Jews

qas: question: Which group originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel?
answers: text: Jews

question: Who consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, and the kingdom of Judah?
answers: text: Israelites

question: What were incoming nomadic groups known as?
answers: text: Hebrews

question: When did Jews originate as a national and religious group in the Middle East?
answers: text: during the second millennium BCE, in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel

question: What appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel?
answers: text: The Merneptah Stele

question: What national and religious group originated in the first millennium BCE?

question: What confirms the existence of the Ancient Egyptians?

question: Who was an outgrowth of the Israelite population?

question: What was a major feature of the Babylonian history, identity, and memory?

question: When did the people of Israel cease to be associated with the god El?
context: Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel. The Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, and the Kingdom of Judah. Some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as 'Hebrews'. Though few sources in the Bible mention the exilic periods in detail, the experience of diaspora life, from the Ancient Egyptian rule over the Levant, to Assyrian Captivity and Exile, to Babylonian Captivity and Exile, to Seleucid Imperial rule, to the Roman occupation, and the historical relations between Israelites and the homeland, became a major feature of Jewish history, identity and memory.

qas: question: What percentage of Jews reside in Israel?
answers: text: 43%

question: What percentage of Jews reside in the U.S.?
answers: text: 40%

question: How many Jews live in Europe?
answers: text: 1.4 million

question: What is one reason the world population of Jews difficult to determine?
answers: text: issues with census methodology

question: How many non Jewish people live in Israel?

question: How many non Jewish people live in the United States?

question: Why is the world population of Jews easy to measure?

question: What percentage of non Jews live in the United States?

question: What is not a factor in who is a Jew?
context: According to a report published in 2014, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel (6.1 million), and 40% in the United States (5.7 million), with most of the remainder living in Europe (1.4 million) and Canada (0.4 million). These numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure. In addition to issues with census methodology, disputes among proponents of halakhic, secular, political, and ancestral identification factors regarding who is a Jew may affect the figure considerably depending on the source.

qas: question: What is the origin of the word Yiddish?
answers: text: Jude

question: What is another word to describe a Jew?
answers: text: Ebreo

question: What is a Russian word used to describe a Jew?
answers: text: Еврей, Yevrey

question: Ebreo is an Italian word derivation of what word?
answers: text: Hebrew

question: How do you say Hebrew in German?

question: How do you say Hebrew in Portuguese?

question: How do you say Hebrew in French?

question: What German word is the origin of the word "Hebrew"?

question: How do you say Yiddish in Italian? 
context: The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., يَهُودِيّ yahūdī (sg.), al-yahūd (pl.), and بَنُو اِسرَائِيل banū isrāʼīl in Arabic, "Jude" in German, "judeu" in Portuguese, "juif" in French, "jøde" in Danish and Norwegian, "judío" in Spanish, "jood" in Dutch, etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew, e.g., in Italian (Ebreo), in Persian ("Ebri/Ebrani" (Persian: عبری/عبرانی‎‎)) and Russian (Еврей, Yevrey). The German word "Jude" is pronounced [ˈjuːdə], the corresponding adjective "jüdisch" [ˈjyːdɪʃ] (Jewish) is the origin of the word "Yiddish". (See Jewish ethnonyms for a full overview.)

qas: question: Name one person that Jewish ancestry traced back to?
answers: text: Abraham

question: Where did Jacob and his family migrate to?
answers: text: Ancient Egypt

question: Who led the Exodus?
answers: text: Moses

question: Who was Jacob's son?
answers: text: Joseph

question: Who was Joseph's father?
answers: text: Jacob

question: Who lived in Canaan before the 18th century BCE?

question: Who invited the Pharaoh to live in Egypt?

question: When did Canaan conquer the Israelites?

question: Who invited Joseph to live in Egypt?

question: How long were the Egyptians enslaved?
context: According to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Jewish ancestry is traced back to the Biblical patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Biblical matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, who lived in Canaan around the 18th century BCE. Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacob's son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs' descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, after which the Israelites conquered Canaan.[citation needed]

qas: question: Which culture was largely Canaanite in nature?
answers: text: Israelite

question: What is one of the Ancient Canaanite deities?
answers: text: Yahweh

question: The period of time from 1200 to 1000 BCE is known as what?
answers: text: Iron Age

question: How has historical archaeology treated the historicity of the Patriarchs?

question: How did the Israelites take over the region according to historical archaeology? 

question: What god did the Ancient Canaanites not worship?

question: The period of time before 1200 BCE is known as what?

question: What gave rise to a distinct Canaanite ethnic group?
context: Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites' inspiring national myth narrative. The Israelites and their culture, according to the modern archaeological account, did not overtake the region by force, but instead branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatristic — and later monotheistic — religion centered on Yahweh, one of the Ancient Canaanite deities. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of cultic practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group, setting them apart from other Canaanites. The Canaanites themselves are archeologically attested in the Middle Bronze Age, while the Hebrew language is the last extant member of the Canaanite languages. In the Iron Age I period (1200–1000 BCE) Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature.

qas: question: What group was divided into Twelve Tribes?
answers: text: Israelites

question: When was the Kingdom of Israel conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire?
answers: text: after the 720s BCE

question: From where do the Jews derive their ethonynm?
answers: text: Israelite tribes of Judah

question: How many tribes were the Samaritans split into?

question: Who do the tribes of Judah descend from?

question: Where did the Southern Kingdom of Israel migrate to?

question: Who assimilated before the 720s BCE?

question: When did the Kingdom of Israel conquer the Neo-Assyrian Empire?
context: Although the Israelites were divided into Twelve Tribes, the Jews (being one offshoot of the Israelites, another being the Samaritans) are traditionally said to descend mostly from the Israelite tribes of Judah (from where the Jews derive their ethnonym) and Benjamin, and partially from the tribe of Levi, who had together formed the ancient Kingdom of Judah, and the remnants of the northern Kingdom of Israel who migrated to the Kingdom of Judah and assimilated after the 720s BCE, when the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

qas: question: How many times did Israelites have political independence in ancient history? 
answers: text: twice

question: From where did the term Jews originate?
answers: text: Roman "Judean

question: When was land divided into Israel and Judah?
answers: text: After the fall of the United Monarchy

question: Inhabitants of Judah are known as what?
answers: text: Jews

question: When did the Babylonian exile end?
answers: text: 539 BCE

question: How many times did Israelites enjoy political independence in modern times? 

question: What term denoted someone from the northern kingdom of Judah?

question: When did Nebuchadnezzar II build the First Temple?

question: When did Judah first become an independent kingdom?

question: When did most Jews stop living in diaspora?
context: Israelites enjoyed political independence twice in ancient history, first during the periods of the Biblical judges followed by the United Monarchy.[disputed – discuss] After the fall of the United Monarchy the land was divided into Israel and Judah. The term Jew originated from the Roman "Judean" and denoted someone from the southern kingdom of Judah. The shift of ethnonym from "Israelites" to "Jews" (inhabitant of Judah), although not contained in the Torah, is made explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE), a book in the Ketuvim, the third section of the Jewish Tanakh. In 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar II, King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple, and deported the most prominent citizens of Judah. In 586 BC, Judah itself ceased to be an independent kingdom, and its remaining Jews were left stateless. The Babylonian exile ended in 539 BCE when the Achaemenid Empire conquered Babylon and Cyrus the Great allowed the exiled Jews to return to Yehud and rebuild their Temple. The Second Temple was completed in 515 BCE. Yehud province was a peaceful part of the Achaemenid Empire until the fall of the Empire in c. 333 BCE to Alexander the Great. Jews were also politically independent during the Hasmonean dynasty spanning from 140 to 37 BCE and to some degree under the Herodian dynasty from 37 BCE to 6 CE. Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, most Jews have lived in diaspora. As an ethnic minority in every country in which they live (except Israel), they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that has fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.[citation needed]

qas: question: Genetic studies show that Jews bear their strongest resemblance to the peoples of where?
answers: text: Fertile Crescent

question: How far back does the Jews' shared common genetic pool date?
answers: text: 4,000 years

question: Most Jews share a common genetic heritage that originates from what place?
answers: text: Middle East

question: What people do Jews show the least genetic resemblance to?

question: How far back does the people of the Fertile Crescent's shared genetic pool date?

question: Most people of the Fertile Crescent share a common heritage that originates from where?

question: What do people of the Fertile Crescent share besides genetics?

question: What is one thing that Jews were not able to maintain?
context: Genetic studies on Jews show that most Jews worldwide bear a common genetic heritage which originates in the Middle East, and that they bear their strongest resemblance to the peoples of the Fertile Crescent. The genetic composition of different Jewish groups shows that Jews share a common genetic pool dating back 4,000 years, as a marker of their common ancestral origin. Despite their long-term separation and beside their shared genetic origin, Jews also maintained a common culture, tradition, and language.

qas: question: What book is considered a religious interpretation of the traditions and early national history of the Jews?
answers: text: The Hebrew Bible

question: What religions are now practiced by 54% of the world?
answers: text: Abrahamic religions

question: What is the Hebrew Bible?
answers: text: a religious interpretation of the traditions and early national history of the Jews

question: What is a religious interpretation of the traditions and history of Europe?

question: What is not practiced by 54% of the world?

question: Where have Jewish culture phenomena never developed?

question: What percentage of the world does not follow an Abrahamic religion?

question: Where have specifically religious Jewish customs developed?
context: The Hebrew Bible, a religious interpretation of the traditions and early national history of the Jews, established the first of the Abrahamic religions, which are now practiced by 54% of the world. Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which has made drawing a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish identity rather difficult. Throughout history, in eras and places as diverse as the ancient Hellenic world, in Europe before and after The Age of Enlightenment (see Haskalah), in Islamic Spain and Portugal, in North Africa and the Middle East, India, China, or the contemporary United States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews or specific communities of Jews with their surroundings, others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to from the religion itself. This phenomenon has led to considerably different Jewish cultures unique to their own communities, each as authentically Jewish as the next.

qas: question: In modern secular usage Jews include how many groups?
answers: text: three

question: What makes the definition of a Jew vary slightly? 
answers: text: whether a religious or national approach to identity is used

question: Which religion shares some characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion and a culture?
answers: text: Judaism

question: What doesn't share any characteristics with a nation?

question: How many groups do Jews include in modern religious usage?

question: How many groups do Jews include in historical secular usage? 

question: Who is not included as a Jew in modern secular usage?

question: What has no effect on the definition of who is a Jew?
context: Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used. Generally, in modern secular usage Jews include three groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion.

qas: question: What have historical definitions of Jewish identity been based on?
answers: text: halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions

question: Historical definitions of who a Jew is dates back to what year?
answers: text: 200 CE

question: What is used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites?
answers: text: Jewish sages

question: What have historical definitions of Jewish identity never been based on?

question: When was the Babylonian Talmud codified into the Oral Torah?

question: What section of the Tanakh encouraged intermarriage? 

question: What movement in the 18th and 19th centuries was pro religious?

question: What interpretations of Jewish identity have never been challenged?
context: Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into the Babylonian Talmud, around 200 CE. Interpretations of sections of the Tanakh, such as Deuteronomy 7:1–5, by Jewish sages, are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites because "[the non-Jewish husband] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods (i.e., idols) of others." Leviticus 24:10 says that the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man is "of the community of Israel." This is complemented by Ezra 10:2–3, where Israelites returning from Babylon vow to put aside their gentile wives and their children. Since the anti-religious Haskalah movement of the late 18th and 19th centuries, halakhic interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged.

qas: question: Who believed the status of the offspring of mixed marriages was determined patrilineally in the Bible?
answers: text: Shaye J. D. Cohen

question: What dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the mother?
answers: text: Roman law

question: What is one explanation for the change in Mishnaic times?
answers: text: the Mishnah may have been applying the same logic to mixed marriages as it had applied to other mixtures

question: Who believed that the status of offspring of mixed marriages was determined matrilineally in the Bible?

question: How many explanations were there for the lack of change in Mishnaic times?

question: What dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the father?

question: What did Roman law dictate if a parent contracted a legal marriage?

question: What unions were allowed along with mixed marriages?
context: According to historian Shaye J. D. Cohen, the status of the offspring of mixed marriages was determined patrilineally in the Bible. He brings two likely explanations for the change in Mishnaic times: first, the Mishnah may have been applying the same logic to mixed marriages as it had applied to other mixtures (Kil'ayim). Thus, a mixed marriage is forbidden as is the union of a horse and a donkey, and in both unions the offspring are judged matrilineally. Second, the Tannaim may have been influenced by Roman law, which dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the mother.

qas: question: Where did Jews migrate to after the Babylonian conquest?
answers: text: Babylonia

question: Between what years did Jews increase to an estimated 2 million?
answers: text: 200 CE – 500 CE

question: Name one thing that has accounted for Jewish population growth?
answers: text: conversion

question: Where did the Jews migrate to before the Babylonian conquest?

question: How many Jews lived in Babylonia before the 1st century?

question: How many Jews lived in Babylonia after 500 CE?

question: How did the Jewish population increase before the 1st century?

question: How many Jews lived outside of the Roman Empire?
context: By the 1st century, Babylonia, to which Jews migrated to after the Babylonian conquest as well as after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, already held a speedily growing population of an estimated 1,000,000 Jews, which increased to an estimated 2 million  between the years 200 CE – 500 CE, both by natural growth and by immigration of more Jews from the Land of Israel, making up about 1/6 of the world Jewish population at that era. At times conversion has accounted for a part of Jewish population growth. Some have claimed that in the 1st century of the Christian era, for example, the population more than doubled, from four to 8–10 million within the confines of the Roman Empire, in good part as a result of a wave of conversion.

qas: question: What is a tax imposed on Jews in 70 CE?
answers: text: The Fiscus Judaicus

question: When did the FIscus Judaicus relax to exclude Christians?
answers: text: 96 CE

question: Name one reason historians believe the conversion during the Roman era was limited in number and did not account for much of the Jewish population growth?
answers: text: illegality of male conversion to Judaism

question: What religion was it legal to convert to in the Roman world from the mid-2nd century?

question: Where was it legal to convert to Judaism?

question: What made conversion easy in the Roman world?

question: When was the Fiscus Judaicus expanded to also include Christians?

question: What was a tax imposed on non Jewish citizens in 70 CE?
context: Other historians believe that conversion during the Roman era was limited in number and did not account for much of the Jewish population growth, due to various factors such as the illegality of male conversion to Judaism in the Roman world from the mid-2nd century. Another factor that would have made conversion difficult in the Roman world was the halakhic requirement of circumcision, a requirement that proselytizing Christianity quickly dropped. The Fiscus Judaicus, a tax imposed on Jews in 70 CE and relaxed to exclude Christians in 96 CE, also limited Judaism's appeal. In addition, historians argue the very figure (4 million) that had been guessed to account for the population of Jews in the ancient Roman Empire is an error that has long been disproven and thus the assumption that conversion impacted Jewish population growth in ancient Rome on a large scale is false. The 8 million figure is also in doubt as it may refer to a census of total Roman citizens.

qas: question: What resulted in effective and long-term isolation of Jewish communities?
answers: text: An array of Jewish communities was established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World, often at great distances from one another

question: Name one way Jewish cultural expressions differ in each community?
answers: text: religious interpretations

question: Name another way Jewish cultural expressions differ in each community?
answers: text: culinary preferences

question: What did not cause ethnic divisions between Jews?

question: Where did Jewish people not settle?

question: What is one way Jewish cultural expressions stayed the same in each community?

question: What is another way Jewish cultural expressions stayed the same in each community?

question: At what time did Jewish communities not develop under the influence of their local environments?
context: Within the world's Jewish population there are distinct ethnic divisions, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, and subsequent independent evolutions. An array of Jewish communities was established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World, often at great distances from one another, resulting in effective and often long-term isolation. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments: political, cultural, natural, and populational. Today, manifestations of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity, culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, as well as degrees and sources of genetic admixture.

qas: question: Name one major group that Jews are often identified as belonging to.
answers: text: Ashkenazim

question: Name another major group that Jews are often identified as belonging to?
answers: text: Sephardim

question: What does Ashkenaz mean in Hebrew?
answers: text: Germany

question: What is the more common term in Israel for many of those broadly called Sephardim?
answers: text: Mizrahim

question: What does Mizrach mean in Hebrew?
answers: text: East

question: How many major groups do the Ashkenazim belong to?

question: What term means "Westerners" in Israel?

question: What does Ashkenaz mean in German?

question: What word means "Spain" in Spanish?

question: What two groups are not ethnically distinct?
context: Jews are often identified as belonging to one of two major groups: the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. Ashkenazim, or "Germanics" (Ashkenaz meaning "Germany" in Hebrew), are so named denoting their German Jewish cultural and geographical origins, while Sephardim, or "Hispanics" (Sefarad meaning "Spain/Hispania" or "Iberia" in Hebrew), are so named denoting their Spanish/Portuguese Jewish cultural and geographic origins. The more common term in Israel for many of those broadly called Sephardim, is Mizrahim (lit. "Easterners", Mizrach being "East" in Hebrew), that is, in reference to the diverse collection of Middle Eastern and North African Jews who are often, as a group, referred to collectively as Sephardim (together with Sephardim proper) for liturgical reasons, although Mizrahi Jewish groups and Sephardi Jews proper are ethnically distinct.

qas: question: In modern usage, why is Mizrahim sometimes termed Sephardi?
answers: text: due to similar styles of liturgy

question: When did the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal occur?
answers: text: the 1490s

question: Where are the Teimanim from?
answers: text: Yemen

question: What is always clear between these groups?

question: Why are Mizrahim sometimes termed Sephardi in historical usage?

question: What Jews are not included in the Mizrahim?

question: When were the Jews welcomed into Spain and Portugal?

question: Where are the Georgian Jews from?
context: The divisions between all these groups are approximate and their boundaries are not always clear. The Mizrahim for example, are a heterogeneous collection of North African, Central Asian, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern Jewish communities that are no closer related to each other than they are to any of the earlier mentioned Jewish groups. In modern usage, however, the Mizrahim are sometimes termed Sephardi due to similar styles of liturgy, despite independent development from Sephardim proper. Thus, among Mizrahim there are Egyptian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Lebanese Jews, Kurdish Jews, Libyan Jews, Syrian Jews, Bukharian Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Iranian Jews and various others. The Teimanim from Yemen are sometimes included, although their style of liturgy is unique and they differ in respect to the admixture found among them to that found in Mizrahim. In addition, there is a differentiation made between Sephardi migrants who established themselves in the Middle East and North Africa after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s and the pre-existing Jewish communities in those regions.

qas: question: What group of Jews represent the bulk of modern Jewry?
answers: text: Ashkenazi Jews

question: Which group represents at least 70% of Jews worldwide?
answers: text: Ashkenazi Jews

question: Why does Ashkenazim represent the overwhelming majority of Jews in the New World continents?
answers: text: As a result of their emigration from Europe

question: In what country does the immigration of Jews from Algeria (Sephardim) has led them to outnumber the Ashkenazim?
answers: text: France

question: Who represents the minority of modern Jewry?

question: Which group represents less than 70% of Jews worldwide?

question: What is a country where Ashkenazi Jews have not emigrated to?

question: Why do Sephardim represent the overwhelming majority of Jews in the New World?

question: Where is the Jewish population least representative of all groups?
context: Ashkenazi Jews represent the bulk of modern Jewry, with at least 70% of Jews worldwide (and up to 90% prior to World War II and the Holocaust). As a result of their emigration from Europe, Ashkenazim also represent the overwhelming majority of Jews in the New World continents, in countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Brazil. In France, the immigration of Jews from Algeria (Sephardim) has led them to outnumber the Ashkenazim. Only in Israel is the Jewish population representative of all groups, a melting pot independent of each group's proportion within the overall world Jewish population.

qas: question: What is the liturgical language of Judaism?
answers: text: Hebrew

question: What is also termed lason ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue?"
answers: text: Hebrew

question: What are the Hebrew scriptures called?
answers: text: Tanakh

question: What are the two languages of the Babylonian Talmud?
answers: text: Hebrew and Aramaic

question: What is a closely related tongue to Hebrew?
answers: text: Aramaic

question: What is Judaism termed?

question: What language did the Jews never speak?

question: How many Jews spoke Greek before the 3rd century BCE?

question: What language was the Babylonian Talmud not written in?

question: What language did the Jews of Israel not use at that time?
context: Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue"), the language in which most of the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century BCE, Aramaic, a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea. By the 3rd century BCE, some Jews of the diaspora were speaking Greek. Others, such as in the Jewish communities of Babylonia, were speaking Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Babylonian Talmud. These languages were also used by the Jews of Israel at that time.[citation needed]

qas: question: What is the Judaeo-German language developed by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Central Europe?
answers: text: Yiddish

question: What is the Judaeo-Spanish language developed by Sephardic Jews who migrated to the Iberian peninsula?
answers: text: Ladino

question: Name one reason the ancient and distinct Jewish languages have largely fallen out of use?
answers: text: Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries

question: For how long have Jews not spoken the local languages of the regions they migrated to?

question: What have Jews never spoken?

question: What language was developed by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to the Iberian peninsula?

question: What was not a factor in Jewish languages falling out of use?

question: What is a Jewish language that has not fallen out of use?
context: For centuries, Jews worldwide have spoken the local or dominant languages of the regions they migrated to, often developing distinctive dialectal forms or branches that became independent languages. Yiddish is the Judæo-German language developed by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Central Europe. Ladino is the Judæo-Spanish language developed by Sephardic Jews who migrated to the Iberian peninsula. Due to many factors, including the impact of the Holocaust on European Jewry, the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, and widespread emigration from other Jewish communities around the world, ancient and distinct Jewish languages of several communities, including Judæo-Georgian, Judæo-Arabic, Judæo-Berber, Krymchak, Judæo-Malayalam and many others, have largely fallen out of use.

qas: question: What language is spoken by more Jews in history than any other language?
answers: text: Yiddish

question: North Africans continue to use what language as their mother tongue?
answers: text: North Africans

question: What are the three most commonly spoken languages among Jews today?
answers: text: Hebrew, English, and Russian

question: South African Jews adopted which language?
answers: text: English

question: Which language has by and far superseded most Jewish vernaculars?
answers: text: English

question: When was Hebrew last commonly used?

question: What language has surpassed English as a Jewish vernacular?

question: What are the three least commonly spoken languages among Jews?

question: What language have Ashkenazi Jews adopted outside of Quebec?

question: What group has shifted from a monolingual group to a multilingual one?
context: Despite efforts to revive Hebrew as the national language of the Jewish people, knowledge of the language is not commonly possessed by Jews worldwide and English has emerged as the lingua franca of the Jewish diaspora. Although many Jews once had sufficient knowledge of Hebrew to study the classic literature, and Jewish languages like Yiddish and Ladino were commonly used as recently as the early 20th century, most Jews lack such knowledge today and English has by and large superseded most Jewish vernaculars. The three most commonly spoken languages among Jews today are Hebrew, English, and Russian. Some Romance languages, particularly French and Spanish, are also widely used. Yiddish has been spoken by more Jews in history than any other language, but it is far less used today following the Holocaust and the adoption of Modern Hebrew by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. In some places, the mother language of the Jewish community differs from that of the general population or the dominant group. For example, in Quebec, the Ashkenazic majority has adopted English, while the Sephardic minority uses French as its primary language. Similarly, South African Jews adopted English rather than Afrikaans. Due to both Czarist and Soviet policies, Russian has superseded Yiddish as the language of Russian Jews, but these policies have also affected neighboring communities. Today, Russian is the first language for many Jewish communities in a number of Post-Soviet states, such as Ukraine and Uzbekistan, as well as for Ashkenazic Jews in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Tajikistan. Although communities in North Africa today are small and dwindling, Jews there had shifted from a multilingual group to a monolingual one (or nearly so), speaking French in Algeria, Morocco, and the city of Tunis, while most North Africans continue to use Arabic as their mother tongue.[citation needed]

qas: question: Ashkenazi Jews share more common paternal lineages with what group?
answers: text: Jewish and Middle Eastern groups

question: Jewish traditions place most Jewish paternal origins in which region?
answers: text: Middle East

question: Which lineages are generally more heterogeneous?
answers: text: maternal lineages

question: What tends to imply a large number of founders in an old population?

question: What do male line ancestors appear to be outside of Jewish populations?

question: Who believes many Jewish males did not find new mates from European communities?

question: What percent of Ashkenazi Jews originate from four male founders?

question: What did studies carried out by Feder not confirm?
context: Y DNA studies tend to imply a small number of founders in an old population whose members parted and followed different migration paths. In most Jewish populations, these male line ancestors appear to have been mainly Middle Eastern. For example, Ashkenazi Jews share more common paternal lineages with other Jewish and Middle Eastern groups than with non-Jewish populations in areas where Jews lived in Eastern Europe, Germany and the French Rhine Valley. This is consistent with Jewish traditions in placing most Jewish paternal origins in the region of the Middle East. Conversely, the maternal lineages of Jewish populations, studied by looking at mitochondrial DNA, are generally more heterogeneous. Scholars such as Harry Ostrer and Raphael Falk believe this indicates that many Jewish males found new mates from European and other communities in the places where they migrated in the diaspora after fleeing ancient Israel. In contrast, Behar has found evidence that about 40% of Ashkenazi Jews originate maternally from just four female founders, who were of Middle Eastern origin. The populations of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish communities "showed no evidence for a narrow founder effect." Subsequent studies carried out by Feder et al. confirmed the large portion of non-local maternal origin among Ashkenazi Jews. Reflecting on their findings related to the maternal origin of Ashkenazi Jews, the authors conclude "Clearly, the differences between Jews and non-Jews are far larger than those observed among the Jewish communities. Hence, differences between the Jewish communities can be overlooked when non-Jews are included in the comparisons."

qas: question: What looks at the entire DNA mixture?
answers: text: autosomal DNA

question: What has become increasingly important as the technology deveops?
answers: text: autosomal DNA

question: Mizrahi Jews show evidence of admixture with whom?
answers: text: Middle Eastern populations and Sub-Saharan Africans

question: What looks at a small part of the DNA mixture?

question: What has become less important as technology develops?

question: What does not show shared Middle Eastern ancestry?

question: Who did Behar say has an especially close relationship with Sephardi Jews?

question: What is the least parsimonious explantion for shared Middle Eastern ancestry? 
context: Studies of autosomal DNA, which look at the entire DNA mixture, have become increasingly important as the technology develops. They show that Jewish populations have tended to form relatively closely related groups in independent communities, with most in a community sharing significant ancestry in common. For Jewish populations of the diaspora, the genetic composition of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jewish populations show a predominant amount of shared Middle Eastern ancestry. According to Behar, the most parsimonious explanation for this shared Middle Eastern ancestry is that it is "consistent with the historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant" and "the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout the Old World". North African, Italian and others of Iberian origin show variable frequencies of admixture with non-Jewish historical host populations among the maternal lines. In the case of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (in particular Moroccan Jews), who are closely related, the source of non-Jewish admixture is mainly southern European, while Mizrahi Jews show evidence of admixture with other Middle Eastern populations and Sub-Saharan Africans. Behar et al. have remarked on an especially close relationship of Ashkenazi Jews and modern Italians.

qas: question: What are Sephardic Bnei Anusim?
answers: text: descendants of the "anusim" forced converts to Catholicism

question: Who are descendants of the "anusim" forced converts to Catholicism?
answers: text: Sephardic Bnei Anusim

question: What percentage of Iberians are Sephardic Bnei Anusim?
answers: text: 19.8%

question: Who are the descendants of the willing converts to Catholicism?

question: What percentage of historical Iberia was Sephardic Bnei Anusim?

question: What percentage of ancient Ibero-America was Sephardic Bnei Anusim?

question: What population does not have some more remote ancient Jewish descent?

question: What other population does not have some more remote ancient Jewish descent?
context: The studies also show that the Sephardic Bnei Anusim (descendants of the "anusim" forced converts to Catholicism) of Iberia (estimated at about 19.8% of modern Iberia) and Ibero-America (estimated at least 10% of modern Ibero-America) have Sephardic Jewish origins within the last few centuries, while the Bene Israel and Cochin Jews of India, Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and a portion of the Lemba people of Southern Africa, despite more closely resembling the local populations of their native countries, also have some more remote ancient Jewish descent.

qas: question: What years did the Jewish population rise from 800,000 to two million?
answers: text: 1948 and 1958

question: What is the population of Israel?
answers: text: 6 million

question: Between 1974 and 1979, how many immigrants arrived in Israel?
answers: text: 227,258

question: What did the Jewish population rise to before 1948?

question: What percent of the Israeli population is not Jewish?

question: What were the latest years of the State of Israel marked by?

question: Before 1974 how many immigrants arrived in Israel?

question: Where did this period see a decrease in immigration to Israel?
context: Between 1948 and 1958, the Jewish population rose from 800,000 to two million. Currently, Jews account for 75.4% of the Israeli population, or 6 million people. The early years of the State of Israel were marked by the mass immigration of Holocaust survivors in the aftermath of the Holocaust and Jews fleeing Arab lands. Israel also has a large population of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom were airlifted to Israel in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1974 and 1979 nearly 227,258 immigrants arrived in Israel, about half being from the Soviet Union. This period also saw an increase in immigration to Israel from Western Europe, Latin America, and North America.

qas: question: More than half of the Jews live where?
answers: text: Diaspora

question: How many Jews live in Canada?
answers: text: 315,000

question: How many Jews live in Argentina?
answers: text: 180,000-300,000

question: How many Jews live in Brazil?
answers: text: 196,000-600,000

question: Where do less than half of Jews live?

question: Where is the smallest Jewish community located?

question: How many Jews live in Mexico?

question: What do demographers agree on?

question: When did the United States surpass Israel in Jewish population?
context: More than half of the Jews live in the Diaspora (see Population table). Currently, the largest Jewish community outside Israel, and either the largest or second-largest Jewish community in the world, is located in the United States, with 5.2 million to 6.4 million Jews by various estimates. Elsewhere in the Americas, there are also large Jewish populations in Canada (315,000), Argentina (180,000-300,000), and Brazil (196,000-600,000), and smaller populations in Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and several other countries (see History of the Jews in Latin America). Demographers disagree on whether the United States has a larger Jewish population than Israel, with many maintaining that Israel surpassed the United States in Jewish population during the 2000s, while others maintain that the United States still has the largest Jewish population in the world. Currently, a major national Jewish population survey is planned to ascertain whether or not Israel has overtaken the United States in Jewish population.

qas: question: Where is Western Europe's largest Jewish community?
answers: text: France

question: How many Jews live in France?
answers: text: between 483,000 and 500,000

question: What is the population of Jews in the United Kingdom?
answers: text: 292,000

question: What is Western Europe's smallest Jewish community?

question: Where are the majority of immigrants in the United Kingdom's Jewish community from?

question: How many Israelis live outside of Germany?

question: How many Jews immigrated to Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall?

question: What is a slowly increasing Jewish community?
context: Western Europe's largest Jewish community, and the third-largest Jewish community in the world, can be found in France, home to between 483,000 and 500,000 Jews, the majority of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (or their descendants). The United Kingdom has a Jewish community of 292,000. In Eastern Europe, there are anywhere from 350,000 to one million Jews living in the former Soviet Union, but exact figures are difficult to establish. In Germany, the 102,000 Jews registered with the Jewish community are a slowly declining population, despite the immigration of tens of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thousands of Israelis also live in Germany, either permanently or temporarily, for economic reasons.

qas: question: Prior to 1948, how many Jews were living in lands which now make up the Arab world (excluding Israel)?
answers: text: 800,000

question: When did a small-scale exodus begin in many countries?
answers: text: early decades of the 20th century

question: The only substantial aliyah came from where?
answers: text: Yemen and Syria

question: How many Jews lived in Arab world prior to 1948, including Israel?

question: What percentage of Jews lived in Pahlavi Iran?

question: How many Jews lived outside of the Arab world prior to 1948?

question: Where did the last large scale exoduses of the 1940s and 1950s occur?

question: When did the migration of Iranian Jews hit its lowest point?
context: Prior to 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living in lands which now make up the Arab world (excluding Israel). Of these, just under two-thirds lived in the French-controlled Maghreb region, 15–20% in the Kingdom of Iraq, approximately 10% in the Kingdom of Egypt and approximately 7% in the Kingdom of Yemen. A further 200,000 lived in Pahlavi Iran and the Republic of Turkey. Today, around 26,000 Jews live in Arab countries and around 30,000 in Iran and Turkey. A small-scale exodus had begun in many countries in the early decades of the 20th century, although the only substantial aliyah came from Yemen and Syria. The exodus from Arab and Muslim countries took place primarily from 1948. The first large-scale exoduses took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily in Iraq, Yemen and Libya, with up to 90% of these communities leaving within a few years. The peak of the exodus from Egypt occurred in 1956. The exodus in the Maghreb countries peaked in the 1960s. Lebanon was the only Arab country to see a temporary increase in its Jewish population during this period, due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries, although by the mid-1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon had also dwindled. In the aftermath of the exodus wave from Arab states, an additional migration of Iranian Jews peaked in the 1980s when around 80% of Iranian Jews left the country.[citation needed]

qas: question: When did the advent of the Jewish Enlightenment occur?
answers: text: 18th century

question: What was a result of the Jewish Enlightenment?
answers: text: growing trend of assimilation

question: Name a Jewish community that disappeared entirely?
answers: text: Kaifeng Jews of China

question: Where did assimilation never take place?

question: What Jewish community has never disappeared? 

question: What encouraged Jews to not participate in secular society?

question: What has not been caused by Jews assimilating? 
context: Since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks, a proportion of Jews have assimilated into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity. Assimilation took place in all areas, and during all time periods, with some Jewish communities, for example the Kaifeng Jews of China, disappearing entirely. The advent of the Jewish Enlightenment of the 18th century (see Haskalah) and the subsequent emancipation of the Jewish populations of Europe and America in the 19th century, accelerated the situation, encouraging Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, secular society. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community.

qas: question: What is the rate of interreligious marriage in the United States?
answers: text: just under 50%

question: What is the rate of interreligious marriage in the United Kingdom?
answers: text: 53%

question: What is the rate of interreligious marriage in France?
answers: text: 30%

question: What is the rate of interreligious marriage in Mexico?
answers: text: as low as 10%

question: What is the rate of interreligious marriage in Australia?
answers: text: as low as 10%

question: What does not vary by much?

question: How many children from intermarriage affiliate with Jewish religious practice in the United Kingdom?

question: How many children from intermarriage affiliate with Jewish religious practice in France?

question: Why do most countries in the Diaspora have increasing religiously Jewish populations?

question: Where are Jews not assimilating into?
context: Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States, it is just under 50%, in the United Kingdom, around 53%; in France; around 30%, and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10%. In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate with Jewish religious practice. The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.[citation needed]

qas: question: When did the Papal States exist?
answers: text: until 1870

question: In the Papal States, what is the name for the specified neighborhoods where Jews were required to live?
answers: text: ghettos

question: What promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent?
answers: text: bad antisemitism

question: What existed after 1870?

question: Where were Jews required to live outside of in the Papal States?

question: Who did not make a distinction between "good" and "bad" antisemitism?

question: What conspiracies were alleged about the Catholic Church? 

question: What did the "bad" kind of antisemitism not promote?
context: In the Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called ghettos. In the 19th and (before the end of World War II) 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good antisemitism" and "bad antisemitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged Jewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about accumulation of wealth, etc.

qas: question: What were Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands known as?
answers: text: dhimmis

question: What is the per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males known as?
answers: text: jizya

question: Which group had an inferior status under Islamic rule?
answers: text: Dhimmis

question: What was the disability described by Bernard Lewis as "most degrading?"
answers: text: requirement of distinctive clothing

question: What religions have a simple relationship?

question: Who did not have to pay the jizya?

question: Who had a superior status under Muslim rule?

question: What was a prohibition placed on Muslims under Christian rule?

question: What was the least degrading prohibition placed on non Muslims?
context: Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religions and administer their internal affairs, but they were subject to certain conditions. They had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to the Islamic state. Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims. Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The one described by Bernard Lewis as "most degrading" was the requirement of distinctive clothing, not found in the Quran or hadith but invented in early medieval Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic. On the other hand, Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession.

qas: question: What were walled quarters known as?
answers: text: mellahs

question: Who was forced into confinement in mellahs?
answers: text: Moroccan Jews

question: When did the confinement of Moroccan Jews in mellahs begin?
answers: text: 15th century

question: What dynasty did not massacre Jews?

question: Where were Jews in Islamic Persia confined to?

question: Where were Jews confined after the 19th century?

question: What was conflated with anti-Zionist publications in historical times?

question: What Jewish movements have made antisemitic pronouncements?
context: Notable exceptions include the massacre of Jews and forcible conversion of some Jews by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus in the 12th century, as well as in Islamic Persia, and the forced confinement of Moroccan Jews to walled quarters known as mellahs beginning from the 15th century and especially in the early 19th century. In modern times, it has become commonplace for standard antisemitic themes to be conflated with anti-Zionist publications and pronouncements of Islamic movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Turkish Refah Partisi."

qas: question: What was one method used to entirely eliminate Jewish populations?
answers: text: expulsion

question: What resulted in the massacre of Jews?
answers: text: First Crusade

question: Who led the Spanish Inquisition?
answers: text: Tomás de Torquemada

question: According to the American Journal of Human Genetics, what percentage of modern Iberian population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry?
answers: text: 19.8%

question: What methods were never used on Jewish populations?

question: What was not sufficient to silence dissent?

question: Who was the First Crusade led by?

question: What was opposed by the Russian Tsars?

question: What percent of the historical Iberian population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry?
context: Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. The history of antisemitism includes the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews; the Spanish Inquisition (led by Tomás de Torquemada) and the Portuguese Inquisition, with their persecution and autos-da-fé against the New Christians and Marrano Jews; the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in Ukraine; the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars; as well as expulsions from Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled. According to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19.8% of the modern Iberian population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry, indicating that the number of conversos may have been much higher than originally thought.

qas: question: How many Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust?
answers: text: approximately 6 million

question: Worldwide, how many Jews were there in 1939?
answers: text: 15 million

question: What was the state-led systematic persecution and genocide of European Jews and other minority groups?
answers: text: The Holocaust

question: In 1939, what fraction of Jews were killed in The Holocaust?
answers: text: more than a third

question: Where did the persecution reach its lowest amount? 

question: How many Jews were not killed in the Holocaust?

question: When was legislation to remove the Jews from civil society struck down?

question: How many Jews were there before 1939?

question: What happened when the Third Reich conquered territory in Western Europe? 
context: The persecution reached a peak in Nazi Germany's Final Solution, which led to the Holocaust and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews. Of the world's 15 million Jews in 1939, more than a third were killed in the Holocaust. The Holocaust—the state-led systematic persecution and genocide of European Jews (and certain communities of North African Jews in European controlled North Africa) and other minority groups of Europe during World War II by Germany and its collaborators remains the most notable modern-day persecution of Jews. The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in Eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers. Virtually every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."

qas: question: What is one method used to prevent intermarriage?
answers: text: pursuing secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity

question: What is the trend for secular Jews to become more religiously observant known as?
answers: text: the Baal Teshuva movement

question: Who leads the movement that pursues secular Jews in order to give them stronger Jewish identity?
answers: text: Orthodox

question: Why do secular Jews persue Orthodox movements?

question: Why has there been a trend for secular Jews to become less religious?

question: Who has a shrinking rate of conversion?

question: What is the trend for Jews to become less religiously observant called?

question: When have Jews made efforts to be less religiously observant?
context: There is also a trend of Orthodox movements pursuing secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past 25 years, there has been a trend (known as the Baal Teshuva movement) for secular Jews to become more religiously observant, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown. Additionally, there is also a growing rate of conversion to Jews by Choice of gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.