Introduction
Introduction
This chapter discusses the existence of Jewish regional cultures and the prominence of two groups, Ashkenaz and Sepharad as biblical toponyms adopted by medieval Jews. It explains that Ashkenaz was adopted by settlers in Carolingian Franco-Germany, while Sepharad was adopted by settlers in Islamic al-Andalus. It also mentions historian Jonathan Ray, who showed that Iberian Jews of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries identified themselves not as Sephardim, but as Jews of a particular town or principality. The chapter considers the Sepharad, which was a catch-all identity first used by the established residents of non-Iberian lands and applied to Jewish newcomers from Spain. It reviews Joseph Davis's study of early modern halakhic codes that demonstrates how Ashkenaz became an umbrella category in the sixteenth century.
Keywords: Jewish regional cultures, Ashkenaz, Sepharad, medieval Jews, non-Iberian lands, halakhic codes
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