# The khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi Jewry **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 15, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860 "2026-10-15T17:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/61 "2026-10-16T16:36:14Z")
_Pour encourager les autres_ ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/62 "2026-10-16T16:38:53Z")
It worked for Elijah ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/63 "2026-10-16T16:41:19Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Sauron, the Christian version? Strictly speaking, Sauron is the Christian version of Sauron. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/64 "2026-10-16T16:45:55Z")
My first encounter with the whole “Khazar Jews” myth was Michael Chabon’s novel, _Gentlemen of the Road_, about a pair of Jewish mercenaries who end up working for the Khazar king. Been a long time since I read it, so I don’t recall the details of the plot, but I recall enjoying it as a light action novel. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/65 "2026-10-16T16:47:43Z")
If _nowhere_ is safe, fuck it, I’m moving to Tahiti. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/66 "2026-10-16T17:49:06Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Israel was never marketed as a “safe place”, for anyone, was it I think it was more that Israel was the place where we’d be able to fight back. And the place that wasn’t going to say “you can’t come in, you’re Jewish.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/67 "2026-10-16T19:01:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s not so much whether they did consist of Nazis, but whether they could in the future. If it could happen in the most enlightened countries in Europe, it could happen anywhere. I think Switzerland’s safe. (Though they did drag their heels on admitting Jewish refugees during World War II.) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/68 "2026-10-16T19:07:32Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > > > > I think almost all American liberal Jews believe, or at least used to believe, that it was wonderful that Israel existed as a safe place for Jewish refugees > > > > It’s important to note that Israelis don’t really think that way any more, either. We’re a country, not a project, and we exist for the same reasons any other country does. So we’ll help diaspora Jews if they’re in need - but while we’re here for you, we’re not here FOR you, if you catch my drift. > > Er, Israel was never marketed as a “safe place”, for anyone, was it? That’s a bit ludicrous. I know that, up to a certain point, it featured communities such as kibbutzim appealing to idealists. Yes, yes it has been “marketed” as a safe haven for Jews. Mainly, in my experience, by other Jews but with a side order of evangelicals (who I think mainly wanted the Jews around but living _somewhere else_ so they didn’t have to actually be neighbors with them). I question if a nation where the bus-stops feature bomb shelters is a “safe haven”. Yes, I realize that it is NOT raining missiles every day there, but apparently it’s like us in Tornado Alley worrying about twisters - it is something the populace needs to cope with more often than folks would like. I also realize that a nation that is tolerant of Jews can in less than a human lifetime become hostile to them in a very murderous way (see early 20th Century Germany). I’ve given up arguing this point in real life with people. The world is not, and never has been, a safe place for everyone, everywhere you go there is some sort of hazard, and it’s up to adults to make choices to the extent they are free to do so. > [@Alessan](#): > > In the context of mid-20th Century Europe? For Jews, Israel was the one place where you could be sure that the government wouldn’t start shoving you into boxcars. On the other hand, although North America has not always been the ideal place to be and there certainly was anti-Jewish bias during the 20th Century no one on this side of the planet was shoving Jews into boxcars or forcing them to relocate (no, the US did that to the _Japanese_, but that’s another thread…) As someone whose family lived through that century in the US we were pretty sure our government wasn’t going to be slaughtering us. So no, it wasn’t universal for Jews everywhere that Israel was the “one place”. That said - it was certainly easier for European Jews to get to the Levant than to cross the Atlantic up through the 1940’s and into the early 50’s. Which is probably why so many wound up there. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/69 "2026-10-16T19:24:43Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > On the other hand, although North America has not always been the ideal place to be and there certainly was anti-Jewish bias during the 20th Century no one on this side of the planet was shoving Jews into boxcars or forcing them to relocate (no, the US did that to the _Japanese_, but that’s another thread…) As someone whose family lived through that century in the US we were pretty sure our government wasn’t going to be slaughtering us. So no, it wasn’t universal for Jews everywhere that Israel was the “one place”. I think you’re overstating the difference between the U.S. and Europe, at least to outsiders. To people who have just had immeasurable suffering imposed on them by white Christians, saying “But THIS white Christian country is safe!” is not that reassuring. Besides, while being shot at you on a regular basis is hardly fun, it’s better than the utter _helplessness_ of Jews in the face of institutional antisemitism. There, the best we could do was try to run. Here we can fight back. Here, we are in control of our own destiny. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/70 "2026-10-16T19:35:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Here, we are in control of our own destiny. I see what you are saying, but, on the other hand, here we are in the 21st century and Israel, too, is controlled by a dangerous right-wing government, even though Israel is a democratic country. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/71 "2026-10-16T19:38:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I think you’re overstating the difference between the U.S. and Europe, at least to outsiders. To people who have just had immeasurable suffering imposed on them by white Christians, saying “But THIS white Christian country is safe!” is not that reassuring. Yes, but to us _insiders,_ Jews whose families had fled the pogroms of the late 19th Century to the US, the US looked safer than Israel did to us. Among other things, some people thought living physically further away from Europe would be safe and definitely the US is further away than the Levant. Now, how a _completely_ objective person would balance those two alternatives…? I don’t know. I can only speak for how it looks to me, and to a lesser extent what I remember from my grandparents who had been refugees seeking a safe haven. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/72 "2026-10-16T20:51:49Z")
I get it - my great-grandparents were part of the exact same migration from Eastern Europe to the United States at the turn of the 20th Century, and I don’t blame them at all. At the time, it was by far the most sensible choice. It was only my parents, in a burst of late-1960s’ idealism, who decided to immigrate three quarters of a century later. But if my family had stuck around Europe instead, and had somehow survived, what choice would they have made? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860/73 "2026-10-16T21:09:07Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > But if my family had stuck around Europe instead, and had somehow survived, By no means guaranteed, of course. My family has no Holocaust survivors; only Holocaust victims, and people who were very far away from Europe by the time the Holocaust happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-khazar-hypothesis-of-ashkenazi-jewry/1033860.md?page=3)