Introduction: The Scattering of the Jewish People
Following the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (135 CE), Jewish communities increasingly became dispersed across the ancient world, forming what would become a vast and enduring diaspora. Over the centuries, Jewish populations migrated due to persecution, economic opportunity, or expulsion, eventually settling across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and beyond. These migrations gave rise to distinct cultural and religious traditions, shaped by geography, host societies, and the evolving needs of Jewish communal life.

The Formation of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Traditions
The diaspora developed into three principal ethno-religious groupings, each with unique customs, liturgical rites, legal interpretations, and linguistic expressions.

Ashkenazi Jews trace their heritage to Central and Eastern Europe, particularly the Rhineland (modern-day Germany and northern France), and later Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. Originating in the early medieval period, Ashkenazi communities maintained strong Talmudic traditions centred on yeshivas and produced some of Judaism’s most influential scholars, such as Rashi and the Tosafists. They spoke Yiddish, a fusion of Hebrew, German, and Slavic elements, and developed distinctive religious customs (minhagim), prayer rites (nusach Ashkenaz), and legal commentaries.

Sephardic Jews originate from the Iberian Peninsula—primarily Spain and Portugal—where they experienced a rich cultural flowering, particularly during the Golden Age of Al-Andalus. Following their expulsion in 1492 (Spain) and 1497 (Portugal), many migrated to North Africa, the Ottoman Empire (including the Balkans, Syria, and Anatolia), the Netherlands, and later the New World. They preserved the Ladino language (Judeo-Spanish) and maintained traditions influenced by medieval Iberian scholarship, including legal rulings by figures such as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) and Rabbi Joseph Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch, which codified much of Jewish law.

Mizrahi Jews (from the Hebrew mizrah, “east”) are Jews who remained in or returned to Middle Eastern and North African lands such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, and Morocco. While sometimes overlapping with Sephardic traditions due to later influences from Iberian exiles, Mizrahi Jews developed indigenous practices rooted in the ancient Jewish communities of Babylon, Persia, and Arabia. Many Mizrahim maintained the use of Judeo-Arabic or Judeo-Persian, contributed richly to Talmudic commentary, and preserved ancient liturgical melodies and legal traditions often distinct from European counterparts.

These three traditions reflect the diversity and adaptability of Jewish religious life, yet all remained anchored in shared foundations: the Torah, Halakha, Hebrew prayer, and communal cohesion.

Ghettos and Cultural Separation in Europe
In Christian Europe, particularly from the 15th century onward, Jewish communities were increasingly subject to physical and legal segregation. Authorities instituted ghettos—designated, enclosed neighbourhoods in which Jews were required to reside. The term originates from Venice (1516) but was soon adopted across cities such as Rome, Prague, and Frankfurt.

Ghettos were often gated, locked at night, and marked by physical boundaries and curfews. Jews living within these districts faced restrictions on property ownership, professional participation, and social interaction with the wider population. While intended to marginalise, ghettos also functioned as intense centres of Jewish life, preserving religious education, ritual observance, and communal institutions such as synagogues, mikva’ot (ritual baths), schools, and courts (batei din).

In Eastern Europe, while not always enclosed in ghettos, Jewish communities often lived in shtetls—small towns with significant Jewish populations. These communities fostered a rich religious and cultural life, with a strong emphasis on Torah study, Hasidic mysticism (in later periods), and communal solidarity, albeit in a context of frequent vulnerability to anti-Jewish violence, such as pogroms.

Cultural Preservation and Diasporic Unity
Despite their geographic dispersion and cultural divergence, Jewish communities maintained unity through common religious texts, halakhic authority, calendrical observance, and shared rituals. The weekly observance of Shabbat, the Jewish festivals, dietary laws (kashrut), and rites of passage (circumcision, bar/bat mitzvah, marriage, mourning) served to reinforce Jewish identity and continuity across time and space.

Rabbinic correspondence and halakhic rulings often travelled vast distances, connecting communities from Baghdad to Kraków. Responsa literature—collections of rabbinic answers to legal queries—reveal the extent to which Jews across the diaspora remained in theological and juridical conversation. These intellectual networks helped maintain a sense of global Jewish consciousness, even in the absence of political sovereignty or geographic centrality.

Conclusion
From the post-Temple era through to the early modern period, Jewish migration patterns resulted in the formation of rich and diverse traditions—Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi—each shaped by its host society yet rooted in a common covenantal heritage. Amidst persecution, segregation, and displacement, Jewish communities preserved their faith and identity through law, learning, and liturgical practice. The establishment of ghettos and the broader cultural separation imposed by external forces ultimately strengthened internal cohesion, enabling Jewish life to endure and adapt across centuries of diaspora existence.