"oriental Jews"

[David Bergdahl]

Frank Abate wrote:

> From an ancient Roman perspective (which is where all this started),
even
> Greeks were vaguely "Oriental", at the farthest extent of "Europe",
and much
> influenced by the "Orientals" to their immediate east.  Just east of
Greece
> was the original "Orient".  As Western knowledge of the world
increased, the
> application of the term kept moving east, eventually all the way to
the
> Pacific (the same sort of thing happened in the US; Michigan was once
> considered "the West").  Then came the need for such terms as "Near
East",
> "Middle East", and "Far East" (compare US "Midwest").

After the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 refugees from Arab
lands ("Sephardim" = "Spanish") were called oriental Jews to distinguish
them from
European Jews ("Ashkenazim" = Hebr. "German").  The etymology in The New
World Dict disputes the Sephardim-Spanish association and declares the
original "region mentioned in Ob. 20 was prob. orig. an area in Asia
Minor," which would locate "orientals' east of Greece.

-- db
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David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl
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