Jews of Eastern European and Yiddish-speaking origin and heritage. Along with Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews (or Ashkenazim) make up one of the two major ethno-cultural branches of Judaism. Ashkenazim and Sephardim maintain many different religio-cultural traditions. See Shira, Schoenberg. “Ashkenazim.” Jewish Virtual Library. 13 June 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Ashkenazim.html.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/ashkenazi-jews