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Michael Rand started RandBall with hopes that he could convince the world to love jumpsuits as much as he does. So far, he's only succeeded in using the word "redacted" a lot. He welcomes suggestions, news tips, links of pure genius, and pictures of pets in Halloween costumes here, though he already knows he will regret that last part.
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Via ESPN.com:
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson isn't surprised that the revamped Miami Heat are struggling initially, but he thinks if they don't get it together soon coach Erik Spoelstra's days could be numbered.
After adding LeBron James and Chris Bosh to go along with Dwyane Wade, Miami has limped to an 8-6 record. Wade has been banged up, Mike Miller hasn't played a game and now Udonis Haslem could miss significant time.
"That record, I think, says a lot about coming together with some real talented guys, and not having a base," Jackson said on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. "And then some things happened to them, Wade getting hurt."
"They're still kind of searching out how they're going to find a role and work their roles together," Jackson continued.
With expectations so high going into the season after team president Pat Riley assembled his dream team, the pressure is on Spoelstra to deliver. When the Heat struggled to an 11-10 start to the 2005-06 season, Riley shocked the league by replacing Stan Van Gundy on the Miami bench. He hadn't coached since the 2002-03 campaign but led the Heat to the NBA championship.
"The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene, is that eventually these guys that were recruited -- Bosh and James -- by Pat Riley and Mickey Arrison, the owner, are going to come in and say, 'We feel you [Riley] can do a better job coaching the team. We came here on the hopes that this would work,' and whatever, I don't know," Jackson said. "That's kind of my take on it, is that eventually if things don't straighten out here soon, it could be the Van Gundy thing all over again."
There's probably some sports psychology/47th layer chess move Jackson is getting at here. Or maybe he's just saying what everyone else is thinking. But why on earth would he want to hasten the arrival of Riley in Miami? Because isn't that when the [redacted]-kicking is going to ensue?
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I'm wondering whether there's a way I can configure my phone sync my corporate emails and calendars?
Sometimes when I'm away for meetings all day, I am not informed of any last minute meeting changes, or I could have forgotten about certain meetings during the day. It can get quite challenging and embarrassing managing such situations especially during days when I'm very mobile. I'm sure my boss isn't too happy about it.
The challenge is, my company has disabled the activesync feature on our corporate Exchange server.
The only solution I have now is to access OWA via my phone periodically to check my email. However, I can't possibly do that all the time. I found out also that there are phone apps that could do this, but I would need to pay for them. And in time to come, my company is going to disable OWA altogether, and that would render my small investment in the app worthless.
This makes me wonder whether is it really so complicated to configure one's phone to perform something so simple?
Since I could configure my personal laptop to download my corporate emails, there must be a workaround to still sync my phone to the Exchange server. However, there's no feature for me to configure certain settings on my phone which I could on my Outlook. For instance, "Exchange Proxy Settings" and "Only connect to proxy servers that have this principal name in their certificate". Does anyone know if there a way to force your phone to allow the same Outlook configurations?
Otherwise, is it possible to perform activesync natively via OWA instead?
If all else fails, I guess I could only either throw in the towel and find some other non-geeky ways to resolve this problem.

subset: commoncrawl


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A good bar will help as the knurl will be a lot nice to you.
I currently use a Pendlay bar and its amazing. Also helps that its 29mm.
Other then that, Tape, Chalk and just do it everytime you...
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Missy's StoryThese are SO YUMMY!!!! Just like the Girl Scout ones. They are so easy to make.
1 lb
bittersweet chocolate
butterery round crackers (ritz)
1/2 tsp
peppermint extract
Directions Step-By-Step
1Using a double boiler method, melt the chocolate coatings over hot tap water for 15 - 20 minutes. Stir . Do not cook or get water into the chocolate.
2After it is melted, stir in a couple drops of peppermint flavor into the chocolate.
3Dip crackers into the melted chocolate and then place onto a cold cookie sheet and put into the refrigerator to set. (A freezing tray to rest the dipped cookies will keep the bottoms neat looking.)
4In a few minutes take them out and package in candy cups. The cookies are best kept at room temperature or a cool dry place away from any odors.
About this Recipe
Other Tags: Quick & Easy, For Kids
bev snee 1234567 - Jan 14, 2011
This is a must try! I had just bought a bottle of peppermint extract 3 days ago! Yummmmmmmmm Congrats on your pumkin feature. Thanks Missy.
Missy Wimpelberg MWimpelberg - Jan 14, 2011
Thank you Bev. These are very yummy, I have to make smaller batches, so I don't eat them all:)
Betty Campisi BLCBaking - Jan 15, 2011
I have been making these for years. The only problem is we always run out. They are super easy to make.
Kathi Doyle ilml - Jan 17, 2011
I made these yesterday and they are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Missy Wimpelberg MWimpelberg - Jan 17, 2011
Tell me about it, Betty:) Thanks.
Kathi, I am glad you enjoyed them.


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Sword Of Mana Cheats for GameBoy AdvanceHome / GameBoy Advance /
This page contains Cheats for Sword Of Mana organized by sections for GameBoy Advance. Sword Of Mana is a Role-Playing Action RPG game, made by Brownie Brown, released on Dec 1, 2003 and published by Nintendo. If you can't find a hint or secret in our list, then please check this page periodically for the latest updates.
- Developer:
Sword Of Mana GameBoy Advance CheatsBrownie Brown
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Genre: Role-Playing Action RPG
- Release Date: Dec 1, 2003
- ESRB: Everyone
Kill over 1,000 of the same enemy to replace it with an much more difficult black version of it in future encounters....From: jmed22
First, make sure that you have anything that your character eats to use. Then, wait for the time that you know the enemy is about to use an attack. Before the attack is launched, use the item. Your enemy's attack will not hit, and if you are lucky, you will not lose HP. Note: Sometimes this fails bu...From: xxxtraceyxxx
Every time you defeat a Polter Box, you will get a very good item such as materials, seeds, icons and even coins. However, in some locations, you cannot find a Polter Box. Try to get it by hitting the Polter Box icon using the treasure chest left behind by an enemy that you just killed. Note: Only s...From: bahaa09
In the room before battling Count Lee, there are four bats flying around. If you kill each one, you may get an object. After a few seconds, the bats reappear. Keep killing them and after awhile you will get easy experience....From: AMRA1011
To do a special charge attack, wait until your attack gauge is full and your character starts flashing green. Hold A for approximately two seconds, and release it. Your character will do a charge attack which varies with weapon to weapon....From: satishiyer1
When Julian takes on his final form in the battle after the fight with the sheep and with the clones, the easiest (if not most time consuming) way of defeating him is to stand back at the end of the platform and pound at him with the bow. Recover any HP you lose from his attacks with Wisp (Spirit th...From: grant.a06
Link to another game and trade the indicated amount of Amigos to get the corresponding item. Note: They can only be used once per day in game time. Amigo Flute: 1 Amigo Selva Card: 5 Amigos Pokiehl Card: 10 Amigos Tote Card: 15 Amigos Rosiotti Card: 30 Amigos Olbohn Card: 50 Amigos Gaia Card: 75 Ami...From: wheeliegal92
Easter Eggs
Watch the ending sequence until the "Fin" screen appears. Wait approximately five minutes, then a sequence featuring a Chocobo will appear before the game returns to the title screen....From: edye
Stuck on this game? Set a specific, clearly defined question and let others answer your question or view answers to previously asked questions. If you think you are an Sword Of Mana expert then please try to help others with their questions.
How to defeat the boss near the sword of mana easily...
Posted on: 12-03-2011
Sword Of Mana - Intro
- May 25, 2014, Views: 18
Sword Of Mana - Final Boss + Ending
- May 25, 2014, Views: 39
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text:
2006-2006 Mercury Mountaineer Heater Blend Door Repair Kit1ABMX00251
This part replaces:
- New
This AC heating temperature blend door repair kit is a new aftermarket part. The blend door bolts to the blower cover and helps regulate the flow of air into the passenger compartment by opening and closing, like a door in a house. Because it is very active inside your temperature control system, it usually cracks where the air door actuator attaches resulting in a loss of temperature control. So if you are unable to properly control the temperature in your vehicle, this may be because this door is cracked or broken!
- New Temperature Blend Door
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text:
This page contains Cheats for 3DO organized by sections for 3DO. 3DO is a Hardware Console game, made by 3DO and published by Panasonic. If you can't find a hint or secret in our list, then please check this page periodically for the latest updates.
- Developer:
3DO 3DO Cheats3DO
- Publisher: Panasonic
- Genre: Hardware Console
- Release Date: Not Set
- ESRB: Not Set
The ROMs in the original Panasonic FZ-1 do not play any audio during the ''asteroid'' screen that is displayed when the unit is left powered on with no software in the disc tray. Hold A during this screen to hear the sounds....From: pinokyo
Press X to stop playback of an audio compact disc. Hold LS + RS, then press X + P. The CD tray will open without the use of the ''Open'' button....From: uxie
Stuck on this game? Set a specific, clearly defined question and let others answer your question or view answers to previously asked questions. If you think you are an 3DO expert then please try to help others with their questions.
Soccer Kid - Gameplay Video
- May 13, 2014, Views: 58
Samurai Shodown - Gameplay Video
- May 13, 2014, Views: 71
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties - CLOTHES OFF!
- May 13, 2014, Views: 98
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- May 13, 2014, Views: 65
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- Kim Kardashian: Hollywood - Gameplay, (iPhone-iPod)
- Episode: Choose Your Story - Gameplay, (iPhone-iPod)
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- The Settlers - Kingdoms Of Anteria - Announcement Trailer, (PC)
- Entwined - Quick Look Trailer, (PS3)
- Blue Estate - Official Launch Trailer, (PS4)
- Goat Commando 3D Simulator - Gameplay, (iPhone-iPod)
- Munin - Official Launch Trailer, (iPad)


text:
The First Word in Protective & Marine Coatings
A Product of Technology Publishing / PaintSquare
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Monday, December 7, 2009
Axxiom Manufacturing Inc., a major manufacturer of abrasive blast equipment, has filed suit against Forecast Sales, a maker of aftermarket parts and supplies for the abrasive blasting industry. The suit alleges that Forecast Sales has used "deceptive business practices and has infringed Axxiom copyrights" in connection with the sale of products.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Houston, TX, alleges that Forecast Sales has used "identical Axxiom part numbers" on products, and has "copied the artwork, look and feel of Axxiom printed materials in an attempt to deceive consumers and cause confusion in the marketplace as to the actual source of abrasive blasting equipment." The suit further states that consumers have ordered products or parts using Forecast "look-alike" sales materials carrying Axxiom part numbers, believing they were buying Axxiom products, but actually were delivered Forecast products with no indication that the part delivered were not genuine Axxiom products."
The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction "preventing Forecast Sales from continuing to cause confusion in the marketplace by using Axxiom's copyrighted materials and part numbers," said Shawn Staples, an attorney representing Axxiom. Staples said a preliminary hearing date has been scheduled for March 26, 2010, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, in Houston.
Brian McCoy, president of Forecast Sales, said Monday the company was in the process of reviewing the Axxiom lawsuit. "It would be premature to comment at this time, except to say the lawsuit really has no merit." McCoy said. Forecast Sales is based in Indianapolis, IN.
Patrick Smith, an attorney with the firm representing Forecast Sales, said, "We don't know much other than what's stated in the petition, and we're in the process of learning what's involved in the case." Smith is with the Houston law firm of Ramsey & Murray.
In a statement issued by company president John Pirotte, Axxiom described the lawsuit as a "last resort to protect itself, its customers and its distributors from marketplace confusion caused by Forecast Sales." Axxiom's equipment brands include the Schmidt, G2 Deadman, Thompson Valve, Thompson Valve II, MicroValve, MV, MV2, and ComboValve lines. The company is based in Fresno, TX.
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Urban View I
Item# 1123956
$367.00 $308.28
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custom made, allow 9-11 weeks, ships Premier Home Delivery, custom items may not be returned
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EMC Offers $1 Million XtremIO Flash Guarantee
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definition of Wikipedia
Advertizing ▼
|Total population
|8[1]–11.2[2] million
|Regions with significant populations
Historical: Yiddish
primarily Judaism
|Related ethnic groups
Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and other Jewish ethnic divisions.
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Hebrew: אַשְׁכְּנַזִּים, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi], Modern Hebrew: [aʃkenaˈzim], [aʃkenaˈzi]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנַז Y'hudey Ashkenaz, "the Jews of Ashkenaz"), are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north.[citation needed]
The name Ashkenazi derives from the bibilical figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). In the Rabbinic literature, Ashkenaz's kingdom was first associated with the Scythian region, then later on with the Slavic territories,[5] and from the 11th century onwards with Northern Europe and Germany.[6] The Jews living in the northern regions, associated with Ashkenaz's kingdom, thus came to call themselves the Ashkenazi Jews.[6] Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe also came to be called "Ashkenazi" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany.
Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and elsewhere between the 11th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a High German language written using the Hebrew alphabet. It had developed in medieval times as the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. The Jewish communities of three cities along the Rhine: Speyer, Worms and Mainz, created the SHUM league (SHUM after the first Hebrew letters of Shpira, Vermayza, and Magentza). The ShUM-cities are considered the cradle of the distinct Ashkenazi culture and liturgy.
Although in the 11th century, they composed only three percent of the world's Jewish population, at their peak in 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for 92 percent of the world's Jews. Today they make up approximately 80 percent of Jews worldwide.[7] Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashkenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular.
The exact definition of Jewishness is not universally agreed upon—neither by religious scholars (especially across different denominations); nor in the context of politics (as applied to those who wish to make Aliyah); nor even in the conventional, everyday sense where "Jewishness" may be loosely understood by the casual observer as encompassing both religious and secular Jews, or religious Jews alone. This makes it especially difficult to define who is an Ashkenazi Jew. The people have been defined differently from religious, cultural, or ethnic perspectives.
Since the overwhelming majority of Ashkenazi Jews no longer live in Eastern Europe, the isolation that once favored a distinct religious tradition and culture has vanished. Furthermore, the word Ashkenazi is being used in non-traditional ways, especially in Israel. By conservative and orthodox philosophies, a person can be considered a Jew only if his or her mother was Jewish (meaning, more specifically, either matrilineal descent from a female believed to be present at Mt. Sinai when the ten commandments were given, or else descent from a female who was converted to Judaism before the birth of her children), or if he or she has personally converted to Judaism. This means that a person can be Ashkenazi but not considered a Jew by some of those within the Jewish communities, making the term "Ashkenazi" more applicable as broad ethnicity which evolved from the practice of Judaism in Europe.[citation needed]
Religious Jews have Minhagim, customs, in addition to Halakha, or religious law, and different interpretations of law. Different groups of religious Jews in different geographic areas historically adopted different customs and interpretations. On certain issues, Orthodox Jews are required to follow the customs of their ancestors, and do not believe they have the option of picking and choosing. For this reason, observant Jews at times find it important for religious reasons to ascertain who their household's religious ancestors are in order to know what customs their household should follow. These times include, for example, when two Jews of different ethnic background marry, when a non-Jew converts to Judaism and determines what customs to follow for the first time, or when a lapsed or less observant Jew returns to traditional Judaism and must determine what was done in his or her family's past. In this sense, "Ashkenazic" refers both to a family ancestry and to a body of customs binding on Jews of that ancestry.
In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition and ritual follows Ashkenazi practice. Until the Ashkenazi community first began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad and in Islamic Spain. Ashkenaz (Germany) was so distant geographically that it developed a minhag of its own. Ashkenazi Hebrew came to be pronounced in ways distinct from other forms of Hebrew.
In this respect, the counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic, since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they are ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi woman who marries into an Orthodox or Haredi Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her children to be Ashkenazi Jews; conversely an Ashkenazi woman who marries a Sephardi or Mizrahi man is expected to take on Sephardic practice and the children inherit a Sephardic identity, though in practice many families compromise. A convert generally follows the practice of the beth din that converted him or her.
With the integration of Jews from around the world in Israel, North America, and other places, the religious definition of an Ashkenazi Jew is blurring, especially outside Orthodox Judaism. Many Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews have joined liberal movements that originally developed within Ashkenazi Judaism. In recent decades, the congregations which they have joined have often embraced them, and absorbed new traditions into their minhag. Rabbis and cantors in most non-Orthodox movements study Hebrew in Israel, where they learn Sephardic rather than Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation. Ashkenazi congregations are adopting Sephardic or modern Israeli melodies for many prayers and traditional songs. Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been a gradual syncretism and fusion of traditions. This is affecting the minhag of all but the most traditional congregations.
New developments in Judaism often transcend differences in religious practice between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. In North American cities, social trends such as the chavurah movement, and the emergence of "post-denominational Judaism"[8][9] often bring together younger Jews of diverse ethnic backgrounds. In recent years, there has been increased interest in Kabbalah, which many Ashkenazi Jews study outside of the Yeshiva framework. Another trend is the new popularity of ecstatic worship in the Jewish Renewal movement and the Carlebach style minyan, both of which are nominally of Ashkenazi origin.[10]
Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means "Jewishness" in the Yiddish language. Yiddishkeit is specifically the Jewishness of Ashkenazi Jews.
Before the Haskalah and the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of Torah and Talmud for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. From the Rhineland to Riga to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, and spoke Yiddish in their secular lives.
But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now encompasses not just Orthodoxy and Hasidism, but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and somehow retained a sense of Jewishness. Although a far smaller number of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association. Broadly speaking, a Jew is one who associates culturally with Jews, supports Jewish institutions, reads Jewish books and periodicals, attends Jewish movies and theater, travels to Israel, visits ancient synagogues in Prague, and so forth. It is a definition that applies to Jewish culture in general, and to Ashkenazi Yiddishkeit in particular.
Contemporary population migrations have contributed to a reconfigured Jewishness among Jews of Ashkenazi descent that transcends Yiddishkeit and other traditional articulations of Ashkenazi Jewishness. As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Eastern Europe, settling mostly in Israel, North America, and other English-speaking areas, the geographic isolation that gave rise to Ashkenazim has given way to mixing with other cultures, and with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales. For Ashkenazi Jews living in Eastern Europe, chopped liver and gefilte fish were archetypal Jewish foods. To contemporary Ashkenazi Jews living both in Israel and in the diaspora, Middle Eastern foods such as hummus and falafel, neither traditional to the historic Ashkenazi experience, have become central to their lives as Ashkenazi Jews in the current era. Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews, although many Hasidic and Hareidi groups continue to use Yiddish in daily life.
France's blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that is going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were two distinct Jewish populations. One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition and concentrated in the southwest, while the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, and speaking mainly Yiddish. The two communities were so separate and different that the National Assembly emancipated them separately in 1791.
But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus affair in the 1890s. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian revolution, and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, and many Jews were involved in radical political movements. After the Vichy years and the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, first by Ashkenazi refugees from Eastern Europe, and later by Sephardi immigrants and refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone.
Then, in the 1990s, yet another Ashkenazi Jewish wave began to arrive from countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The result is a pluralistic Jewish community that still has some distinct elements of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic culture. But in France, it is becoming much more difficult to sort out the two, and a distinctly French Jewishness has emerged.[11]
In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. For roughly a thousand years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe, despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Human geneticists have identified genetic variations that have high frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews, but not in the general European population. This is true for patrilineal markers (Y-chromosome haplotypes) as well as for matrilineal markers (mitotypes).[12]
Since the middle of the 20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities and with people of other nations and faiths, while some Jews have also adopted children from other ethnic groups or parts of the world and raised them as Jews. Conversion to Judaism, rare for nearly 2,000 years, has become more common.[citation needed]
A 2006 study found Ashkenazi Jews to be a clear, relatively homogeneous genetic subgroup. Strikingly, regardless of the place of origin, Ashkenazi Jews can be grouped in the same genetic cohort — that is, regardless of whether an Ashkenazi Jew's ancestors came from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, or any other place with a historical Jewish population, they belong to the same ethnic group. The research demonstrates the endogamy of the Jewish population in Europe and lends further credence to the idea of Ashkenazi Jews as an ethnic group. Moreover, though intermarriage among Jews of Ashkenazi descent has become increasingly more common, many Haredi Jews, particularly members of Hasidic or Hareidi sects, continue to marry exclusively fellow Ashkenazi Jews. This trend keeps Ashkenazi genes prevalent and also helps researchers further study the genes of Ashkenazi Jews with relative ease. It is noteworthy that these Haredi Jews often have extremely large families.[13]
In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used in ways that have nothing to do with its original meaning; it is often applied to all Jews of European background living in Israel, including sometimes for those whose ethnic background is actually Sephardic. Jews of any non-Ashkenazi background, including Mizrahi, Yemenite, Kurdish and others who have no connection with the Iberian Peninsula, have similarly come to be lumped together as Sephardic. Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, partly because of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi, and partly because many do not see such historic markers as relevant to their life experiences as Jews.[citation needed]
Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in halakhic matters. In this respect, a religiously Ashkenazi Jew is an Israeli who is more likely to support certain religious interests in Israel, including certain political parties. These political parties result from the fact that a portion of the Israeli electorate votes for Jewish religious parties; although the electoral map changes from one election to another, there are generally several small parties associated with the interests of religious Ashkenazi Jews. The role of religious parties, including small religious parties which play important roles as coalition members, results in turn from Israel's composition as a complex society in which competing social, economic, and religious interests stand for election to the Knesset, a unicameral legislature with 120 seats.[citation needed]
Although the historical record is very limited, there is a scholarly consensus of cultural, linguistic, and genetic evidence that the Ashkenazi Jewish population originated in the Middle East.[14] Jews have lived in Germany, or "Ashkenaz", at least since the early 4th century.[citation needed] They brought with them both Rabbinic Judaism and the Babylonian Talmudic culture that underlies it. Yiddish, once spoken by the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jewry, is a Germanic language that developed from the Middle High German vernacular, written with Hebrew characters, and heavily influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic.
After the Roman empire had overpowered the Jewish resistance in the First Jewish–Roman War in Judea and destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the complete Roman takeover of Judea followed the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132–135 CE. Though their numbers were greatly reduced, Jews continued to populate large parts of Judaea province (renamed to Palaestina), remaining a majority in Galilee for several hundred years. However, the Romans no longer recognized the authority of the Sanhedrin or any other Jewish body, and Jews were prohibited from living in Jerusalem. Outside the Roman Empire, a large Jewish community remained in Mesopotamia. Other Jewish populations could be found dispersed around the Mediterranean region, with the largest concentrations in the Levant, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, including Rome. Smaller communities are recorded in southern Gaul (France), Spain, and North Africa.[15]
Jews were denied full Roman citizenship until 212 CE, when Emperor Caracalla granted all free peoples this privilege. But, as a penalty for the first Jewish Revolt, Jews were required to pay a poll tax until the reign of Emperor Julian in 363. In the late Roman Empire, Jews were free to form networks of cultural and religious ties and enter into various local occupations. But, after Christianity became the official religion of Rome and Constantinople in 380, Jews were increasingly marginalized, and brutally persecuted.[citation needed]
In Syria-Palaestina and Mesopotamia, where Jewish religious scholarship was centered, the majority of Jews were still engaged in farming, as demonstrated by the preoccupation of early Talmudic writings with agriculture. In diaspora communities, trade was a common occupation, facilitated by the easy mobility of traders through the dispersed Jewish communities.
Throughout this period and into the early Middle Ages, some Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures, mostly through conversion to Christianity.[16] In Syria-Palaestina and Mesopotamia, the spoken language of Jews continued to be Aramaic, but elsewhere in the diaspora, most Jews spoke Greek. Conversion and assimilation were especially common within the Hellenized or Greek-speaking Jewish communities, amongst whom the Septuagint and Aquila of Sinope (Greek translations and adaptations of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible) were the source of scripture. A remnant of this Greek-speaking Jewish population (the Romaniotes) survives to this day.
In the late Roman Empire, Jews are known to have lived in Cologne and Trier, as well as in what is now France. However, it is unclear whether there is any continuity between these late Roman communities and the distinct Ashkenazi Jewish culture that began to emerge about 500 years later. King Dagobert I of the Franks expelled the Jews from his Merovingian kingdom in 629. Jews in former Roman territories now faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were enforced.
In Mesopotamia, and in Persian lands free of Roman imperial domination, Jewish life fared much better. Since the conquest of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar II, this community had always been the leading diaspora community, a rival to the leadership of Judea. After conditions for Jews began to deteriorate in Roman-controlled lands, many of the religious leaders of Judea and the Galilee fled to the east. At the academies of Pumbeditha and Sura near Babylon, Rabbinic Judaism based on Talmudic learning began to emerge and assert its authority over Jewish life throughout the diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism created a religious mandate for literacy, requiring all Jewish males to learn Hebrew and read from the Torah. It has been suggested that this mandate led to a higher literacy rate for Jewish minorities in both Christian and Islamic lands compared to the majority of gentiles, a result which gave these Jews a comparative advantage in urban commercial and financial roles which, to some extent, may explain their relative prevalence in these fields at the time.[17]
After the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa, new opportunities for trade and commerce opened between the Middle East and Western Europe. The vast majority of Jews now lived in Islamic lands. Urbanization, trade, and commerce within the Islamic world allowed Jews, as a highly literate people, to abandon farming and live in cities, engaging in occupations where they could use their skills.[18] The influential, sophisticated, and well organized Jewish community of Mesopotamia, now centered in Baghdad, became the center of the Jewish world. In the Caliphate of Baghdad, Jews took on many of the financial occupations that they would later hold in the cities of Ashkenaz. Jewish traders from Baghdad began to travel to the west, renewing Jewish life in the western Mediterranean region. They brought with them Rabbinic Judaism and Babylonian Talmudic scholarship.
Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire around 800, including northern Italy and Rome, brought on a brief period of stability and unity in Western Europe. This created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle once again north of the Alps. Charlemagne granted the Jews freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the Roman Empire. In addition, Jews from southern Italy, fleeing religious persecution, began to move into central Europe. Returning once again to Frankish lands, many Jewish merchants took on occupations in finance and commerce, including money lending, or usury. (Church legislation banned Christians from lending money in exchange for interest.) From Charlemagne's time to the present, there is a well-documented record of Jewish life in northern Europe, and by the 11th century, when Rashi of Troyes wrote his commentaries, Ashkenazi Jews had emerged also as interpreters and commentators on the Torah and Talmud.[citation needed]
Historical records show evidence of Jewish communities north of the Alps and Pyrenees as early as the 8th and 9th century. By the end of the first millennium, Jewish populations were well-established in Western Europe, later followed the Norman Conquest into England in 1066, and settled in many cities of the Rhine area by the end of the 11th century.
Although the Jewish people in general were present across a wide geographical area as described, genetic research done by Gil Atzmon of the Longevity Genes Project at Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests "that Ashkenazim branched off from other Jews around the time of the destruction of the First Temple, 2,500 years ago. . flourished during the Roman Empire but then went through a 'severe bottleneck' as they dispersed, reducing a population of several million to just 400 families who left Northern Italy around the year 1000 for Central and eventually Eastern Europe."[19]
With the onset of the Crusades, and the expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), and parts of Germany (15th century), Jewish migration pushed eastward into Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. Over this period of several hundred years, some have suggested, Jewish economic activity was focused on trade, business management, and financial services, due to several presumed factors: Christian European prohibitions restricting certain activities by Jews, preventing certain financial activities (such as "usurious" loans)[20] between Christians, high rates of literacy, near universal male education, and ability of merchants to rely upon and trust family members living in different regions and countries.
By the 15th century, the Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Poland were the largest Jewish communities of the Diaspora.[21] This area, which eventually fell under the domination of Russia, Austria, and Prussia (Germany), would remain the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.
The answer to why there was so little assimilation of Jews in Eastern Europe for so long would seem to lie in part in the probability that the alien surroundings in Eastern Europe were not conducive, though contempt did not prevent some assimilation. Furthermore, Jews lived almost exclusively in shtetls, maintained a strong system of education for males, heeded rabbinic leadership, and scorned the life-style of their neighbors; and all of these tendencies increased with every outbreak of antisemitism.[22]
In reference to the Jewish peoples of Northern Europe and particularly the Rhineland, the word Ashkenazi is often found in medieval rabbinic literature. References to Ashkenaz in Yosippon and Hasdai ibn Shaprut's letter to the king of the Khazars would date the term as far back as the 10th century, as would also Saadia Gaon's commentary on Daniel 7:8.
The word Ashkenaz first appears in the genealogy in the Tanakh (Genesis 10) as a son of Gomer and grandson of Japheth. It is thought that the name originally applied to the Scythians (Ishkuz), who were called Ashkuza in Assyrian inscriptions, and lake Ascanius and the region Ascania in Anatolia derive their names from this group.
Ashkenaz in later Hebrew tradition became identified with the peoples of Germany, and in particular to the area along the Rhine.
Ashkenaz and the Ashkenazi contrast to the land of Knaan, a geo-ethnological term denoting the Jewish populations living east of the Elbe river as opposed to the Ashkenazi Jews living to the West of it, and the Sephardic Jews of Iberian Peninsula.[23]
The autonym was usually Yidn, however.[citation needed]
In the first half of the 11th century, Hai Gaon refers to questions that had been addressed to him from Ashkenaz, by which he undoubtedly means Germany. Rashi in the latter half of the 11th century refers to both the language of Ashkenaz[24] and the country of Ashkenaz.[25] During the 12th century, the word appears quite frequently. In the Mahzor Vitry, the kingdom of Ashkenaz is referred to chiefly in regard to the ritual of the synagogue there, but occasionally also with regard to certain other observances.[26]
In the literature of the 13th century, references to the land and the language of Ashkenaz often occur. Examples include Solomon ben Aderet's Responsa (vol. i., No. 395); the Responsa of Asher ben Jehiel (pp. 4, 6); his Halakot (Berakot i. 12, ed. Wilna, p. 10); the work of his son Jacob ben Asher, Tur Orach Chayim (chapter 59); the Responsa of Isaac ben Sheshet (numbers 193, 268, 270).
In the Midrash compilation Genesis Rabbah, Rabbi Berechiah mentions Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah as German tribes or as German lands. It may correspond to a Greek word that may have existed in the Greek dialect of the Palestinian Jews, or the text is corrupted from "Germanica." This view of Berechiah is based on the Talmud (Yoma 10a; Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 71b), where Gomer, the father of Ashkenaz, is translated by Germamia, which evidently stands for Germany, and which was suggested by the similarity of the sound.
In later times the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern and Western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of Eastern Germany and Poland. Thus the prayer-book of Isaiah Horowitz, and many others, give the piyyutim according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz and Poland.
According to 16th century mystic Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, Ashkenazi Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to siege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms to repay the favor.[27] Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakhic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the 11th century.[28]
In an essay on Sephardi Jewry, Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs[7] summarized the demographic history of Ashkenazi Jews in the last thousand years, noting that at the end of the 11th century, 97% of world Jewry was Sephardic and 3% Ashkenazi; in the mid-17th century, "Sephardim still outnumbered Ashkenazim three to two", but by the end of the 18th century, "Ashkenazim outnumbered Sephardim three to two, the result of improved living conditions in Christian Europe versus the Ottoman Muslim world."[7] By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for nearly 92% of world Jewry.[7]
Ashkenazi Jews developed the Hasidic movement as well as major Jewish academic centers across Poland, Russia, and Belarus in the generations after emigration from the west. After two centuries of comparative tolerance in the new nations, massive westward emigration occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries in response to pogroms in the east and the economic opportunities offered in other parts of the world. Ashkenazi Jews have made up the majority of the American Jewish community since 1750.[21]
Ashkenazi cultural growth led to the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment, and the development of Zionism in modern Europe.[citation needed]
Of the estimated 8.8 million Jews living in Europe at the beginning of World War II, the majority of whom were Ashkenazi, about 6 million — more than two-thirds — were systematically murdered in the Holocaust. These included 3 million of 3.3 million Polish Jews (91%); 900,000 of 1.5 million in Ukraine (60%); and 50–90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, Hungary, and the Baltic states, and over 25% of the Jews in France. Sephardi communities suffered similar depletions in a few countries, including Greece, the Netherlands and the former Yugoslavia.[29] As the large majority of the victims were Ashkenazi Jews, their percentage dropped from nearly 92% of world Jewry in 1931 to nearly 80% of world Jewry today.[7] The Holocaust also effectively put an end to the dynamic development of the Yiddish language in the previous decades, as the vast majority of the victims of the Holocaust, around five million, were Yiddish speakers.[30] Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to countries such as Israel, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and the United States after the war.
Today, Ashkenazi Jews constitute the largest group among Jews,[7] and among Israeli Jews as well. They have played a prominent role in the economy, media, and politics of Israel since its founding. During the first decades of Israel as a state, strong cultural conflict occurred between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews (mainly east European Ashkenazim). The roots of this conflict, which still exists to a much smaller extent in present day Israeli society, are chiefly attributed to the concept of the "melting pot".[citation needed] That is to say, all Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel were strongly encouraged to "melt down" their own particular exilic identities within the general social "pot" in order to become Israeli.[citation needed]
The Halakhic practices of (Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jews may differ from those of Sephardi Jews, particularly in matters of custom. Differences are noted in the Shulkhan Arukh itself, in the gloss of Moses Isserles. Well known differences in practice include:
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The term Ashkenazi also refers to the nusach Ashkenaz (Hebrew, "liturgical tradition", or rite) used by Ashkenazi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers. Two other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazic Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with Sephardi), which is the same as the general Polish (Hasidic) Nusach; and Nusach Chabad, otherwise known as Lubavitch Chasidic, Nusach Arizal or Nusach Ari.
This phrase is often used in contrast with Sephardi Jews, also called Sephardim, who are descendants of Jews from Spain and Portugal. There are some differences in how the two groups pronounce certain Hebrew letters and in points of ritual.
Several famous people have Ashkenazi as a surname, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy. However, most people with this surname hail from within Sephardic communities, particularly from the Syrian Jewish community. The Sephardic carriers of the surname would have some Ashkenazi ancestors since the surname was adopted by families who were initially of Ashkenazic origins who move to Sephardi countries and joined those communities. Ashkenazi would be formally adopted as the family surname having started off as a nickname imposed by their adopted communities. Some have shortened the name to Ash.
The theory that the majority of Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of the non-Semitic converted Khazars was advocated by various racial theorists and antisemitic sources in the late-19th and 20th centuries, especially following the publication of Arthur Koestler's The Thirteenth Tribe.[32][33][34] Despite recent genetic evidence to the contrary,[1] and a lack of any real mainstream scholarly support,[35] this belief is still popular among antisemites.[36][37]
Ashkenazi Jews have a noted history of achievement in western societies.[38] They have won a large number of the Nobel awards.[39][40] In those societies where they have been free to enter any profession, they have a record of high occupational achievement, entering professions and fields of commerce where higher education is required.[41] For example, during the 20th century in the United States, Ashkenazi Jews represented approximately 3% of the population, but won 27% of the US Nobel Prizes in science, and 25% of the ACM Turing Awards (the Nobel-equivalent in computer science).[42]
Efforts to identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis began in the 1990s. Like most DNA studies of human migration patterns, the earliest studies focused on two segments of the human genome, the Y-chromosome (passed on only by males), and the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA, passed on only by females). Both segments are unaffected by recombination. Genome-wide association studies have also been employed to yield findings relevant to genetic origins.
A study of haplotypes of the Y-chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer et al.[43] found that the Y-chromosome of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are also common among Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East. The proportion of male genetic admixture in Ashkenazi Jews amounts to less than 0.5% per generation over an estimated 80 generations, with "relatively minor contribution of European Y chromosomes to the Ashkenazim," and a total admixture estimate "very similar to Motulsky's average estimate of 12.5%." This supported the finding that "Diaspora Jews from Europe, Northwest Africa, and the Near East resemble each other more closely than they resemble their non-Jewish neighbors."
A 2001 study by Nebel et al. showed that both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish populations share the same overall paternal Near Eastern ancestries. In comparison with data available from other relevant populations in the region, Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent. The authors also report on Eu 19 (R1a) chromosomes, which are very frequent in Eastern Europeans (54%–60%) at elevated frequency (12.7%) in Ashkenazi Jews. They hypothesized that the differences among Ashkenazim Jews could reflect low-level gene flow from surrounding European populations and/or genetic drift during isolation.[44] A later 2005 study by Nebel et al., found a similar level of 11.5% of male Ashkenazim belonging to R1a1a (M17+), the dominant Y-chromosome haplogroup in Eastern Europeans, suggesting possible gene flow.[45]
Before 2006, geneticists largely attributed the genesis of most of the world's Jewish populations, including Ashkenazi Jews, to founding effects by males who migrated from the Middle East and "by the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism." In line with this model of origin, David Goldstein, now of Duke University, reported in 2002 that, unlike male lineages, the female lineages in Ashkenazi Jewish communities "did not seem to be Middle Eastern", and that each community had its own genetic pattern and even that "in some cases the mitochondrial DNA was closely related to that of the host community." In his view this suggested "that Jewish men had arrived from the Middle East, taken wives from the host population and converted them to Judaism, after which there was no further intermarriage with non-Jews."[46]
However, a 2006 study by Behar et al.,[1] based on high-resolution analysis of haplogroup K(mtDNA), suggested that about 40% of the current Ashkenazi population is descended matrilineally from just four women, or "founder lineages", that were "likely from a Hebrew/Levantine mtDNA pool" originating in the Middle East in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Although Haplogroup K is common throughout western Eurasia, "the observed global pattern of distribution renders very unlikely the possibility that the four aforementioned founder lineages entered the Ashkenazi mtDNA pool via gene flow from a European host population:
"..Both the extent and location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Here, using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we show that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only four women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important exception of low frequencies among non-Ashkenazi Jews. We conclude that four founding mtDNAs, likely of Near Eastern ancestry, underwent major expansion(s) in Europe within the past millennium.."[1][46]
In addition, Behar et al. have suggested that the rest of Ashkenazi mtDNA is originated from ~150 women, most of those likely of Middle Eastern origin.[1] However, other studies by Behar indicate that this mtDNA is different from other Jewish populations found outside of Europe, leaving the possibility of a separate origin or even a European origin a distinct possibility.[47]
In genetic epidemiology, a genome-wide association study (GWA study, or GWAS) is an examination of all or most of the genes (the genome) of different individuals of a particular species to see how much the genes vary from individual to individual. These techniques were originally designed for epidemiological uses, to identify genetic associations with observable traits.[48]
A 2006 study by Seldin et al. used over five thousand autosomal SNPs to demonstrate European genetic substructure. The results showed "a consistent and reproducible distinction between 'northern' and 'southern' European population groups". Most northern, central, and eastern Europeans (Finns, Swedes, English, Irish, Germans, and Ukrainians) showed >90% in the 'northern' population group, while most individual participants with southern European ancestry (Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, Spaniards) showed >85% in the 'southern' group. Both Ashkenazi Jews as well as Sephardic Jews showed >85% membership in the "southern" group. Referring to the Jews clustering with southern Europeans, the authors state the results were "consistent with a later Mediterranean origin of these ethnic groups".[49]
A 2007 study by Bauchet et al. found that Ashkenazi Jews were most closely clustered with Arabic North African populations when compared to Global population, and in the European structure analysis, they share similarities only with Greeks and Southern Italians, reflecting their east Mediterranean origins.[50][51]
A 2010 study on Jewish ancestry by Atzmon-Ostrer et al. stated "Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry.", as both groups – the Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews shared common ancestors in the Middle East about 2500 years ago. The study examines genetic markers spread across the entire genome and shows that the Jewish groups (Ashkenazi and non Ashkenazi) share large swaths of DNA, indicating close relationships and that each of the Jewish groups in the study (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish, Greek and Ashkenazi) has its own genetic signature but is more closely related to the other Jewish groups than to their fellow non-Jewish countrymen.[52] Atzmon's team found that the SNP markers in genetic segments of 3 million DNA letters or longer were 10 times more likely to be identical among Jews than non-Jews. Results of the analysis also tally with biblical accounts of the fate of the Jews. The study also found that with respect to non-Jewish European groups, the population most closely related to Ashkenazi Jews are modern-day Italians. The study speculated that the genetic-similarity between Ashkenazi Jews and Italians may be due to inter-marriage and conversions in the time of the Roman Empire. It was also found that any two Ashkenazi Jewish participants in the study shared about as much DNA as fourth or fifth cousins.[14][53]
A 2010 study by Bray et al, using SNP microarray techniques and linkage analysis, estimated that 35 to 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome may be of European origin, and that European "admixture is considerably higher than previous estimates by studies that used the Y chromosome". The study assumed Druze and Palestinian Arabs populations to represent the reference to world Jewry ancestor genome. With this reference point, the linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population was interpreted as "matches signs of interbreeding or 'admixture' between Middle Eastern and European populations". In their press release, Bray stated: "We were surprised to find evidence that Ashkenazi Jews have higher heterozygosity than Europeans, contradicting the widely-held presumption that they have been a largely isolated group". The authors conclude that their results will require further investigation.[54]
|This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)
There are many references to Ashkenazi Jews in the literature of medical and population genetics. Indeed, much awareness of "Ashkenazi Jews" as an ethnic group or category stems from the large number of genetic studies of disease, including many that are well reported in the media, that have been conducted among Jews. Jewish populations have been studied more thoroughly than most other human populations, for a variety of reasons:
The result is a form of ascertainment bias. This has sometimes created an impression that Jews are more susceptible to genetic disease than other populations.[55] Healthcare professionals are often taught to consider those of Ashkenazi descent to be at increased risk for colon cancer.[56]
A study by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine examines a particular genetic trait that increases the lifespan of the Ashkenazi population. The study focuses on telomerase, the enzyme responsible for maintaining telomeres at the ends of chromosomes during cell division.[57][58]
Genetic counseling and genetic testing are recommended for couples where both partners are of Ashkenazi ancestry. Some organizations, most notably Dor Yeshorim, organize screening programs to prevent homozygosity for the genes that cause these diseases. E. L. Abel's book Jewish Genetic Disorders: A Layman's Guide (McFarland, 2008: ISBN 0-7864-4087-2) is a comprehensive reference text on the topic; also see the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders[59] for more information.
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Thursday, Oct 9, 2014, 9:42 am · By George Lavender
OverCriminalized: Alternatives to Incarceration?
America's prisons and jails are filled with people arrested for crimes connected to homelessness, mental health issues, and drug addiction. "Overcriminalized," a series of videos from Brave New Films launching today spotlights attempts to offer alternatives to incarceration in three cities: Salt Lake City, Utah, Seattle, Washington, and San Antonio, Texas.
Nowhere to go but Jail
In 2014 100 cities criminalized sitting or lying in public places. "The homeless end up in criminal justice systems, because there hasn't been a better alternative" says Lloyd Pendleton, Director of Utah Homeless Task Force. Salt Lake City adopted a "Housing First" approach to homelessness. As Gordon Walker, Director of Housing and Community Development in the city explains that means "instead of asking people to change their lives before we gave them housing, we chose to give them housing, along with the supportive services and then allow them to change their lives if they wanted."
The War on People
"I really can't remember what the first thing I got arrested for (was)" says Misti Barrickman as she recalls a long list of drug related arrests. Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, is a pre-booking diversion program for minor drug offenses that provides people in the Seattle, Washington area with treatment programs. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, "drug arrests in Seattle fell more than 30 percent from 2010 to 2011 – and local jail populations appear to be declining too" at least in part due to LEAD. The Drug Policy Alliance also praised the program for marking a shift away from an "enforcement-first" approach to one focused on health.
Wednesday, Oct 8, 2014, 11:38 am · By George Lavender
Former Chicago Police Commander Accused of Torture Released from Prison
Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander accused of systematically torturing black prisoners for decades, was released last week after three and a half years in prison.
Federal prosecutors alleged that between 1972 and 1991 Burge was in charge of a group of police officers called the "Midnight Crew." Many of those detained by Burge and his officers later testified that they had been subject to beatings, burnings, mock executions, suffocation, and, as the Chicago Tribune reports, electrocution
"Holmes, a former Black Gangster Disciples leader, was arrested by Burge in 1973 and taken to a South Side police station, where detectives hooked him up to an electrical box, put a bag over his head and shocked him until he confessed to a murder he says he did not commit. Holmes said he still remembers Burge in his ear, calling him the "N" word and warning him, "Don't you bite through that bag." Continue reading...
Another prisoner, Andrew Wilson, also testified that Burge and another detective had tortured him after he was arrested for the murder of two Chicago police officers.
"Burge came in and said, 'Fun time,'" Wilson testified. With that, he and another detective shocked him repeatedly and pressed him against a hot radiator. Burge later brought out a second device that looked like a curling iron but had a wire sticking out of it, he said.
"He jabbed that in my back, and you got the full jolt," Wilson testified. "He stopped because I was spitting blood."
Wilson testified that he eventually confessed to the murders after Burge told him he would be tortured again if he did not make a statement. Continue reading...
Wilson was originally sentenced to death before the state supreme court threw out his conviction. He was convicted again in his second trial and sentenced to life in prison. The alleged torture of several arrestees who were later placed on death row was cited as a factor in Governor Andrew Ryan's decision to issue a blanket commutation to all Illinois prisoners awaiting execution. Wilson died in prison in 2007. As John Conroy of the Chicago Reader describes, Wilson filed multiple court cases against the police for the treatment he experienced.
Wilson's case was pivotal, not simply because he won it in the end but because of what it led to—the exposure of a torture ring. In February 1989, during the first civil trial, one of Burge's colleagues began sending anonymous letters to the People's Law Office in police department envelopes. He or she listed the names of "Burge's Asskickers" at Area Two and said Wilson wasn't the only torture victim. Continue reading...
Burge and the other officers involved were protected, as John Conroy describes by the "willing blindness of state and federal prosecutors and then by the statute of limitations." Burge was eventually convicted by federal prosecutors of lying in a civil case when he denied knowledge of the abuse. After serving time in a minimum security prison in South Carolina he will reportedly now go to a half-way house in Florida.
Friday, Sep 26, 2014, 4:21 pm · By George Lavender
US Prisons Guilty of Censorship Says Report to UN
Botticelli, Caravaggio, Cezanne, Dali, Da Vinci, Gaugin, Goya, Kahlo, Magritte, Matisse,Michelangelo, Miro, Modigliani, Picasso, Raphael, Ray, Rembrandt... The list goes on. But this isn't a reading list for a fine arts class, it's a list of artists whose work is banned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).
According to a joint report to the United Nations' (UN) Universal Periodic Review by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and Freemuse US prisons are guilty of censorship of books.
Texas, one of the largest corrections systems in the country, allows prisoners to receive books from publishers. As the report describes, when books arrive at the prison, they are first checked by the mailroom officer to see if they are on a list of approved books.
The mailroom officer decides whether they are objectionable by determining whether they 1) contain contraband; 2) contain information about manufacturing explosives, drugs or weapons; 3) are written "solely for the purpose of " "achiev[ing] the breakdown of prisons" through strikes, riots, or gang activity; 4) encourage "deviant criminal sexual behavior "; 5) contain instructions on how to set up "criminal schemes; or, 6) contain "sexually explicit images." Continue reading...
The NCAC and Freemuse report found that of the 11,851 total blocked titles in Texas, 7,061 were blocked for "deviant sexual behavior " and 543 for "sexually explicit images." The reports authors conclude "To survey the list of works banned by the TDCJ is to appreciate the dangers of the broad discretionary powers granted to prison officials under the concept of 'legitimate penological interest'."
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2014, 12:21 am · By George Lavender
Despite Anti-Shackling Laws Pregnant Prisoners Are Still Being Put In Handcuffs and Chains
Carolyn Sufrin still remembers the first time she saw someone give birth in shackles.
In 2003 Sufrin was a resident in training as an Ob/Gyn in Pittsburgh. "I delivered a baby of a woman who was shackled in bed" she told Making Contact's Lisa Bartfai in 2013, "and it was an extremely traumatic experience for me as a doctor, and also for the patient."
According to Sufrin, shackling pregnant women could make responding to medical emergencies extremely difficult. "In those moments we don't have time to be negotiating with a guard or a correctional officer to say, 'Hey you mind just unlocking those handcuffs, those restraints?'"
The American Medical Association adopted a resolution in 2010 to prohibit the shackling of women during labor and a growing number of states have introduced at least some legal limitations on the use of shackles on pregnant prisoners.
Pennsylvania passed a law prohibiting the shackling of pregnant inmates after their second trimester in 2010 but in a report for WHYY in partnership with The Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, Audrey Quinn found that enforcing the law has been complicated.
Earlier this year the Pennsylvania ACLU reported hospital staff across the state still saying they see inmates coming in to give birth with handcuffs on. Pennsylvania Corrections' own records show pregnant women were shackled 109 times in the 2012— 2013 fiscal year. And that's just in jails that report it.
"Now we're just working to get it implemented effectively," says Pennsylvania state senator Daylin Leach, the primary author of the anti-shackling bill.
But doesn't the passage of a law mean that progress will be made?
Leach gives a tired laugh. "The fact is, he says, "when you do pass new legislation you do have to notify people as to the requirements of that legislation. Particularly the people who are going to be dealing with that legislation."
To some people, not shackling pregnant women seems like a no-brainer. But to many corrections workers, this goes against a very basic tenet of prison life: when an inmate gets escorted off prison grounds, they get shackled. Continue reading...
Reporter Audrey Quinn submitted freedom of information requests to Blair County Prison, for records of pregnant inmate shackling.
Sunday, Sep 21, 2014, 6:10 pm · By George Lavender
Thirty Two Florida Prison Guards Fired Amid Allegations of Abuse
Florida's prison chief took the drastic measure of firing thirty two prison guards on Friday amid widespread accusations of criminal wrongdoing and misconduct in the state's prison system. The Miami Herald reports that many of those fired were connected with suspicious deaths in custody
Eighteen of those fired by Secretary Michael Crews were involved in the death of Matthew Walker at Charlotte Correctional Institution on April 11. Walker, 55, was killed in what the DOC is calling an "inappropriate use of force."
Five other fired corrections officers from Union Correctional had been accused of using excessive force in the death of inmate Rudolf Rowe on Aug. 16, 2012. Continue reading...
Among those dismissed on Friday was Rollin Suttle Austin. In 2010, a prisoner at Franklin Correctional, Randall Jordan-Aparo, died after being gassed on Austin's orders. An investigation by Florida Law Enforcement found that Jordan-Aparo's death was unrelated to the gassing.
Austin remained on the job for three years, until a team of prison system inspectors visited Franklin to look into unrelated wrongdoing and stumbled onto the circumstances behind Jordan-Aparo's death, calling it a case of "sadistic, retaliatory" behavior by guards. Continue reading...
Jordan-Aparo's death is now under investigation by the US Department of Justice. The Miami Herald's investigation found Austin's personnel file contained multiple allegations of wrongdoing.
Austin allegedly operated very much the way corrections officers have been trained for decades, according to Ron McAndrew, a prison consultant who studied the phenomenon of "goon squads'' while he was warden at Florida State Prison in Starke in 1998.
McAndrew testified in legislative hearings that "goon squads" of guards have long roamed Florida's prisons, attacking inmates and enforcing vigilante justice, while higher-ups turned a blind eye, as they did in 1999 when a squad of guards beat and killed Death Row inmate Frank Valdes.
McAndrew said the sheer number of Austin's complaints — and the similar pattern of abuse alleged in them — should have been a red flag to his superiors at the prison and in Tallahassee. Continue reading..
As reported here at The Prison Complex, Florida's prisons have faced increased scrutiny in the wake of the 2012 death of Darren Rainey. Rainey, who was diagnosed with mental health issues, was allegedly locked in a scalding hot shower by prison guards as punishment for defecating in his cell. When his body was found an hour later, "his skin was so burned that it had shriveled from his body, a condition referred to as slippage" the Herald reports.
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2014, 2:33 am · By George Lavender
Forty Years in Solitary: Two of the Angola Three Sue Louisiana Prison Officials
Albert Woodfox has been in solitary confinement for much of the past 40 years. Along with Herman Wallace and Robert King, Woodfox is one of the "Angola Three," three members of the Black Panther Party who spent much of their lives in solitary confinement inside the walls of Louisiana State Prison, Angola. King was released in 2001, after 29 years in solitary confinement. Wallace, who was recently featured in the documentary film "Herman's House," died in 2013, three days after his release from prison. The last member of the Angola Three still incarcerated, Woodfox launched a lawsuit to challenge his continued solitary confinement, and along with Robert King, is seeking damages from prison officials. The family of Herman Wallace, settled with the state.
The Prison Complex caught up with George Kendall Director of the Public Defender Initiative, at Squire Patton Boggs, who is working on the case.
Friday, Sep 5, 2014, 4:33 pm · By George Lavender
California Jails Forcing Women to Take Pregnancy Tests Face Legal Challenge
Women inside Alameda County jails in California are being forced to undergo pregnancy tests. As Susie Cagle on RH Reality Check reports, "no one can say for exactly how long Alameda County jails have been forcing arrested women to take pregnancy tests, and no one can really explain why."
In June, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a lawsuit against the county sheriff's department challenging the practice.
"If the Alameda County Sheriff's Department is genuinely concerned about the health of women in their custody, voluntary pregnancy testing should be administered as part of a comprehensive health exam," said Elizabeth Gill, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. "Forcing a woman to take a pregnancy test is a clear violation of a person's constitutional rights, as well as a violation of other state law." Continue reading..
Cagle reported on mandatory pregnancy testing in Alameda, after her own arrest while covering the Oakland General Strike in 2011. She writes, "the story of Alameda's mandatory pregnancy tests is really the story of how U.S. prisons have grappled with an influx of young women over the past four decades: with supreme incompetence and intermittent malice."
One after another, women held at Alameda County jails told me similar tales of coercion and confusion, regardless of their alleged crime or their personal medical history. (The women all asked to remain anonymous.)
"They made me take one even though I'm infertile, told them so, and even though that could have easily been verified with one phone call. They had a woman cop watch me pee, I think because I had indicated I didn't want to take a pregnancy test," one woman told me in a written message.
"They told me it was because 'Glen Dyer can't hold women, so all women being held at Glen Dyer need to take a pregnancy test,' which didn't make any sense," wrote another.
"It struck me for the first time when I was forced to pee in the cup, that I really could be coerced to do things that I didn't want to do, and that it didn't take much either. I was pretty furious that even my own bodily fluids were not my own," a third woman wrote in her prison diary, which she shared with me. Continue reading...
The ACLU court case is expected to be heard this fall. The reason for testing in the first place remains unclear. It's also not apparent whether the testing was done at the behest of the sheriff or the private company managing healthcare in the jails.
Thursday, Sep 4, 2014, 8:45 pm · By George Lavender
North Carolina's Longest-Serving Death Row Prisoner Released
North Carolina's longest serving death row prisoner was freed this week after 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Henry Lee McCollum and his half-brother, Leon Brown, who had been serving a life-sentence for the same crime, were released on Wednesday. The two half-brothers' sentences were vacated after DNA evidence implicated another man in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11 year old girl.
As Slate reports, their convictions were based in large part on false confessions.
McCollum and Brown were 19 and 15 at the time local police were investigating the murder of Sabrina Buie. Both confessed to the crime after lengthy police interrogations. They recanted shortly after—in fact McCollum has recanted 226 times—but were convicted, largely on the basis of the false confessions, even though no physical evidence connected them to the crime scene. Police also hid exculpatory evidence for years. Continue reading..
The majority of false confessions documented by the National Registry of Exonerations, occurred in homicide investigations. Samuel Gross, editor of the registry, told The Prison Complex:
..this is a reflection of "the fact that far greater resources are expended on investigating homicides than other cases." This produces a higher clearance rate "but in addition it also produces a higher rate of false positives, of errors. Put a lot more effort into it you get more convictions you also get a higher number of false convictions."
It might be hard to understand why someone would confess to a crime they did not commit, but there are some common factors. Dahlia Lithwick at Slate points to a 2011 article by Brandon Garrett of the University of Virginia Law School, which seeks to explain how those false confessions come about.
Because detailed confessions represent such powerful evidence, when defense attorneys tried to challenge the confession evidence they all failed. This was true even when there were some clear signs that these were confessions proffered by vulnerable people who may have been subject to highly coercive techniques. Of those 40 exonerees who confessed, for instance, 14 were mentally disabled or borderline mentally disabled, and three more (at least) were mentally ill. Thirteen of the 40 were juveniles. All but four were interrogated for more than three hours at a sitting. Seven described their involvement in the crime as coming to them in a "dream" or "vision." Seven were told they had failed polygraph tests. Like Sterling, all of them waived their Miranda rights. Despite all these hints that their confessions were lengthy and coercive, and despite the fact that they were mostly vulnerable individuals, none had any luck challenging their confessions before trial. The confessions were thought to be such powerful evidence of guilt that eight were convicted despite DNA tests at trial that in fact excluded them as the culprit. Continue reading..
Both McCollum and Brown, who have intellectual disabilities, were interrogated by police without an attorney present.
Monday, Sep 1, 2014, 5:20 pm · By George Lavender
California Moves to Change Solitary Confinement for Mentally Ill Prisoners
Mentally ill prisoners held in isolation in California will be housed in separate units away from other prisoners under a plan to improve care and comply with a court order, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The cellblocks — while still isolating prisoners from the rest of the population and largely from one another — will increase the time those inmates are allowed outside their cells and the amount of treatment they receive.
In an undated memo to wardens filed in court Friday, state prisons director Michael Stainer described an intent to "offer a robust mental health program" within what he called "alternative segregated housing."
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton immediately accepted the plan, submitted as part of a long-running class-action lawsuit, commending both the state and inmate lawyers for the "substantial effort." Continue reading...
As the New York Times reports, California incarcerates large numbers of mentally ill people.
Prisons and jails around the country have seen the numbers of mentally ill inmates increase as state hospitals have closed and community mental health services have been reduced by budget cuts. California is no exception. More than 27 percent of male prisoners and almost 38 percent of female prisoners suffer from mental illness, according to department statistics. Continue reading...
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2014, 3:31 pm · By George Lavender
How Many People Are Convicted of Crimes They Didn't Commit?
The answer is: We don't know.
"The great majority of people convicted of criminal offenses are guilty," says Samuel Gross, editor of the National Registry of Exonerations and a law professor at the University of Michigan, "but the great majority are not everyone."
This year the National Registry of Exonerations, the only body tracking exonerations nationally, has already recorded more than 50 cases in which "a person who has been convicted of a crime is officially cleared based on new evidence of innocence." The interactive list ranges from people in prison for a matter of years to some incarcerated for decades and shows a steady rise in the number of recorded exonerations over the last two decades.
As reported here at The Prison Complex, there have been a string of high-profile exoneration cases this year.
Just last month Michael Phillips took a step towards clearing his name having previously been convicted in the 1990 rape of a 16 year-old girl in Dallas, Texas. His exoneration was highly unusual because it took place as the result of a review by the prosecutor's office, not because of legal action on Phillips' behalf. As the Washington Post reports, Phillips even plead guilty to the original crime.
Phillips pleaded guilty because, he said later, his attorney told him that as a black man who had been accused of raping a white teenager, he should try to avoid a jury trial. He went to prison for a dozen years and, after his release, spent another six months in jail after failing to register as a sex offender. Continue reading...
Exonerations can offer a limited insight into the wider issue of wrongful convictions. The National Registry of Exonerations currently lists 1,409 cases. According to Gross his team have got better at tracking the number of exonerations, but he says "the great majority of wrongful convictions never come to light at all. Exonerations are a minority of the people convicted."


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