Ashekenazi Jews have evolved very substantial genetic differences from Sephardic Jews since the crusades, even though they have single culture, and no one discriminates between them, they have become two quite different races, a single culture, a single folk, yet two races.
There are a lot of cultural differences. Different prayers, different foods, different accents, different values, different humor, different cultural history.
There also is discrimination between them if one looks at the right people who are aware of what they are looking for. This is more akin to how most Americans can’t tell the difference between various East Asian populations.
Naturally American Whites with their predominantly Northern European (German, English, Irish, Scottish) origins aren’t really that close to unmixed Askeanazi. But on nearly every study I’ve run into they are for example closer to Greeks and Italians than the Souther Europeans are to Austrians, British or Russians.
In any case regardless of their genetics, Askenazi Jews are European because:
They basically do come from Europe (in the geographic sense of where they really became a people different from other Jews complete with their own High German language)
In the first approximation they think of themselves and others think of them as European-derived/White or at the very least Western nearly anywhere in the world they live in (be it France, South Africa, the US or even, rather interestingly, in Israel).
Extensive memeplex exchange with the Christian peoples of Europe.
High rates of intermarriage in the 20th and 19th century.
If history had gone a bit differently and there was a Yiddish speaking Askenazi state somewhere near Poland/Ukraine/Belorussia, geneticists would say that its an interesting example of a Eastern European population being genetically closer to Souther Europeans than their neighbours but wouldn’t really break them out as “genetically non-European” as say some Roma populations are.
Of course Askenazi identity is now somewhat tied to Israel which is a homeland for all Jews. But even if this evolves into a true new Jewish Middle Eastern identity, these are still quibbles about geography, religion (quick question do you think Turks would have ever been considered non-European had they been predominantly Christian?) and culture that have little to do with the genetic reality (though those things do correlate in many circumstances).
There are a lot of cultural differences. Different prayers, different foods, different accents, different values, different humor, different cultural history.
There also is discrimination between them if one looks at the right people who are aware of what they are looking for. This is more akin to how most Americans can’t tell the difference between various East Asian populations.
The genetic evidence also suggests that much of the difference between the Sephardim and Askenazim arose from the Askenazim getting an influx of European genetic material not from evolution. See this paper for example (although to be clear Askenazim do not genetically look very European compared to most Europeans).
Really depends on who you compare them to.
Naturally American Whites with their predominantly Northern European (German, English, Irish, Scottish) origins aren’t really that close to unmixed Askeanazi. But on nearly every study I’ve run into they are for example closer to Greeks and Italians than the Souther Europeans are to Austrians, British or Russians.
In any case regardless of their genetics, Askenazi Jews are European because:
They basically do come from Europe (in the geographic sense of where they really became a people different from other Jews complete with their own High German language)
In the first approximation they think of themselves and others think of them as European-derived/White or at the very least Western nearly anywhere in the world they live in (be it France, South Africa, the US or even, rather interestingly, in Israel).
Extensive memeplex exchange with the Christian peoples of Europe.
High rates of intermarriage in the 20th and 19th century.
If history had gone a bit differently and there was a Yiddish speaking Askenazi state somewhere near Poland/Ukraine/Belorussia, geneticists would say that its an interesting example of a Eastern European population being genetically closer to Souther Europeans than their neighbours but wouldn’t really break them out as “genetically non-European” as say some Roma populations are.
Of course Askenazi identity is now somewhat tied to Israel which is a homeland for all Jews. But even if this evolves into a true new Jewish Middle Eastern identity, these are still quibbles about geography, religion (quick question do you think Turks would have ever been considered non-European had they been predominantly Christian?) and culture that have little to do with the genetic reality (though those things do correlate in many circumstances).