Ashkenazim, n. pl.
(æʃkɪˈnɑːzɪm)
[mod.Heb., f. Ashkenaz, the name of a son of Gomer (Gen. x. 3, 1 Chron. i. 6), son of Japheth, son of Noah, typifying a race of people identified with the Ascanians of Phrygia, and, in medieval times, with the Germans.]
Jews of middle and northern Europe as distinguished from Sephardim or Jews of Spain and Portugal. Hence Ashkeˈnazic a., of or belonging to the Ashkenazim.
| 1839 R. M. McCheyne Let. 23 July in Familiar Lett. (1848) 109 One of the Ashkenazim..invited us secretly to his house. 1842 Bonar & McCheyne Narr. Mission Jews in 1839 iv. 330 There are no rabbies properly speaking among the Ashkenazim. 1892 Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. 4 All the Ashkenazic tribes lived very much like a happy family. Ibid. 38 Spanish Jews look down on the later imported Ashkenazim, embracing both Poles and Dutchmen in their impartial contempt. 1914 East & West XII. 154 The true Zionists are mostly Ashkenazim Jews from all Europe. |