Hi there,
I'm currently obsessed with the Yiddish-speaking culture that once existed in such a huge way in places like Poland, Ukraine and Belarus (particularly in the first half of the 20th Century), but I'm having a lot of trouble finding nonfiction books on the topic, at least in English.
I really want to get a flavour for the way people lived, the music they listened to, their literature, even stage plays, stand-up comedy, whatever I can find. Looking at that stuff is a great way to learn about a people, their worldview and their values.
Maybe biographies of writers, poets, community leaders? I'm not sure. Basically whatever I can find.
When I tried searches on Amazon, a number of the results were about WWII (from the German perspective, if you can believe that!).
I hate to think of how much knowledge was lost because of Shoah, and am hoping that it's been preserved somewhere.
Ideally in eBook format (my old eyeballs do much better with the eReaders), but hardcopies are okay too.
Sorry about the length of the post!
For Jews living in Eastern Europe today: How safe and how much at home do you feel? I would be primarily interested in Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Belarus and Czechia.
Hey again!
Hope weβre doing well :)
Just a quick question: my mother has recently done her 23andme test and got a rather unexpected result that was Eastern European.
Sheβs from Malaysia/ South East Asia/ Mainland China (all present in her results) but her grandfather (who we donβt know) served at a British Airforce Base in North Malaysia.
Sheβs about 20-25% βWesternβ which was expected. Out of that are results from the British Isles but some of it comes from Eastern Europe.
23andme predicts that the Eastern European ancestor was born around the early 1800βs. In that time frame, many Jews were fleeing Eastern Europe and went to cities in the UK such as Manchester and London (which she has a lot of DNA).
I noticed that there isnβt any Ashkenazi Jewish DNA. Did many Eastern Europeans who werenβt Ashkenazi move to the UK in the 19th century?
I was born in Western Europe from Eastern European Ashkenazi family (Ukraine) but Iβm planning to move to Poland or Croatia (working remotely) my parents are very against it; demonizing all Eastern Europe as backward anti Semitic etcβ¦. while I have a strong connection culturally speaking and many friends from this part of the Europe. Wondering if someone is experiencing the same
E.g. Shapiro/Shapira (which comes from Speyer), Deutsch/Deutch, Ashkenazi
As I understand it, Ashkenazi Jews migrated from Central Europe to Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, so why do our surnames sometimes reflect German places?
Which?
Shabbat Shalom,
Last year I was reading the book "embracing Judaism" there was a chapter focused on the history of Jews, honestly each page I thought can these guys catch a break! like ya'll moved from one place to another for tiiiiiiiiime, then I got to the eastern European Jewish history and it said in the book that this was the second golden age of Jews, setting up your own communities and thriving for sometime even under the difficult circumstances, sure it didn't sound like a utopia but they made the most of it, enforcing they're own laws and food purity . Honestly it sounded calm for a time and would love to read more about it.
Hopefully my interpretations wasn't anti-Semitic or offensive just really interested in your history as a non Jew.
Peace.
All of them just look white to me. I know you can tell from accents and how people dress and whatnot but it seems like people can tell just by looking at some people what their ethnicity is.
Shlomo Sand quotes Abraham Harkavy's claim that Jews in what's now Poland and Russia spoke Slavic languages until relatively recently, adopting Yiddish only later. But Harkavy was writing in the 19th century, and Sand doesn't provide more recent sources. Is there any up-to-date scholarship on this question?
I personally find it quite silly, it just feels like the people who use it just desire to throw our diverse region into one box with this having the need of hanging Arab before anything. I'm Iraqi Assyrian and I'd rather die before being called "Arab Christian".
And not like every Middle Eastern Jews has a background from an Arab country in the first place lol
Ashkenazi Jews are the largest group of Jewish people in the world. They are usually the types of Jewish people that come to mind for people in the Western World when one is talking about Jewish people who are Jewish Customs or Jewish holidays or so on. There is a lot of debate over how they fit into definitions of whiteness.
Ashkenazi Jews are regarded as a unique ethnic group. But their Origins are not entirely clear. A conventional wisdom is that the origins of Ashkenazi Jews are that Jewish men from the Middle East traveled into Europe, married European women whom they converted to Judaism, and then there was no other admixture. But genetic Studies have shown that the issue is more complicated than that. Genetic Studies have found that direct maternal and paternal lines Ashkenazi Jews originated in the Middle East. But different Studies have reached different conclusions as to how significant European genetics have contributed to Ashkenazi Jewish populations. None the less, Ashkenazi Jews are a distinct ethnic group. And genetic studies, at least some of them, show that on the whole, Ashkenazi Jews, no matter where in Europe they came from, are more similar to each other than other people in Europe. Such Studies have found that they are also more similar to other groups of Sephardic Jews who are Jewish populations that settled in Spain and Portugal, and Mizrahi Jews who are Jewish people who stayed in the Middle East. Some studies also conclude that direct paternal and maternal lines of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, and Sephardi Jews are more similar to Arabs than any other group of people.
Regardless of their Origins, Ashkenazi Jewish people are a unique ethnic group, just like any other unique ethnic group you could think of, and they have a unique history in the unique culture.
Over the years, Ashkenazi Jews have experienced much anti-semitism. However, depending on the country they lived in and depending on the time., there have been times where anti-Semitism was less severe, and Jews were able to have a certain measure of Freedom under the law, though of course anti-semitism was still very much present. And of course, in any case, anti-Semitism increased rapidly in the Years leading up to the Holocaust.
The concept of whiteness and its relationship to Ashkenazi Jews is a very controversial question. In some ways, Ashkenazi Jews have a lot in common with other ethnic groups from Europe who settled in America, but who are not considered to be white orig
... keep reading on reddit β‘I'm from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, but my DNA results came back with a significant percentage from the Middle East, and a 2% trace of Nigerian (I used a test which specifies that region).
- Did any other European Jewish people get similar results?
- Is there any way to explain the African markers or is it just statistical noise?
Which is your primary reason?
