About Jewishness

Before going into mainstream Jewish history, I would like to pay some attention to Shlomo Sand's book "The Invention of the Jewish People".
Sand claims that he began looking for records of the exile from Israel, a constitutive event in Jewish history, but could discover no literature about the Jewish expulsion. His explanation is that no one exiled the people of the country. The Romans sometimes committed ethnocide but they did not exile peoples. Sand claims that mass exile was not logistically possible until the 20th century.
Sand argues that:

• 1. Most contemporary Jews do not originate from the ancient Land of Israel. They never existed as a "nation-race" with a common origin. Just as most contemporary Christians and Muslims are the progeny of converted people, not of the first Christians and Muslims, Judaism was originally, like its two cousins, a converting religion.
• 2. Many of the present day world Jewish population are descendants of European, Russian and African groups.
• 3. The original Jews living in Israel, contrary to popular belief, were not exiled following the Bar Kokhba revolt. Most of the Jews were not exiled by the Romans, and were permitted to remain in the country. The number of those exiled are tens of thousands at most.
• 4. Many Jews converted to Islam following the Arab conquest, and were assimilated among the conquerors.
• 5. The progenitors of the Palestinian Arabs were Jews.
• 6. The story of the exile was a myth promoted by early Christians to recruit Jews to the new faith. They portrayed that event as a divine punishment imposed on the Jews for having rejected the Christian gospel. Sand writes that "Christians wanted later generations of Jews to believe that their ancestors had been exiled as a punishment from God."
• 7. At a certain stage in the 19th century intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people "retrospectively," out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people. From historian Heinrich Graetz on, Jewish historians began to draw the history of Judaism as the history of a nation that had been a kingdom, became a wandering people and ultimately turned around and went back to its birthplace." In this, they did not differ from other national movements in Europe at the time. They invented a splendid Golden Age - for example, classical Greece, the ancient 'Belgians', the Dutch 'Bataven' or the Teutonic tribes - to prove they have existed as a separate people since the beginnings of history. Before this, according to Sand, Jews thought of themselves as Jews because they shared a common religion not a common ethnic background.
• 8. The idea of Jews being obliged to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism before the birth of Zionism. The holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. On the contrary, for 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came.
• 9. Most of the Central and Eastern European Jews hail from the mediæval Turkish Khazars who were converted to Judaism.

Well, that's quite something. However, most of it is not new to me.
1. Most contemporary Jews do not originate from the ancient Land of Israel.
Agree. Most Jewish DNA is heterogeneous. Sephardim DNA has much more in common with the DNA of people from Spain and Portugal than with the DNA of any other people, like Ashkenazim DNA has much more in common with the DNA of Central and Eastern European people than with the DNA of any other people. To speak of the Jews as an ethnic homogeneous people coming from the land of Israel would therefore be unjustified. New analysis shows that Jewish ancestry reflects a mosaic of genetic sources. Both Europeans and Central Asians made significant genetic contributions to Jewish ancestry. Moreover, while the DNA studies have confirmed the close genetic interrelatedness of many Jewish communities, they have also confirmed what many suspected all along: Jews do not constitute a single group distinct from all others. Rather, modern Jews exhibit a diversity of genetic profiles, some reflective of their Semitic/Mediterranean ancestry, but others suggesting an origin in European and Central Asian groups. The blending of European, Semitic, Central Asian and Mediterranean heritage over the centuries has led to today’s Jewish populations.
They never existed as a "nation-race" with a common origin.
Disagree. Simon Schama writes, "Sand confuses ethnicity – which, in the case of the Jews, is indeed impure, heterogeneous and much travelled – with an identity that evolves as the product of common historical experience." True, but ethnicity is blood, and identity is emotion. Obviously in the past the Bible and Jewish religion have played an important role in the construction of this identity. But you shouldn't forget that in ancient times the ethnicity of the Jews was far less impure, far less heterogeneous and little travelled. Their common origin and culture was Canaanite when they were a "nation-race" and the only thing that distinguished them from other Canaanites, like the Palestinians, was their religion. I'm sure this religion, with its laws and practices, was one of the main reasons to form a Jewish state, thus a Jewish nation.
Just as most contemporary Christians and Muslims are the progeny of converted people, not of the first Christians and Muslims, Judaism was originally, like its two cousins, a converting religion.
Agree.

2. Many of the present day world Jewish population are descendants of European, Russian and African groups.
Agree. But genetical science is complicated. Let me explain: although European Jews have many genes in common with non-Jewish Europeans, they also have genes the non-Jewish Europeans don't have. And although Russian Jews have genes in common with the non-Jewish Russians, they also have genes the non-Jewish Russians don't have. The same applies to Northern African Jews. I think it are the genes they have in common that make them feel they're an ethnic group.

3. The original Jews living in Israel, contrary to popular belief, were not exiled following the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Agree. 580,000 Jews were killed during the revolt -- the majority of the Jewish people. Although barred from Jerusalem, they were able to centre in Galilee, where they became farmers and could observe their religion. Jews who had been sold into slavery were redeemed and refugees returned. Probably not all of them, because it was a massacre.
Most of the Jews were not exiled by the Romans, and were permitted to remain in the country. The number of those exiled are tens of thousands at most.
Agree. They were barred from Jerusalem, but could remain in the country. They were allowed to observe Tisha B'Av in Jerusalem (annual fast day).

4. Many Jews converted to Islam following the Arab conquest, and were assimilated among the conquerors.
Agree.

5. The progenitors of the Palestinian Arabs were Jews.
Disagree. DNA studies indicate that they may have many common ancestors, like the Canaanites. Both the Palestinians and the Jews have heterogeneous backgrounds. Both the Palestinians and the Jews have DNA that proves that they have a mixed Middle-Eastern, Aegean/Mediterranean background, and you must realise that many people in this region were nomadic tribes. They mixed. If it would be true, traces of Cohanim, Levite, or Israelite haplogroups would be found in the DNA of Palestinians.

6. The story of the exile was a myth promoted by early Christians to recruit Jews to the new faith. They portrayed that event as a divine punishment imposed on the Jews for having rejected the Christian gospel. Sand writes that "Christians wanted later generations of Jews to believe that their ancestors had been exiled as a punishment from God."
Agree. From the days of Flavius Josephus until the present, historians have tried to find some trace of this event in the ancient records of Egypt. They have had little luck. Egyptian records and archeological research make it clear that nothing even remotely resembling the Exodus happened anywhere near this time of history. The Bible has been rewritten.

7. At a certain stage in the 19th century intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people "retrospectively," out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people.
Agree. That's how Zionism started. But I honestly believe that the pogroms in Eastern Europe had a lot to do with the urge to find a homeland, and that the inventors of Zionism used this urge for their own ideal.

8. The idea of Jews being obliged to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism before the birth of Zionism. The holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. On the contrary, for 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came.
Agree. The original idea of Aliyah was visiting Jerusalem, for the purpose of religious studies. Many rabbis did it from the Middle Ages and onwards. When the Sephardi Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and Sultan Bayezid II offered them refuge in the Ottoman Empire, most of them chose to live in Constantinople or Salonica. When twenty years later the Ottoman Empire occupied the Middle East, and Jews had every opportunity to move to "the Promised Land", only a small minority did so.

9. Most of the Central and Eastern European Jews hail from the mediæval Turkish Khazars who were converted to Judaism.
Disagree. DNA studies indicate that Jews are not entirely Khazarian, Israelite or European in genetic makeup, but a complex and unique mixture of all these peoples. The converted Khazar elite mixed with Levites. DNA research suggests that remnants of these mysterious people continue to exist within the genetic makeup of Ashkenazi Jews. In fact, Levite DNA results indicate that the Khazars (who converted to Judaism centuries before) became fully integrated into the Ashkenazi communities and came to play an important role within the Jewish priesthood.
The DNA studies have revealed a high degree of genetic interrelatedness among Ashkenazi groups, particularly among those of Eastern Europe. This common ancestry can be attributed to a small founding population, coupled with rapid population growth and a high rate of endogamy over the past 500 years. The studies also indicate a sharing of genetic ancestry between eastern and western Ashkenazim, supporting the view that some portion of Eastern European Jewry was founded by western Ashkenazim.
DNA research has also revealed significant genetic links between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish populations, despite their separation for generations. With the Cohanim study, researchers found a clear genetic connection between the Jewish priests and a shared Israelite ancestor from the past. Additional genetic results suggest that the Ashkenazim can trace at least part of their ancestry to their Israelite forbearers.
But Jewish DNA presents a picture that is far more complex than just the Cohanim results. This picture is also far more diverse than what many genetic studies on Ashkenazi Jews would suggest. Instead, many of those studies have focused heavily on the Israelite DNA results, often downplaying the significant contribution of European and Khazarian ancestors.