- What happens when someone tries
to revise the history of your people?
This is something that Ashkenazi Jews face
due to a false, but oft-repeated academic theory
about their ancestral origin.
What is this debunked origin story?
Why are some people sharing it?
And what does it say about Ashkenazi Jews
and more importantly,
those who are spreading disinformation about them?
First, some necessary background info.
The two largest communities or denominations
within Judaism are Sephardim and Ashkenazim.
Today's Sephardim, or Sephardic Jews,
are the descendants of the Jews who arrived
on the Iberian Peninsula after the Babylonian
and Roman exiles, before fleeing
to Southern Europe, the Balkans,
and North Africa after the Alhambra Decree,
a record that is not contested.
Ashkenazim, or Ashkenazi Jews, are those whose ancestors
arrived in the Danube Valley
and Rhineland areas after the Roman exile,
with some accounts dating as far back as 321 CE,
but there are some who call
these historical events into question.
A hypothesis dating back to the late 1800s states
that Ashkenazi Jews are all descendants of the Khazars.
In the 600s CE in southeast Russia,
a multi-ethnic conglomerate of Turkic people
founded a powerful state made up
of people from many different ethnicities.
This was the kingdom of Khazaria.
The theory goes that in the eighth century,
the Khazar ruling class converted en masse
to Judaism on the instruction of their ruler.
According to this line of reasoning,
these Jews didn't migrate from Jerusalem
and Babylonia into France
and Germany, but rather migrated
from modern Russia and Ukraine.
The lack of proof for the theory hasn't prevented it
from catching on with a number of geneticists,
historians, linguists, and laypeople.
It even has support from academics
at universities in Tel Aviv, and Sheffield, England.
The problem is that the kingdom of Khazaria
was destroyed sometime in the late first millennium
and the next time we have records of Jews in that area,
today's Western Ukraine
and Belarus, is over 400 years later.
Additionally, DNA tests have shown
a close relationship between Ashkenazi
and Sephardic Jews, as well as a connection
to other Middle Eastern people,
but no connection between Ashkenazi Jews and the Khazars.
The Khazar theory is also dead on arrival
from a linguistic perspective.
The main language of the Ashkenazi Jews,
Yiddish, shows no trace of Turkic origin.
Yiddish is considered a Germanic language
with Hebrew and Aramaic words thrown in.
As the Yiddish linguist
and author, Alexander Beider, puts it, "The personal names
"and surnames borne by Jews in Eastern Europe
"during the last six centuries,
"as well as the Yiddish language as a whole,
"do not contain any link to Khazaria."
So who's pushing this theory?
Well, certain academics, for one.
Their hypothesis got a big bump in 1976 when a writer
and amateur anthropologist named Arthur Koestler
published the now-debunked book, "The Thirteenth Tribe."
Koestler thought that by proving Ashkenazi Jews
were actually more European than Semitic,
it would upend the foundations of European antisemitism.
Ironically, Koestler's claims only served
to feed antisemitism by accidentally resurrecting
a theory that would only go on to serve
the interests of bigots and the uninformed.
After its publication, supporters expounded upon his claims
ever further, while detractors called it anti-Semitic.
But why would the hypothesis be anti-Semitic
instead of just another scholarly theory?
It makes more sense when you look
at some of the recent supporters of the theory,
especially those outside of academia.
These include online commenters who use it
to delegitimize the Jewish people by classifying them
as a "fake nation"
and even political leaders
like the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas.
In a 2018 speech delivered
to the Palestine Liberation Organization's legislative body,
Abbas quoted Koestler
and his theory that Ashkenazi Jews are descended
from the Khazars, not the biblical Israelites.
The allure of the hypothesis to someone like Abbas is clear.
It delegitimizes Jewish claims on the land of Israel.
If Ashkenazim came from what's now Russia,
then their assertions of an ancestral nationhood
in the ancient land of Israel are easily dismissed.
Too bad for Abbas that the science is not on his side
and that the genetic findings of Ashkenazi Jews
point to people of Middle Eastern origin,
not Turkic or Russian.
It's also worth stating that the theory
and the subsequent not-your-land accusations thrown at Jews
completely discounts Sephardi
and the other Jewish communities,
and makes it seem as if Ashkenazim
and Ashkenazim alone are the only Jews,
which is of course preposterous.
It's not a stretch to say that throughout the centuries,
anti-Semitic, xenophobic,
and racist tropes have followed a similar path,
unfounded ideas that gain a foothold
because they serve the interests of anti-religious bigotry,
claims of genetic superiority, and political ostracism.
It's always fun to learn about conspiracy theories.
Sure, everyone loves believing that Tupac is still alive,
that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll,
or that the moon landing was nothing
but a Stanley Kubrick short film, but let's remember
that they are just that, conspiracy theories.
They're an entertaining showcase of the human imagination,
but to take them seriously without doing some research,
not a good look.
Ashkenazi Jews are definitely Jews
despite any debunked hypotheses that claim otherwise.
In a world with limitless information at our fingertips,
it's our responsibility to be informed consumers
and to make an effort to sort out fact from fiction.
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