Ashkenazi Jews originally came from Germany, but the term has come to refer more broadly to Jewish people from Central and Eastern Europe as the vast majority relocated to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In the 20th century many of these people who had escaped Russian pogroms and Nazi persecution, as well as Holocaust survivors, found refuge in what became the State of Israel.
Sephardi Jews originally came from Spain and Portugal. Following the Spanish Inquisition, they were expelled (from Spain in 1492, and Portugal in 1536), and many fled to Amsterdam, North Africa, and the Middle East, and later to Israel.
Mizrachi (Eastern or Oriental) Jews originally come from Middle Eastern countries including Iraq (biblical Babylonia), Iran (Persia), and Yemen. After they were expelled in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, the majority found refuge in the new State of Israel, some on rescue flights known as “Operation Magic Carpet” in 1949.
Ethiopian Jews, known as the ‘Beta Israel’ (House of Israel) Community were rescued from famine and civil war in Ethiopia in “Operation Moses” (1984) and “Operation Solomon (1991).
Indian Jews, originating from various parts of the world, and the ancient Bene Yisrael and Bene Menashe communities, mostly migrated to Israel in the 1950s.
Nowadays Jewish traditions vary not only because of geographical origin, but also because of ideological differences. The Jewish community in the UK today is ideologically diverse, and includes ‘Orthodox’, ‘Masorti’ (“traditional”), ‘Reform’, and ‘Liberal’ organised national communities, as well as people who are unaffiliated but identify as ‘cultural’ or ‘secular’ Jews. However, at the root of every Jewish community is not just a shared history, but also a baseline of shared values that includes respect for life, the importance of the family, charity (tzedakah), and doing good deeds (mitzvot), and “fixing the world” (tikkun olam), as well as a love of celebrating festivals and other joyous occasions with food! |
