From: Iain Strachan (iain.strachan.asa@ntlworld.com)
Date: Fri Oct 24 2003 - 02:47:37 EDT
D.F. Siemens (citing Dick Fischer):
On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 11:34:12 -0400 Dick Fischer <dickfischer@earthlink.net> writes:
Francis Collins (head of the human genome mapping project for NIH) responded privately to my posting concerning the article in JAMA about a genetic-based propensity for long life found in the Ashkenazid population. I had indicated that since the Ashkenazis are directly descended from Ashkenaz through Gomer, Japheth and Noah, according to Genesis, that this could be a genetic marker of Adamic descent.
<snip>
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
Dick.I wish you'd recognize that Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from Japheth. The name of the Jews in northern Europe comes from the late Hebrew terminology for Germany and reflects their use of Yiddish. The southern group are Sephardic, from the term for Spain who speak Ladino. Are you going to come up with "evidence" that the Sephardim descended from Ham?
Dave.
I'll second that. The implications that Ashkenazi Jews (apparently over 90% of todays Jews are Ashkenazim) are not Semites is potentially racially explosive. I looked into this using a Google search. The theory seems to have been popularised in Arthur Koestler's book "The thirteenth Tribe", namely that Askenazim are descended from the Khazars: a Turkish race who adopted Judaism in the 8th Century AD. The Khazars, then, are supposedly descended from Ashkenaz who was descended from Japeth. The Khazar theory is championed on a number of extremely dubious, and frankly racially offensive web-sites. The first place I found it described was from an organization called "Jews for Allah"; espousing the idea that there was absolutely no point in being a Jew any more because the vast majority are not Semites (ie descended from Shem) & that therefore the One True Religion has to be Islam (descended from Shem-...-Abraham-Ishmael). The other place where this theory is given prominence is at http://biblebelievers.org , a heretical cult of Christianity who believe that a certain William M. Bramham, the founder of the "Latter Rain" movement, was a prophet of God. Still another site made the ludicrous interpretation of Noah's prophecy of Gen 9:27 ("may Japeth live in the tents of Shem") referred to modern day Israel, because modern-day Jews are not descended from the original Israelites & therefore those living in the "homeland" of Israel are fakes. Still another site referred to modern day Jews as "Self-styled Jews", and another "revealed" that modern-day Judaism was nothing more than "a plot against Christianity". Needless to say I find all of this to be extremely distasteful and offensive.
I also found varous claims that the Khazar theory had been rebutted, notably from a Christian mission to the Jews; though I am not too sure the argument presented there was particularly watertight. [I think that the name "Cohen" indicated Aaronic ancestry, because the word means "high priest". However, this could as much be a coincidence of names as Ashkenaz/Ashkenazim].
In summary, it seems to me that it's going to be difficult to affirm either side of the debate by looking at web-sites, all of which are trying to persuade you of their own viewpoint for their own purposes. If anyone knows of a good objective and scholarly rebuttal of the Khazar theory, I'd be interested.
But it seems to me that the idea that over 90% of Jews are not Semites is "anti-Semitism" gone mad & should therefore be abhorred.
Iain.
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