Ashkenazi and Sephardic and Mizrahi

The difference between different groups of Jews arts with the Jewish Diaspora, the displacement of Israelites outside of the Southern Levant. Because Jews traveled to various parts of the known world and communication was not as easy as it is today, over time they developed their own customs, religious practices, language, foods, etc.The three major ethnic divisions are the Ashkenazi, the Sephardic, and the Mizrahi. (Much of the following comes from chabad.org.)The group most familiar to Western Europe and America is the Ashkenazi, the Jews who settled in France, Germany, and Eastern Europe. The Hebrew word "Ashkenaz" refers to Germany. Over time their language evolved to a blend of Hebrew with German and Slavic vocabulary; this language is what we call Yiddish.The Sephardic Jews settled in the Iberian Peninsula ("Sepharad" refers to Spain). Their Hebrew was blended with Old Spanish and Portuguese into a dialect called Ladino.Jews who migrated to the Middle East and North Africa are…