The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who around the 7th century A.D, occupied Khazaria, a land that lay between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, what today would spread across Georgia and into parts of Russia, Poland and Eastern Europe. At this time there were Jewish communities from the diaspora who had settled in Khazaria and made it their home. It is also a fact that during the middle-ages, some of the Khazar ruling elite and royalty converted to the religion of Judaism. However, it is at this point where the ‘Khazar theory’ dramatically departs from historical fact. The theory sets forth the claim that not only a minority of the Khazars converted to Judaism but in fact the whole Kingdom converted to Judaism!! The theory says that the Khazars were a white race of people who upon conversion to Judaism then migrated to Germany in the middle ages and then to surrounding European countries to become what we know as Ashkenazi Jews which today constitutes the majority of Jews worldwide. Those that hold to this theory therefore say that the majority of Jews worldwide are not real Jews but are in fact of Khazari descent.
In this teaching we ask the question, what constitutes a Jew? We put this theory to the test refuting it Biblically, scientifically, culturally and linguistically, demonstrating that the Jews populating Israel today are in fact of true Jewish descent.
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