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There is a question about the religious significance of the existence of various sects, but I was wondering whether the sects tend to reflect differing national or cultural backgrounds. Within Christianity, for instance, it is commonly observed that the Protestant Reformation spread largely among people who spoke Germanic languages, whereas the Catholic Church retained influence among speakers of Romance languages—so presumably something about the language or culture favored one sect or another.

Are there any such tendencies among present-day Jewish sects? For example, would you expect Jews (or descendants of Jews) who had historically spent time in a particular country to belong to a particular sect today? (I am an American, so I am sort of familiar with Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism; I'm really not sure whether those differences are significant worldwide.)

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adam.baker
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    When you say "sect" do you mean "groups with different underlying understandings of the role and authority of laws and our relationship to the divine" (which would call forth your examples of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) or do you mean "groups which share a common philosophy but differ in presentation, rite and traditions"? This latter formulation would call forth http://www.jewfaq.org/ashkseph.htm – rosends Sep 07 '16 at 10:22
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    the link between languages and religious tendencies are interesting. I am wondering if there is also a similar spliting among philosophic or psychoanalytic tendencies. For Judaism, the culturalism is very hard to know, because of a great instability of place, language and social status through time. – kouty Sep 07 '16 at 10:35
  • @Danno, judging from the link you sent, my meager knowledge of Judaism is entirely from Ashkenazic sources, so I am wondering about subgroups of Ashkenazic Jews. But if it makes sense to answer the question differently, that would be fine. – adam.baker Sep 07 '16 at 10:41
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    @kouty, I probably should have said something like “Germanic cultures” or “Romance cultures,” but that didn't sound right. (As a linguist I would be skeptical of claims that language in itself caused religious or even cultural changes.) – adam.baker Sep 07 '16 at 10:43
  • I would be very surprised if there weren't geography-based correlations between any two given dimensions of cultural expression. – Isaac Moses Sep 07 '16 at 10:45
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    this might help http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Origins_of_Reform_Judaism.html – rosends Sep 07 '16 at 10:47
  • Well since you mentioned reform and it's younger brother, Conservative, those were born in western Europe, and ate much more popular among those of European descent than those of north African descent.The latter tended to retain much of their reflect for tradition, even while becoming unobservant.This partly mirrors the Enlightenment in Europe, and may also be connected to the loss of prestige of the rabbinate in Europe after the Eybeschutz debacle of the 18th century. – mevaqesh Sep 07 '16 at 13:23
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    Much more significant, in my opinion, is the distinction between Jews who lived in the Muslim Empire, (in particular, Iraq, North Africa, and Southern Spain), such as R. Saadya Gaon, and Maimonides, along with Jews of Provence, (who were highly influenced by their Spanish co-coreligionists), and the Christian lands, particularly Northern France. The former tended to be highly rationalistic and placed great value of philosophical pursuits, whole the latter tended to be anti-rationalistic, and ambivalent to, or even opposed to philosophical study. This obviously mirrors the sentiments of [cont.] – mevaqesh Sep 07 '16 at 13:49
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    [cont.] the Muslims and Christians respectively. For a discussion of the development of these schools of thought, see http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/73525/8775. See also here. Regarding some of the notable clashes between these worldviews, see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13046.html. – mevaqesh Sep 07 '16 at 13:51
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    There has been over the past few hundred years, specific Jewish movements unique to certain locales. The ultra-Orthodox Hasidic movements developed in Eastern Europe amongst the poor, less educated peasants. Some say it was a response to their horrible environmental conditions. The movement emphasised spiritual worship and joyful prayer. The Orthodox Litvishe and Yeshivishe movements also developed in Eastern Europe and were vehemently opposed to Hasidic. Members tended, if I recall my history, to live in much larger, established, communities that offered Jewish infrastructure, ........ – JJLL Sep 08 '16 at 02:05
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    ......yeshivas (schools), kehillah (community service providers), kosher food, etc. The culture was more big city and thorough than the simple small town, rural Hasidic folk. Undoubtedly, the highly sophisticated, advanced urban environment of Germany was more condusive to the development of the more liberal Reformation movement that approached Judaism from an academic approach. While all Ashkenazi had and have a common Jewish heritage, their national and environmental influences greatly impacted they what's Jews worshiped. Although Reform made inroads in Russia, it is unlikely that it ..... – JJLL Sep 08 '16 at 02:13
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    ...could have ever originated in Eastern European. The underlying principals were completely foreign to such people. The simplicity of Hasidism and its focus on mystiscm would not have originated in Germany, a country with a history of scientific, clinical, rational, university thinkers. So yes, there is a specific way of thinking, acting, and interacting with the world based on location, location, location of origin: Yekke (Germany) Litvak Yeshivishe (Poland, Lithiuania), Hasidishe (Eastern Europe) Reform (Germany) Modern Orthodox (USA) et al – JJLL Sep 08 '16 at 02:17
  • The observance level of an individual Jew has nothing to do with his or her country of origin. I'm not sure what's being asked here. – ezra May 31 '18 at 20:19

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Jews who came from Muslim lands tend to keep kosher, even if they're not super-affiliated. (There wasn't much more to eat in their Muslim surroundings.) This is why Paris has more kosher restaurants than New York City: the average somewhat-affiliated Jew in New York City is of European ancestry, and doesn't demand a kosher restaurant. The average somewhat-affiliated Jew in Paris is of North African ancestry, and expects a restaurant that's kosher.

More broadly, in parts of the world that didn't experience the Enlightment/Reformation the way that Europe did, the predominant brand of Judaism is Orthodox. Many don't affiliate, and don't attend, but if they did attend synagogue, it would be an Orthodox one! (Not unlike, say, the Catholic Church in much of Latin America. There are yes-Catholic-church-goers and non-churchgoers-to-Catholic-churches, but not a ton of Unitarians.) Sephardic Jews come from non-Enlightenment countries, and thus it is very rare to find a Sephardic synagogue whose official rite is anything other than Orthodox -- e.g. there will be separate seating for women.

Otherwise, yes the look, feel, sound, and practice varied depending on where you were. Lo and behold, the Hebrew used by Hungarian Jews sounds more like Hungarian, while the Hebrew used by Yemeni Jews sounds more like Arabic. (Given that it's a Semitic language, the Yemenites are probably right.) Jews in Christian lands banned polygamy long ago; Jews in Muslim lands, much, much later if at all. There are plenty more variations, ranging from legal perspective to culture. But this is more about Ashkenazic vs. Sephardic than Orthodox vs. Reform.

Even within Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe, you tend to see a split between Hasidic Jews' attitudes to the mystical spiritual qualities of their "grand rabbis", vs. non-Hasidic Jews' stress on their rabbis' expertise -- not unlike Catholic (where my priest performs ritual for me) vs. Protestant (where my minister is someone whose expertise and judgment I appreciate). Hasidic Jews focused more on "joy", non-Hasidic on study. Interestingly, in Hasidic lands (e.g. Romania), the recipe for traditional gefilte fish called for sugar, they liked it sweet. In non-Hasidic lands, bah, this isn't dessert! -- it's made with salt and pepper instead.

Shalom
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