Theory of Khazar ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews
[edit] Early Khazar theories
The theory that all or most
Ashkenazi Jews might be descended from Khazars dates back to the racial studies of late 19th century Europe. It has been cited to assert that most modern Jews are not descended from Israelites and/or to refute Israeli claims to Israel, although genetic descent is not the basis of Jewish citizenry in Israel.
It was first publicly proposed in lecture given by the racial-theorist
Ernest Renan on January 27, 1883, titled "Judaism as a Race and as Religion."
[70] It was repeated in articles in
The Dearborn Independent in 1923 and 1925, and popularized by racial theorist
Lothrop Stoddard in a 1926 article in the
Forum titled "The Pedigree of Judah", where he argued that Ashkenazi Jews were a mix of people, of which the Khazars were a primary element.
[47][71] Stoddard's views were "based on nineteenth and twentieth-century concepts of race, in which small variations on facial features as well as presumed accompanying character traits were deemed to pass from generation to generation, subject only to the corrupting effects of marriage with members of other groups, the result of which would lower the superior stock without raising the inferior partners."
[72] This theory was adopted by
British Israelites, who saw it as a means of invalidating the claims of Jews (rather than themselves) to be the true descendants of the ancient Israelites, and was supported by early anti-Zionists.
[47][71]
In 1951
Southern Methodist University professor John O. Beaty published
The Iron Curtain over America, a work which claimed that "Khazar Jews" were "responsible for all of America's — and the world's — ills beginning with
World War I". The book repeated a number of familiar antisemitic claims, placing responsibility for U.S. involvement in World Wars I and II and the Bolshevik revolution on these Khazars, and insisting that Khazar Jews were attempting to subvert Western Christianity and establish communism throughout the world. The American millionaire J. Russell Maguire gave money towards its promotion, and it was met with enthusiasm by hate groups and the extreme right.
[48][49] By the 1960s the Khazar theory had become a "firm article of faith" amongst
Christian Identity groups.
[47][50] In 1971
John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha) also took up this theme, insisting that Palestinians were more closely related to the ancient Judeans than were Jews. According to
Benny Morris:
Of course an anti-Zionist (as well as an anti-Semitic) point is being made here: The Palestinians have a greater political right to Palestine than the Jews do, as they, not the modern-day Jews, are the true descendants of the land's Jewish inhabitants/owners.
[54]The theory gained further support when the novelist
Arthur Koestler devoted his popular book
The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) to the topic. Koestler's historiography has been attacked as highly questionable by many historians;
[53][73][74] it has also been pointed out that his discussion of theories about Ashkenazi descent is entirely lacking scientific or historiographical support; to the extent that Koestler referred to place-names and documentary evidence his analysis has been described as a mixture of flawed etymologies and misinterpreted primary sources.
[75] Commentors have also noted that Koestler mischaracterized the sources he cited, particularly
D.M. Dunlop's
History of the Jewish Khazars (1954).
[74] Dunlop himself stated that the theory that Eastern European Jews were the descendants of the Khazars, "... can be dealt with very shortly, because there is little evidence which bears directly upon it, and it unavoidably retains the character of a mere assumption."
[76]
Koestler, an Ashkenazi Jew himself, was pro-
Zionist based on
secular considerations, and did not see alleged Khazar ancestry as diminishing the claim of Jews to Israel, which he felt was based on the United Nations mandate, and not on Biblical covenants or genetic inheritance. In his view, "The problem of the Khazar infusion a thousand years ago ... is irrelevant to modern Israel". In addition, he was apparently "either unaware of or oblivious to the use anti-Semites had made to the Khazar theory since its introduction at the turn of the century."
[77]
[edit] Theories linking Jews to Khazars today
Although the Khazar theory is contradicted by genetic evidence
[78][79][80] and has little support amongst academics, in the Arab world it still enjoys popularity among anti-Zionists
[53] and antisemites.
[81] Such proponents argue that if Ashkenazi Jews are primarily Khazar and not Semitic in origin, they would have no historical claim to Israel, nor would they be the subject of
God's
Biblical promise of
Canaan to the
Israelites, thus undermining the theological basis of both
Jewish religious Zionists and
Christian Zionists. In the 1970s and 80s the Khazar theory was also advanced by some Russian
chauvinist antisemites, particularly the historian
Lev Gumilyov, who portrayed "Judeo-Khazars" as having repeatedly sabotaged Russia's development since the 7th century.
[82]
Bernard Lewis stated in 1999:
This theory… is supported by no evidence whatsoever. It has long since been abandoned by all serious scholars in the field, including those in Arab countries, where the Khazar theory is little used except in occasional political polemics.
[53]
See also:
Ashkenazi Jews#Genetic origins and
Genetic studies on Jews
A 1999 study by Hammer
et al., published in the
Proceedings of the United States National Academy of Sciences compared the Y chromosomes of Ashkenazi, Roman, North African, Kurdish, Near Eastern, Yemenite, and Ethiopian Jews with 16 non-Jewish groups from similar geographic locations. It found that "Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level... The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora."
[83] According to
Nicholas Wade "The results accord with Jewish history and tradition and refute theories like those holding that Jewish communities consist mostly of converts from other faiths, or that they are descended from the Khazars, a medieval Turkish tribe that adopted Judaism."
[84]
A 2010 study on Jewish ancestry by Atzmon
et al. says "Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry."
[85]
Concerning male-line ancestry, several Y-DNA studies have tested the hypothesis of Khazar ancestry amongst Ashkenazim.
[86][87][88] In these studies
Haplogroup R1a chromosomes (sometimes called Eu 19) have been identified as potential evidence of one line of Eastern European ancestry amongst Ashkenazim, which could possibly be Khazar. One concluded that "neither the NRY haplogroup composition of the majority of Ashkenazi Jews nor the microsatellite haplotype composition of the R1a1 haplogroup within Ashkenazi Levites is consistent with a major Khazar or other European origin"
[87] and another that "if the R-M17 chromosomes in Ashkenazi Jews do indeed represent the vestiges of the mysterious Khazars then, according to our data, this contribution was limited to either a single founder or a few closely related men, and does not exceed ~ 12% of the present-day Ashkenazim."
[86]
[edit] Other claims of descent
Others[
who?] have claimed Khazar origins for such groups as the
Mountain Jews and
Georgian Jews. There is little evidence to support these theories, although it is possible that some Khazar descendants found their way into these communities. Non-Jewish groups who claim at least partial descent from the Khazars include the
Kazakhs,
Kumyks and
Crimean Tatars ; as with the above-mentioned Jewish groups, these claims are subject to a great deal of controversy and debate.
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