>>508422129
Ashkenazi is a modern pronunciation of Aškuzāya, the name that ancient Semitic people have used to refer to Scythians. To wrap your mind around what this means, you have to understand that to the ancients Scythian did not refer to just a particular group of Eastern Iranic peoples as it does today. Scythian was just a general term for any Indo-European who was not a settled, seafaring Med. In non-Latin IE languages Scythian can be spelled as Cкитaлeц, which means 'nomad.' All IE tribes had a degree of nomadism to them. So, Scythian just means an "OEM Indo-European." The reason why Scythian today refers exclusively to a particular group of Eastern Iranics is because they were the Indo-Europeans that have maintained the most of their ancestral identity at the time when history was starting to be recorded in writing. Most of the other Indo-Europeans at the time have already developed their own unique identities and names, straying away from the ancestral ways.

Ashkenazi Jew just means "Scythian Jew" or "Indo-European Jew," if you understand the terminology correctly. And hey, I know that as interesting as this was to read, it answers almost nothing about who the Ashkenazi are; however, common sense will tell you that "Scythian Jews" probably refers to a program of cross-breeding between Indo-Europeans and Semitic Peoples.