Ashkenaz (alternatively: Erets-Ashkenaz 'the land of Ashkenaz') is the indigenous name of the home territory of Central and Eastern European Jewry. From its compact origins some 1000 years ago in the ShU"M communities along the Rhine, Ashkenaz grew to cover the second-largest unbroken language and culture area in Europe. From the outset, Ashkenazic Jewry defined itself as distinct both from the other emerging European peoples and cultures with which it was coterritorial, and from other Jewries. Ashkenaz developed a unique, internally consistent, and culturally advanced European civilization. Sharing a confession with non-Ashkenazic coreligionists, Ashkenazic Jewry also participated in the millennia of cosmopolitan Jewish textuality (sacred texts, commentary and responsa, commercial contracts, domestic agreements, etc.). Ashkenazic culture is characterized by a national language (Yiddish); religion (Judaism); textual tradition; material culture (architecture, dress, foodways, routes of trade and migration); systems of education, social welfare, dispute adjudication; politics and ideology; national literature; high and popular culture.