Menachem Mendel

From Whence are those Jews?

It seems that Shlomo Sand’s book The Invention of the Jewish People has arrived in America. See this article on it in Tablet (hat tip) for a presentation of Sand’s views on how Jews are really descendants of the Khazars and so on. For two critical reviews see this one by Anita Shapira and this one by Israel Bartal. See here for an interview with him in Hebrew. For more on this book in Hebrew here, here, and here.

Posted on October 14th, 2009 under Israel, Jewish History, New Books • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed

7 Responses to “From Whence are those Jews?”

1
Drew Kaplan:
October 15th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Just a little point: ‘whence’ means ‘from where’ (cf here), so it’s a bit redundant to say “from whence”, just sayin’….
2
Menachem Mendel:
October 15th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Not to get Talmudic, but see here.
3
S.:
October 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am
In ‘Live at the Village Gate’ Shlomo Carlebach translates מאין as in מאין יבוא עזרי as “from whence.” Check mate.
4
S.:
October 16th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Speaking to the substance of the book itself, it’s such a stupid theory.
5
Yitzhak:
October 18th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Drew: your link is a ראיה לסתור; if it’s good enough for the King James Bible, Shakespeare, Dryden and Dickens, then surely it’s good enough for us, and the site itself notes that the usage is “well established and standard”. See also Prof. Volokh’s discussion of the phrase.
6
Yitzhak:
October 18th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
S.:

Carlebach is just citing the KJB – see the American Heritage Dictionary usage note, linked to by Drew.
7
Kevin Brook:
October 20th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Chapter 10 of the Second Edition of my book “The Jews of Khazaria” refutes Sand’s claim that Khazars represent the dominant origin of the Ashkenazi Jews. And in an appendix I explain what is known about North African Berber converts to Judaism and how they can’t account for all the Sephardic Jews either. The DNA evidence connecting Jews with the Middle East that Sand and his allies so casually dismiss is scientifically valid. I used to have my own doubts about the reliability of the DNA studies until they got very precise and acquired large sample sizes from many populations. But we don’t even have to rely solely on DNA evidence. We also have name studies and migration studies that show the same result: most Ashkenazi Jews’ ancestors came from the Czech and German lands, and before that from Italy, and before that from Israel. The Khazar component appears to be less than 20 percent. You can buy my book at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0742549828/menahemmendel-20