¿DID MODERN JEWS DESCEND FROM

KHAZARS?
Many anti-Semites complain that modern Jews are not the
Biblical Jews but are descended from the Khazars. The
Khazars converted to Judaism and thus modern day Jews, it is
claimed, are imposters who have no claim on the Land of
Israel, Eretz Yisrael. This claim will be discussed in the
following sections.

It is also interesting to note that the same anti-Semites who

complain about the alleged contents of the Talmud, which was
completed no later than 500 C.E. also claim that the Jews of
today are "self-styled Jews" descended from the Khazars who
converted to Judaism in 740 C.E. Some even claim that the
"true" descendants of the Biblical Jews are the modern day
"Aryans". So according to this "logic" the Talmud which they
complain about would actually be an "Aryan" book and not
that of the modern Jews!

Its difficult to see how they can reconcile these two seemingly
contradictory positions.

David S. Maddison(maddison@connexus.net.au)

RESPONSE (1)

THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

From: JGARBUZ@postoffice.worldnet.att.net
Subject: Re: Jewish Filth Taking Over the World
Date: 7 Aug 1998 01:51:14 GMT
Message-ID: (35C9EC6D.7CFF@postoffice.worldnet.att.net)

As for Ashkenazim being Khazars, for one thing there were Jews on
the Rhine (who came with the Romans) long before there was a
Khazaria and even before many Germanic tribes settled there. In
fact, the word Ashkenaz means Germany in Hebrew. Second, even if
a group of Khazars abandoned their own homeland and adopted
Jewish peoplehood by conversion it still doesn't negate their right to
the land of Israel. Even Moses's wives weren't born Hebrews and Ruth
the Moabitess was a convert (see Book of Ruth). Unlike the Germans,
membership in the Jewish peoplehood is not based soley on blood.

RESPONSE (2)

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DESCENDED FROM KHAZARS?

The following article addresses the issues of the Khazars with

reference to a particular anti-Semitic film where the same claim is
made.

From "The Other Israel - Is it Really Accurate", 1990 Dennis Green,

Stuart Hayward, Phillip Woodfield Opposition to Anti-Semitism,
Incorporated, Christchurch, New Zealand.

In the film, Ted Pike makes the assertion (as have most anti-Semitic
groups, including the Nazis) that the Jews of European origin, the
"Askhenazim" (who comprise almost 80% of today's Jewry), are
actually descended from a medieval people called the Khazars, who
converted to Judaism in the 8th century. The logic of the argument
goes something like this; if 80% of all the Jews in tile world are not
really Jews, then, firstly, these Jews have absolutely no claim, biblical
or otherwise, to the Land of Israel. Secondly, these Jews are in no
way the people of God, and thus, have no place in the promises or
plans of God. Thirdly, if the vast majority of present-day Jews are not
Jews (therefore, not Semitic) at all, then it cannot be considered
"anti-Semitic" to oppose them.

Pike states that 'Today, the Askhenazim, or Khazars, form the

majority, Around 80 %, of those who call themselves Jews." He
claims that the Mongols drove the Khazar-jews into Germany, Poland
and Russia in the 13th century, and that these, not "real" Jews, are
the people who now make up most of the population of Israel. Quite
simply, this is not true, as the basic analysis below will show.

The Khazars were a confederation of Turkish tribes who established a

major commercial empire in the second half of the 6th century. As a
trading nation, they were faced with a dilemma; tile Christians would
not trade freely with Muslim nations, and the Muslim nations would
not trade freely with the Christian nations. The Khazars did not want
to be recognized as being more partial to one faith than the other.
Therefore, around 740 C.E., King Bulan adopted Judaism, and thus,
as a "neutral" people, the Khazars could trade more freely with both
the Christian and Muslim nations that bordered Khazaria. It should be
noted, however, that it was only the "ruling class" that adopted
Judaism, not the general Khazar population, as Ted Pike and the
other anti-Semites claim (1). These Khazar-Jews had little, if any,
contact with the central Jewish organisation in Iraq, or with the Jews
who still lived in Palestine (as the Romans had renamed the province
of Judea in 135 C.E.). These Khazar-jews had, in fact, closer links
with the (Christian) Byzantine Empire, as can been seen by the fact
that several Byzantine emperors, including Justinian II (704) and
Constantine V (732), had Khazarian wives.

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By the 10th century the Khazar empire, faced with the growing
strength of the Pechenegs to their north and west, and of the
Russians around Kiev, suffered a decline. Khazar power was crushed
in 965 when the ruler of Kiev, Svyatoslav, launched a harsh military
campaign against them. Many Khazars, including some of those who
had converted to Judaism, moved into Bohemia, Russia, Germany,
and the Ukraine.

The main error with Pike's argument is his belief that the Khazar-jews
are the ancestors of all those Jews who have lived in Northern or
Eastern Europe, and therefore, the Askhenazim (Jews of European
origin) are not really Jews at all. This argument can be demolished
very simply, by showing that there were very large Jewish
communities in Northern and Eastern Europe before the Khazar-Jews
arrived there, and that these (with perhaps a tiny percentage of
Khazar-jews) are the ancestors of the Askhenazim. Thus, these Jews
are clearly descended from the Jews of the Bible.

The first Jews to reach Germany were merchants who went there in
the wake of the Roman legions, and settled in the Roman-founded
Rhine towns. The earliest detailed record of a Jewish community in
Germany, referring to Cologne, is found in imperial decrees issued in
321 and 331 C.E. (2)

There were Jews in Russia from the first centuries C.E., although
numbers there were small for several centuries. However, Jews
emigrated to the Caucasus and beyond, and formed countless
communities, at the time of the wars between the Muslims and
Persians during the 7th century.(3)

Jews arrived in Pannonia (Yugoslavia) and Romania in the Third

Century(4), and in Hungary not long after. France also had large
numbers of Jews living there from an early period; Objects identified
as Jewish because of the menorah portrayed on them have been
discovered around Arles (first, fourth and early fifth centuries) and
Bordeaux and the neighboring region (third and early fourth
centuries) Evidence of Jewish communities is abundant from 465
onwards.

Jews were, of course, living in all Mediterranean countries for many

centuries B.C.E. and, as has been shown, were living in most other
European lands from a very early period. Thus, the claim of Ted Pike
(and most other anti-Semitic groups) that the European Jews are
from Khazar stock, falls flat on its face. There may be a tiny minority
of present-day Jews who are descended from Khazar-Jews, but
almost all European Jews are descended directly from the Jews of the
Bible.

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(1) Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 10, col. 944
(2) Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 7, col. 458
(3) Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 14, col. 433
(4) Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 16, col. 868

RESPONSE (3)

WHO IS A JEW?
This is also an exract of an article that addresses the lies presented in
the anti-Semitic video "The Other Israel". David S. Maddison
(maddison@connexus.net.au)

The video alleges that the Ashkenazim are Khazars and only the
Sephardim are authentic Jews. In other words, that the majority of
Jews in thhe world today are descended from a heathen, nomad
people from central Asia, and not from Abraham.

In support of this contention it states that Jewish missionaries went

to Khazaria and as a result the king was converted in A.D. 740 and
Rabbinic Judaism became the state religion. It is averred that by the
10th century the Khazari people had convinced themselves that they
were descended from Abraham, that they settled in Poland, and that
they were the Polish Jews from whom the Ashkenazim, who make up
the greater part of Jewry today, were descended. There is enough
truth in this assertion to make it seem plausible but unfortunately it
flies against the facts.

The Jews who went to Khazaria did not go as missionaries, in the

sense that we send out miissionaries today. When the Moslems
overan Babylon, the Jews were either expelled or freed to pay half
their produce as tribute (13), and when Leo became the Byzantine
Emperor one of the measures he passed was for the compulsory
conversion of all Jews to Christianity. As a result of these persecutions
many Jews from Persia and Greece went to Khazaria to live.(2,3)

In about A.D.700 the Khazar king was converted to Islam and later to
Judaism. A later king, Obadiah, greatly strengthened Judaism,
inviting rabbis into his Kingdom and building synagogues. Their
Judaism - limited no doubt in any case to a comparitively small group
(only the king, his attendants and the Khazars of his kind) - was
always superficial and they were liable to relapse into paganism. They
became what could best be called Judaized Turks. Religious toleration
was maintained for the Kingdom's 300 years, with clear traces of
Christianity being found among them for the whole historical period.
The predominating element in the country were the Muslims, and
they formed the royal army(3). In the 10th century, "probably in 965,
Khazar leaders appealed to a neighbouring Islamic state for help
against invasion but were told that the price of assistance was

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Khazaria's conversion to Islam. According to Muslim historians the
kingdom that had embraced Judaism around 740 suddenly
abandoned it less than two and a half centuries later. But this did not
save them and by the end of the eleventh century the Khazar empire
was no more."(1) There are persistent references to the Khazars as
Muslims after A.D. 965(3).

To encourage their own people, Jewish writers have tended to

exaggerate the importance of the Khazar conversions to Judaism,
leaving out unpalatable facts. The smallest group among the Khazars
were the Jews, most of them being Muslims and Christians. The king
and his court were Jews for much of their 300 years history and
because religious toleration was maintained many persecuted Jews
fled there. The fact is that rather than convince themselves by the
10th century that they were Jews descended from Abraham, they
found it expedient to convert to Islam.

On the linguistic side, well known Turcologist, A.N.Poliak, regards the

Karaite Jews in Poland and the Crimea as the principal present-day
representatives of the ancient Khazars, (Karaitism is a minor sect of
Judaism quite distinct from mainstream Judaisni) and 'investigations
have tended to establish the absence of western influences in Yiddish,
though on the other hand affinities with German dialects of the east
and south-east have been indicated.'(3)

This is not to say that the occasional occurrence of a fair, light

skinned, eastern European Jew doesn't indicate the possibility of
some admixture of Khazar blood. However from the thirteenth
century there came a great movement across the face of Europe,
which was to continue for the next four centuries, to the hospitable
lands of Poland and Lithuania.(5)' 'For long generations, therefore,
Poland continued to appear in the light of a land of promise for the
Jews of northern Europe, and to receive a perpetual accession of new
settlers - refugees escaping from massacre, young men seeking
opportunity, merchants from as far afield as Italy or the Balkans. In
1500, the number of Jews in the country is estimated to have been
only 50,000 souls; a century and a half later, it had risen to half a
million. ...so from the beginning of the sixteenth century the
overwhelming mass if Askenazic Jewry, the remants of the
communities of medieval england and France and Germanym with
others from further afield - became concentrated in Poland abd the
surrounding Slavonic territories. It is from them that the majority of
the Jews in the world today are descended." (4).

REFERENCES

(1) Abba Eban, (1984). Heritage, Civilisation and the Jews

(2) Martin Gilbert, (1969). Jewish History Atlas

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(3) D.M. Dunlop, (1987). The History of the Jewish Khazars
(4) Cecil Roth, (1970). A History of the Jews
(5) Chaim Bermant, (1977). The Jews
(13) David J. Goldberg and John D. Rayner, (1987). The Jewish
People,Their History and Their Religion.

RESPONSE 4

THE GENETIC EVIDENCE

Apart from the historical evidence proving that a vast majority of

present-day Jews did not descend from the Khazars, there is now
also genetic evidence. Among the Jews there is the class of priests
called Cohanim who served in the Temple and who now carry
surnames such as "Cohen" and many variations on that name.
Cohanim comprise of about 5% of the male Jewish population. There
are strict rules of marriage for the Cohanim and the title is only
passed through the male line. Also, converts cannot become Cohanim
(but their children will be if they have a Cohen as a father). The
priestly line is descended directly from the Aaron of the bible so it is
expected that all Cohanim would carry some common genetic
features.

In recently published work (1) it was found that 54% of self-

identified Cohanim had common genetic features that were revealed
by analysis of their DNA. Specifically, a component of the Y-
chromosone, an allele YAP+ DYS19, was identified that showed up
only 1.5% of the time in Cohanim but 18.4% of the time in a random
selection of non-Cohanim Jews and there were other genetic
differences apparent as well. (The same differences were apparent
for both Sepphardic and Askhenazic Jews also proving a common
origin pre-dating a later split between the two groups.)

The large number of Cohanim among present-day Jews and the fact
that they have a common genetic lineage traceable to Israel at the
time of the Temple, demonstrates that modern Jews come from a
population pool derived from Israel and not from the Khazars. The
Khazars could not have developed their own lineage of Cohanim
anyway, since being a Cohen is a male-inherited status which
converts (the Khazars) could not have obtained.

(1) Skorecki K; Selig S; Blazer S; Bradman R; Bradman N; Waburton

PJ; Ismajlowicz M; Hammer MF (1997) Y chromosomes of Jewish
priests. Nature, 385:32.

David S. Maddison(maddison@connexus.net.au)

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