Judaica Store Blog

Ashkenazic Jews are descended from Northern and Eastern European Jews. Sephardic Jews come from the Iberian peninsula, and the Middle East. During the Jewish expulsion from Spain in the late 15th century, many Jews emigrated to Northern Africa. Sephardic means “Spain” in Hebrew, and Ashkenazi means “Germany.”

Sephardic Jews are subdivided into the European Jews and the Eastern Jews, who lived in Arab lands before the creation of Israel, where today, more than half of the Jews are Mizrachim, which means “Eastern.”

Yiddish was the language of Ashkenazi Jews, and was based on German and Hebrew. Ladino was based on Spanish and Hebrew and was the language of the Sephardic Jews.

Sephardic Jews usually follow the practices of Orthodox Judaism, and wear Kippot and tzitzis, while Ashkenazi Jews have smaller sects that differ according to their religious practices. Some Ashkenazi only wear kippot during Passover and in synagogue!

There are other groups of Jews that do not fit into the Ashkenazi/ Sephardic distinction. Ethiopian Jews, also called Falashas or Beta Israel, and Oriental Jews are just some of these. In the U.S. these groups are relatively small. Most American Jews are Ashkenazi, and came to the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, but the oldest Jewish congregations are Sephardic and arrived here during the late 1600’s.