Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.334 April 27, 1994 1) Origins of eastern European Jews (Jules Levin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 24 20:53:49 1994 From: JFLEVIN@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU Subject: Origins of eastern European Jews What the discussion on the origins of EE Jewry overlooks is the extreme improbability that as dramatic an event as the disappearance of the original Jews and their replacement by Slavic (or whatever) converts could have been overlooked in the written culture of either the Christian or Jewish cultures. (Or the Muslim, for that matter.) We have enormous quantities of written diaries, histories, treatises, etc., by travellers, clerics, soldiers, not to mention a vast responsa literature. Over much of the past 1500 years, Christendom, both Eastern and Western, were obsessed with the Jews, their theological significance, their faults, their fate, etc. No doubt was ever raised that the Jews in their midst, whether in England, Kiev, or points between, were the very Jews responsible for the Crucifixion. I was happy to see that the last item re the exotic origins of Ashkenazic Jewry settled the matter [hopefully] by citing genetic evidence supporting the ethnic unity of kol yisroel. This was the argument I made to Ellen Prince, when I e-mailed her directly some time ago on this question (I was new to e-mail and actually intended that to be a general reply). However, I believe there are still some important points to bring out that I never saw in MENDELE. a. The theory of the exotic origins of European Jewry is already a weapon in the rhetorical armory of anti-semites and anti-zionists. Theirs is a specific agenda--to de-legitimize the existence of the Jewish people. I quote from a letter published in the UCLA Daily Bruin of 3/14: ...A majority of the modern Jewish population constitute Oshkanazi [sic] Jews who are European converts to Judaism. People of Jewish religious persuasion have diverse ethnicities such as Polish, Persian, Ethiopian, and Argentinian. If an individual decided to convert to Judaism, it would not, or should not, entitle him to real estate in Israel... Zionism is... based on fabricated religious grounds and has no place in the democratic arena. If you sincerely want to know what Zionism is, then read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."..." [signed]--Aria Razvar [a senior majoring in linguistics and philosophy]. b. The original question was founded on utterly false premises. One was that the territory east of Germany was Judenrein before the eastern expansion of Rhineland Jews. There is NO reason to believe that. The Eastern Holy Roman Empire had a large ORIGINAL Jewish population which did not disappear. There were Jewish communities in the originally Greek cities along the coast of the Black sea and everywhere in the Balkans. There are plenty of references to Jews over all that time into modern times. Where did Peter the Great's Jewish advisor come from? Over time this pre-existing population would have intermarried and merged linguistically with the new immigrants from the west. c. Another fallacy: Why assume that the Jews of Palestine at the turn of the era where phenotypically homogeneous?, i.e., all black-eyed, black hair, short and swarthy? The Jews then (already at least HALF lived in the diaspora, by the way!) included the descendants of converts, i.e., the Edomites, both groups and individuals, and even in the exodus we had the 'mixed multitude'. The notion of original homogeneity leads to the next fallacy I saw in Mendele, that features like paler skin and hair must constitute proof of exogenous origin. I read somewhere that only ten generations of natural selection can change a population in significant ways, and before modern times there would have been natural selection on Jews living in harsh northern climates, as there was on the non-Jewish population. Jews also, accepting local standards of beauty, may over centuries have selected for paler skin and lighter hair and eyes, as they reputedly selected for intellectuality in males by providing the means for Talmud scholars to have lots of children. d. The next fallacy is that something like the mass conversion of a Slavic or other population could have gone unrecorded. There are actually cases of group conversion, like the Czech Hussites who became Jews when it was safer to be a Jew than a Protestant after the Catholic reaction, and who apparently originally were planning to remain hidden Christians!! Alth ough their descendants are now actual Jews, they have NOT forgotten this origin, which is my point. Similarly, the Turkic-origin converts to Karait Judaism brought back to Lithuania many centuries ago remained a separate community with their own identity down to the present, although they lived side-by-side with Jews, and at the beginning of the 19th century shared a community hospitol and chevra kadisha with misnagdim and hassidim in Vilna. Thus the idea that significant conversion could have taken place and been FORGOTTEN, much less unrecorded, by the Jews themselves, displays lack of reflection on this premise. Along these lines, that the original authentic Jewish population could have disappeared and been replaced by the descendents of converts, in Europe filled with Christian observers, diaryists, historians, theologians, priests, and similar, many of them obsessed with the Jews and their significance, defies all reason. e. This leads to another notion articulated in MENDELE, that cantonists with "Asian war-brides" could have introduced the epenthetic fold into the Jewish population. Several errors here: The purpose of the 25 year draft was to sever these recruits from Judaism forever, and indeed many converted. After a lifetime of army pork it was hard to go back to the shtetl. Did they have intercourse with local women where they were stationed? No doubt. Did they marry non-Jewish women? No doubt. Did they ever bring their non-Jewish brides back to their home villages and convert them? In Russian Orthodox Russia? Please! Rather than look for their descendents among us, look for distinguished probosci and a passion for herring in central Asia. Of course, some cantonists against all odds kept the faith. The Jewish community of Finland was started by cantonists who remained there after discharge, AND WHO SENT BACK TO THEIR HOME VILLAGES IN LITHUANIA FOR THEIR WIVES! f. Lest I be called a racist by the politically correct Mendel- nicks, let me make it clear that I have no problem with the IDEA of people of various ethnic groups converting to Judaism; given the inbreeding of EE Jewry (of which I myself am a victim), MORE conversion and not less would have been welcome. And of course, as was pointed out, there was always intercourse taking place between Jews and non-Jews. But given the REALITY of Jewish life, both the internal reality of halachah and the external reality of the pressures from the Gentile world meant that the vast majority of progeny of interethnic coupling would have joined the GENTILE world, NOT become part of EE Jewry! Thank you for your patience. --Jules Levin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.334 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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