History Main / AllJewsAreAshkenazi

* Discussed in ''Film/UncutGems'': The black opal that drives most of the plot was mined by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel Beta Israel]] in Ethiopia. The main character Howard Ratner is an observant Jew with an Ashkenazi name who says he had no idea there were black Jews living in Ethiopia until seeing a television show about it. In reality, almost any observant Jew would be aware of them.

If there is a Jew in any mainstream media, he or she will most likely be portrayed as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews Ashkenazi]], even when that portrayal does not fit that character's background or the setting. Oy vey!

This means that the Jew will be apparently of Central or Eastern European descent, will probably eat gefilte fish and bagels with lox, and [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage may drop Yiddish words into their speech]] (Yiddish being a Germanic language traditionally spoken almost entirely in Central Europe, especially Poland). They will never observe the customs of Jews of other backgrounds, or, indeed, even acknowledge their existence in the first place. The names of Jews will almost always have "berg(er)", "man", "stein", "eis(er)", "baum", "feld", "bach", "-witz/vitz/wicz" or "-sky/ski". These "Jewish names" are actually Germanic or Polish names adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. The trope is so pervasive that viewers from outside East-Central Europe tend to think ''only'' Jews have these names.

The trope has its origins in America, particularly in New York and Los Angeles, where Jewish culture is not only more visible than elsewhere but dominated by Ashkenazi tradition – indeed, a whopping 90 percent of present-day American Jews are Ashkenazi.[[note]]There are about as many Jews in the US as there are in Israel, so Israel's half-and-half division is balanced out by America's Ashkenazi homogenity to form the worldwide 65-70% share.[[/note]] This was not always the case, however. In 1850, a considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period featuring Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was not until the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th centuries]] that a large number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement mainly from areas]] comprising modern-day Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine). The trope is also commonly used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

In RealLife, while 65-70 percent of the world's Jewish population are in fact Ashkenazim, there are many other Jewish ethnicities, formed from migrant populations from the Levant who mixed with other ethnocultural groups around the world. These include the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews Sephardim]] (Iberian), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews Mizrahim]] (fully Levantine; there may, depending on who's counting, be more Mizrahim in Israel than Ashkenazim, but there are certainly more Sephardim and Mizrahim combined than Ashkenazim there), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews Temanim]] (Yemenite), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews Kaifeng Jews]] (Chinese), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Israel Bene Israelites]] (UsefulNotes/{{India}}n), and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel Habashim]] (Ethiopian). Indeed, there are Jews from almost every country and culture, with their own distinct names and customs. And this is not even counting converts, who can (and do) come from every cultural background imaginable.

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition - indeed, a whopping 90% of American Jews are Ashkenazi.[[note]]There are about as many Jews in the US as there are in Israel, so Israel's half-and-half division is balanced out by America's Ashkenazi homogenity to form the worldwide 65-70% share.[[/note]] This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement mainly from areas]] comprising modern-day Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine). The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' 2: While the autogenerated, randomly appearing Jews in Europe are mostly Ashkenazi, there is also a chance that they are Sephardim, especially if you have Iberian culture yourself. Also, the two big Jewish nations in the game are the Ethiopian kingdom of Semien (later Auxium) and the Jewish Khazar Khaganate, both of which follow their own culture and speak their own language (Ethiopian and Kazar respectively). Any character with any culture can be converted to Judaism while keeping their original culture, resulting in things like Jewish Sweden or Jewish Afghanistan. All in all, the game does a pretty good job at portraying Jewish culture during this time period.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqYGGqTC_Us This]] Buzzfeed vid shows non-Jews eating ‘Jewish food’ for the first time, all of which is very, very Ashkenazi.[[note]][[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_cuisine an article about Jewish cuisine in general]], in case you’re interested.[[/note]] And when Israelis (Whose ideas of Jewish food are much, much more influenced by Mizrahi cuisine) found out about it...

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition - indeed, a whooping 90% of American Jews are Ashkenazi.[[note]]There are about as many Jews in the US as there are in Israel, so Israel's half-and-half division is balanced out by America's Ashkenazi homogenity to form the worldwide 65-70% share.[[/note]] This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement mainly from areas]] comprising modern-day Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine). The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition - indeed, a whooping 90% of American Jews are Ashkenazi.[[note]]There are about as many Jews in the US as there are in Israel, so Israel's half-and-half division is balanced out by America's Ashkenazi homogenity to form the worldwide 65-70% share.[[/note]]. This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement mainly from areas]] comprising modern-day Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine). The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

In RealLife, while 65-70 percent of the world's Jewish population are in fact Ashkenazim, there are many other Jewish ethnicities, formed from migrant populations from the Levant who mixed with other ethnocultural groups around the world. These include the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews Sephardim]] (Iberian), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews Mizrahim]] (fully Levantine; there may, depending on who's counting, be more Mizrahim in Israel than Ashkenazim), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews Temanim]] (Yemenite), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews Kaifeng Jews]] (Chinese), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Israel Bene Israelites]] (UsefulNotes/{{India}}n), and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel Habashim]] (Ethiopian). Indeed, there are Jews from almost every country and culture, with their own distinct names and customs. And this is not even counting converts, who can (and do) come from every cultural background imaginable.

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition - indeed, a whooping 90% of American Jews are Ashkenazi.[[Note]]There are about as many Jews in the US as there are in Israel, so Israel's half-and-half division is balanced out by America's Ashkenazi homogenity to form the worldwide 65-70% share.[[/Note]]. This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement mainly from areas]] comprising modern-day Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine). The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

This means that the Jew will be apparently of Central or Eastern European descent, will probably eat gefilte fish and bagels with lox, and [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage may drop Yiddish words into their speech]] (Yiddish being a Germanic language traditionally spoken almost entirely in Central Europe, especially Poland). The names of Jews will almost always have "berg(er)", "man", "stein", "eis(er)", "baum", "feld", "bach", "-witz/vitz/wicz" or "-sky/ski". These "Jewish names" are actually Germanic or Polish names adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. The trope is so pervasive that viewers from outside East-Central Europe tend to think ''only'' Jews have these names.

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition. This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement mainly from areas]] comprising modern-day Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine). The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

This means that the Jew will be apparently of Central or Eastern European descent, will probably eat gefilte fish and bagels with lox, and [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage may drop Yiddish words into their speech]]. The names of Jews will almost always have either a "berg(er)", "man", "stein", "eis(er)", "baum", "feld", "bach", "-witz/vitz/wicz" or "-sky/ski". These "Jewish names" are actually Germanic or Polish names adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. The trope is so pervasive that viewers from outside Germany, Poland or Russia tend to think ''only'' Jews have these names.

In RealLife, while 65-70 percent of the world's Jewish population are in fact Ashkenazim, there are many other Jewish ethnicities, including the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews Sephardim]] (Iberian), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews Mizrahim]] (Middle Eastern; there may, depending on who's counting, be more Mizrahim in Israel than Ashkenazim), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews Temanim]] (those from Yemen in particular), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews Kaifeng Jews]] (Chinese), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Israel Bene Israelites]] (UsefulNotes/{{India}}n), and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel Habashim]] (Ethiopian). Indeed, there are Jews from almost every country and culture, with their own distinct names and customs. And this is not even counting converts, who can (and do) come from every cultural background imaginable.

In historical works, this can sometimes be a case of TranslationConvention.[[note]] For example, the Jewish innkeeper in ''Series/IClaudius'' presumably spoke Latin with a recognizably Jewish accent of that era (based on his native Aramaic or Eastern-Mediterranean-Greek); arguably, having the character speak with a cliche Yiddish accent was a simple way to depict this, in the same vein as giving the working-class Roman characters Cockney accents.[[/note]]

'''Note that this trope is not about the simple presence of Ashkenazi Jews in a work''', but rather about the implicit or explicit assumption that all Jews are of Eastern European descent (e.g. by having Jewish characters speaking with Yiddish accents where their background and/or time period would make this improbable). Please do not add examples along the lines of "Character X is Ashkenazi" when it is nothing remarkable. Similarly, it's not worth listing an "aversion" if a work just happens to have a Jew who's Sephardi or Mizrahi.

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition. This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardic, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe. The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

If there is a Jew in any mainstream media ([[YouHaveToHaveJews and the odds are better than you might think]]), he or she will most likely be portrayed as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews Ashkenazi]], even when that portrayal does not fit that character's background or the setting. Oy vey!

* Discussed and Averted in ''Film/UncutGems''--the black opal that drives most of the plot was mined by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel Beta Israel]] in Ethiopia. Main character Howard Ratner (who while Ashkenazi is married to a woman implied to be of Bukharian Jewish ancestry) tells his black business partner Demany that he had no idea there were Jews living in Ethiopia, leading to Demany declaring "Black Jew Power!" (Directors the Safdie brothers are half Sephardic and half Ashkenazi)

** This is actually an interesting quirk of history, as the Jewish community of the Netherlands has had both a large portion Ashkenazi and Sepheradi for a long time, to the point where a distinct liturgy developed, and the two communities intermarried often.

* Averted with H3H3Productions: Ethan is Ashkenazi like almost all American Jews, but the Israeli-born Hila is Sephardi.

This means that the Jew will be apparently of Central or Eastern European descent, will probably eat gefilte fish and bagels with lox, and [[YiddishasaSecondLanguage may drop Yiddish words into their speech]]. The names of Jews will almost always have either a "berg(er)", "man", "stein", "eis(er)", "baum", "feld", "bach", "-witz/vitz/wicz" or "-sky/ski". These "Jewish names" are actually Germanic or Polish names adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. The trope is so pervasive that viewers from outside Germany, Poland or Russia tend to think ''only'' Jews have these names.

* In ''Film/YouDontMessWithTheZohan'', Israeli culture is rife with Yiddishisms (e.g. "[[HoYay feygele]]") despite Yiddish (both language and culture) being largely foreign in Israel (except amongst Charedim). However the movie is a subversion in that while YiddishAsaSecondLanguage is played pretty straight, the film's featured Jews are mostly actual real Israelis and thus not Ashkenazi by majority.

This means that the Jew will be apparently of Central or Eastern European descent, will probably eat gefilte fish and bagels with lox, and [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage may drop Yiddish words into their speech]]. The names of Jews will almost always have either a "berg(er)", "man", "stein", "eis(er)", "baum", "feld", "bach", "-witz/vitz/wicz" or "-sky/ski". These "Jewish names" are actually Germanic or Polish names adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. The trope is so pervasive that viewers from outside Germany, Poland or Russia tend to think ''only'' Jews have these names.

* In ''Film/YouDontMessWithTheZohan'', Israeli culture is rife with Yiddishisms (e.g. "[[HoYay feygele]]") despite Yiddish (both language and culture) being largely foreign in Israel (except amongst Charedim).

* Most of the early pioneers of American comics were immigrants of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Most of them used pen names. Fathers of the Marvel Universe Creator/JackKirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) and Creator/StanLee (born Stanley Lieber) both grew up in Depression-era New York in Jewish neighborhoods after their parents immigrated to the States around the time of World War I. ComicBook/{{Superman}}'s MosesInTheBullrushes background was meant to be an allegory for creators [[Creator/JerrySiegelAndJoeShuster Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster]]'s parents' escaping antisemitism in modern-day Lithuania and Ukraine. ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s creators were both Ashkenazi Jewish as well. Bill Finger's father immigrated to the US from Austria in 1907 while his mother was an American-born Jew. His other creator, Creator/BobKane (born Robert Kahn), was similarly a first-generation American of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

In RealLife, while 65-70 percent of the world's Jewish population are in fact Ashkenazim, there are many other Jewish ethnicities, including the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews Sephardim]] (Iberian), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews Mizrahim]] (Middle Eastern; there may, depending on who's counting, be more Mizrahim in Israel than Ashkenazim), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews Temanim]] (those from Yemen in particular), the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews Kaifeng Jews]] (Chinese), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Israel Bene Israelites]] (UsefulNotes/{{India}}), and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel Habashim]] (Ethiopian). Indeed, there are Jews from almost every country and culture, with their own distinct names and customs. And this is not even counting converts, who can (and do) come from every cultural background imaginable.

* Most of the early pioneers of American comics were immigrants of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Most of them used pen names. Fathers of the Marvel Universe Creator/JackKirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) and Creator/StanLee (born Stanley Lieber) both grew up in Depression-era New York in Jewish neighborhoods after their parents immigrated to the states around the time of World War I. ComicBook/{{Superman}}'s MosesInTheBullrushes background was meant to be an allegory for creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuester parents' escaping antisemitism in modern-day Lithuania and Ukraine. ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s creators were both Ashkenazi Jewish as well. Bill Finger's father immigrated to the US from Austria in 1907 while his mother was an American-born Jew. His other creator, Bob Kane (born Robert Kahn), was similarly a first-generation American of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

* Averted to the point of almost being inverted in Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo - while the one up-timer Jewish couple is presumably Ashkenazi, almost all named downtimer Jewish characters and particularly the Abrabanel clan are Sephardim as would be expected in mid 17th century Central and Western Europe. The inner monologue of Rebecca Abrabanel consequently features Spanish/Sefardi as a second language instead of the requisite YiddishAsASecondLanguage for Ashkenazi Jews. However, the narrative has not yet focused much on Eastern Europe where the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews lived at that time.

The trope has its origins in America, where Jewish culture, especially in New York and Los Angeles, is dominated by Ashkenazi tradition. This was not always so, however. In 1850, the considerable majority of Jews living in English-speaking countries were Sephardim, which can make works from this period with Jewish characters a bit confusing (even leaving aside the [[ValuesDissonance near-constant antisemitism]]). It was only in the [[TheGildedAge late 19th and early 20th century]] that a great number of Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States (and to a lesser extent, Western Europe) to flee from persecution in eastern Europe. The trope is also used to [[ViewersAreMorons avoid leaving viewers wondering]] why a given character behaves like a Jew but looks like an Arab.

'''Note that this trope is not about the simple presence of Ashkenazi Jews in a work''', but rather about the implicit or explicit assumption that all Jews are of Eastern European descent (e.g. by having Jewish characters speaking with Yiddish accents where their background and/or time period would make this improbable). Please do not add examples along the lines of "Character X is Ashkenazi" when it is nothing remarkable. Similarly, it's not worth listing an "aversion" if a work just happens to have a Jew who's Sephardi or Mizrachi.

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* Also by Eisner, the autobiographical ComicBook/ToTheHeartOfTheStorm, telling the story of Eisner`s childhood and family. Rose, his maternal aunt, stands out as the most stereotypical ashkenazi, with phrases like this:

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* About 80% of Jews worldwide are Ashkenazi.

* Most of the early pioneers of American comics were the first-generation Americans of Ashkenazi descent. Most of them used pen names. Fathers of the Marvel Universe Creator/JackKirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) and Creator/StanLee (born Stanley Lieber) both grew up in Depression-era New York in Jewish neighborhoods after their parents immigrated to the states around the time of World War I. ComicBook/{{Superman}}'s MosesInTheBullrushes background was meant to be an allegory for creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuester parents' escaping antisemitism in modern-day Lithuania and Ukraine. ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s creators were both Ashkenazi Jewish as well. Bill Finger's father immigrated to the US from Austria in 1907 while his mother was an American-born Jew. His other creator, Bob Kane (born Robert Kahn), was similarly a first-generation American of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

* In ''Series/MagicCity'', most of the main characters are Jews and all of them are Ashkenazi.