For much of our history, the vast majority of the Jewish Diaspora lived in the various countries and regions that make up Europe. Invariably, they would give their new homeland a name from the Bible. Some of these regions are actually mentioned in Scripture, but even when not, Jews would adapt a Biblical name that seemed most fitting. Here is a list of 8 European locations given Biblical names by Jews.
1. The Iberian Peninsula: Sepharad
Where do Sephardic Jews get their name? From Spain (and Portugal), the homeland of their ancestors. Jews have called the Iberian Peninsula “Sepharad” since Medieval times. Sepharad appears once in Scripture, in the Book of Obadiah: “The Israelite exiles who settled with the Canaanites in Tzarfat, and the exiles of Jerusalem in Sepharad, will inherit the cities of the south.”1 The classical commentators identify this location as Spain.2
2. France: Tzarfat
To the north of Spain lies France, known by Jews for centuries as “Tzarfat.” This term appears in the same verse in Obadiah alongside Sepharad, and is likewise identified by the classical commentators as France.3 (Note that Scripture also mentions a separate Tzarfat4—a city in or near the Land of Israel.)
Medieval French Jews were known as Ashkenazim, due to their close cultural and religious ties with German Jewry (see below). At times, though, they were also called “Tzarfatim.” For example, the famous Tosafist scholars of that region are often referred to as “Rabboteinu HaTzarfatim”—our French teachers.
Read: The Tosafists
3. Germany: Ashkenaz
What about Ashkenazi Jews? Their ancestors lived in the German (and French) lands of central Europe, a region Jews dubbed “Ashkenaz.”
The name comes from the Torah’s list of seventy nations that branched out from Noah. One of these nations was Ashkenaz—a grandson of Noah’s son Japheth.5 He was believed to be the progenitor of the Germanic tribes of northern Europe, and that is how the region got its Hebrew name.6
4. Slavic Lands: Canaan
The Land of Canaan was the precursor to the Land of Israel—straightforward enough. What you might not know is that centuries later the name “Canaan” was transplanted thousands of miles away. Many medieval rabbis referred to the Slavic regions of Eastern Europe (especially Bohemia) as “Canaan.”7 One theory is that many Slavs were purchased as slaves during that era, recalling the Biblical Canaan, who was destined to be a “slave of slaves to his brothers.”8
Others, however, used Canaan as a reference to Germany, citing a tradition that when the Jews conquered the Land of Canaan, some of its inhabitants fled there.9
5. Hungary: Eretz Hagar
Hungary is often called “Eretz Hagar”—the Land of Hagar.10 The Hagrim are listed in Psalms among the hostile tribes living near ancient Israel: “The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrim. Geval, Amon, and Amalek; Phylistia and the residents of Tyre.”11 These Hagrim are believed to have later settled in what is now Hungary.12
According to one tradition, the Hagrim descended from Hagar, Abraham’s concubine—though from a different father.13
6. Turkey: Togarma
Turkey is sometimes referred to as Togarma—another descendant of Noah, and a brother of Ashkenaz.14 It was believed that Togarma was the ancestor of the Turkish people.15
7. Greece: Yavan
The Jews didn’t need to move to Greece to give it a Biblical name. Already in the Second Temple era, they were living under Greek rule, until the miraculous victory of the Hasmoneans in the Chanukah story. The Jews called the invading Greeks “Yevanim” and their homeland “Yavan” (perhaps related to the ancient Greek region of Ionia). Yavan was also a descendant of Noah—the fourth of Japheth’s seven sons16—believed to be the ancestor of the Greek nation.
8. Rome: Edom
The Greeks were followed by the Romans, who took control of Judea, destroyed the Temple, and sent the Jews into exile. Since Temple times, Jews have viewed the Romans as descendants of the Edomites, who descended from Jacob’s brother Esau. (Esau was called Edom, meaning “red,” after his red complexion and the red soup he traded for his firstborn rights.17) The Roman Empire was thus called the Kingdom of Edom, and the exile the Romans imposed—which essentially continues to this day—became known as “the exile of Edom.”18
It should be noted that some sources question the traditional connection between the Romans and the Edomites.19
Read: 14 Facts About Esau
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