It sure seems like this study assumes most Jewish communities were isolated from each other when actually only a few were. Just tracing Jewish religious education shows many points of contact between geographically separated groups.
North African Jews are the second largest Jewish group? Seems wildly inaccurate.
No mention of Jews who never left Israel. Wonder why not?
No. African Jews: Sephardic. From Morocco to Egypt, esp. Libya, Tunisia. A friend of mine was named Roumani (from “Roman”) and his family dated back 2,000 years in Libya. Most were expelled by King Idrish and then Qaddafi.
Another friend, a leader of the Jewish community in Egypt until expelled in 1967 was named “Romani”. Guess where that came from.
Many Sephardic Jews lived in Spain until expelled in 1492. They had a large, educated community there under the Moslems, though they were still treated as dhimmis (2nd class citizens).
Some went to Israel when it was founded. Others went to Europe or the US.
Re Poland/Ukraine/Austro-Hungarian Empire. Same places, different names. My grandmother/father came from Lemberg, later Lviv and Lvov (now in the Ukraine). This city and others in the “Pale” were trade gateways between Eastern Europe and Western Europe, esp. Austria and Germany. Jewish businessmen/traders moved across these areas with ease and learned to speak several languages so that they could conduct business in the major cities.
My grandfather/mother on my father’s side came from Russia. My grandfather spoke five languages (Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and later, English). When he came to America, immigration changed the family name a bit but we survived it.
Oh, did you here about the Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who had his named changed to an Irish one by immigration officials? When they asked him what his name was, he thought that they were asking where he was going (it was written on a piece of paper). He told them, in Yiddish, “forgessen” (I forgot). So they wrote it down as “Ferguson”. He then learned to celebrate St. Patty’s Day.