David posted this question:
Safranim: Wondering if any of you can help me. One of our researchers is interested in articles relating to Albert Harkavy and his theory that Eastern European Jews originated in Babylonia. The researcher can only read English. The only thing that we have found is a few sentences in EJ. "Harkavy claimed that the Jewish community in Russia was formed by Jews who migrated from the region of the Black Sea and Caucasia, where their ancestors had settled after the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles. These people, who preserved an ancient Jewish heritage, which they spread among the *Khazars <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=uclosangeles&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&contentSet=GALE&docId=GALE%7CCX2587511089> , expanded through the Khazar kingdom westward to Czechoslovakia." My colleague, Dr. Stephen Rayburn, has studied this issue extensively and sent me this analysis. The Khazars were a Turkic people of whom a number, mostly the ruling class, converted to a form of Judaism in the eighth to the ninth century. But the Khazars were not the ancestors of the Jews of Russia; nor were populations of Jewish migrants from Mesopotamia. There were indeed significant communities of Jews living in the Crimean Peninsula going back to Roman times, but with the persecutions of the Byzantine Empire, additional Jews migrated eastward from Byzantium to the Khazar territories. The original Jews of eastern Europe and the Crimea seem to have followed the Roman conquerors as the Roman legions occupied Europe, making the origins of these communities in southern Europe rather than Mesopotamia. Some of Harkavy's ideas may stem from rumors that were known to Jerome (fourth century CE); according to Jerome's writings, "the Assyrians and Chaldeans had conducted the Jewish people into exile ... in the Bosporus and the extreme North." There is, of course, no historical support for Jerome's claim as it is based on rumors that circulated widely at the time; Jews were not exiled to northwestern Turkey or southern Ukraine in 722 BCE or 598/587 BCE. The Jews were exiled in those conquests from a fairly short distance to northern Syria (Antioch) to the farthest, locations in modern Iran (Hyrcania, south shore of the Caspian Sea). During the eighth to tenth centuries CE there were numerous Jewish communities located throughout eastern Europe; most of these had grown out of commercial activities centered along the Danube River. Chasdai ibn Shaprut's (Andalusian vizier to Cordoban caliph Abd al-Rahman III) famous letter to King Joseph of Khazaria of the mid-tenth century traveled from Spain to Kazaria via the Jewish communities in Croatia, then Hungary, then Russia, then to Bulgaria, and finally the Khazars. (References are Baron, SW, "A Social and Religious History of the Jews" vol. 3, Columbia Univ Press, 1957, pp. 196ff, n. 323-4, see also p. 110. There are additional references in vols. 4, 5, and 8 of Baron's work. Also see Kriwaczek, P, "Yiddish Civilisation," Knopff, 2005, pp. 49ff.) Most of the Jews in Khazaria appear to have been descendants of refugees of Byzantium and of those Jews who had lived in the region since Roman times. Others also migrated into the east from the west, very slowly during the early middle ages but increases occurred after the Crusades and the later persecutions in Germany. Certainly Jews from the Middle East migrated to Russia especially as a result of the Islamic persecutions that occurred periodically between the eighth and twelfth centuries, but these numbers were tiny mainly because of the difficulty of traveling from the Middle East to Russia. Almost all historians attribute the conversion of the Khazars to the influence of the numerous Byzantine Jews who were living in the Crimea and whose customs were attractive to the Khazars and also to their contacts with the successful and influential Jewish traders in Bulgaria-Romania-Moldova, a region in the Khazar political sphere, and not the the fairly primitive Jews of the Caucasus. When the Kievan Rus defeated the Khazars in the late tenth century, many Jews fled westward and the Jewish population of Ukraine dropped precipitously; Jews did not return to this region in any significant numbers until after the Crusader period. Another source of information about the Jews of Russia from the medieval period comes from the writings of Petachiah ben Ya’akov, also known as Petachiah of Ratisbon (Regensburg), who travelled through Russia and Crimea in the mid to late twelfth century. A surviving edition of his travelogue, preserved by Judah the Pious, exists, called Sibuv haOlam (A World Trip); from this work it's clear that no significant Jewish community existed in the region although he did describe a small Karaite community in Crimea. Finally, the Jews of Czechoslovakia (Bohemia/Moravia) definitely came from the Rhineland and from the Balkans. Ultimately those Jewish populations could trace their roots to northern Italy (Rhineland) and southern Italy, Spain, and Greece (Balkans). I posted an article with a full bibliography on the origins of the Ashkenazim at this site: http://kehillatisrael.net/docs/learning/ashkenazim.html. Parts of the article refer to the Jews of Russia. Steve If you have further questions for Steve, write to me at <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected], and I will relay them to Steve. He will reply directly to you. ___________________________________________ Dr. Don Weinshank Professor Emeritus Comp. Sci. & Eng. 1520 Sherwood Ave., East Lansing MI 48823-1885 Ph. 517.337.1545 FAX 517.337.1665 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://www.cse.msu.edu/%7Eweinshan> http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weinshan Anybody who is not paranoid about PHISHing is crazy.
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