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Old October 20th, 2012 #5
Steven L. Akins
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: The Heart of Dixie
Posts: 13,170
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Fisher View Post
I'm a little shaky in knowledge in this area. Clearly sephardic jews are semetic and closer to their arab cousins. Ashkenazi also can be discerned through physical traits as well. But how did the two come about? And more importantly, how do we differentiate between an actual blood jew and a racially European who has foolishly/ignorantly converted to judaism?
Very few Europeans converted to Judaism. In fact, more Jews probably converted to Roman Catholicism as they were encouraged to do so in many cases to avoid the various expulsions that European rulers from time to time conducxted to rid their countries of the Jews.

But to answer your question, the Jews have been in Europe for over 2000 years, going back to the days when the kingdom of Judea was part of the Roman Empire. The Jews were merchants, traders, entertainers, etc., then much as they are now. They would have established themselves wherever it was most convenient and profitable for them to do so; and thus the Ashkenazi Jews came to reside in Europe.