The Ashkenazi Revolution

69snow and frost. This was the greatest human migration in Jewish historyand one of the most interesting in world history. The Sephardim alsoestablished settlements in non-Mediterranean areas of Europe, in England,in France and in Holland. But these were not large settlements and theimpression they left was not a lasting one – in contrast to the impressionleft by Ashkenaz, which can be recognized in the large area itencompassed, from the Rhine to the Dnieper. This Ashkenazic campaign issufficient to ensure a justified supremacy for it among the Jewish peoplesuntil the end of generations. But this campaign was merely a starting pointfor other great accomplishments. We should stress the words of Dubnovthat the Ashkenazi People reached Eastern Europe from two fronts, one thatmade its way from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea westward and theother that left Babylon and cut through the Kavkaz Mountains.The historical development of the two Jewish peoples, Sephardi andAshkenazi, differed from one extreme to the other, as if it took place inseparate worlds. Jews lived in Spain from the first century but thehistorical consolidation of the Spanish Jewry began after the Arabconquest, in the year 711. This Jewry was formed, and was an integral partof, the political and cultural Jewish-Arab world, and Jewish men quicklytook on important titles in the courts of Arab rulers. The Arabs of Spain,who wished to enrich their one-sided culture through the integration offoreign cultures, saw the Jews as useful partners and they were quick tobefriend them. But this special treatment, which bore praiseworthy culturalfruit, also contained the seeds of assimilation and weakness. From thethirteenth century the centers of Jewish life in Spain had shifted to theChristian provinces of Castile and Aragon, and in them the formation ofJewish culture reached new levels. Because of this, other Jewish peoplessaw the Jews of Spain as holding the high crown of Jewish hegemony. Thetradition of far-reaching cooperation with Jews, which was formed in theera of Arab rule in Spain, continued also in Christian lands, and many Jewsacquired high offices for themselves despite strict limitations and intenseChristian pressure. The difference between the two Jewish peoples, theSephardi and the Ashkenazi, was expressed in the Jewish reaction to