork, carrying what he described as the "#American #JewishHeritage Month Proclamation for 2026." The document, signed personally by #PresidentTrump, outlines the administration's commitment to protecting #religious freedom and combating #antisemitism on college campuses and in educational institutions across the #United #States.

The proclamation includes direct quotations from President #GeorgeWashington's historic 1790 letter to the Jewish community of #Newport, #RhodeIsland..."

https://www.jfeed.com/jewish-world/trump-declaration-satmar-rebbe-antisemitism

“‘Army Will Collapse’ – Draft Evasion, Reserve Exhaustion Deepen Israeli Military Crisis”

by Palestine Chronicle Staff

@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@iran

“Key Developments

- The Israeli army is reportedly facing a shortage of around 12,000 soldiers, including 6,000 combat troops.
- Israeli media say the crisis has been worsened by prolonged fighting across multiple fronts, including Gaza and Lebanon.
- The Haredi conscription dispute has deepened political tensions inside Netanyahu’s coalition, while the army chief warned that the military could ‘fall apart’”

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/army-will-collapse-draft-evasion-reserve-exhaustion-deepen-israeli-military-crisis/

#Press #SocialMedia #Gaza #PalestinianGenocide #Zionism #SettlerColonialism #Resistance #DismantleZionism #DecolonizePalestine #GlobaliseTheIntifada #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #Lebanon #Hezbollah #IDF #Haredi #Crisis

⭕️Des colons #Haredi bloquent plusieurs entrées de #Jérusalem occupée pour protester contre le service militaire obligatoire dans l'armée d'occupation.

@Leah True—and where things have been going for many years. Look at the NY yeshivot. These people don’t find it necessary at all to provide a secular education: science, English, civics. Their kids will grow up to vote — if at all — however their rebbe tells them.

#Haredi #Jews, #Christofascists, and extremists of all varieties regard #democracy with suspicion. Why read Heart of Darkness or Native Son when you have the Bible? Why learn how bills become laws, when you have the One True Law? Why be part of our pluralistic, diverse, cross-pollinating society, when those outside your communities are enemies of God?

I’m just warming up here. . . 🤓

I attended Chabad #dayschool as a child. I have my issues with them, for sure, but one of them is not the quality of my secular #education. When I moved to public school in 10th grade I was well-prepared, and I went on to attend the college of my choice.

These NY #yeshivot, however, are a different story. They're attempting to create here what they've successfully created in #Israel: an entire generation of adults unable to make any contribution to society whatsoever; unable to make a living anywhere outside the #haredi community; unable to speak the language of their country; unable to act as informed citizens of a #democracy; and ultimately, unable to raise children of their own who are not similarly handicapped.

Torah-observant #Jews needn't be so isolated from the greater community.

Good for #NewYork for insisting that NY children be given the opportunity to become educated, fully-participating members of society.

#JTA #yeshiva #Jewish #education

https://www.jta.org/2025/03/20/united-states/three-more-new-york-city-yeshivas-lose-status-and-funding-over-secular-education-standards

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood in Jerusalem [File: Atef Safadi/EPA-EFE]

@palestine
#Israel
#Haredi

Alessio Mamo for the Guardian | International Daily Press | I will never join the army

#Haredi families confront members of the Israel Defense Forces in Mea Shearim, an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, during the festival of Purim.

Photograph: Alessio Mamo for the Guardian

@photography
#Israel

Yiddish, chant, peinture, cinéma, violence politique (en Ukraine et en Palestine) indicible :
#Regardez une discussion autour du film "SHTTL" avec l'auteur : https://akadem.org/shttl:-filmer-l'immontrable @[email protected] @[email protected]

#Akadem #judéité #Juifs #Haredi #Hassidique #synagogue #génocide #nettoyageEthnique #Shoah #Nazis #violenceDÉtat #terrorismeDÉtat #traumatisme #minorité #subalternes #mémoire #histoire #identité #antiSémitisme #judéophobie #film #yiddish #yiddishLand #Ukraine

"In the late 19th and early 20th century, the majority of Haredi #Jews in Palestine and around the world opposed Zionism and the establishment of the state of Israel. […]. Many have come to accommodate the state’s existence, moving further to the right and, in recent years, embracing the most radical forms of territorial maximalism."
Molly Lipson: https://vashtimedia.com/2023/12/29/formats/the-pickle/neturei-karta-not-your-allies-anti-zionist-jews/

#farRight #reaction #revisionism #HolocaustDenial #Diaspora #Haredi #Haredim #Hasidic #Jewry #Judaism #antiZionism #Orthodoxy

Working on #Haredi material often means encounters like the one I had earlier this week. After performing #Yiddish Bais Yaakov songs from interwar Poland as part of a conference on Bais Yaakov, I was approached by a member of the community who had been at the performance. She told me that our choir was cultural appropriation. When I reminded her that, as we had said in our introduction, all of us had attended BY schools, she said "but you left it, so it's cultural appropriation."
#Jewishstudies

It's really wild that I'm presenting a paper on this topic on Monday. Wish I could go tell 12th grade me how 35-year-old me would use her high school materials and experiences.
#academia #tznius #modesty #baisyaakov #girlschool #Jewish #frum #haredi #religion #religiousstudies #JewishStudies @academicchatter

A long time ago, I subscribed to Lehovin because I wanted to see what it was. It's not easy to unsubscribe, so when I was done with my research (lol), I just filtered the emails to spam. Going through spam now, I idly opened this one up, and saw this article, "Have We Become Modern Orthodox?" and just... well, this is interesting... I mean, it's essentially about #YeshivaGate but what a fascinating way to talk about this, what fascinating rhetoric...

#Jewish #education #hasidic #haredi #jews

One of the biggest differences between being #frum (#haredi #Jewish) vs #OTD is the amount of clothing items and therefore the amount of time spent getting dressed/undressed.

To wit - as a frum girl, getting dressed in the morning required:
- underwear
- bra
- shell
- top
- tights
- skirt
- shoes

vs now as a secular nonbinary person:
- underwear
- pants
- top
-shoes

It used to be like "put on the foundation, then the clothes." Now it's "throw on some clothes, out I go."

Israeli Security Services Arrest Ultra-Orthodox Journalist for Inciting Terror and Sedition

https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/12/29/israeli-security-services-arrest-ultra-orthodox-journalist-for-inciting-terror-and-sedition/

#Film-TV-Media #Jews&Judaism #MideastPeace #haredi #israelipolice #israeli-democracy #pressfreedom #shinbet

https://www.hartman.org.il/program/heretic-in-the-house/

In my first couple years of grad school, which were also my first couple of years #OTD, my first couple years having left the #Haredi #Orthodox #Jewish community, I got called "brave" so many times - and hated it so much - that I dressed up as Braveheart for my first Halloween, as an inside joke on the people who kept calling me brave. I didn't feel brave. I felt desperate, in constant pain, confused, etc. My #WIP novelized-memoir title is "A Desperate Kind of Courage."

Talking about #handclapping games in class, has me going in my head:

"HELLo, this is BY Cemetary, where they torture and they bury, and they go to---
HELLo, this is..."

which my 6th grade teacher walked in on me singing (yeah 6th grade, that's what growing up #haredi #ultraorthodox #jewish does).