SPECIAL REPORT
The Khazars: Do They Destroy God’s Plan for
the Jews?
By Rev. Ted Pike
18 May 06
For more than a century, Zionists have claimed that modern Jews are
entitled to Palestine because they are legitimate descendants of Abraham.
Devout Christians and devout Jews both believe God’s plan for
Israel involves a racially authentic Jewry.
That’s why Jewish novelist Arthur Koestler’s 1976 book,
The Thirteenth Tribe, was a political and theological bombshell. Koestler
reveals how the central Eurasian nation, Khazaria, converted to Judaism
in 740 AD. These 2 million Turkish warriors and traders became at least
as devout as actual (Sephardic-Oriental) Jews, whose genetic lines
trace back to Abraham. The Khazars soon convinced themselves that they
really were authentic Jews.
Today, Koestler asserts, most “Jews” worldwide are primarily
descended from these ancient Turks - not Abraham! What does this
mean for the millions of American Christians so eager to bless the
children of Abraham? Has this Khazar corruption of Jewish blood also
corrupted God’s plan for the Jews?
In this special report, I will conclude that the Khazar merger is
a fact of history, but that it didn’t destroy God’s plan
for the Jews at all. Far from it! The conversion of these 2 million
Gentiles actually fulfilled Bible prophecy, and powerfully confirms
God’s timeless ethical covenant with His chosen people.
Koestler’s Controversial Claims
Many Christians and Jews felt deeply threatened by Koestler’s
thesis. Scholars and genetic studies 1 attempted to debunk it. Yet
historian and author Kevin Alan Brook has extensively documented Koestler’s
basic thesis. And in his fascinating book, The
Jews of Khazaria, Brook
has confirmed Koestler in a way that many Jews find surprisingly acceptable.
At www.khazaria.com, Brook offers a treasury of ancient commentaries
on the Khazarian conversion. He also provides statements by dozens
of scholars over the past century who confirm Koestler.
Jewish and Slavonic historians by the dozens have accepted the Khazar
origins of eastern European Jewry. Recent archeology reveals how the
Khazar converts migrated to eastern Europe, especially Poland. There,
they helped create the massive eastern European Ashkenazi “Jewish” populations.
Millions of their descendants immigrated to America around the turn
of the 20th century, and attained wealth in business, government, and
media. 2
Brook quotes this 1962 statement by the Jewish
Journal of Sociology,
which is typical of many: “Polish scholars agree that the oldest
(Polish Jewish) settlements were founded by Jewish emigres from the
Khazar state and Russia while the Jews from Southern and Western Europe
began to arrive and settle only later…and that a certain proportion
at least of the Jewish population (in earlier times, the main bulk)
originated from the east, from the Khazar country…” 3
God's Purpose for the Khazars
How does Koestler's thesis affect God’s plan for the Jews?
As the Hebrews approached the Promised Land 3,500 years ago, God
warned them that they had a choice: obey God and be blessed and dwell
in the land, or disobey Him and be cursed and exiled. One of many ways
God said He will curse a disobedient Jewish nation is by keeping them
very small. “Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you
were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you did not obey
the Lord your God.” (Deut. 28:62)
Israel did not obey God. She crucified her Lord and spiritual husband,
Jesus Christ - screaming, “His blood be upon us and upon our
children!” For their disobedience, the Jews incurred the curse
of remaining small in number. This curse remains in effect today.
During the Exodus, the Hebrew population was about 2 million 4, swelling
to about 5-1/2 million in the time of David, 500 years later. What
is the population of Jews descended from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin
today? 2,950,000. 5 Incredibly, after three and a half millenia, authentic
Jews number only 950,000 more than when Moses led them out of Egypt!
That's a gain of less than 300 new people per year.
Contrast such anemic population growth with the posterity of another
descendant of Abraham: Ishmael. The father of the Arab world was the
offspring of Abraham’s union with Sarah’s maid, an Egyptian
of Hamitic not Semitic stock. In contrast to the racially authentic
yet rebellious descendants of Judah, God said He would magnify the
descendants of the half-breed, Ishmael. “…I will multiply
thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” (Gen
16:10) What’s the population of the Arab world today? Between
200 and 300 million! 6 At 250 million, that is an increase of 62,500
per year! Truly, God’s promise of blessing and cursing could
not be more powerfully fulfilled.
The curse of smallness, which clings to racially authentic Jewry
today, is not a hereditary weakness. Exodus records that when God had "respect" for
the Hebrews, they enjoyed prolific powers of reproduction, even as
Egyptian slaves. They increased from several hundred to several million
400 years later.
Today, Jewish inability to keep up with the phenomenal powers of
Arab reproduction is a source of chronic frustration to the people
of Israel and their leaders.
Israel to be Oppressed
God also threatened that “aliens” would perpetually rule
over Israel if she did not obey. “The alien who is among you
shall rise above you higher and higher, but you shall go down lower
and lower. He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him: He shall
be the head and you shall be the tail.” (Deut. 28:43,4)
In 740 AD (or, as some experts contend, about a century later), Khazar “aliens” invaded
Judaism in a bizarre twist of divine judgment. They did not do so territorially
but spiritually and genetically. Like the ancient Philistines stealing
the ark of the covenant, the Khazars appropriated the Talmud and Cabala
(Zohar), the promises of Abraham, and even the name “Jew.” Swelling
into a world population now estimated at 11.2 million 7,
modern Ashkenazim, the primary force behind 20th century Zionism, dominate
the government, military, economic, and religious authority of Israel.
950,000 authentic Jews in Israel 8, outnumbered 3 to 1,
are largely excluded and discriminated against by the Khazar ruling
majority 9, which totals about 3.7 million.
Friction smolders between both groups.
In his book, The Life of an American Jew in
Racist, Marxist Israel,
American Ashkenazi Jack Bernstein recounts discrimination which he
suffered after marrying a Sephardic. He says that next to Arabs and
Christians, Sephardim are most discriminated against in Israel (p.7).
The most horrific example of Ashkenazi oppression of Sephardim occurred
in the early 1950s. The US government needed human guinea pigs to test
radiation levels; they contracted with the Ashkenazi leaders of Israel,
in exchange for what would today be billions of dollars, to conduct
such tests on nearly all Sephardic children living in Israel. One hundred
thousand Sephardic children were subjected to nearly lethal levels
of radiation, ostensibly to cure head lice. The tests killed 6,000
outright, and caused cancerous tumors and manifold afflictions to the
rest. 10
Jews are Here for the Duration
Despite persecution and the threat of assimilation, relatively authentic
Jews are still very much in the world. They fulfill Christ’s
prophecy that “this generation (race) shall not pass away until
all things be fulfilled.” (Matt. 24:34) Yet, contrary to expectations,
they are encapsulated as a repressed minority within a much larger,
more aggressive Gentile majority. In a bizarre symbiosis, Khazars carry
racially authentic Jews with them toward fulfillment of anti-Christ
objectives. Under God’s curse to remain small, the Sephardic-Oriental
would never be able to attain such goals on their own. Such shared
ambitions include their prophesied ascendancy over the nations (Ezekiel
38, 39), rebuilding their temple in Jerusalem, and receiving their
false messiah - anti-Christ, who will sit in their temple, proclaiming
himself to be God (Matt. 24:15, 2 Thess. 2:4).
To make all this possible, God allowed the Khazar hordes to be engrafted
- a nation of high intelligence and creativity but also historically
possessing a dominant, warlike nature as well as skill and rapacious
instinct toward commerce and finance. Incredibly, they became even
more devoted proprietors of the Talmud and especially Cabala, using
them as fuel for their own racism and revolution.
One of the reasons Israeli Ashkenazim resent Sephardic-Orientals
is that they became part of Zionism much later, largely after statehood
of Israel in 1948. Historically, Sephardic-Orientals disagreed with
the Zionist-Christian Evangelical assertion that obedience to God is
no longer a prerequisite for Jews to occupy Palestine. Such primarily
Orthodox Jews believed they were in exile because of their sins. They
claimed that only when Messiah comes, persuading the Jewish people
into repentance, would a truly obedient Jewry be allowed back into
God’s promised land. However, with the spectacular successes
of Zionism, most Sephardics capitulated. The Ashkenazi leadership has
not forgotten or forgiven their hesitancy. As a result, authentic Jews
in Israel remain under the heel of the Khazar aliens in perfect fulfillment
of Deuteronomy 28. They are literally the tail, while the Khazars are
the head.
Who, then, constitute that repentant “Jewish” remnant
so often prophesied to repent at Christ’s second coming? Will
the Khazars be included?
Christ, in Ezekiel 47, speaking out of His coming millennial temple
as He rules in Jerusalem, gives the answer. “And it will come
about that you shall divide by lot for an inheritance among yourselves
and among the aliens [Khazars] who stay in your midst. And they shall
be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel: they shall be
allotted an inheritance with you among the sons of Israel.” (Ezek
47:22) Christ makes it clear that, as in the Old Testament, Gentiles
who earnestly adhere to Judaism, even in its apostate condition, can
do so and be counted in the Jewish nation.
Is God Finished with National Israel?
Since Koestler’s revelations, various political and theological
critics of Zionism have seized upon the Khazars as proof that whatever
destiny God had for Israel has now been destroyed by Khazar admixture.
Yet God is full of new mercies. Thousands of years ago, He and many
great prophets and godly men and women labored, largely in vain, to
bring forth a meager harvest of righteousness from the dry rocky soil
of Israel's unbelief. The Pharisees, in their Talmud, call Jesus “a
fool,” mocking His claim that He will ultimately receive obedience
from the Jewish people (Sanh. 67a). Many today believe Jews have become
so wicked and corrupting that it is inconceivable they should someday
experience a mass outpouring of grace from the One their fathers crucified
and reviled.
But Jesus Christ is the Redeemer who extends love to the vilest sinner
who calls upon Him for mercy. He formed the Jewish people to show forth
the riches of His love to all nations. He will not be frustrated in
that ambition, even by the depths of their apostasy.
Don't be astonished, then, that He can miraculously save a remnant
of Jews. It is a miracle that any of us are saved.
He has saved the Jews before. He can do it again.
End
Notes:
1 The
Y chromosome in males and mitochondrial DNA in females never changes.
Consquently, despite the genetic shuffle of the centuries, it is
possible to identify the general genetic make-up of the founders
of an ethnic group.
At least three major genetic studies, Hammer et al. (2000), Goldstein
et al. (2002), and Behar et al. (2004), attempted to determine Jewish
origins. Their results are sometimes contradictory and puzzling even
to geneticists. Yet Goldstein and Behar agree on one thing: the founding
mothers of Sephardim were very different from those of Ashkenazim.
All agree that it is "likely" that the male founding ancestors
of Ashkenazim were largely of Mid-East origins - more so than the
ancestors of Caucasian Europeans.
This suggests a plausible scenario explaining the presence of Mideast
genes within the European Ashkenazim.
With conversion of the Khazars, history records an intense demand
by the Khazarians themselves for Rabbinic teachers to instruct them
in the requirements of a very complex religion.
Twelfth century Sephardic writer Yehuda HaLevi said the Khazars
were "eager to learn the Jewish law… They sent to various
countries for scholars and books and studied the Torah… They
also honored and cherished the Israelites who lived among them."(The
Kuzari: The Book of Proof and Argument in Defense of the Despised
Faith, HaLevi)
"Rabbis were then invited to come and teach Jewish laws and
customs to the Jewish Khazars. During the 200 years of the existence
of this Jewish kingdom, most of the Khazars had learned the Jewish
religion and were living in accordance with its laws."(Mordecai
Soloff, How the Jewish People Grew Up, Cincinnati, Ohio, The Union
of American-Hebrew Congregations 1936, p. 219-221)
It is inconceivable that the transformation of possibly two million
idolatrous Khazars into zealous Jewish proselytes could be facilitated
and sustained for two centuries without thousands of Rabbinic teachers.
Such must have consisted primarily of the priestly class, the "Kohanim." These
teachers were highly intelligent Talmudists. They were by definition
male and most likely single, being visitors from distant lands such
as Spain and Babylon. Khazarian women were famous for their beauty,
prized as wives by Byzantine nobility. This was a perfect setting
for pairing of Semitic genes with Gentile.
Constantine Akropolites (1250-1324) revealed that Khazars and Jews
of the East may have freely intermarried. Jewish Khazars of Constantinople
did intermarry and become fully integrated into the Jewish district,
in contrast to Sephardim in the west. See The
Legend of St. Zotikos according to N. Constantine Akropolite, ed. Timothy S. Miller, 1994,
p.339-376.
Goldstein’s 2002 study of the origins of Ashkenazi women indicated
they had many founding mothers and such possessed widely diversed
genes. This harmonizes with the fact that Khazar women, living in
a major international trading center, lacked any tradition of racial
exclusivity.
The Khazarians would also have received Hebrew DNA from another
major source. Surrounding the period of initial Khazar conversion,
large populations of Jews were expelled from Asia Minor and the Byzantine
empire. They took refuge in their new "promised land," Khazaria.
A final thought: One wonders why DNA from the bones of 9th century
Khazar graves has not been extracted and compared to DNA of eastern
European "Jewry." Such research might help resolve a debate
which has too long remained contentious.
2 Medieval
Rabbinic authorities of the Sephardim in Toledo, Spain, were aware
of the Khazars and made it clear that they did not grant equality
to them. They discouraged intermarriage. Such geographic, cultural
and spiritual separation is revealed in the following statement
to me by Khazar authority Muhammad Rafik: "The
medieval German (and in fact all western European) Jews were
not in contact with eastern European "Jewry." This
can be easily demonstrated by the medieval synod of France, where
the leading rabbis of Europe would congregate… Of over
100 attending rabbis at the 11th and 12th century synod, not
one was from eastern Europe or even Poland. They all came from
Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and England."
Yet in The Jews of Khazaria, Brook expands our awareness of how
small numbers of Jews entered medieval eastern Europe, largely from
southern lands and as a result of persecution under the Crusades
and Inquisition. They found relative safety in the more tolerant
Slavic countries of eastern Europe. However, he agrees with many
authorities that such numbers of authentic Jews vastly swelled as
German Sephardim migrated into Khazar-dominated Poland in the 15th
and 16th centuries. Partly as a result of the more permissive intermarriage
practices allowed by Maimonides, authentic and Polish Khazar Jewry
at last significantly melded. In time, such Khazar-Sephardim radiated
westward, creating the stereotypic "German Jews," often
resented by Sephardim of the west for their aggressiveness.
In Khazar-dominated countries of eastern Europe outside Poland,
the genes of the founding Khazars remained much less diluted. Around
the turn of the last century, such Khazar Ashkenazim joined a horde
of European Jewish immigrants to America.
3 Adam
Vetulani, in his article, "The Jews of Medieval Poland," in Jewish Journal of Sociology, volume 4 (December 1962), page 274.
4 Motivated by military considerations, Moses' census, Num.
1:46, records 603,550 "sons of Israel… from 20 years old
and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel." Add
an equal number of women of that age (603,550) plus young people under
the age of 20 (perhaps 500,000) plus elderly and infirm over 60 (250,000).
Total: 1, 957,100. The number of Hebrews in the exodus, not counting
a "mixed multitude" (Ex. 12:38) of Gentiles surely totaled
about several million.
5 Encyclopedia
of the Orient, “Sephardi”
6 Wikipedia, “Arab”
7 Wikipedia, “Ashkenazi”
8 Encyclopedia of the Orient, “Sephardi”
9 The Christian
Science Monitor reports, "…years of discrimination
against Sephardic Jews in education, jobs, housing, and other areas
by Israel's mostly Ashkenazi, or European Jewish elite." (Jen
Lynfield, "The Shahs of Israel Rise to Prominence," April
4, 2000.
Similarly, "In Israel, political tensions continue to persist because of
feelings on the part of many Sephardim that they have been discriminated against
and still don't get the respect they deserve. Historically, political elite of
the nation have been Ashkenazim… Jewish Virtual Library, "Ashkenazim," by
Shira Schoenberg, p. 3, 2006.
Despite recent increase in voting power provided by the powerful
Sephardic Shahs party, an angry Sephardic cries out, "They gave
us homes, they gave us the dirty work; they gave us education, and
they took away our self-respect. What did they bring my parents to
Israel for? …Wasn't it to do your dirty work? You didn't have
Arabs then, so you needed our parents to do your cleaning and be
your servants and laborers… You exploited and disgraced us
for thirty years. You brought a million donkeys to ride on." (Beyond
the Promised Land, Glen Frankel, p. 143)
10 Rense.com, "Zionists
Poisoned/Radiated 100K Jewish Children," by Barry Chamish,
08/17/05.
