The Myth of the Khazar Conversion and the Origin of the Ashkenazi Jews

Lecture Admission: Free Listen to the audio

For about 150 years, there has been a great deal of fascination, in certain limited circles, in the story of the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism and the possible link between them and Ashkenazi Jews. Some very fine scholars put great effort into the study of the events and some rather creative writers engaged in some wishful thinking. In parallel, a narrative developed that presented the Jews of Poland as being the descendants of refugees from persecution in the German lands. Thus a study of both stories involves analysis of what happened (and didn't happen) in the tenth century as well as the ways these stories could be harnessed to ideological agendas. In this lecture, Dr. Shaul Stampfer will try to explain why in all probability no Khazars converted to Judaism (even though the story is a great story) and that the Jews of Eastern Europe were largely descended from a small group of migrants from the Czech lands (and southeastern Germanic lands) who came for very prosaic reasons – to make a living. 

About the Speaker

Shaul Stampfer is Rabbi Edward Sandrow Professor of Soviet and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (emeritus).