Are Ashkenazi Jews descended from the Khazars? Some believe that they
are, at least to a certain extent. An important Khazar community
remained in Kiev, and family oral traditions indicate the persistence
of Khazar Jewish communities in Hungary, Transylvania, Lithuania, and
central Ukraine. Some Jews have features that might be considered
almost Mongolian or Oriental. However, there is no remnant of Khazar
custom among Ashkenazi Jews, and there are only a few Ashkenazi
surnames (e.g., Balaban) and Yiddish words (e.g., yarmulke) which
derive from Turkic. It is sometimes suggested that the surname Kogan
derives from Khaqan, but the more likely derivation is from Kohen
(meaning "Israelite priest"); the Ukrainians and Belarusians use the
letter h, but in Russian h becomes g, as may be seen in such examples
as Grodno-Hrodna and Girsch-Hirsch.
It seems that after the fall of their kingdom, the Khazars adopted the
Cyrillic script in place of Hebrew and began to speak East Slavic
(sometimes called "Canaanic" because Benjamin of Tudela called Kievan
Rus the "Land of Canaan"). These Slavic-speaking Jews are documented
to have lived in Kievan Rus during the 11th-13th centuries. However,
Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from the west (especially Germany,
Bohemia, and other areas of Central Europe) soon began to flood into
Eastern Europe, and it is believed that these newer immigrants
eventually outnumbered the Khazars. Thus, Eastern European Jews
predominantly have ancestors who came from Central Europe rather than
from the Khazar kingdom. The two groups (eastern and western Jews)
intermarried over the centuries.
The Ashkenazi Jews are also the direct descendants of the Israelites.
Genetic tests seem to indicate some ancestry from the regions known
today as Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, and Iraq. Mediterranean
Fever, for example, is found among some Ashkenazi Jews as well as
Armenians and Anatolian Turks. It is now asserted that many Ashkenazi
men who belong to the priestly caste (Kohenim) possess a "Kohen"
marker on the Y-chromosome. However, note that this provides no
evidence of Khazar ancestry. Common genetic markers in people from
these regions is expected for the following reasons, which alone could
account for the common markers occurring in some Jews as well as
non-Jews in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, and Iraq:
1. Archaeological evidence suggests that the some of the earliest
ancestors of the ancient Levantine and Mesopotamian civilzations
originated in the region of Armenia and moved southwards.
2. The Tanach records extensive evidence of intermarriage between
Jews and ancient peoples who originated in eastern Anatolia, viz.
the Hittites and Hurrians (including the Jebusites of Jerusalem).
The Edomites who were of mixed Hebrew and Hurrian ancestry were
also absorbed into the Jewish people.
3. The Armenians and Kurds are the descendants of people who remained
in Eastern Anatolia / Armenia / Kurdistan and intermarried with
the Turks and neighbouring peoples.
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