what is ashkenazi jewish ancestry

Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry refers to the genetic heritage of Jewish people who identify as Ashkenazi, meaning that they descend from Jews who lived in Central or Eastern Europe. Ashkenazi Jews share a significant amount of ancestry with other Jewish populations and derive their ancestry mostly from populations in the Middle East and Southern Europe. Genetic studies on Ashkenazi Jews indicate that they are of mixed Levantine and European (mainly southern European) ancestry. People of Ashkenazi ancestry first migrated to Southern Europe around 2,000 years ago, coming from Western Asia. Then, in the Middle Ages, many Jewish people living in southern Europe moved north and primarily settled in northeastern France and western Germany near the Rhine River, where their distinct religious, cultural, and Ashkenazi Jewish identity formed. Although Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is under the umbrella of "European ancestry," its clear from numerous studies that people of Ashkenazi ancestry are distinct from other European populations.