DNA places Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle East

DNA places Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle East

Where do Ashkenazi Jews come from? The short answer, supported by genetic studies, points to the Middle East rather than the Black Sea steppes. The long answer is a battleground where demographics, theology, and propaganda collide. In Spain, this issue has its own chapter: the Chuetas of Mallorca, approximately 20,000 people, were recognized as Jews by the rabbinate. A detail that confuses those who believed this was about pure races.

Are Jews a religion or a people?

The core of the disagreement lies here. One side argues that Judaism is a faith anyone can convert to, and that modern Jews are the result of many conversions in Europe and North Africa. The other side responds that conversion matters little: if you don't have a Jewish mother, you remain goyim, and you've been sold an identity that isn't yours. Circumcision, they note with irony, is a one-way ticket.

Some go further, claiming the Jewish people is a modern invention. Three books by Shlomo Sand —The Invention of the Jewish People, How I Stopped Being a Jew, and The Invention of the Land of Israel— are cited as the arsenal for this thesis. In response, opponents argue that Judaism is an endogamous ethno-religious community, noting that endogamy is documented even among supposed secular geniuses: Freud married his cousin, and so did Einstein.

The Khazar hypothesis and why genetics doesn't support it

The most repeated argument in certain circles is that Ashkenazis descend from the Khazars, a Turkic people who converted to Judaism. If true, Zionism would be a fraudulent ideology, as Ashkenazi ancestors never set foot in Palestine. The problem is that genetics has discredited this hypothesis, according to the studies discussed. Ashkenazis descend from Palestinian Jews, with partial Central European and Slavic admixture, but retaining Semitic traits.

The debate on phenotype becomes somewhat grotesque. Actors' faces are compared, concluding there are handsome and ugly Jews, just as there are handsome and ugly Norwegians. Harrison Ford, half-Jewish through his mother, resembles his father; his brother, however, presents a more Ashkenazi phenotype. The implicit conclusion is that photographic cherry picking proves nothing.

From Valerio Lazarov to Roy Cohn: a catalog of names

The inventory of figures is endless. Valerio Lazarov Lessner, a Romanian Jew and first president of Tele-5, used TVE's blank check between 1968 and 1979 to choreograph all kinds of musical numbers. Lew Grade, born Louis Winogradsky, a British television magnate. Roy Cohn, lawyer and political mentor to Donald Trump, at a B'nai B'rith lodge dinner in 1983. The list works as an argument by accumulation: if so many names appear, something must be true.

The logical flaw is evident. That a group has prominent members says nothing about the whole group. The same list could be made for any collective, yielding equally suspicious results.

The Chuetas of Mallorca and the business of identity

The Spanish case is the most concrete. The Chuetas, around 20,000 in the Balearic Islands, descendants of converted Jews, have been fully and newly recognized as Jews by the rabbinate. For some, this proves Judaism is an open faith. For others, it proves the opposite: that belonging is decided by ethnic criteria and conversion serves little purpose.

On the practical side, it is recalled that being a third or fourth-category Jew has consequences. If you convert and obtain Israeli citizenship, you may end up assigned to the worst military service postings for two years. Conversion, they say, does not spare you from being cannon fodder.

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Ultimately, the question of whether Jews match their caricatures answers itself: no caricature withstands contact with 20,000 Mallorcan Chuetas, a Harrison Ford who takes after his father, or an Einstein married to his cousin. Reality is always duller than the stereotype. Thank goodness.