Myth of the Khazar Ancestry of the Jews

Many of those interested in studying the conspiracy have become convinced that the only way to explain the depth of its deceptiveness is to conclude that its purported perpetrators are not who they claim they are. In other words, that those who call themselves European Jews are actually descendants of the Khazars, a Turkic people of southern Russia who converted to Judaism in the eighth century AD.

The truth is the Illuminati conspiracy begins with the emergence of the Kabbalah, developed by heretical Jews in Babylon in the sixth century BC, more than a thousand years before the advent of the Khazars. It then came to form the basis of the Western occult tradition by first being inherited by the Greeks, such as Pythagoras and Plato, before spreading to the Roman world and then being adopted by esoteric Muslims before being introduced to Europe during the Crusades.

On the contrary, as the historian Cecil Roth noted, culturally the Jews could be termed the first Europeans.[1] Judaism in Europe has a long history, beginning with the conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean by Pompey in 63 BCE, thus beginning the History of the Jews in Europe. In the early Roman empire, there was a Jewish colony in Rome, and distinctive Jewish communities were found as far north as Lyons, Bonn and Cologne, and as far west as Cadiz and Toledo. When Jerusalem was sacked in 70 AD, prompting a massive exodus of Jews from Palestine, certain cities in southern France, like Arle, Lunel, and Narbonne, provided a haven for Jewish refugees where they eventually came to dominate European trade during the MIddle Ages.

Fortunately, modern genetic studies are allowing us to explode many of the false assumptions that had been made about the origins of various peoples, which had often been distorted by nationalistic sympathies. That includes the discovery that important personages in history were of Jewish ancestry, like Napoleon and Hitler, and also that the Jews of Europe originated in the Middle East.

According to Jon Entine, historians and scientists believe the Khazarian theory should more accurately be called a myth.[2] The strong claim has been widely criticized as there is no direct evidence to support it.[3] Ultimately, Ashkenazi Jews have been found to have a strong DNA connection to Israelites and the Middle East,[4] sharing many common genes with other Jews from approximately 3000 years ago,[5] which “does not support this [Khazar conversion] idea.”[6]

Abraham Eliyahu Harkavi had suggested as early as 1869 that there might be a link between the Khazars and European Jews. The theory, however, that Khazar converts formed a major proportion of Ashkenazi Jews was first proposed to a Western public by Ernest Renan in 1883.

The idea was taken up by a number of Jewish historians, including Sigmund Freud, and authors like H. G. Wells (1921). But the Khazar-Ashkenazi hypothesis came to the attention of a much wider public with the publication of The Thirteenth Tribe, by agent of the CIA Arthur Koestler in 1976. But Koestler's work was mainly a hsitory of the Khazars, and merely provides a suggestion that European Jews may be descended from them, without providing any proof.

The last 15 years has seen a large number of genetic studies on Jewish populations worldwide, which conclude: “The consensus research holds that most Ashkenazi Jews, as well as many Jews tracing their lineage to Italy, North Africa, Iraq, Iran, Kurdish regions and Yemen, share common paternal haplotypes also found among many Arabs from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.”[7]

Nadine Epstein, an editor and executive publisher of Moment magazine said “When I read Arthur Koestler’s The Thirteenth Tribe, I bought his theory that Ashkenazim were descended from the Khazars… But in 1997, Karl Skorecki in Haifa, Michael Hammer in Tucson and several London researchers surprised everyone by finding evidence of the Jewish priestly line of males, the Kohanim. Half of Ashkenazic men and slightly more than half of Sephardic men who claimed to be Kohanim were found to have a distinctive set of genetic markers on their Y chromosome, making it highly possible that they are descendants of a single male or group of related males who lived between 1180 and 650 B.C.E., about the time of Moses and Aaron.[8]

In 2000, the analysis of a report by Nicholas Wade, titled Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of the Jewish Diaspora, “provided genetic witness that these [Jewish] communities have, to a remarkable extent, retained their biological identity separate from their host populations, evidence of relatively little intermarriage or conversion into Judaism over the centuries… 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.” [9]

A 2001 study found that Jews were closer to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent, such as Kurds, Assyrians, Turks, and Armenians, than to their Arab neighbors, whose “chromosomes might have been introduced through migrations from the Arabian Peninsula during the last two millennia.”[10]

In 2010, Atzmon et al. presented research refuting the possibility of large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry. Ashkenazi Jews, part of European/Syrian Jewish populations, shared a proximity to each other and to French, Northern Italian, and Sardinian populations which was found to be incompatible with any theory maintaining that the Askhenazi were direct lineal descendants of Khazars or Slavs. They did allow that some Slavic or Khazarian admixture might have taken place during the second millennium, and noted that the 7.5% prevalence of the R1a1 haplogroup., common among Ukrainians, Russians and Sorbs, as well as among Central Asian populations, among Ashkenazi Jews has led to interpretations for a possible Slavic or Khazar admixture, although this admixture may have resulted only from mixing with Ukrainians, Poles, or Russians, rather than with the Khazars.[11]

Using four Jewish groups, one being Ashkenazi, a Kopelman et al study found no direct evidence to the Khazar theory[12] while another study concluded that its findings “debunk one of the most questionable, but still tenacious, hypotheses: that most Ashkenazi Jews can trace their roots to the mysterious Khazar Kingdom that flourished during the ninth century in the region between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire.”[13]

Some scientists believe that even if the theory were to be true, “only a small minority of the Khazars may have adopted Judaism.”[14] and that “the questions of whether there was a Khazar contribution to the Ashkenazi Jews’ lineage, or exactly what percentage of mitochondrial variants emanate from Europe, cannot be answered with certainty using present genetic and geographical data.”[15]

In 2013, the results of the largest genetic study on Jews released by the Wayne State University found that Ashkenazi, North African, and Sephardi Jews shared substantial genetic ancestry, that they derive from Middle Eastern and European populations and found no detectable Khazar genetic origins.[16] Another 2013 study of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA, found no significant evidence of Khazar contribution to the Ashkenazi Jewish DNA, as would be predicted by the Khazar hypothesis.[17]


Source: Wikipedia, "Khazar theory of Ashkenazi ancestry", (accessed April 12, 2013)

[1] Johnson. A History of the Jews, p. 171

[4] Middle East origins: Jared Diamond (1993). "Who are the Jews?". Retrieved November 8, 2010. Natural History 102:11 (November 1993): 12-19; "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes". Retrieved 11 October 2012; Shriver, Tony N. Frudakis ; with a chapter 1 introduction by Mark D. (2008). Molecular photofitting : predicting ancestry and phenotype using DNA. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press. ISBN 9780120884926. sharing many common genes with other Jews from 3,000 years ago.

[5] Wade, Nicholas (June 9, 2010). "Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity". New York Times. Retrieved 8 November 2013; "Who Are the Jews? Genetic Studies Spark Identity Debate". Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Retrieved 9 November 2013.

[6] "Jews worldwide share genetic ties". Nature (journal). 3 June 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2013.

[8] "Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries". Retrieved 9 November 2013.

[9] "Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries". Retrieved 9 November 2013.


[11] G.Atzmon, L.Hao, I.Pe'er, C.Velez, A.Pearlman, P.F.Palamara, B.Morrow, E.Friedman, C.Oddoux, E.Burns and H.Ostrer. Abraham's Children in the Genome Era: Major Jewish Diaspora Populations Comprise Distinct Genetic Clusters with Shared Midde Eastern Ancestry. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 03 June 2010.

[13] "New Study Finds Most Ashkenazi Jews Genetically Linked to Europe". 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-31.

[15] "Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries". Retrieved 9 November 2013.




It is known that Koestler gave anti-communist speeches at events sponsored by the CIA. But to call someone an 'agent' is something else. What kind of sources did you come across in establishing him as such? An agent in the sense that he would fabricate and postulate things in his research or what?

Also, what it seems you are proposing here is that the CIA indirectly communicated to him that it would behoove him to make a distinction between converted Jews and the Jewish race so that anti-Jewish rhetoric would also make that distinction, thus vindicating the Semitic. Could you expand a little more on how this would serve any interests in particular?

For more on Koestler, I recommend Frances Stonor Sauders' Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War.

All from my latest book, Black Terror White Soldiers:

Koestler was associated with the Frankfurt School as well as the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF).

The CCF was simultaneously the major overseas partner of the International Research Department (IRD), a section of Britain’s Foreign Office, designed to provide “a rival ideology to communism” by appealing to Christian ideals. The focus of the IRD was, now that the war was over, to discredit Stalin. The IRD would provide “facts” to be regurgitated by the British intelligentsia. This meant, according to Watson, that although the IRD was allowed to attack both “the principles and practice of communism, and also the inefficiency, social injustice and moral weakness of unrestrained capitalism,” it was in no way to “attack or appear to be attacking any member of the Commonwealth or the United States."

Working for the IRD was Lord Bertrand Russell, one of five honorary chairmen of the CCF, who admitted being happy to “receive little tidbits from time to time.”

Koestler was one of the IRD's most important early advisors and his Darkness At Noon, which criticized the Soviets and established his reputation as an anti-Communist, was circulated under its auspices. The CIA arranged for the printing 50,000 copies of the book through Time magazine, headed by Skull and Bones member Henry Luce.

In 1948, aboard ship crossing to America on his way to a lecture tour, Koestler met with John Foster and Allen Dulles and discussed how best to counter the Soviet propaganda. Once in America, Koestler then met with Bill Donovan, one of the chief architects of the CIA, to discuss the same. Koestler established a working relationship with the CIA, and together they targeted what the State Department called the "Non-Communist Left.” In Europe they would target the Democratic Socialist movement, while in the US their focus of attack included many of the supporters of President Roosevelt's New Deal.


What about the story that the creator of the universe appeared and spoke to a tribe no one had ever heard of and promised them the world? Is that not the Myth of Myths? How can you dispel myths while your worldview ultimately depends on this ahistorical myth?

The Khazar ancestry of the Jews may be a myth, but Jewish history itself is based on myths, i.e. architect of the universe appeared to them, spoke to them, gave them laws, and promised them the world. That is a myth my friend, one to which you subscribe.

Well there goes several years of work to the bin. No probs, the facts must take precedence. So in the end who are the Zionists running the show in Israel then; the Rothschild's, Rockefeller',s etc in the rest of the world? Gog and Magog? Cause they seem to come from nowhere.

I don't think DNA tests are required. You only need to watch the news and examine, say, Netanyahu's physionomy and compare it with, say, Mahmood Abbas. Supposedly, these two individuals should be racial cousin. But the physical differences between them is astounding. Netanyahu appears to be white whereas Abbas appears to be well, arab. You can also examine the other high ranking jews such as peres, livni etc... The physical difference between the white israeli jews and palestinians is, to say the least, intriguing.

The topic of what or who is a Jew is the largest snake pit of misinformation I have ever run into. A good source is by Shlomo Sand "The Invention of the Jewish People" which required great courage on his part being a "Jew" himself. Koestler also had great courage to write "The 13th Tribe", he and his wife likely murdered by the "Jewish mafia" for it. Perhaps Koestler had misgivings for his dark politics? Much of the research sited here tying the Ashkenazi with Middle East DNA is political "science" and is covered by Mr Sand. The Israeli press has spent much money on so called scientific research on this subject to prove a connection between the Ashkenazi and the Middle East. They have had to retract many of their findings. I like David Livingston's work but he might have missed on this one. //// There are three main seed lines in humans. 1. All of those lines before the Adam/Eve project 2. the line of Cain (Cohen, Khan, Kenite, coon, etc) They run the show, and were described two thousand years ago as "the seed of the serpent" because of who Cain's father was. 3. The line of Seth which was described as "the seed of woman" his parents being both Adam and Eve. The best info on this is on Chaldean/Sumerian tablets in a museum in Berlin. Zacharia Sitchin has made a good effort to untangle these tablets in his "the 12th planet" and all the books of "the Earth Chronicles". You will have to loosen your cerebral screws to get into this info. John Stewart ps It is interesting to note that most of the Earths royal families seem to have a fair bit of this Cohen DNA, like the Stuarts (my line) going back to Southern Italy "original" Cohen.

David, you have previously provided the lineage of the Edomite Herod descendant od Esau yet you state .. "Ultimately, Ashkenazi Jews have been found to have a strong DNA connection to Israelites and the Middle East" .. Do DNA studies distinguish between the twin brothers Esau and Jacob?

The scriptures make that distinction very clear .. the promise was given only to descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel .. The descendants of Esau were disinherited.

you are without a doubt either a jew shill or a jew trying to change the story that has been verified by jews themselves.  the reason for the change in story is evident -- if the truth gets out that the 'jew' isn't who they make the world think they are they lose total control of the world and their 'race' is finished.

from the 'Jewish almanac of 1980"  and per many jews including rabbis ---


the jews know they are not Hebrew and never have been, but the descendents of Esau who are still trying to get their birthright back.

So, please, stop trying to change the story that is known throughout Europe and Asia as a fact but only in jew controlled amerika is the jew considered the 'Hebrew' of the Old Testament,  which is due to 'mind control' through TV and other media.  Just like it is widely known and accepted in Russia and Europe that Hitler was a jew and few in jew amerika are beginning to awaken to the truth.  Nazism, communism, facism,etc is all jewish.

And before you begin to shill your way out of the truth with a response which will prove you haven't done your research or you are a shill, and likely both, i have traveled extensively throughout most of the 'old world'.  Also, anyone with any real 'knowledge' knows if you want facts you never go to 'wiki' anything for it is a jew controlled 'open source' media which proclaims whatever the zionist jews want on whatever day.

unfortunately, most articles of this nature are done by jews, pretending to be shills for jews, pretending to be of the white race, etc.  It is all because your jew holy book the 'talmud' tells you it is ok to lie to get what you want, even if you have to lie to another jew it is ok.  don't argue, because it does -- I've read it.

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