Quoting Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>:
> Well, technically the Franco-German Jews were already "Ashkenazic"
> (Ashkenaz = the Rhineland) before they migrated into Eastern Europe and
Ah! Interesting, I never knew the origin of the term.
> bumped into whatever remained of the Khazars. Before that migration, if
> i remember correctly, Eastern Europe was known as Kena`an according to
Was this a positive or negative term? As in, "land flowing with milk and
honey" or "land of the pagans"?
> the Jewish habit of renaming DIasporan regions after Biblical places in
> the Eastern Mediterranean. Until the medieval period, Spain was known as
> "Ispamya" before it was renamed "Sefarad". Which is why it's still
> "Ispamya" (or something similar) in Judajca.
"Ispamya" sounds a lot like "Hispanya," so I'm guessing those are related
terms. But what does "Sefarad" mean?
:Peter