Post-Roman Period Jewish Populations
Main article: Jewish ethnic divisionsDuring the Middle Ages, Jews divided into distinct regional groups which today are generally addressed according to two primary geographical groupings: the Ashkenazi of Northern and Eastern Europe and Sephardic Jews of Iberia (Spain and Portugal), North Africa and the Middle East. These groups have parallel histories sharing many series of persecutions and forced expulsions.
By 1764 there were about 750,000 Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The worldwide Jewish population was estimated at 1.2 million.
Read more about this topic: Jewish Diaspora
Famous quotes containing the words period, jewish and/or populations:
“There is a period in the history of the individual, as of the race, when the hunters are the “best men,” as the Algonquins called them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die.”
—Philip Roth (20th century)
“The populations of Pwllheli, Criccieth,
Portmadoc, Borth, Tremadoc, Penrhyndeudraeth,
Were all assembled. Criccieth’s mayor addressed them
First in good Welsh and then in fluent English,”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)