This is kind of a fun thing. I read a rather unusual book many years ago by Arthur Koestler titled The Thirteenth Tribe. Mr. Koestler contended in the book that there was a nation on the Black Sea in the area of the Crimea during medieval times, perhaps between the 8th and 10th centuries, that converted to Judaism. It was a ploy to keep its neighbors from attacking. The country was surrounded by Christians to the west and north and Muslins to the south but did not want to adopt either of those religions fearing they would be attacked by those of the opposing religion.
To prove his contention Mr. Koestler sighted a variety of documents proving the existence of the nation of people called Khazars in a land called Khazaria. A news item from the AP today quotes a Russian archaeologist who contends he has found the capital of this lost land.
When I read the AP report I immediately recalled the book. The AP report quoted Yevgeny Satanovsky, director of the Middle Eastern Institute in Moscow. He said he believes the Khazar elite chose Judaism out of political expediency – to remain independent of neighboring Muslim and Christian states. “They embraced Judaism because they wanted to remain neutral, like Switzerland these days,”
If the theory is true it would explain the existence of blue eyed blonds among European Jews who also do not have the physical traits attributed to Semitic people. That probably explains my daughter’s blue eyes and the blond hair of a niece a nephew. We are not Jews. We are Khazars. Sounds like people from another planet in a new Star Trek adventure.
Coast Contact 