Are They "Jews" or Are They Really Khazars?

Question

New York Times Reveals that European-Descended Jews are Counterfeits and have no Blood line to Abraham

The fact that most of those who call themselves Jews are not Jews (Rev. 2:9) and have no claim to the lands of Palestine because they have no genetic relation to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can no longer be suppressed. The October 29, 1996 N.Y. Times, in an article entitled, "Scholars Debate Origins of Yiddish and the Migrations of Jews," states:

"Arching over these questions is the central mystery of just where the Jews of Eastern Europe came from. Many historians believe that there were not nearly enough Jews in Western Europe to account for the huge population that later flourished in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and nearby areas.

"By reconstructing the Yiddish mother tongue, linguists hope to plot the migration of the Jews and their language with a precision never possible before.

"It has even been suggested, on the basis of linguistic evidence, that the Jews of Eastern Europe were not predominantly part of the diaspora from the Middle East, but were members of another ethnic group that adopted Judaism.

"...One linguist has recently argued that Yiddish began as a Slavic language that was 'relexified,' with most of its vocabulary replaced with German words.

"...Even more troublesome are demographic studies indicating that during the Middle Ages there were no more than 25,000 to 35,000 Jews in Western Europe. These figures are hard to reconcile with other studies showing that by the 17th century there were hundreds of thousands of Jews in Eastern Europe.

"...Some scholars believe the roots of Yiddish, and even the Ashkenazic people themselves, lie much farther east. In his 1976 book, The Thirteenth Tribe, Arthur Koestler made the startling suggestion, never taken seriously by linguists, that the Eastern European Jews were not really Semitic -- that they were largely descended from the Turkish Khazars, who converted en masse to Judaism in medieval times.

"More recently, Koestler's controversial thesis has been revived and expanded in a 1993 book, The Ashkenazic 'Jews': A Slavo-Turkic People in Search of a Jewish Identity (Slavica Publishers), by Dr. Paul Wexler, a Tel Aviv University linguist.

"Wexler uses a reconstruction of Yiddish to argue that it began as a Slavic language whose vocabulary was largely replaced with German words. Going even further, he contends that the Ashkenazic Jews are predominantly converted Slavs and Turks who merged with a tiny population of Palestinian Jews from the Diaspora."

Answer 1

That's what I've been saying.

Answer 2

The Khazar state existed in about 1100 years ago in southwest Asia (near where Turkey is today.) At some point, the king of the Khazars converted to Judaism. Some people followed him- it is unclear to extent though. Some records seem to indicate it was only a handful of nobles, others seem to indicate it was a substantial portion of the population. Either way, when the Khazar state collapsed, most Khazars were absorbed into the Russian Empire, but some Jewish Khazars assimilated into other European Jewish communities. Today, genetic studies show that they contributed about 2-4% of the average Ashkenazic (European) Jew's DNA. (Most of the rest matches the DNA of Jews worldwide, and in fact match samples of ancient Israelite DNA pulled from 2000+ year-old cemeteries in Israel.) This is as much as history and science tell us. However, antisemites like to add in their own theories. In the late nineteenth century, before genetic studies were advanced enough to definitively disprove it, antisemites used the murky nature of the history of the Khazars' conversion to advance the claim that all or nearly all European Jews were descended from Khazar converts, and had no ancestral connection to the Biblical Israelites. This is used for a number of different causes, from undermining the Jewish claim to Israel, to supporting claims from fringe organizations that they are "real Jews," and many others. Anyone who advances the Khazar theory seriously is not someone from whom you want to learn about Israel. It is akin to learning about the history of NASA from someone who believes the moon landing was filmed in a studio. People like that are loony, or filled with hatred.

Answer 3

I once gave this theory some credence - until I saw the Ethiopian Jews. They are clearly not of European ancestry, yet they just as clearly have many of the racial characteristics of the Eastern European Jews. A common origin is the most likely reason why...

Answer 4

>New York Times Reveals that European-Descended Jews are Counterfeits and have no Blood line to Abraham

Yet those phonies seem to speak Hebrew and spoke hebraic influenced languages when they were in Europe.... I assume you have a link to the NY times article? Feel free to post it.

Answer 5

If a couple has more than two children generation after generation, the population multiplies.. its simple math coupled with a little inductive reasoning.. New York Times is pro-palestinian....think for yourself

Answer 6

In the early days of the spread of Christianity through Europe, it did so at the tip of the sword. The spread of Islam to many nations happened in the same manner. The story of the Khazars, a small nation state of Turkey, who converted to Judaism rather than to submit to the sword of Christendom, OR to the sword of the Islamic Caliphate nations it had defeated has been a thorn in the side of the anti-Semite for centuries. It was a small kingdom that refused to be overcome by forced conversions. This small group of Jewish converts were thus always demonized for having rejected the "offer".

I agree that the claims of the rant in this "question" are bogus. Actually, DNA evidence and history reveal that there were several migrations of Jews from the middle east through Europe.

A very large number came to Germany and Eastern Europe after fleeing the ghettos of Italy. After the plagues of the middle ages, Jewish communities in Italy fled the ghettos and went north. The word GHETTO was coined in Italy to refer to the sections of cities and towns where Jews were forced to live, with gates at each end that were closed at night.

Ever notice how closely at just how many Russian and Polish Jews LOOK like Italians? For that matter, many non Jewish Italians are often "mistaken" for being Jews by the anti-Semite who has this stereotypical image in his head. We even share many of the same rare genetic disorders and have the same gene markers. So, biology proves the written and oral history. Jews as a whole stopped being only "Semitic" once Jews spread across the globe. We never lost the Semitic Hebrew language of Torah, but we gained many customs and languages along the way when peoples of ALL the lands Jews have lived among have embraced the example of living as a light unto the nations.

There is one element of truth to something hinted here, the language of a people reflects where they live and what other cultures influence and meld into that people to become a part of it.

While the Khazar royalty and part of the general population followed and converted to Judaism sometime in the 9th century and it was viewed as a slap in the face to the Christian armies and Arab Caliphates sweeping through that part of the world converting people at the tip of the sword...it seems bizarre to me that Jew haters would try to some how claim that Jews, even if they have ANY Khazar ancestry, are somehow less Jewish than any other convert. The children of the 9th century coverts to Judaism were born just as Jewish as Isaac and just as Jewish as King David.

What about Ruth, a Moabite..a member of a nation that is condemend IN the Tanakh to forever be forbidden to be a part of the kingdom of God. She converted to Judaism and was an ancestor of King David. Are these same anti-Semites going to claim that Ruth and all who descended from her ( including according to Christian dogma, Jesus ) were somehow not real Jews? Nonsense.

If you are concerned that I'm quoting Jewish sites or history, how about you try reading The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity by Oxford scholar and Christian, Richard Fletcher whose scholarly works have won the Wolfson Literarary History Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History.

Chapter 9, Rival Monotheisms will enlighten you.

From the times of the Torah until today, anyone who comes to embrace the eternal covenant becomes a VERY REAL member of the nation of Israel and a real Jew.

Shalom :)

EDIT to note, if you are sincere in inquiry about this topic, the Jewish language web site below is GREAT! it shows that the slavic influence on Yiddish, while great was a latter influence than that of the romance languages ..as I said..the history of Yiddish DOES reflect the history of the European Jewish diaspora as well as the history of other Jewish languages! ( Ladino, Hebrew-Arabic, and others)

Edit to explain why this matters..somehow, somewhere, some anti-semite got the idea that if they could convince people that if all Jews were simply converts from some Turkish people who never had any roots in Israel that it would make any claims of Israel being the homeland of the covenant people Israel, illigetimate. They ignore the Jews who never left the middle east, or the Jews who spread over the rest of the known world and concentrate on the one small thorn in their side, a nation whose king chose the beliefs of Judaism and from among his people, many followed suit to join the rest of the covenant whose ancestry came from Israel. Once one becomes a part of the covenant, they are every bit as much a "child of Abraham" as any other.

Islamic peoples are from many converted nations whose ancestry biologically certainly is not from Abraham through Ishmael genetically, and who questions their legitimacy as a child of Abraham? Not I.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace.

Answer 7

I think you are full of crap no one can passably trace their blood line back to Abraham. There is no passable way of knowing if Abraham Ever did exist at all.

Answer 8

Ooooooh! the Israelites ,they invented a lie then believed that it was true ,and now they are trying to convince the whole world that Palestine is theirs...and that the palestinians are terrorists when they ask for their right to live(or at least survive for another day) ...and resist to get back their homeland....how ridiculous!!!!

now look into my eyes and hear my real story(another point of view):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P12aqVeZkQ

Answer 9

This keeps coming up every week. Sorry, it's completely not true. The whole "Khazar" issue is bogus.

Oh, and guess what: AM YISRAEL CHAI !!

Answer 10

Man! Were you even alive back then?