All Jews had their earliest origins with Abraham, the first Hebrew Gen 14:13 in the Middle East. The greatest number were in Jerusalem and the surrounding lands of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. At the time of the Babylonian Exile there arose also a diaspora, primarily in Babylon and Alexandria.
Jews whose ancestors had always lived in the Middle East are called Mizrahi Jews. Sephardic Jews who migrated to Arab countries intermarried with the local populations, making it difficult to distinguish Arab Mizrahim from Arab Sephardim.
After the destruction of Judea in AD 70, the largest centers of Judaism were Germany and Spain. In Hebrew, Germany is ashkenazi. Ashkenazi Jews are of German origin, though many migrated to Poland, Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere during the 10th to the 19th centuries. Today, in Israel, a Jew of European origin is called Ashkenazi.
Sephardic, Ashkenazic, Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews