40 Comments

Lots of falsehoods in this piece; I'll start with this one: "To put it bluntly: the speaking of Yiddish and the very existence of Yiddish-speaking Jews was “proof” that the Ashkenazi Jews were descended from the Turkic Khazars and not from the ancient Hebrews." This is a lie. The story of the mass conversion emerges many centuries later; there is literally not a single reference to it in in accounts by Christian, Muslim, and Jewish visitors who visited the area in the ninth and tenth centuries ('The Khuzari' by Judah Halevi tells of a Khazar king converting to Judaism, but there is no firsthand evidence of this). Nor is there any evidence of Turkic influence on the language and names of European Jews.

Expand full comment

What about the DNA link? Can you talk that away?

Expand full comment

He has cited one study conforming to his preconceptions - there are plenty of others. In any case it’s the paper trail that counts, not the blood line, unless one is a racist.

Expand full comment

The blood line absolutely counts. If you cannot prove your mother (or maternal grandmother) was Jewish, you are not Jewish according to the State of Israel.

Expand full comment

Take it up with the historians I cite in my article. They are published professionals. You are a shit-posting hasbarist.

Expand full comment

Then why did Israelis put taxes on Jews who spoke Yiddish in Israel? Why did they deliberately almost criminalize Yiddish?

Expand full comment

This is a load of delusional rubbish. Go back to Europe.

Expand full comment

I’m very happy where I am thank you, even more so for the fact it infuriates you so much.

Expand full comment

It doesn't infuriate me.

Expand full comment

"That newfound tolerance for Yiddish in Israel, however, was quashed in 2018, when the Israeli Knesset passed its “nation-state law”, which established Hebrew as Israel’s official language, and downgraded Arabic — a language widely spoken by Arab Israelis — to a “special status.” And yet today, in Jerusalem, I regularly hear Hasidim talking in Yiddish, and it bothers nobody.

Expand full comment

No one messes with the Haredi. Let me guess: no one asks them why they aren't serving in the IDF either, right?

Expand full comment

"(1) They had to change their own names from the European names they were born with to something that sounded legitimately Hebrew;" The "European" names they were born with were the result of a sort of internal colonialism whereby Jews were made to take on surnames that reflected their professions, in the process suppressing the more traditional Jewish method of naming.

Expand full comment

That is BS. Citation DEFINITELY needed. I don't think they were "made" to do anything. They simply adapted to the conventions of the societies in which they lived. And it had nothing to do with professions. "Weissman" means "White Man". "Goldberg" means "Gold `Mountain".

Jeez - just look up the origin and history of the name "Rosenberg".

Expand full comment

"(2) They needed to change the place names of the towns, villages and regions they wanted to settle from the Arabic names they had held for centuries, replacing them with Hebrew names." The Arabic names they had held for centuries were often named in a similar way; indeed in many (not all) cases the "new" Hebrew names predated the Arabic names by hundreds if not thousands of years.

Expand full comment

Alex, it doesn't matter. The Zionists did not have the right to steal those places, kill or expel their inhabitants, and rename them!!

You do not seem to grasp the utter criminality of Zionism. It relies on the Bible for its legitimacy, and yet all of its founders, inventors, and champions were ATHEISTS. It is a cynically cruel, cruelly cynical, and outrageously criminal enterprise, from top to bottom.

Expand full comment

"Like the Jaffa oranges, the Zionists were expropriating EVERYTHING from the Palestinians — even the names of their towns." The Arabic name for Jerusalem is Al-Quds; it originates with the Islamic conquest in the seventh century and stems from the Hebrew Beit HaMikdash. I'm happy to acknowledge cases of Zionist appropriation if you are happy to do the same for this and many other examples of Arab expropriation.

Expand full comment

"examples of Arab expropriation."

Please provide some.

Expand full comment

Hilariously, in the case of your image of supposedly expropriated names, in nine of the 13 examples the Hebrew predates the Arabic by hundreds or thousands of years. Ever heard of the pot that called kettle black?

Expand full comment

Cope.

Expand full comment

Thanks for this - well detailed.

Expand full comment

Everyone should read and learn a lot from this well-researched article.

Expand full comment

Alex Stein is clearly triggered.

I find it amusing that he says the names were European as a "result of a sort of internal colonialism"... colonialism being shitty as we all agree... nearly there Alex! Follow that thought!

Expand full comment

A wealth of information here. This is obviously a very sensitive subject for some Jews but can you say something about how widespread this sensitivity is? Are those opposed to the idea of Khazarian origin a minority - albeit a vocal minority- or are they more significant?

Expand full comment

It’s a sensitive subject because it’s a lie for which there’s no actual firsthand evidence.

Expand full comment

Every language is a made-up language, you ignorant drongo. France and Italy, for example, had monarchs simply choose their favourite one of two dozen local languages and made that the national language. That’s how you make a nation. That’s why you’re writing this drivel in English instead of Sioux, French, Catalan, or whatever.

Expand full comment

Every language is not forced upon people to create a fake bloody state buttwipe!

Expand full comment

The indigenous people of north and south America, Africa and Australia might have an opinion on that matter.

Expand full comment

Modified Hebrew is not indigenous lmao

Expand full comment

By “indigenous” do you mean whites?

Expand full comment

English was spoken in England. Spanish was spoken in Spain. French was spoken in France.

While Israel is a settler colonial project, it is not colonising on behalf of some greater "Hebrew Empire". Another invalid attempt at making a point.

You must be a Zionist, your attempts at Gish Gallop are both feeble and feeble-minded, but they are detectable.

Expand full comment

Every language evolves by the people that speak it. Look at what you yourself are saying: "monarchs simply choose their favourite one of two dozen local languages and made that the national language."

No one had spoken Hebrew in 2000 years. Hebrew was like Latin: it was used in liturgy, it was studied by scholars, it was used n religious contexts and ceremonies, but no one spoke it. Latin was, like Hebrew a "dead language."

I am old enough to remember Roman Catholic Mass when it was all done in Latin, and the altar boys had to ring bells to tell the congregation when to kneel, when to stand, when to sit, because no one understood what the priest was saying.

That was what Hebrew was.

Now imagine a bunch of Romanists decided to revive the Roman Empire and decreed that in this new State, everyone would have to speak Latin. They would have to literally invent a new version that people could actually use to communicate. Right? That is what is going on here.

I hope this helps.

Expand full comment

Latin was also the language of the Austro-Hungarian parliament, and the official.language of Hungary before that.

You're like a child who walks into a movie halfway through and has an opinion on what's going on.

Expand full comment

OK citation needed on that. My sources say that Latin has been a dead language since 500-600 AD. In any case, I would bet that while the parliament may have been using Latin for all its official communications and records (as did the Vatican until 2014), I bet the people were speaking Magyar.

Expand full comment

Made up and dreadful language.

Expand full comment

Israel was also built with Fascist roots. We wrote about that!

https://empiresdown.com/p/fascist-history-of-zionism-israel

Adding your article to saved articles on our Substack. Brilliant!

Expand full comment

I am seeing quite a few Zionists attacking this article for its reality! But EuroYankee is 100% accurate with his writing and research!

We republished an article by our friend Shlomo Sand, an Israeli journalist and scholar.

In this article, the roots of Ashkenazi Jews is clearly exposed.

Please do not mind me sharing this EuroYankee, but this is in support of your article.

https://open.substack.com/pub/empiresdown/p/israel-deliberately-forgets-its-history

Expand full comment

Horrifying

Expand full comment

YeS bUt ThAtS aNtIsEmEtIc

Expand full comment