Genetic markers and other nonsense
This week Hal Levine talked about Karaites and Khazars at Kia Torah. Like everything Hal says, this was interesting, or rather what he said was interesting, but there was a lot he didn't say that I would have found more interesting. How can you talk about the Khazars without mentioning Kuzari? Most of the Karaites lived in Egypt. How did they get to Crimea? Were the Crimean Karaites the same people as the Egyptian Karaites? Koestler's Thirteenth Tribe got a mention, a weird book, which if I remember rightly, argued that as most of the Jews of Europe are descendants of Khazars, they are not semitic and have no claim to the land of Israel. Someone went a step further and argued that it is the Palestinians who are the Israelis, descendants of people left behind after the destruction of the Temple, who converted to Islam. With all this nonsensical argument we got on to genetic markers that proved or disproved these arguments. I am sure that genetic markers are real, they do exist. But looking at the DNA of people you find whatever you are looking for. The DNA of any organism would contain lots of genetic markers, and you can show that my make up is probably a mixture of Jew, Magyar, Moravian, Turk, Spanish, in other words a whole gulyas of European ethnicity. Talking in the Holocaust Centre about Nazis and racist ideology, I argue that classifying people of Europe, and particularly Eastern and Central Europe, you can't define people in racial terms. They are all a mixture of different races that invaded, conquered or survived in these lands. Imposing a racist classification on them is a Nazi corruption of Darwinism and genetic science. Hal Levine countered my argument that whatever race I belong to, there is not any Polynesian, Far Eastern or African gene in my make-up. I grant you that I am not Polynesian, not Chinese, and not African, but given that I am European, further racial refinement is meaningless. The World Cup underscores my argument. The national team of Germany is studded with players with Polish and Turkish names, the Dutch, French and Portuguese teams have Africans playing for them. I would prefer to define the people of Europe in football rather than racial terms.
I don't know if you remember - but when David and I went with you to the Old City we stopped outside the Kaarartite Synagogue, (opposite the Destroyed Nissim Bek shul which they recently started to rebuild).
ReplyDeleteThe Kaaraites are still an active religious body with their own religious services and many adherents in Israel. In contrast I thought that little is known about the Khazars and that no one today identifies themselves as Khazzar . Yehuda HaLevi's Kuzari is a book of philosophy written in a dialog form between the King of the Khazzars and a Rabbi, however it is not base not based on a real dialog, and I don't think that Yehuda Halevi ever met any real Khazzars.
As for the genetic makeup of the Jewish people. It is certainly interesting that there is genetic proof the various Jewish communities come from a common ancestry - that the Dark skin Jews of Yemen share ancestors with me. You're right that Jewish nationhood is not based on Genetics, and more than Spanish Nationhood or American or New Zealand Nationhood, however it is interesting.