1. Where do Ashkenazi Jews Come From?

Lecture delivered on January 27, 2025.

Online Courses:

Biblical Jewish History: From Abraham to Bar Kochba

A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz!

The Holocaust

[hroman]

Dr. Abramson, I truly appreciate being able to view your lectures. It is a treasure trove of information.

[kurtf.]

I love your lectures Dr. Abramson! I’ve been listening to them for the last four years. You also remind me of a really cool, really intelligent uncle! Shalom

[erldagerl]

Dr. Abramson, please remember your in-person students are not miked. Could you kindly repeat their questions and responses?

[jeffreysilverman]

Absolutely fascinating Dr. Abramson!! Coincidentally I watched a recording on youtube of an Israeli expert speak on the subject of the Khazars and the 2 similar origin myths about the 2 kings (the Khazar King and Volodomir in Ukraine). Its all curious and intriguing but for me, the most interesting parts of this class is earlier, speaking about 40% of Ashkenazi Jews today are descended from the same 4 Italian women (non Jews), and that 45% of Ashkenazi Jews share genetic characteristics of Italian people northern and southern. And the red hair of one of the people buried under the bridge in Italy. As a child my hair was red. I never knew red hair was an Ashkenazi characteristic. Compelling class Sir. Thank you very much!!

[Orchids]

Thank you sir for educating us. Many people nowadays are ignorant about this information.

[ColleenJousma]

Thank you for sharing this publicly. I have started doing some European Jewish genealogy and this is wonderful to see the path where so many travelled through Europe. I am learning so much. Thank you.

[Tsukonin]

Red hair is part of Levantine variation (present in Samaritans, Druzes, Christians and even the general Arab muslim population), it's just that some traits can become very common in small isolated population, especially after bottlenecks. That's how Ashkenazis are often more red-headed than their Northern European neighboors despite being largely of MENA and Southern European ancestry.

[lauramarielenius]

Just found out I have Ashkenazi ancestors. My grandmother's family name was Meisner and they left Germany in 1752 for Canada (Nova Scotia, Halifax) My grandmother's surname was Goddard.
My surname is Peters.

[captainwonton]

Minor quibble: the "four" European women whose mtDNA comprised an unbroken mother-to-daughter lineage among at least Ashkenazi Levites if not others were not necessarily the sole female ancestors to the population. Male lines may have inherited other maternal DNA, but those minor lineages do not show up unless passed on directly and consistently to a daughter.

[JoshMarks]

Ashkenazi Jews descend from Middle Eastern Jews from Israel in Byzantine Southern Italy who migrated to Northern Italy and then across the Alps to Rhineland Germany in the Middle Ages. There were also smaller existing Knaanic Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe who merged with the Western Ashkenazi Jews migrating eastward from France and Germany. The core ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews is Levantine Middle Eastern and Southern European, which is similar to Sephardic, Italian and Romaniote (Greek) Jews. Ashkenazi Jews are an East Mediterranean population with Israelite roots who mixed with European populations over an extended period.

[Sb-ydfn]

Very interesting lecture Dr. Abramson! Couple of points:

In current Ashkenazi Jews the Middle Eastern/Levant ancestry seems to be a bit higher than just 15 - 45%. There are many tools online nowadays to calculate this after doing a test at for instance 23orMe of AncestryDNA, to further unravel the results and usually Ashkenazi Jews score between 25 - 55% Middle Eastern/Levant. When comparing Ashkenazi Jews of contemporary times to the results of the Jews of Erfurt of Jews it also seems there was little bit more genetic variation at that time. This is especially clear in the study of the Erfurt Jews where there were roughly two groups: one more European in origin and one more Middle Eastern in origin.

Secondly, in the lecture it is also mentioned that Ashkenazi Jews look more like Italians than Palestinians, Syrians or Iraqi’s. Yes, however its important to take into consideration that the ethnicities in the Middle East/Levant have also been influenced by the Islamization and Arabization of this area after the muslim conquests of this region in the 8th century. It’s likely that before that, people looked more European, this can be seen when looking for instance at Samaritans or Lebanese Christians.

Lastly, about the Khazars: I recently read ‘History of the Jews in Russia and Poland’ by Simon Dubnow, which was published in 1916. To my surprise he dedicated a complete subchapter to the Khazars and writes the following: especially the elite and nobels of the Khazarian society converted to Judaism, whereas the rest of the population was quite diverse, there were Jews, Christians and Muslims. The influence of Judaism in the Khazarian society also attracted Jews from other places, especially from Byzantium.

Over time the Khazaria got smaller and smaller as they lost territory to the Russians and Byzantines and the remaining Khazarian Jews most likely settled in Crimea. In the 12th century this area was visited by Petachiah of Regensburg and he noticed the particularities in the customs of the remaining Jews there, who had not even heard of the Talmud. It’s therefore evident that these were Karaites. This makes a lot of sense as it is well-known that Crimean Karaites were/are also Turkic-speaking, more specially speaking Kypchak, a Western-Turkic language.

I'm curious for your opinion about this theory and thanks again for the wonderful class! :-)

[AudriusGirdenis-ot]

Tai labai įdomu ir naudinga. Mes privalome žinoti istoriją. Daktaras Abramsonas labai puikiai pristato. Mano pagarba!❤️🇮🇱❤️☺️

[JohnBooker]

Where as the historical information of your talk is educational your comedy inserts are the cause of many belly laughs.
Thank you so much for both, be well.

[Robespierre-II]

Great to see you back to your normal subject matter and still doing public outreach, Dr. Abramson. I've felt a bit morally crushed by the scenes out of Gaza with the political theatrics of hostage release which the other side has been putting on. So, I decided to look you up on here again and see what you've been talking about.

It is strange. I'm not Jewish, but somehow this entire nightmare has felt like a punch in the gut. Perhaps it is the moral betrayal of progressives - or perhaps it is just the televised pogrom followed by an endless spectacle of apologism for human depravity. Perhaps it is all this plus the freefalling failure of American democracy lately.

In any event, thank you for giving me some interesting history to chew on. I knew the outlines of this history, but not the details. It is just far enough outside from my own research/teaching areas that it is somehow fortifying and refreshing.

I send my warmest greetings to you and yours in Brooklyn. Again, if I ever bump into you somewhere in academia (or on the street), I hope you will let me get you a cup of coffee as a thank you.

[vm]

Hello Mr.Abramson.
I come from the city of Derbent which is located on the Caspian see shore.
It was the major Caucasus Jewish center before collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Having Persian roots and speaking Juhuri language (Persian Jewish) our ancestors apparently caused Khazar Kingdoms elite to convert to Judaism.
It's well known about Rahdanites - merchants traded on the Silk Road which were Persian Jews while Derbent was a homeland for the most of them.
Best regards,
V. Menahemov

[veronicalevin]

Hello didn’t king David have red hair?

[karenballard]

This was a fascinating lecture! Thank you! I happened to have learned a bit about the Khazars from another source:

Dr. Kenneth Harl of Tulane University did a compelling series of lectures for the Great Courses titled "The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes". Lecture 17 is entitled "Khazar Kagans". In his lecture, Harl discusses the history of the Khazars, who were Gok Turks, part of a confederation of the western nomadic tribes of the steppes. Around 670, the Khazars rose to power within their confederation and dominated the region "from the Aral Sea down to the borders of Persia". They continued to support the trade along the northern Silk Road. The Khazar court did convert to Judaism, probably not the entire tribe. This happened sometime in the early 800's. Harl states the Khazar downfall was not keeping their associated tribes in check. One of these tribes was the Magyar, who ended up in Hungary. The other main adversary was the Pechenegs of the southern Russian steppes, who aligned with the Rus, and together they destroyed the Khazar capital about 965. He states that the remaining Khazars were "probably absorbed by later Turkish confederations".

[menachemsalomon]

Minor correction, if I may: The verse that associates _Tzarfas_ and _Sefarad_ with France and Spain -- or rather, the verse that uses those terms and the commentaries associate them with those regions -- is in Ovadiah, not in Chavakuk. For what it's worth, that verse also references Canaan, which ibn Ezra associates with _Allemania_, or perhaps as the French write it, Allemagne, i.e. Germany.

Otherwise, thank you, and _yashar kochachem._

[jimmierogers]

I thought the Askenazi were Italki who migrated north out of teaching, very interesting, I just wish the video quality was better, its a little blurry.

[somasabul]

Historiography is basically philosophy of history but preferable terminology so as not to be confused with Hegel's book; Philosophy of History. R. G. Collingwood describes history as an activity of the present that attempts to recreate events of the past. This is way different than the 'rise and fall, ' circular or spiral ideas mashed on to past events, and deterministic philosophy. Though the last is very useful for Easter Island :) ....what was his name? The Collapse of Civilizations, Jared something. Re-enactment seems similar to your ideas of constructing the story around the source documentations. Another useful concept is retrodictive approaches.