“Ashkenaz” in Hebrew refers to Germany, and Ashkenazi Jews are those who originated in Eastern Europe. (Sephardic Jews, by contrast, are from the areas around the Mediterranean Sea, including Portugal, Spain, the Middle East, and Northern Africa.)
Sephardim often tout their relationship with the Muslim countries in which they have lived as an indicator of how well they would be in dealing with Muslim elites.
https://www.jns.org/opinion/who-says-that-morocco-never-persecuted-its-jews/
