Are ashkenazi jews "white"?

Question

Ashkenazi jews appear more similar to most europeans than they do to middle eastern arabs. However, most jews believe that they are descended from the Middle East. Are jews in northern europe "white" and of european origin, or are they really from the Middle East? Or is it a combo? and if so, how much of each?

Answer 1

Although the historical record itself is very limited, there is a consensus of cultural, linguistic, and genetic evidence that the Ashkenazi Jewish population originated in the Middle East. When they arrived in northern France and the Rhineland sometime around 800-1000 CE, the Ashkenazi Jews brought with them both Rabbinic Judaism and the Babylonian Talmudic culture that underlies it. Yiddish, once spoken by the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jewry, is a Jewish language which developed from the Middle High German vernacular, heavily influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic. (By comparison, the Greek or Latin influence on Yiddish was much less significant). Recent research in human genetics has also demonstrated that a significant component of Ashkenazi ancestry is Middle Eastern.

European Jews became called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany. "Ashkenaz" is a Medieval Hebrew name for Germany. Ashkenazim are the descendants of Jews who migrated into northern France and Germany around 800-1000 CE, and later into Eastern Europe. Ashkenazim comprise the overwhelming majority of Jews, with approximately 80 percent of the Jewish total. (Prior to the Holocaust, they were an even greater percentage of world Jewry.)

Answer 2

Just because Jews are originally from the Middle East doesn't mean that some of the ancient Jews were not white like Europeans. Red hair is very common among Ashkenazi Jews, and some of the ancient Jews (from biblical tales, etc) were described as having red hair.

But some Ashkenazi Jews do in fact have non-Jewish ancestry.

Answer 3

They are of predominant Middle Eastern genetic ancestry and White. There are no pure races, we all have ancestry from other races

Answer 4

Combo. Most of them don't look very Jewish, so there must have been a whole lot of mixing going on.

Answer 5

Bigbird33 is Swedish yet she put a black girl avatar cartoon? Yes Judaism is a religion, not a nationality. Lot of looney toons here.

Answer 6

If you ain't White

Answer 7

"Ashkenaz" in Hebrew means Germany. It refers to those Jews who came from Germany or France. Why shouldn't we be white?

(Some also came from Russia)

Answer 8

Jewish is a RELIGION NOT A NATIONALITY.. IM jewish and im from swedish backround and i have blue eyes and blond hair now am i not considered white because im jewish?

Answer 9

i think so. However I consider racial classification to be a bit arbitrary.

Answer 10

we as white as snow