Jewish Diaspora - Post-Roman Period Jewish Populations

Post-Roman Period Jewish Populations

Main article: Jewish ethnic divisions

During the Middle Ages, Jews divided into distinct regional groups which today are generally addressed according to two primary geographical groupings: the Ashkenazi of Northern and Eastern Europe and Sephardic Jews of Iberia (Spain and Portugal), North Africa and the Middle East. These groups have parallel histories sharing many series of persecutions and forced expulsions.

By 1764 there were about 750,000 Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The worldwide Jewish population was estimated at 1.2 million.

Read more about this topic:  Jewish Diaspora

Famous quotes containing the words period, jewish and/or populations:

    “In a period of a people’s life that bears the designation “transitional,” the task of a thinking individual, of a sincere citizen of his country, is to go forward, despite the dirt and difficulty of the path, to go forward without losing from view even for a moment those fundamental ideals on which the entire existence of the society to which he belongs is built.”
    —Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)

    “The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
    —Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    “The populations of Pwllheli, Criccieth,
    Portmadoc, Borth, Tremadoc, Penrhyndeudraeth,
    Were all assembled. Criccieth’s mayor addressed them
    First in good Welsh and then in fluent English,”
    —Robert Graves (1895–1985)