Why are Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews divided?

Question

I don't understand why Ashkenazi Jews feel different about Sephardic Jews and vice versa. I am half Ashkenazi and half Sephardic and I don't understand what is the difference. I am a teenager and i want to know.

I am not getting an answer to my question here. There are two Synagogues in the same street, a block away from eachother. One says Sephardic and the other says Ashkenazi, they are both Conservative. I blend well in both. Same thing in San Diego, there used to be a Synagogue of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, the Sephardim ended up getting their own Synagogue in the same area and they don't do conversions. To say they are don't think of themselve as other than just Jews is not true. I have witness the division and the prejudice on how my Rabbi spoke negative of Sephardim and when I said I was half Sephardic he, just said so am I. I know his parents are not Sephardic cuz I asked them at the Passover seder, and they said no. Now I am having a hard time understanding this division. It's like Itay lahad said we are all just Jews, and we shouldn't think of ourselves as Ashkenazi or Sephardic.

Answer 1

In my experience there is no division between the two. People get along great.

EDIT: Aha, see I didn't understand what it was you were asking. See Ashkenazim and Sephardic Jews developed different customs and the like due to being in different places. While this doesn't matter that much, it still causes as you said the creation of two synagogues. The Sepharadim want to pray by Sephardic custom, with Sephardic tunes and so forth, while the Ashkenazim prefer Ashkenazi style. It's simply a matter of slightly different cultures. If your Rabbi is insensitive towards Sephardim then you should say something to him. That is not a standard Ashkenazi view, and shouldn't be tolerated.

Answer 2

Sephardic and Ashkenazy Jews developed independently because the world was an unfriendly place for Jews and without modern communications to maintain continuity in the community, people were divided. Languages like Ladino and Yiddish allowed traders to talk with one another, but the separdic community was partially living in a Muslim world while the Ashkenazy lived in the Catholic world. Cultures, travel restrictions and separate languages led to widely different cultural communities and have made it difficult for each group to get along while Judaism is the only common ground.

Answer 3

I don't know how it is in the US but in Israel this division is beginning to disappear.
The reason for this division, has Mark said, was formed due to hundreds of years in the diaspora. The European Jews developed their own sub-culture which was very unic and different than the Jews in the Arabic nations. They spoke different languages ( Idish Vs. Ladino or Arabic), they had differences in Halacha, in the way they interpreted thee bible, Talmud, etc, of course in their foods, traditions and so on. Don't forget that there were also differences in the appearance (both clothing and genetics). So when these two cultures met in Israel during the 20th century, it was quite natural that they had problems to accept each other. I wont get into analyze all the social problems of Sepharadim who came to Israel after its establishment, but today so many young people are "mixed" and are creating new families which sometimes has 6-8 different roots, so when you're asking them if they are Ashkenazi or Sephardi there is no answer to that.

Answer 4

Something like 80% of Jews in the U.S. are Ashkenazic, so presumably something like 80% of those who leave Judaism for Christianity (in any form, including 'Messianic') will likely be Ashkenazic as well. I suppose if they'd had a strong enough background in Judaism they'd notice the differences in pronunciation. But the 'Messianics' tend to convert Jews who don't know all that much about Judaism, so it's quite possible that most of them don't know enough to notice. Likewise the vast majority of 'Messianic' congregants who have never been Jewish at all.

Answer 5

They are both Jewish and both have the same Halachah - the difference is purely in which poskim they follow (so Sephardim generally follow the mechaber (author of the Shulchan Aruch Rav Josef Caro) and the Beis Yaakov (Rav Caro's first explanation of the Arcba'ah Haturim- which he later expnaded intot he Shulchan Aruch) whereas Ashkenazim generally follow the rulings of the Rema (Rav Moshe Isserles) - the glosses in the Shulchan Aruch- he finished his work almost concurrently with rav Caro and rather than publish seperately he added his comments in as glosses to Rav Caro's work. Every edition of the Shulchan Aruch publishes the two as a single work.

The following of different poskin continues today- with Ashkenazim mainly following HaRav Moshe Feinstein, HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Eliashav, whereas Sephardim follow the rulings of HaRav Ovadia Yosef.

Which rulings and poskim you follow should go by your fathers minhag- so if he is Sephardi, you should follow Sephardi minhagim, if Ashkenazi, Ashkenazi minhagim. If you want to follow the other minhagim (in other words your mother's minhagim), you need to do Heter Nedarim to change nusach.

Answer 6

Hey just because they pray in different synogogues it doesn't mean that they hate each other. You see, each has different customs, minhagim (same torah of course) because they lived in different places for a very long time, and the prayer is slightly different. I think it's nice that each holds on to the heritage of his father and yet thier both Jews, and both keep the same torah. Some halachot are different because they had different poskim, but we all keep the 613 mitzvot that Mosheh got from God at Sinai.
Think of it - the Yeminite Jews lived in Yemen for hundreds of years, the Ashkenazi jews lived in Europe for hundreds of years, the Sephardi Jews lived in north Africa for hundreds of years and so on, and yet they all have the EXACT same Sefer Torah, not a letter is different - I think that's pretty amazing.

Answer 7

Sadly, you are right. Just like any other group of people, where there are differences in customs the two groups will frequently look upon each other as "outsiders", and one will think themselves "better" than the other. The answerer who talked about the divide between northern and southern Italians was correct. Traditionally, the Ashkenazic Jews looked upon the Sephardim as less cultured than they--each group has its own particular style of cooking, they pronounce certain Hebrew letters differently, and so on. At one time, the Ashkenazic Jews of San Francisco even thought about buying Baja California so that their Sephardic "cousins" could resettle there. It's not something anyone is proud of and you'd think that in this day and age people would be more enlightened--but there you are. E-mail me and I can probably get you more info if you'd like.

Answer 8

Cool qestion. I dont understand Ashkenazi and Sephardic are not geting along.

Answer 9

Askenazi have different customs from Sephardic Jews and there is also other groups of Jews like the Falashas and Yemenite.

Answer 10

There is a division that is why Ashkenazi are Ashkenazi and Sephardic are Sephardic Jews. Otherwise we would all be called just Jews.