Jewish

The Jewish group includes the Sephardim of Spain and Portugal, the Ashkenazim of Germany and eastern Europe, the Italian and Romaniote Jews, the Teimani of Yemen, the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and communities in Persia, Georgia, India and Kaifeng in China. Each kept its own liturgy and language.

The Black Death of 1348 brought massacres of Jews across the Rhineland. England had expelled its Jews in 1290 and France did so in 1394, and Spain expelled those who would not convert in 1492. Many Sephardim found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. In Poland and Lithuania the Ashkenazim formed the largest Jewish community in Europe.