Ashkenazi_Jews

qas: question: By 1931, what percentage of the world’s Jews were Ashkenazi Jews?
answers: text: 92 percent

question: From the 11th century until 1931, the population of Ashkenazi Jews grew by what percent?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: Sergio DellaPergola

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

question: How many Jews were there in the world just prior to the Holocaust?
answers: text: 16.7 million
context: 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.

qas: question: In which tractate of the Babylonian Talmud is the name Gomer given as Germania?
answers: text: Yoma

question: Saadia Gaon identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or what territories?
answers: text: Slavic

question: Who identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or Slavic territories?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: Germanikia in northwestern Syria

question: Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia, which is viewed as what?
answers: text: cradle of Germanic tribes
context: 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.

qas: question: Who expelled the Jews from his Merovingian kingdom in 629?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: very few Jews

question: In antiquity, most Jews in Gaul or Germany probably occupied what two roles?
answers: text: traders or artisans

question: In what year did Jewish communities exist in Brittany?
answers: text: 465 CE

question: During the Middle Ages, some Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures by doing what?
answers: text: conversion to Christianity
context: 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.

qas: question: What percentage of Israeli Jews are people of Ashkenazi descent?
answers: text: 47.5%

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

question: What was the conflict between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews attributed to?
answers: text: the concept of the "melting pot"

question: What percentage of all Israelis are thought to be of Ashkenazi descent?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: east European Ashkenazim
context: 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.

qas: question: Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by what concept?
answers: text: Yiddishkeit

question: What does Yiddishkeit mean in the Yiddish language?
answers: text: "Jewishness"

question: In the past most Jews prayed in what language?
answers: text: liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew

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

question: Is there a larger or smaller number of Jews that speak Yiddish today than in the past?
answers: text: a far smaller number of Jews still speak Yiddish
context: 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.

qas: question: For what period of time were the Ashkenazim a reproductively isolated population in Europe?
answers: text: For roughly a thousand years

question: In an ethnic sense, Ashkenazi Jews can trace their ancestry to Jews who settled where?
answers: text: Central Europe

question: In the last 50-60 years, have more or less Ashkenazi Jews intermarried with people outside of their community?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: high frequencies

question: A 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA was conducted by what university?
answers: text: University of Huddersfield in England
context: 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.

qas: question: In the past have relations between Ashkenazim and Sephardim tended to be warm or cold?
answers: text: have not always been warm

question: How did the Ashkenazim view north African Sepharadim and Berber Jews?
answers: text: as second-class citizens

question: Who led the Israeli Black Panthers?
answers: text: Saadia Marciano

question: Where was Saadia Marciano from?
answers: text: Moroccan Jew

question: What did Saadia Marciano do with the Israeli Black Panthers?
answers: text: led to protest movements
context: 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.

qas: question: What percentage of the modern Ashkenazi genome could possibly be of European origin?
answers: text: 35 to 55 percent

question: Is the percentage of admixture in the modern Ashkenazi genome higher or lower than previously thought?
answers: text: admixture is considerably higher

question: Were Ashkenazi Jews found to be a more or less genetically divergent population than Russians, Orcadians, French, and Basques?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: more diverse

question: Were the Ashkenazim thought to be a subset or superset of their assumed geographical source population?
answers: text: Ashkenazim are supposed to be a subset, not a superset
context: 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.

qas: question: Genetic studies on Ashkenazim have found a significant prevalence of what type of origins?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: they have arrived at diverging conclusions

question: Have these studies on Ashkenazim genetics researched their paternal lineages, maternal lineages, or both?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: the Levant
context: 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.

qas: question: The custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names meant that Spain was referred to as what?
answers: text: Sefarad

question: The custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names meant that France was called?
answers: text: Tsarefat

question: The reference to France as Tsarefat was taken from which biblical passage?
answers: text: 1 Kings 17:9

question: How did Byzantium and Syrian Jewish letters refer to the Crusaders?
answers: text: as Ashkenazim

question: Following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of what two places?
answers: text: medieval Germany and France
context: 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.

qas: question: Did Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire bring about a brief period of upheaval or stability in Francia?
answers: text: a brief period of stability

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

question: Charlemagne granted the Jews freedoms similar to those enjoyed under which previous empire?
answers: text: Roman Empire

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

question: Which language emerged as a result of language contact with various High German vernaculars during the medieval period?
answers: text: Yiddish
context: 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.

qas: 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?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: heeded rabbinic leadership
context: 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.

qas: question: Who noted that Ashkenazi Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: halakhic questions

question: Mystic Rabbi Elijah of Chelm is from what century?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: Worms
context: 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.

qas: question: At the beginning of World War II, about how many Jews lived in Europe?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: about 6 million

question: What percentage of Polish Jews were killed during the Holocaust?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: nearly 80%

question: The vast majority of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust spoke which language?
answers: text: Yiddish
context: 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.

qas: question: For religious Jews, what does Minhagim mean?
answers: text: customs

question: For religious Jews, what does Halakha mean?
answers: text: religious law

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

question: Reform Judaism originated among what type of Jew?
answers: text: Ashkenazi Jews

question: What type of Jew is required to follow the customs of their ancestors without the option of picking and choosing?
answers: text: Orthodox Jews
context: 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.

qas: 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?
answers: text: Israel

question: For most Ashkenazi Jews, Yiddish was replaced with what language?
answers: text: Hebrew

question: What two groups continue to use Yiddish in daily life?
answers: text: many Hasidic and Hareidi groups
context: 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.)

qas: question: A 2006 study found Ashkenazi Jews to be a what?
answers: text: a clear, homogeneous genetic subgroup

question: Ashkenazi Jews, regardless of their place of origin, belong to the same what?
answers: text: ethnic group

question: Members of which two Haredi Jewish sects continue to marry exclusively within the Ashkenazi Jewish population?
answers: text: Hasidic or Hareidi sects

question: Do Haredi Jews tend to have large or small families?
answers: text: Haredi Jews often have extremely large families
context: A 2006 study found Ashkenazi Jews to be a clear, homogeneous genetic subgroup. Strikingly, regardless of the place of origin, Ashkenazi Jews can be grouped in the same genetic cohort – that is, regardless of whether an Ashkenazi Jew's ancestors came from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, or any other place with a historical Jewish population, they belong to the same ethnic group. The research demonstrates the endogamy of the Jewish population in Europe and lends further credence to the idea of Ashkenazi Jews as an ethnic group. Moreover, though intermarriage among Jews of Ashkenazi descent has become increasingly common, many Haredi Jews, particularly members of Hasidic or Hareidi sects, continue to marry exclusively fellow Ashkenazi Jews. This trend keeps Ashkenazi genes prevalent and also helps researchers further study the genes of Ashkenazi Jews with relative ease. It is noteworthy that these Haredi Jews often have extremely large families.

qas: question: What percentage of the US population is comprised of Ashkenazi Jews?
answers: text: 2%

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

question: About how many Fields Medal winners have been Ashkenazi Jews?
answers: text: a quarter

question: About how many of the world's chess champions come from the Ashkenazi Jewish community?
answers: text: half the world's chess champions

question: What percentage of the top 100 world chess players come from the Ashkenazi Jewish community?
answers: text: 8%
context: 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.

qas: question: Researcher Gil Atzmon suggests that Ashkenazim branched off from other Jews around the time of what?
answers: text: the destruction of the First Temple

question: The destruction of the First Temple was how many years ago?
answers: text: 2,500 years ago

question: It is estimated that 400 families left Northern Italy around what year?
answers: text: 1000

question: Ashkenazi families that left Northern Italy went where?
answers: text: Central and eventually Eastern Europe
context: Although the Jewish people in general were present across a wide geographical area as described, genetic research done by Gil Atzmon of the Longevity Genes Project at Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests "that Ashkenazim branched off from other Jews around the time of the destruction of the First Temple, 2,500 years ago ... flourished during the Roman Empire but then went through a 'severe bottleneck' as they dispersed, reducing a population of several million to just 400 families who left Northern Italy around the year 1000 for Central and eventually Eastern Europe."

qas: question: A 2001 study by Nebel et al. showed that which two populations share the same overall paternal Near Eastern ancestries?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: 54%–60%

question: Levels of the Eu 19 (R1a) chromosome were seen in what percentage of the Ashkenazi Jewish population?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: low-level gene flow from surrounding European populations and/or genetic drift during isolation
context: 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.

qas: question: In the late Middle Ages, the Ashkenazi population shifted in which direction?
answers: text: shifted steadily eastward

question: In the late Middle Ages, as the Ashkenazi population shifted it moved from what location?
answers: text: German lands

question: In the late Middle Ages, as the Ashkenazi population shifted it moved into which location?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: a cultural reorientation
context: 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.

qas: question: The name of Ashkenazi derives from which biblical figure?
answers: text: Ashkenaz

question: Ashkenaz was the first son of whom?
answers: text: Gomer

question: The name of Gomer has often been linked to what ethnonym?
answers: text: Cimmerians

question: Assyrian Aškūza expelled which group from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates?
answers: text: Cimmerians
context: 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.

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

question: The genome-wide genetic study carried out in 2010 by Behar et al. examined the genetic relationships among which Jewish groups?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: non-Jewish ethnic populations
context: 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".

qas: question: The history of Jews in Greece goes back to which era?
answers: text: Archaic Era of Greece

question: Which Greek historian knew of the Jews?
answers: text: Herodotus

question: What did the Greek historian Herodotus refer to the Jews as?
answers: text: "Palestinian Syrians"

question: The Greek historian Herodotus listed the Jews as the levied naval forces in service to whom?
answers: text: the invading Persians

question: The Synagogue in the Agora of Athens is dated to the period between which two dates?
answers: text: 267 and 396 CE
context: 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.

qas: 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?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: 3%

question: By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews were what percentage of the world Jewry?
answers: text: 92%
context: 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.

qas: question: In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used in what manner?
answers: text: in a manner unrelated to its original meaning

question: In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used to refer to whom?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: Jews of mixed background are increasingly common
context: 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.

qas: 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?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: children inherit a Sephardic identity

question: A convert generally follows which practice?
answers: text: the practice of the beth din that converted him or her
context: 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.

qas: question: When did the Dreyfus affair occur?
answers: text: 1890s

question: In what years did large numbers of Jews arrive in France?
answers: text: the 1920s and 1930s

question: What three factors led to large numbers of Jews moving to France?
answers: text: 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?
answers: text: a vibrant Yiddish culture, and many Jews were involved in diverse political movements
context: 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.

qas: question: What is the Siddur?
answers: text: prayer book

question: The term Ashkenazi also refers to what?
answers: text: the nusach Ashkenaz

question: The nusach Ashkenaz refers to what in Hebrew?
answers: text: "liturgical tradition", or rite

question: Two other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazic Jews are what?
answers: text: Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari

question: Nusach Ari is used by whom?
answers: text: Lubavitch Hasidim
context: The term Ashkenazi also refers to the nusach Ashkenaz (Hebrew, "liturgical tradition", or rite) used by Ashkenazi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers. Two other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazic Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, as used by Lubavitch Hasidim.

qas: question: When did efforts begin to try and identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis?
answers: text: the 1990s

question: How many types of genetic origin testing currently exist?
answers: text: three types of genetic origin testing

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

question: Autosomal DNA is what?
answers: text: a mixture from an individual's entire ancestry

question: What does Y-DNA show?
answers: text: a male's lineage only along his strict-paternal line
context: 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.

qas: question: A 2006 study by Behar et al, suggested that what percentage of the current Ashkenazi population was descended from "founder lineages"?
answers: text: 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? 
answers: text: from just four women

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

question: The founder lineages were likely from what type of mtDNA pool?
answers: text: Hebrew/Levantine
context: 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".

qas: question: When did the idea that the Ashkenazi may have come from Khazar stock come about?
answers: text: in the later 19th century

question: Did Eran Elhaik, from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health argue for or against Khazar descent?
answers: text: argued for Khazar descent

question: What did a 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA find in regards to the Khazar descent idea?
answers: text: no significant evidence of Khazar contribution to the Ashkenazi Jewish DNA
context: Speculation that the Ashkenazi arose from Khazar stock surfaced in the later 19th century and has met with mixed fortunes in the scholarly literature. In late 2012 Eran Elhaik, a research associate studying genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, argued for Khazar descent in his paper The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses. A 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA found no significant evidence of Khazar contribution to the Ashkenazi Jewish DNA, as would be predicted by the Khazar hypothesis.

qas: question: Grave site excavations near where Roman garrisons were established attest to the presence of Jews after what centuries?
answers: text: the 2nd and 3rd centuries

question: The large number of Jews in Pannonia formed communities and built what?
answers: text: a synagogue

question: In what year were the Roman garrison populations withdrawn to Italy?
answers: text: 433
context: Sporadic epigraphic evidence in grave site excavations, particularly in Brigetio (Szőny), Aquincum (Óbuda), Intercisa (Dunaújváros), Triccinae (Sárvár), Savaria (Szombathely), Sopianae (Pécs), and Osijek in Croatia, attest to the presence of Jews after the 2nd and 3rd centuries where Roman garrisons were established, There was a sufficient number of Jews in Pannonia to form communities and build a synagogue. Jewish troops were among the Syrian soldiers transferred there, and replenished from the Middle East, after 175 C.E. Jews and especially Syrians came from Antioch, Tarsus and Cappadocia. Others came from Italy and the Hellenized parts of the Roman empire. The excavations suggest they first lived in isolated enclaves attached to Roman legion camps, and intermarried among other similar oriental families within the military orders of the region.Raphael Patai states that later Roman writers remarked that they differed little in either customs, manner of writing, or names from the people among whom they dwelt; and it was especially difficult to differentiate Jews from the Syrians. After Pannonia was ceded to the Huns in 433, the garrison populations were withdrawn to Italy, and only a few, enigmatic traces remain of a possible Jewish presence in the area some centuries later.

qas: question: What year marked the onset of the Crusades?
answers: text: 1095

question: What year were the expulsions from England?
answers: text: 1290

question: What year were the expulsions from France?
answers: text: 1394

question: After expulsions from England and France, Jewish migration headed in which direction?
answers: text: Jewish migration pushed eastward

question: As Jews were expelled from England, France, and parts of Germany they head into which three countries?
answers: text: Poland (10th century), Lithuania (10th century), and Russia (12th century)
context: With the onset of the Crusades in 1095, and the expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), and parts of Germany (15th century), Jewish migration pushed eastward into Poland (10th century), Lithuania (10th century), and Russia (12th century). Over this period of several hundred years, some have suggested, Jewish economic activity was focused on trade, business management, and financial services, due to several presumed factors: Christian European prohibitions restricting certain activities by Jews, preventing certain financial activities (such as "usurious" loans) between Christians, high rates of literacy, near universal male education, and ability of merchants to rely upon and trust family members living in different regions and countries.

qas: question: What is the name of the Midrash compilation?
answers: text: Genesis Rabbah

question: What is the name of the Rabbi mentioned in relation to the Genesis Rabbah?
answers: text: Rabbi Berechiah

question: What are the three German tribes or German lands talked about by Rabbi Berechiah?
answers: text: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah

question: Rabbi Berechiah's view is based on what?
answers: text: the Talmud
context: In the Midrash compilation, Genesis Rabbah, Rabbi Berechiah mentions Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah as German tribes or as German lands. It may correspond to a Greek word that may have existed in the Greek dialect of the Palestinian Jews, or the text is corrupted from "Germanica." This view of Berechiah is based on the Talmud (Yoma 10a; Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 71b), where Gomer, the father of Ashkenaz, is translated by Germamia, which evidently stands for Germany, and which was suggested by the similarity of the sound.

qas: question: After emigration from the west, did Jewish communities in places like Poland have a stable or unstable sociopolitical environment?
answers: text: a comparatively stable socio-political environment

question: What precipitated the development of the Hasidic movement?
answers: text: A thriving publishing industry and the printing of hundreds of biblical commentaries

question: Massive western emigration occurred around what time?
answers: text: in the 19th and 20th centuries

question: Ashkenazi Jews have made up the majority of the American Jewish community since when?
answers: text: 1750
context: In the generations after emigration from the west, Jewish communities in places like Poland, Russia, and Belarus enjoyed a comparatively stable socio-political environment. A thriving publishing industry and the printing of hundreds of biblical commentaries precipitated the development of the Hasidic movement as well as major Jewish academic centers. After two centuries of comparative tolerance in the new nations, massive westward emigration occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries in response to pogroms in the east and the economic opportunities offered in other parts of the world. Ashkenazi Jews have made up the majority of the American Jewish community since 1750.

qas: question: Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel follow the authority of whom in certain matters?
answers: text: the chief Ashkenazi rabbi

question: What is the Knesset?
answers: text: a unicameral legislature with 120 seats

question: Religious Ashkenazi Jews look to the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in which matters?
answers: text: halakhic matters
context: Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in halakhic matters. In this respect, a religiously Ashkenazi Jew is an Israeli who is more likely to support certain religious interests in Israel, including certain political parties. These political parties result from the fact that a portion of the Israeli electorate votes for Jewish religious parties; although the electoral map changes from one election to another, there are generally several small parties associated with the interests of religious Ashkenazi Jews. The role of religious parties, including small religious parties that play important roles as coalition members, results in turn from Israel's composition as a complex society in which competing social, economic, and religious interests stand for election to the Knesset, a unicameral legislature with 120 seats.

qas: question: What two things were mentioned as contributing to bringing younger Jews together in North American cities?
answers: text: social trends such as the chavurah movement, and the emergence of "post-denominational Judaism"

question: What do many Ashkenazi Jews study outside of the Yeshiva framework?
answers: text: Kabbalah

question: Which new trend has been associated with the Jewish Renewal movement?
answers: text: ecstatic worship
context: New developments in Judaism often transcend differences in religious practice between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. In North American cities, social trends such as the chavurah movement, and the emergence of "post-denominational Judaism" often bring together younger Jews of diverse ethnic backgrounds. In recent years, there has been increased interest in Kabbalah, which many Ashkenazi Jews study outside of the Yeshiva framework. Another trend is the new popularity of ecstatic worship in the Jewish Renewal movement and the Carlebach style minyan, both of which are nominally of Ashkenazi origin.

qas: question: Most people with the surname Ashkenazi, hail from which particular community?
answers: text: Syrian Jewish community

question: Some people with the surname shorten it to what?
answers: text: Ash

question: What famous person is mentioned as having the surname Ashkenazi?
answers: text: Vladimir Ashkenazy
context: Several famous people have Ashkenazi as a surname, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy. However, most people with this surname hail from within Sephardic communities, particularly from the Syrian Jewish community. The Sephardic carriers of the surname would have some Ashkenazi ancestors since the surname was adopted by families who were initially of Ashkenazic origins who moved to Sephardi countries and joined those communities. Ashkenazi would be formally adopted as the family surname having started off as a nickname imposed by their adopted communities. Some have shortened the name to Ash.

qas: question: It was found that the Y-chromosome of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are also common with what other people?
answers: text: Middle Eastern peoples

question: It was found that the Y-chromosome of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are uncommon with what other people?
answers: text: uncommon in the general European population

question: The findings related to the Y-chromosomes suggest that males ancestors of Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to where?
answers: text: the Middle East
context: A study of haplotypes of the Y-chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer et al. found that the Y-chromosome of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are also common among Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East. The proportion of male genetic admixture in Ashkenazi Jews amounts to less than 0.5% per generation over an estimated 80 generations, with "relatively minor contribution of European Y chromosomes to the Ashkenazim," and a total admixture estimate "very similar to Motulsky's average estimate of 12.5%." This supported the finding that "Diaspora Jews from Europe, Northwest Africa, and the Near East resemble each other more closely than they resemble their non-Jewish neighbors." "Past research found that 50–80 percent of DNA from the Ashkenazi Y chromosome, which is used to trace the male lineage, originated in the Near East," Richards said.

qas: question: A 2013 study estimates that what percentage of Ashkenazi maternal ancestry comes from women indigenous to Europe?
answers: text: 80 percent

question: A 2013 study estimates that what percentage of Ashkenazi maternal ancestry comes from women from the Near East?
answers: text: 8 percent

question: A 2013 study estimates that what percentage of Ashkenazi maternal ancestry comes from women of undetermined origins?
answers: text: while the origin of the remainder is undetermined
context: In 2013, however, a study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA by a team led by Martin B. Richards of the University of Huddersfield in England reached different conclusions, again corroborating the pre-2006 origin hypothesis. Testing was performed on the full 16,600 DNA units composing mitochondrial DNA (the 2006 Behar study had only tested 1,000 units) in all their subjects, and the study found that the four main female Ashkenazi founders had descent lines that were established in Europe 10,000 to 20,000 years in the past while most of the remaining minor founders also have a deep European ancestry. The study states that the great majority of Ashkenazi maternal lineages were not brought from the Near East (i.e., they were non-Israelite), nor were they recruited in the Caucasus (i.e., they were non-Khazar), but instead they were assimilated within Europe, primarily of Italian and Old French origins. Richards summarized the findings on the female line as such: "[N]one [of the mtDNA] came from the North Caucasus, located along the border between Europe and Asia between the Black and Caspian seas. All of our presently available studies including my own, should thoroughly debunk one of the most questionable, but still tenacious, hypotheses: that most Ashkenazi Jews can trace their roots to the mysterious Khazar Kingdom that flourished during the ninth century in the region between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire." The 2013 study estimated that 80 percent of Ashkenazi maternal ancestry comes from women indigenous to Europe, and only 8 percent from the Near East, while the origin of the remainder is undetermined. According to the study these findings "point to a significant role for the conversion of women in the formation of Ashkenazi communities."

qas: question: In a 2010 study, which two groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent analysis?
answers: text: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews

question: The 2010 study found that what modern population is most closely related to Ashkenazi Jews?
answers: text: modern-day Italians

question: Ashkenazi Jews and Italians may be genetically similar due to what two factors?
answers: text: inter-marriage and conversions in the time of the Roman Empire
context: A 2010 study on Jewish ancestry by Atzmon-Ostrer et al. stated "Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry", as both groups – the Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews – shared common ancestors in the Middle East about 2500 years ago. The study examines genetic markers spread across the entire genome and shows that the Jewish groups (Ashkenazi and non Ashkenazi) share large swaths of DNA, indicating close relationships and that each of the Jewish groups in the study (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish, Greek and Ashkenazi) has its own genetic signature but is more closely related to the other Jewish groups than to their fellow non-Jewish countrymen. Atzmon's team found that the SNP markers in genetic segments of 3 million DNA letters or longer were 10 times more likely to be identical among Jews than non-Jews. Results of the analysis also tally with biblical accounts of the fate of the Jews. The study also found that with respect to non-Jewish European groups, the population most closely related to Ashkenazi Jews are modern-day Italians. The study speculated that the genetic-similarity between Ashkenazi Jews and Italians may be due to inter-marriage and conversions in the time of the Roman Empire. It was also found that any two Ashkenazi Jewish participants in the study shared about as much DNA as fourth or fifth cousins.

qas: question: How many geneticists carried out the 2013 trans-genome study?
answers: text: 30 geneticists

question: How many universities and academies participated in the 2013 trans-genome study?
answers: text: 13 universities and academies

question: What did the 2013 trans-genome study find in regards to Ashkenazi Jews and Khazar origins?
answers: text: found no evidence of Khazar origin among Ashkenazi Jews
context: A 2013 trans-genome study carried out by 30 geneticists, from 13 universities and academies, from 9 countries, assembling the largest data set available to date, for assessment of Ashkenazi Jewish genetic origins found no evidence of Khazar origin among Ashkenazi Jews. "Thus, analysis of Ashkenazi Jews together with a large sample from the region of the Khazar Khaganate corroborates the earlier results that Ashkenazi Jews derive their ancestry primarily from populations of the Middle East and Europe, that they possess considerable shared ancestry with other Jewish populations, and that there is no indication of a significant genetic contribution either from within or from north of the Caucasus region", the authors concluded.

qas: question: The most well supported theory on the origins of the Ashkenazim is one that details a Jewish migration through which modern day country?
answers: text: through what is now Italy

question: The historical record attests to Jewish communities in southern Europe since what time?
answers: text: pre-Christian times

question: Many Jews were denied full Roman citizenship until what year?
answers: text: 212 CE

question: Who gave Jews the right to full Roman citizenship?
answers: text: Emperor Caracalla
context: The origins of the Ashkenazim are obscure, and many theories have arisen speculating about their ultimate provenance. The most well supported theory is the one that details a Jewish migration through what is now Italy and other parts of southern Europe. The historical record attests to Jewish communities in southern Europe since pre-Christian times. Many Jews were denied full Roman citizenship until 212 CE, when Emperor Caracalla granted all free peoples this privilege. Jews were required to pay a poll tax until the reign of Emperor Julian in 363. In the late Roman Empire, Jews were free to form networks of cultural and religious ties and enter into various local occupations. But, after Christianity became the official religion of Rome and Constantinople in 380, Jews were increasingly marginalized.

qas: question: Jewish communities were seen north of the Alps and Pyrenees as early as which centuries?
answers: text: 8th and 9th century

question: Jewish settlers appear along the Rhine by what century?
answers: text: 11th century

question: What two factors contributed the increase in Jewish settlers along the Rhine and other similar areas?
answers: text: often in response to new economic opportunities and at the invitation of local Christian rulers
context: Historical records show evidence of Jewish communities north of the Alps and Pyrenees as early as the 8th and 9th century. By the 11th century Jewish settlers, moving from southern European and Middle Eastern centers, appear to have begun to settle in the north, especially along the Rhine, often in response to new economic opportunities and at the invitation of local Christian rulers. Thus Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, invited Jacob ben Yekutiel and his fellow Jews to settle in his lands; and soon after the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror likewise extended a welcome to continental Jews to take up residence there. Bishop Rüdiger Huzmann called on the Jews of Mainz to relocate to Speyer. In all of these decisions, the idea that Jews had the know-how and capacity to jump-start the economy, improve revenues, and enlarge trade seems to have played a prominent role. Typically Jews relocated close to the markets and churches in town centres, where, though they came under the authority of both royal and ecclesiastical powers, they were accorded administrative autonomy.

qas: question: When did Hai Gaon refer to questions that had been addressed to him from Ashkenaz?
answers: text: the first half of the 11th century

question: Who is Hai Gaon thought to be referring to when he says Ashkenaz?
answers: text: Germany

question: In the latter half of the 11th century, Rashi refers to what two things?
answers: text: both the language of Ashkenaz and the country of Ashkenaz
context: In the first half of the 11th century, Hai Gaon refers to questions that had been addressed to him from Ashkenaz, by which he undoubtedly means Germany. Rashi in the latter half of the 11th century refers to both the language of Ashkenaz and the country of Ashkenaz. During the 12th century, the word appears quite frequently. In the Mahzor Vitry, the kingdom of Ashkenaz is referred to chiefly in regard to the ritual of the synagogue there, but occasionally also with regard to certain other observances.

qas: question: When did France expel its original Jewish population?
answers: text: the Middle Ages

question: By the time of the French Revolution there were how many distinct Jewish populations?
answers: text: two distinct Jewish populations
context: France's blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that is 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 two distinct Jewish populations. One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition and concentrated in the southwest, while the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, and speaking mainly Yiddish. The two communities were so separate and different that the National Assembly emancipated them separately in 1790 and 1791.

qas: question: All studies agree that genetic overlap with what location exists in both lineages?
answers: text: Fertile Crescent
context: Various studies have arrived at diverging conclusions regarding both the degree and the sources of the non-Levantine admixture in Ashkenazim, particularly in respect to the extent of the non-Levantine genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi maternal lineages, which is in contrast to the predominant Levantine genetic origin observed in Ashkenazi paternal lineages. All studies nevertheless agree that genetic overlap with the Fertile Crescent exists in both lineages, albeit at differing rates. Collectively, Ashkenazi Jews are less genetically diverse than other Jewish ethnic divisions.

qas: question: What year did David Goldstein report that unlike male Ashkenazi lineages, the female lineages in Ashkenazi Jewish communities did not seem to be Middle Eastern?
answers: text: 2002
context: Before 2006, geneticists had largely attributed the ethnogenesis of most of the world's Jewish populations, including Ashkenazi Jews, to Israelite Jewish male migrants from the Middle East and "the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism." Thus, in 2002, in line with this model of origin, David Goldstein, now of Duke University, reported that unlike male Ashkenazi lineages, the female lineages in Ashkenazi Jewish communities "did not seem to be Middle Eastern", and that each community had its own genetic pattern and even that "in some cases the mitochondrial DNA was closely related to that of the host community." In his view this suggested "that Jewish men had arrived from the Middle East, taken wives from the host population and converted them to Judaism, after which there was no further intermarriage with non-Jews."

qas: question: In a 2006 study, how many autosomal SNPs were used?
answers: text: five thousand
context: A 2006 study by Seldin et al. used over five thousand autosomal SNPs to demonstrate European genetic substructure. The results showed "a consistent and reproducible distinction between 'northern' and 'southern' European population groups". Most northern, central, and eastern Europeans (Finns, Swedes, English, Irish, Germans, and Ukrainians) showed >90% in the "northern" population group, while most individual participants with southern European ancestry (Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, Spaniards) showed >85% in the "southern" group. Both Ashkenazi Jews as well as Sephardic Jews showed >85% membership in the "southern" group. Referring to the Jews clustering with southern Europeans, the authors state the results were "consistent with a later Mediterranean origin of these ethnic groups".