Ashkenazim
Originally, this term referred to Jews from Germany. The term comes from the word "Ashkenaz"--one of the unidentified peoples named in the Bible. In the Middle Ages, Jews used it as the geographical name for Germany, and based their term for Jews from Germany on it. Their migration to the East meant that the term came to include Jews from East Central Europe as well. Ashkenazim had their own culture that differed from those of the Sephardic and Oriental Jews. They used various dialects of Yiddish, cultivated their own customs and art (sacral architecture in particular), and had different elements in their liturgy, such as the order of the prayers and methods of studying the Torah, as well as a different pronunciation for Hebrew words. These various Jewish cultural groups nevertheless maintained a fundamental religious unity, and also influenced one another in a number of ways.
Alina Cała
The following text comes from the book entitled "Historia i kultura Żydów polskich. Słownik", by Alina Cała, Hanna Węgrzynek and Gabriela Zalewska, published by WSiP
