Divyanshu67/squad_v2 huggingface dataset:
Multiracial_American

Some biographical accounts include the autobiography Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams; One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life—A Story of Race and Family Secrets written by Bliss Broyard about her father Anatole Broyard; the documentary Colored White Boy about a white man in North Carolina who discovers that he is the descendant of a white plantation owner and a raped African slave; and the documentary on The Sanders Women of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Question: What documentary features a white man in North Carolina?
Answer: Colored White Boy

Question: Who is related to Bliss Broyard?
Answer: Anatole Broyard

Question: Gregory Howard Williams wrote what type of book?
Answer: autobiography

Question: What book was written by Anatole Broyard?

Question: What documentary features a black man in North Carolina?

Question: What documentary is about a white man in Georgia?

Question: What book was written about Bliss Broyard?

Question: Who filmed the documentary on The Sanders Women of Shreveport, Louisiana?
Multiracial_American

By the 1980s, parents of mixed-race children (and adults of mixed-race ancestry) began to organize and lobby for the ability to show more than one ethnic category on Census and other legal forms. They refused to be put into just one category. When the U.S. government proposed the addition of the category of "bi-racial" or "multiracial" in 1988, the response from the general public was mostly negative. Some African-American organizations and political leaders, such as Senator Diane Watson and Representative Augustus Hawkins, were particularly vocal in their rejection of the category. They feared a loss in political and economic power if African Americans abandoned their one category.

Question: When did people lobby for allowing more than one category to be selected on legal forms?
Answer: the 1980s

Question: How did the public react to the categories of "bi-racial" and "multiracial"?
Answer: mostly negative

Question: Which political leaders spoke out against the proposed designations?
Answer: Senator Diane Watson and Representative Augustus Hawkins

Question: What did they fear would happen?
Answer: a loss in political and economic power

Question: Who lobbied for the ability to show more than one ethnic category on legal forms before the 1980s?

Question: What did the U.S. government propose that people were happy about?

Question: What year did the U.S. government propose getting rid of a multiracial category?

Question: What politician was in favor of the multiracial category?

Question: Who would gain power from abandoning their one category?
Multiracial_American

In the early 19th century, the Indigenous American woman Sacagawea, who would help translate for and guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the West, married the French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau. Most marriages between Europeans and Indigenous Americans were between European men and Indigenous American women. Depending on the kinship system of the woman's tribe, their children would be more or less easily assimilated into the tribe. Nations that had matrilineal systems, such as the Creek and Cherokee in the Southeast, gave the mixed-race children status in their mother's clans and tribes. If the tribe had a patrilineal system, like the Omaha, the children of white fathers were considered white. Unless they were specifically adopted into the tribe by an adult male, they could have no social status in it.

Question: Who married Sacagewea?
Answer: French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau

Question: Who made up most unions between Europeans and natives?
Answer: European men and Indigenous American women

Question: What factor affected the ability of a child to be in a tribe?
Answer: the kinship system of the woman's tribe

Question: What nations are considered matrilineal?
Answer: Creek and Cherokee

Question: How could a white child be considered a member of the Omaha tribe?
Answer: adopted into the tribe by an adult male

Question: Who married Clark?

Question: What did not dictate how easily a woman's children would be assimilated into a tribe?

Question: What kind of systems did tribes in the Northwest have?

Question: Who did the Creek not give status in their mother's tribes?

Question: Who was not considered white to the Omaha?
Multiracial_American

For African Americans, the one-drop rule was a significant factor in ethnic solidarity. African Americans generally shared a common cause in society regardless of their multiracial admixture, or social/economic stratification. Additionally, African Americans found it, near, impossible to learn about their Indigenous American heritage as many family elders withheld pertinent genealogical information. Tracing the genealogy of African Americans can be a very difficult process, especially for descendants of Indigenous Americans, because African Americans who were slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write, and a majority of Indigenous Americans neither spoke English, nor read or wrote it.

Question: What brought African Americans together?
Answer: the one-drop rule

Question: Who made it next to impossible to learn about their heritage for African Americans?
Answer: family elders

Question: Slaves were not allowed to do what?
Answer: to learn to read and write

Question: What did Indigenous Americans not do that makes it difficult to trace their heritage?
Answer: spoke English, nor read or wrote it

Question: What factors did not affect racial solidarity amoung African Americans?
Answer: their multiracial admixture, or social/economic stratification

Question: What was a factor in ethnic solidarity for whites?

Question: Who was the one-drop rule not a significant factor for?

Question: Who found it easy to learn about their Indigenous American heritage?

Question: Who was forthcoming with genealogical information?

Question: Who was encouraged to read and write?
Multiracial_American

The figure of the "tragic octoroon" was a stock character of abolitionist literature: a mixed-race woman raised as if a white woman in her white father's household, until his bankruptcy or death has her reduced to a menial position She may even be unaware of her status before being reduced to victimization. The first character of this type was the heroine of Lydia Maria Child's "The Quadroons" (1842), a short story. This character allowed abolitionists to draw attention to the sexual exploitation in slavery and, unlike portrayals of the suffering of the field hands, did not allow slaveholders to retort that the sufferings of Northern mill hands were no easier. The Northern mill owner would not sell his own children into slavery.

Question: What stock character lived with her white father until he left the picture?
Answer: "tragic octoroon"

Question: Who was the first to use the tragic octoroon?
Answer: Lydia Maria Child

Question: What story was written by Child in 1842?
Answer: "The Quadroons"

Question: What does the tragic octoroon point out?
Answer: sexual exploitation in slavery

Question: Who used the figure of the tragic octoroon?
Answer: abolitionists

Question: Who wrote about the last "tragic octoroon" character?

Question: What story was the last "tragic octoroon" character in?

Question: What character allowed abolitionists to draw attention away from sexual exploitation?

Question: Who would sell his own children into slavery?

Question: What was a mixed-race woman raised as a black woman in her black father's household called?
Ashkenazi_Jews

It is estimated that in the 11th century Ashkenazi Jews composed only three percent of the world's Jewish population, while at their peak in 1931 they accounted for 92 percent of the world's Jews. Immediately prior to the Holocaust, the number of Jews in the world stood at approximately 16.7 million. Statistical figures vary for the contemporary demography of Ashkenazi Jews, oscillating between 10 million and 11.2 million. Sergio DellaPergola in a rough calculation of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, implies that Ashkenazi make up less than 74% of Jews worldwide. Other estimates place Ashkenazi Jews as making up about 75% of Jews worldwide.

Question: By 1931, what percentage of the world’s Jews were Ashkenazi Jews?
Answer: 92 percent

Question: From the 11th century until 1931, the population of Ashkenazi Jews grew by what percent?
Answer: three percent of the world's Jewish population, while at their peak in 1931 they accounted for 92 percent

Question: Who made rough calculations and implied that Ashkenazi Jews make up less than 74% of the Jewish population worldwide?
Answer: Sergio DellaPergola

Question: The present-day population of Ashkenazi Jews is thought to be between which two numbers?
Answer: 10 million and 11.2 million

Question: How many Jews were there in the world just prior to the Holocaust?
Answer: 16.7 million
Ashkenazi_Jews

In the Yoma tractate of the Babylonian Talmud the name Gomer is rendered as Germania, which elsewhere in rabbinical literature was identified with Germanikia in northwestern Syria, but later became associated with Germania. Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia, viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, as early as a 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th-century History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertc'i (1.15) Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia, as it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Crimea and areas to the east. His contemporary Saadia Gaon identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or Slavic territories, and such usage covered also the lands of tribes neighboring the Slavs, and Eastern and Central Europe. In modern times, Samuel Krauss identified the Biblical "Ashkenaz" with Khazaria.

Question: In which tractate of the Babylonian Talmud is the name Gomer given as Germania?
Answer: Yoma

Question: Saadia Gaon identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or what territories?
Answer: Slavic

Question: Who identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or Slavic territories?
Answer: Saadia Gaon

Question: Even though Gomer is rendered as Germania in the Yoma tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, in other rabbinical literature it was identified with what?
Answer: Germanikia in northwestern Syria

Question: Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia, which is viewed as what?
Answer: cradle of Germanic tribes
Ashkenazi_Jews

No evidence has yet been found of a Jewish presence in antiquity in Germany beyond its Roman border, nor in Eastern Europe. In Gaul and Germany itself, with the possible exception of Trier and Cologne, the archeological evidence suggests at most a fleeting presence of very few Jews, primarily itinerant traders or artisans. A substantial Jewish population emerged in northern Gaul by the Middle Ages, but Jewish communities existed in 465 CE in Brittany, in 524 CE in Valence, and in 533 CE in Orleans. Throughout this period and into the early Middle Ages, some Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures, mostly through conversion to Christianity.[better source needed] King Dagobert I of the Franks expelled the Jews from his Merovingian kingdom in 629. Jews in former Roman territories faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were enforced.

Question: Who expelled the Jews from his Merovingian kingdom in 629?
Answer: King Dagobert I of the Franks

Question: Does the archeological record suggest that there was a rather large or small population of Jews in Gaul and Germany?
Answer: very few Jews

Question: In antiquity, most Jews in Gaul or Germany probably occupied what two roles?
Answer: traders or artisans

Question: In what year did Jewish communities exist in Brittany?
Answer: 465 CE

Question: During the Middle Ages, some Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures by doing what?
Answer: conversion to Christianity
Ashkenazi_Jews

People of Ashkenazi descent constitute around 47.5% of Israeli Jews (and therefore 35–36% of Israelis). They have played a prominent role in the economy, media, and politics of Israel since its founding. During the first decades of Israel as a state, strong cultural conflict occurred between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews (mainly east European Ashkenazim). The roots of this conflict, which still exists to a much smaller extent in present-day Israeli society, are chiefly attributed to the concept of the "melting pot". That is to say, all Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel were strongly encouraged to "melt down" their own particular exilic identities within the general social "pot" in order to become Israeli.

Question: What percentage of Israeli Jews are people of Ashkenazi descent?
Answer: 47.5%

Question: When Israel was in its infancy as a state, there were cultural conflicts between which two groups?
Answer: Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews

Question: What was the conflict between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews attributed to?
Answer: the concept of the "melting pot"

Question: What percentage of all Israelis are thought to be of Ashkenazi descent?
Answer: 35–36%

Question: When Israel was in its infancy as a state, the Ashkenazi Jews involved in conflicts with Sephardic Jews were mainly what type of Jews?
Answer: east European Ashkenazim
Ashkenazi_Jews

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means "Jewishness" in the Yiddish language. Yiddishkeit is specifically the Jewishness of Ashkenazi Jews. Before the Haskalah and the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of Torah and Talmud for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. From the Rhineland to Riga to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, and spoke Yiddish in their secular lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now encompasses not just Orthodoxy and Hasidism, but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and somehow retained a sense of Jewishness. Although a far smaller number of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association. Broadly speaking, a Jew is one who associates culturally with Jews, supports Jewish institutions, reads Jewish books and periodicals, attends Jewish movies and theater, travels to Israel, visits historical synagogues, and so forth. It is a definition that applies to Jewish culture in general, and to Ashkenazi Yiddishkeit in particular.

Question: Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by what concept?
Answer: Yiddishkeit

Question: What does Yiddishkeit mean in the Yiddish language?
Answer: "Jewishness"

Question: In the past most Jews prayed in what language?
Answer: liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew

Question: In the past, while most Jews prayed in one language, they used which other language in their secular lives?
Answer: Yiddish

Question: Is there a larger or smaller number of Jews that speak Yiddish today than in the past?
Answer: a far smaller number of Jews still speak Yiddish
Ashkenazi_Jews

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews who settled in Central Europe. For roughly a thousand years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe, despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Human geneticists have argued that genetic variations have been identified that show high frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews, but not in the general European population, be they for patrilineal markers (Y-chromosome haplotypes) and for matrilineal markers (mitotypes). However, a 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA, from the University of Huddersfield in England, suggests that at least 80 percent of the Ashkenazi maternal lineages derive from the assimilation of mtDNAs indigenous to Europe, probably as a consequence of conversion. Since the middle of the 20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities and with people of other nations and faiths.

Question: For what period of time were the Ashkenazim a reproductively isolated population in Europe?
Answer: For roughly a thousand years

Question: In an ethnic sense, Ashkenazi Jews can trace their ancestry to Jews who settled where?
Answer: Central Europe

Question: In the last 50-60 years, have more or less Ashkenazi Jews intermarried with people outside of their community?
Answer: many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities and with people of other nations and faiths

Question: Human geneticists argue that genetic variations have been identified that show high or low frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews?
Answer: high frequencies

Question: A 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA was conducted by what university?
Answer: University of Huddersfield in England
Ashkenazi_Jews

Relations between Ashkenazim and Sephardim have not always been warm. North African Sepharadim and Berber Jews were often looked upon by Ashkenazim as second-class citizens during the first decade after the creation of Israel. This has led to protest movements such as the Israeli Black Panthers led by Saadia Marciano a Moroccan Jew. Nowadays, relations are getting better. In some instances, Ashkenazi communities have accepted significant numbers of Sephardi newcomers, sometimes resulting in intermarriage.

Question: In the past have relations between Ashkenazim and Sephardim tended to be warm or cold?
Answer: have not always been warm

Question: How did the Ashkenazim view north African Sepharadim and Berber Jews?
Answer: as second-class citizens

Question: Who led the Israeli Black Panthers?
Answer: Saadia Marciano

Question: Where was Saadia Marciano from?
Answer: Moroccan Jew

Question: What did Saadia Marciano do with the Israeli Black Panthers?
Answer: led to protest movements
Ashkenazi_Jews

A 2010 study by Bray et al., using SNP microarray techniques and linkage analysis found that when assuming Druze and Palestinian Arab populations to represent the reference to world Jewry ancestor genome, between 35 to 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome can possibly be of European origin, and that European "admixture is considerably higher than previous estimates by studies that used the Y chromosome" with this reference point. Assuming this reference point the linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population was interpreted as "matches signs of interbreeding or 'admixture' between Middle Eastern and European populations". On the Bray et al. tree, Ashkenazi Jews were found to be a genetically more divergent population than Russians, Orcadians, French, Basques, Italians, Sardinians and Tuscans. The study also observed that Ashkenazim are more diverse than their Middle Eastern relatives, which was counterintuitive because Ashkenazim are supposed to be a subset, not a superset, of their assumed geographical source population. Bray et al. therefore postulate that these results reflect not the population antiquity but a history of mixing between genetically distinct populations in Europe. However, it's possible that the relaxation of marriage prescription in the ancestors of Ashkenazim that drove their heterozygosity up, while the maintenance of the FBD rule in native Middle Easterners have been keeping their heterozygosity values in check. Ashkenazim distinctiveness as found in the Bray et al. study, therefore, may come from their ethnic endogamy (ethnic inbreeding), which allowed them to "mine" their ancestral gene pool in the context of relative reproductive isolation from European neighbors, and not from clan endogamy (clan inbreeding). Consequently, their higher diversity compared to Middle Easterners stems from the latter's marriage practices, not necessarily from the former's admixture with Europeans.

Question: What percentage of the modern Ashkenazi genome could possibly be of European origin?
Answer: 35 to 55 percent

Question: Is the percentage of admixture in the modern Ashkenazi genome higher or lower than previously thought?
Answer: admixture is considerably higher

Question: Were Ashkenazi Jews found to be a more or less genetically divergent population than Russians, Orcadians, French, and Basques?
Answer: a genetically more divergent population

Question: In one study it was found that the Ashkenazim were more or less diverse than their Middle Eastern relatives?
Answer: more diverse

Question: Were the Ashkenazim thought to be a subset or superset of their assumed geographical source population?
Answer: Ashkenazim are supposed to be a subset, not a superset
Ashkenazi_Jews

Genetic studies on Ashkenazim have been conducted to determine how much of their ancestry comes from the Levant, and how much derives from European populations. These studies—researching both their paternal and maternal lineages—point to a significant prevalence of ancient Levantine origins. But they have arrived at diverging conclusions regarding both the degree and the sources of their European ancestry. These diverging conclusions focus particularly on the extent of the European genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi maternal lineages.

Question: Genetic studies on Ashkenazim have found a significant prevalence of what type of origins?
Answer: ancient Levantine origins

Question: Have studies on the genetics of the Ashkenazim come to similar or divergent conclusions regarding the degree and sources of their European ancestry?
Answer: they have arrived at diverging conclusions

Question: Have these studies on Ashkenazim genetics researched their paternal lineages, maternal lineages, or both?
Answer: researching both their paternal and maternal lineages

Question: Genetic studies on the Ashkenazim have tried to determine how much of their ancestry is derived from European populations and from where?
Answer: the Levant
Ashkenazi_Jews

Sometime in the early medieval period, the Jews of central and eastern Europe came to be called by this term. In conformity with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was denominated Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (1 Kings 17:9), and Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan. By the high medieval period, Talmudic commentators like Rashi began to use Ashkenaz/Eretz Ashkenaz to designate Germany, earlier known as Loter, where, especially in the Rhineland communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz, the most important Jewish communities arose. Rashi uses leshon Ashkenaz (Ashkenazi language) to describe German speech, and Byzantium and Syrian Jewish letters referred to the Crusaders as Ashkenazim. Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France and Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to both the Jews of medieval Germany and France.

Question: The custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names meant that Spain was referred to as what?
Answer: Sefarad

Question: The custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names meant that France was called?
Answer: Tsarefat

Question: The reference to France as Tsarefat was taken from which biblical passage?
Answer: 1 Kings 17:9

Question: How did Byzantium and Syrian Jewish letters refer to the Crusaders?
Answer: as Ashkenazim

Question: Following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of what two places?
Answer: medieval Germany and France
Ashkenazi_Jews

Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire around 800, including northern Italy and Rome, brought on a brief period of stability and unity in Francia. This created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle again north of the Alps. Charlemagne granted the Jews freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the Roman Empire. In addition, Jews from southern Italy, fleeing religious persecution, began to move into central Europe.[citation needed] Returning to Frankish lands, many Jewish merchants took up occupations in finance and commerce, including money lending, or usury. (Church legislation banned Christians from lending money in exchange for interest.) From Charlemagne's time to the present, Jewish life in northern Europe is well documented. By the 11th century, when Rashi of Troyes wrote his commentaries, Jews in what came to be known as "Ashkenaz" were known for their halakhic learning, and Talmudic studies. They were criticized by Sephardim and other Jewish scholars in Islamic lands for their lack of expertise in Jewish jurisprudence (dinim) and general ignorance of Hebrew linguistics and literature. Yiddish emerged as a result of language contact with various High German vernaculars in the medieval period. It was written with Hebrew letters, and heavily influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic.

Question: Did Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire bring about a brief period of upheaval or stability in Francia?
Answer: a brief period of stability

Question: Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle where?
Answer: north of the Alps

Question: Charlemagne granted the Jews freedoms similar to those enjoyed under which previous empire?
Answer: Roman Empire

Question: When Jews began to return to Frankish lands many took up occupations in which two fields?
Answer: finance and commerce

Question: Which language emerged as a result of language contact with various High German vernaculars during the medieval period?
Answer: Yiddish
Ashkenazi_Jews

The answer to why there was so little assimilation of Jews in central and eastern Europe for so long would seem to lie in part in the probability that the alien surroundings in central and eastern Europe were not conducive, though contempt did not prevent some assimilation. Furthermore, Jews lived almost exclusively in shtetls, maintained a strong system of education for males, heeded rabbinic leadership, and scorned the life-style of their neighbors; and all of these tendencies increased with every outbreak of antisemitism.

Question: The lack of assimilation of Jews in central and eastern Europe lies in part to the fact that they lived almost exclusively in what?
Answer: shtetls

Question: A lack of assimilation of Jews in central and eastern Europe is also attributed to males taking part in what type of system?
Answer: a strong system of education

Question: In central and eastern Europe it is thought that Jewish scorn for the life-style of their neighbors increased due to what?
Answer: increased with every outbreak of antisemitism

Question: Besides living in shtetls, maintaining a strong system of education for males, and scorning the life-style of their neighbors, Jews in central and eastern Europe also did what?
Answer: heeded rabbinic leadership
Ashkenazi_Jews

According to 16th-century mystic Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, Ashkenazi Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to siege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms to repay the favor. Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakhic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the 11th century.

Question: Who noted that Ashkenazi Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century?
Answer: Rabbi Elijah of Chelm

Question: Another piece of evidence of German communities in the holy city in the second half of the 11th century is due to what items being sent from Germany to Jerusalem?
Answer: halakhic questions

Question: Mystic Rabbi Elijah of Chelm is from what century?
Answer: 16th-century

Question: In the story told by mystic Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, one of the German's family members rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to where in order to repay a previous favor?
Answer: Worms
Ashkenazi_Jews

Of the estimated 8.8 million Jews living in Europe at the beginning of World War II, the majority of whom were Ashkenazi, about 6 million – more than two-thirds – were systematically murdered in the Holocaust. These included 3 million of 3.3 million Polish Jews (91%); 900,000 of 1.5 million in Ukraine (60%); and 50–90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, Hungary, and the Baltic states, and over 25% of the Jews in France. Sephardi communities suffered similar depletions in a few countries, including Greece, the Netherlands and the former Yugoslavia. As the large majority of the victims were Ashkenazi Jews, their percentage dropped from nearly 92% of world Jewry in 1931 to nearly 80% of world Jewry today. The Holocaust also effectively put an end to the dynamic development of the Yiddish language in the previous decades, as the vast majority of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, around 5 million, were Yiddish speakers. Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to countries such as Israel, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and the United States after the war.

Question: At the beginning of World War II, about how many Jews lived in Europe?
Answer: 8.8 million

Question: Of the large number of Jews living in Europe at the beginning of World War II, about how many were Ashkenazi?
Answer: about 6 million

Question: What percentage of Polish Jews were killed during the Holocaust?
Answer: 91%

Question: The percentage of Ashkenazi Jews went from being close to 92% of all Jews in the world in 1931 prior to WWII to what percentage today?
Answer: nearly 80%

Question: The vast majority of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust spoke which language?
Answer: Yiddish
Ashkenazi_Jews

Religious Jews have Minhagim, customs, in addition to Halakha, or religious law, and different interpretations of law. Different groups of religious Jews in different geographic areas historically adopted different customs and interpretations. On certain issues, Orthodox Jews are required to follow the customs of their ancestors, and do not believe they have the option of picking and choosing. For this reason, observant Jews at times find it important for religious reasons to ascertain who their household's religious ancestors are in order to know what customs their household should follow. These times include, for example, when two Jews of different ethnic background marry, when a non-Jew converts to Judaism and determines what customs to follow for the first time, or when a lapsed or less observant Jew returns to traditional Judaism and must determine what was done in his or her family's past. In this sense, "Ashkenazic" refers both to a family ancestry and to a body of customs binding on Jews of that ancestry. Reform Judaism, which does not necessarily follow those minhagim, did nonetheless originate among Ashkenazi Jews.

Question: For religious Jews, what does Minhagim mean?
Answer: customs

Question: For religious Jews, what does Halakha mean?
Answer: religious law

Question: For religious Jews, "Ashkenazic" refers to what two things?
Answer: a family ancestry and to a body of customs binding on Jews of that ancestry

Question: Reform Judaism originated among what type of Jew?
Answer: Ashkenazi Jews

Question: What type of Jew is required to follow the customs of their ancestors without the option of picking and choosing?
Answer: Orthodox Jews
Ashkenazi_Jews

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel, or immigration to North America, and other English-speaking areas; and Europe (particularly France) and Latin America, the geographic isolation that gave rise to Ashkenazim has given way to mixing with other cultures, and 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 and Hareidi groups continue to use Yiddish in daily life. (There are numerous Ashkenazi Jewish anglophones and Russian-speakers as well, although English and Russian are not originally Jewish languages.)

Question: Most of the Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe either immigrating to North America, or other English speaking areas but most to which place?
Answer: Israel

Question: For most Ashkenazi Jews, Yiddish was replaced with what language?
Answer: Hebrew

Question: What two groups continue to use Yiddish in daily life?
Answer: many Hasidic and Hareidi groups
Ashkenazi_Jews

Ashkenazi Jews have a noted history of achievement in Western societies in the fields of exact and social sciences, literature, finance, politics, media, and others. In those societies where they have been free to enter any profession, they have a record of high occupational achievement, entering professions and fields of commerce where higher education is required. Ashkenazi Jews have won a large number of the Nobel awards. While they make up about 2% of the U.S. population, 27% of United States Nobel prize winners in the 20th century, a quarter of Fields Medal winners, 25% of ACM Turing Award winners, half the world's chess champions, including 8% of the top 100 world chess players, and a quarter of Westinghouse Science Talent Search winners have Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

Question: What percentage of the US population is comprised of Ashkenazi Jews?
Answer: 2%

Question: What percentage of Nobel award winners from the United States in the 20th century have been Ashkenazi Jews? 
Answer: 27%

Question: About how many Fields Medal winners have been Ashkenazi Jews?
Answer: a quarter

Question: About how many of the world's chess champions come from the Ashkenazi Jewish community?
Answer: half the world's chess champions

Question: What percentage of the top 100 world chess players come from the Ashkenazi Jewish community?
Answer: 8%
Ashkenazi_Jews

A 2001 study by Nebel et al. showed that both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish populations share the same overall paternal Near Eastern ancestries. In comparison with data available from other relevant populations in the region, Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent. The authors also report on Eu 19 (R1a) chromosomes, which are very frequent in Central and Eastern Europeans (54%–60%) at elevated frequency (12.7%) in Ashkenazi Jews. They hypothesized that the differences among Ashkenazim Jews could reflect low-level gene flow from surrounding European populations and/or genetic drift during isolation. A later 2005 study by Nebel et al., found a similar level of 11.5% of male Ashkenazim belonging to R1a1a (M17+), the dominant Y-chromosome haplogroup in Central and Eastern Europeans.

Question: A 2001 study by Nebel et al. showed that which two populations share the same overall paternal Near Eastern ancestries?
Answer: Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish populations

Question: Levels of the Eu 19 (R1a) chromosome are typically seen between what two percentages in Central and Eastern Europeans?
Answer: 54%–60%

Question: Levels of the Eu 19 (R1a) chromosome were seen in what percentage of the Ashkenazi Jewish population?
Answer: 12.7%

Question: The difference in percentages of the levels of Eu 19 (R1a) chromosomes between Central and Eastern Europeans and the Ashkenazi population would indicate what?
Answer: low-level gene flow from surrounding European populations and/or genetic drift during isolation
Ashkenazi_Jews

They established communities throughout Central and Eastern Europe, which had been their primary region of concentration and residence until recent times, evolving their own distinctive characteristics and diasporic identities. In the late Middle Ages the center of gravity of the Ashkenazi population, and its traditional cultural life, shifted steadily eastward, out of the German lands into Poland and Lithuania (including present-day Belarus and Ukraine). In the course of the late 18th and 19th centuries, those Jews who remained in or returned to the German lands experienced a cultural reorientation; under the influence of the Haskalah and the struggle for emancipation, as well the intellectual and cultural ferment in urban centers, they gradually abandoned the use of Yiddish, while developing new forms of Jewish religious life and cultural identity.

Question: In the late Middle Ages, the Ashkenazi population shifted in which direction?
Answer: shifted steadily eastward

Question: In the late Middle Ages, as the Ashkenazi population shifted it moved from what location?
Answer: German lands

Question: In the late Middle Ages, as the Ashkenazi population shifted it moved into which location?
Answer: Poland and Lithuania (including present-day Belarus and Ukraine)

Question: In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Jews who returned to German lands experienced what?
Answer: a cultural reorientation
Ashkenazi_Jews

The name Ashkenazi derives from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, son of Khaphet, son of Noah, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). The name of Gomer has often been linked to the ethnonym Cimmerians. Biblical Ashkenaz is usually derived from Assyrian Aškūza (cuneiform Aškuzai/Iškuzai), a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates, whose name is usually associated with the name of the Scythians. The intrusive n in the Biblical name is likely due to a scribal error confusing a waw ו with a nun נ.

Question: The name of Ashkenazi derives from which biblical figure?
Answer: Ashkenaz

Question: Ashkenaz was the first son of whom?
Answer: Gomer

Question: The name of Gomer has often been linked to what ethnonym?
Answer: Cimmerians

Question: Assyrian Aškūza expelled which group from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates?
Answer: Cimmerians
Ashkenazi_Jews

The genome-wide genetic study carried out in 2010 by Behar et al. examined the genetic relationships among all major Jewish groups, including Ashkenazim, as well as the genetic relationship between these Jewish groups and non-Jewish ethnic populations. The study found that contemporary Jews (excluding Indian and Ethiopian Jews) have a close genetic relationship with people from the Levant. The authors explained that "the most parsimonious explanation for these observations is a common genetic origin, which is consistent with an historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant".

Question: Recent studies have found that contemporary Jews (excluding Indian and Ethiopian Jews) have a close genetic relationship to the people of what area?
Answer: the Levant

Question: The genome-wide genetic study carried out in 2010 by Behar et al. examined the genetic relationships among which Jewish groups?
Answer: all major Jewish groups

Question: The genome-wide genetic study carried out in 2010 by Behar et al. examined the genetic relationship between Jewish groups and what other population?
Answer: non-Jewish ethnic populations
Ashkenazi_Jews

The history of Jews in Greece goes back to at least the Archaic Era of Greece, when the classical culture of Greece was undergoing a process of formalization after the Greek Dark Age. The Greek historian Herodotus knew of the Jews, whom he called "Palestinian Syrians", and listed them among the levied naval forces in service of the invading Persians. While Jewish monotheism was not deeply affected by Greek Polytheism, the Greek way of living was attractive for many wealthier Jews. The Synagogue in the Agora of Athens is dated to the period between 267 and 396 CE. The Stobi Synagogue in Macedonia, was built on the ruins of a more ancient synagogue in the 4th century, while later in the 5th century, the synagogue was transformed into Christian basilica.

Question: The history of Jews in Greece goes back to which era?
Answer: Archaic Era of Greece

Question: Which Greek historian knew of the Jews?
Answer: Herodotus

Question: What did the Greek historian Herodotus refer to the Jews as?
Answer: "Palestinian Syrians"

Question: The Greek historian Herodotus listed the Jews as the levied naval forces in service to whom?
Answer: the invading Persians

Question: The Synagogue in the Agora of Athens is dated to the period between which two dates?
Answer: 267 and 396 CE
Ashkenazi_Jews

In an essay on Sephardi Jewry, Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs summarized the demographic history of Ashkenazi Jews in the last thousand years, noting that at the end of the 11th century, 97% of world Jewry was Sephardic and 3% Ashkenazi; by the end of XVI century, the: 'Treaty on the redemption of captives', by Gracian of the God's Mother, Mercy Priest, who was imprisoned by Turks, cites a Tunisian Hebrew, made captive when arriving to Gaeta, who aided others with money, named: 'Simon Escanasi', in the mid-17th century, "Sephardim still outnumbered Ashkenazim three to two", but by the end of the 18th century, "Ashkenazim outnumbered Sephardim three to two, the result of improved living conditions in Christian Europe versus the Ottoman Muslim world." By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for nearly 92% of world Jewry. These factors are sheer demography showing the migration patterns of Jews from Southern and Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe.

Question: According to Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, at the end of the 11th century, what percentage of the world's Jewry was Sephardic?
Answer: 97%

Question: According to Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, at the end of the 11th century, what percentage of the world's Jewry was Ashkenazi?
Answer: 3%

Question: By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews were what percentage of the world Jewry?
Answer: 92%
Ashkenazi_Jews

In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used in a manner unrelated to its original meaning, often applied to all Jews who settled in Europe and sometimes including those whose ethnic background is actually Sephardic. Jews of any non-Ashkenazi background, including Mizrahi, Yemenite, Kurdish and others who have no connection with the Iberian Peninsula, have similarly come to be lumped together as Sephardic. Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, partly because of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi, and partly because many do not see such historic markers as relevant to their life experiences as Jews.

Question: In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used in what manner?
Answer: in a manner unrelated to its original meaning

Question: In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used to refer to whom?
Answer: all Jews who settled in Europe and sometimes including those whose ethnic background is actually Sephardic

Question: Are Jews of mixed backgrounds more or less common today?
Answer: Jews of mixed background are increasingly common
Ashkenazi_Jews

In this respect, the counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic, since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they are ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi woman who marries into an Orthodox or Haredi Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her children to be Ashkenazi Jews; conversely an Ashkenazi woman who marries a Sephardi or Mizrahi man is expected to take on Sephardic practice and the children inherit a Sephardic identity, though in practice many families compromise. A convert generally follows the practice of the beth din that converted him or her. With the integration of Jews from around the world in Israel, North America, and other places, the religious definition of an Ashkenazi Jew is blurring, especially outside Orthodox Judaism.

Question: By tradition, when a Sephardic or Mizrahi woman marries into an Orthodox or Haredi Ashkenazi Jewish family she raises her children to be which type of Jew?
Answer: Ashkenazi Jews

Question: When an Ashkenazi woman marries a Sephardi or Mizrahi man it is expected that her children will take on which kind of identity?
Answer: children inherit a Sephardic identity

Question: A convert generally follows which practice?
Answer: the practice of the beth din that converted him or her
Ashkenazi_Jews

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus affair in the 1890s. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian revolution, and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, and many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years and the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, first by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, and later by Sephardi immigrants and refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone.

Question: When did the Dreyfus affair occur?
Answer: 1890s

Question: In what years did large numbers of Jews arrive in France?
Answer: the 1920s and 1930s

Question: What three factors led to large numbers of Jews moving to France?
Answer: antisemitism, the Russian revolution, and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression

Question: By the 1930s, Paris was noted for which two things related to Jews?
Answer: a vibrant Yiddish culture, and many Jews were involved in diverse political movements
Ashkenazi_Jews

Efforts to identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis began in the 1990s. Currently, there are three types of genetic origin testing, autosomal DNA (atDNA), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and Y-chromosomal DNA (Y-DNA). Autosomal DNA is a mixture from an individual's entire ancestry, Y-DNA shows a male's lineage only along his strict-paternal line, mtDNA shows any person's lineage only along the strict-maternal line. Genome-wide association studies have also been employed to yield findings relevant to genetic origins.

Question: When did efforts begin to try and identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis?
Answer: the 1990s

Question: How many types of genetic origin testing currently exist?
Answer: three types of genetic origin testing

Question: What are the three types of origin testing?
Answer: autosomal DNA (atDNA), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and Y-chromosomal DNA (Y-DNA)

Question: Autosomal DNA is what?
Answer: a mixture from an individual's entire ancestry

Question: What does Y-DNA show?
Answer: a male's lineage only along his strict-paternal line
Ashkenazi_Jews

In 2006, a study by Behar et al., based on what was at that time high-resolution analysis of haplogroup K (mtDNA), suggested that about 40% of the current Ashkenazi population is descended matrilineally from just four women, or "founder lineages", that were "likely from a Hebrew/Levantine mtDNA pool" originating in the Middle East in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Additionally, Behar et al. suggested that the rest of Ashkenazi mtDNA is originated from ~150 women, and that most of those were also likely of Middle Eastern origin. In reference specifically to Haplogroup K, they suggested that although it is common throughout western Eurasia, "the observed global pattern of distribution renders very unlikely the possibility that the four aforementioned founder lineages entered the Ashkenazi mtDNA pool via gene flow from a European host population".

Question: A 2006 study by Behar et al, suggested that what percentage of the current Ashkenazi population was descended from "founder lineages"?
Answer: 40%

Question: A 2006 study by Behar et al, suggested that a large percentage of the current Ashkenazi population is descended matrilineally from how many women? 
Answer: from just four women

Question: The women that a large percentage of the current Ashkenazi population is descended from are also known as what?
Answer: founder lineages

Question: The founder lineages were likely from what type of mtDNA pool?
Answer: Hebrew/Levantine