Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Ashkenazi Jews, a major Jewish diasporic ethnic group native to Europe.
Ashkenazi Jews
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News Why Ashkenazi Jews Are Not Descended From Khazars — and What It Means
(Haaretz) — The claim that today’s Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars who converted in the Middle Ages is a myth, according to new research by a Hebrew University historian. The Khazar thesis gained global prominence when Prof. Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University published “The Invention of the Jewish People” in 2008. In that…
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News Why Kitniyot Passover Fight Is Literally Full of Beans
When is a legume not necessarily a legume? When it’s a min kitniyes, might be the Yiddish answer, which could be translated as, “When it’s a whatchamacallit.” And why is that? The week of Passover is a good time to ask. As the more ritually meticulous among you are aware, legumes — which is to…
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Breaking News Angelina Jolie Breaks Silence About Breast Cancer Surgery and BRCA
Angelina Jolie has no regrets. The 38-year-old actress opened up for the first time about her decision to undergo a preventative mastectomy in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m great! I’m very happy I made the decision. I was very fortunate to have great doctors and very, very fortunate to have a good recovery and…
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Food Bubbe’s Kitchen Versus the Kiddush Hall
I recently conducted some research to explore how Jews define their own cultural identity through food. I analyzed interviews done in Europe -mainly in Germany- and in America -mainly Chile- and the results were somehow surprising. Both samples were very similar: mainly middle age, secular, and Ashkenazi women. Their answers were also relatively close in…
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Opinion Why Two Chief Rabbis Is Better Than One
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Blau speaks at a Jewish school in Berlin. / Getty Images When you package it right, even a plot against pluralism can be made to seem progressive. In Israel, government ministers spanning from left to right have advanced legislation that will end the country’s dual Chief Rabbinate, under which there are two…
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Breaking News Ex-Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger Arrested for Million-Dollar Bribes
Former Israeli chief rabbi Yona Metzger was arrested on suspicion that he received bribes, as well as committed money laundering and fraud, during his time as Ashkenazi chief rabbi. Metzger was arrested Monday, following a several-month-long investigation. A Petah Tikvah court remanded to police custody for nine days. The Israel Police National Fraud squad believes…
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News Medical Ethics Program Takes Aim at BRCA ‘Jewish’ Gene Mutation
After actress Angelina Jolie announced her decision to have a double mastectomy back in May, it didn’t take long for synagogues and Shabbat tables in the Jewish community to buzz with a new conversation. Her choice to have her breasts surgically removed touched a raw nerve within the community: while one in every 800 individuals…
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Breaking News Jewish Women’s Genes Traced Mostly to Europe — Not Israel
The maternal ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews comes mainly from Europe, a new study shows. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, fly in the face of the commonly accepted notion that European Ashkenazim are descended from Jews who left Israel and the Middle East some 2,000 years ago and moved to the Near East….
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