Launched in 1976, the hypothesis of the Austrian-Hungarian Jewish writer Arthur kestler that European Jews originate not from Israel and from Khazaria, which was confirmed during the latest genetic research. Most Jews of the world have Eastern European roots, their ancestors came from the banks not the Jordan, and the Volga.

So, thanks to the activities of geneticists and linguists, and ethnographers our eyes falling apart theory about "chosen people". Is it good or bad? The question is rather pointless, since from the point of view of Jewish chosenness is determined not by ethnic and religious affiliation. Simply put, anyone who profess Judaism, is part of "the chosen people," regardless of where they lived and who his ancestors.

The book of Arthur Kistler (Arthur Koestler) "the Thirteenth tribe. The Khazar Empire and its heritage" (The Thirteenth Tribe. The Khazar Empire and its Heritage) then caused ambiguous reaction in the society. The son of a famous British historian Arnold Toynbee, journalist Philip Toynbee (Philip Toynbee), said that the author was placed prompt cat on a hot roof. "I have collected historical evidence that indicates that a large part of East and, consequently, the world - Jewry has Khazar Turkic and not of Semitic origin.

In the final Chapter, I tried to show how anthropological data complement the historical and refute however, a widespread view that the Jewish people leads the origin of the biblical tribe" - wrote in the summary of the book Koestler. The author argued that the ancestors of the Jews are genetically closer to the Hun, Uigur and Hungarian tribes than to have in common with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Koestler decided to deprive the anti-Semitism of its soil, destroying Semitic roots of the Jews. At least he admitted that one French biologist, who in turn told biographer of the writer. Born in the Austro-Hungarian Jew Koestler, trying to get rid of anti-Semitism, has earned praise from neo-Nazis. Among historians his version, as it was considered because of lack of evidence, met in the scientific community very cold reception. However, left open the question of the origin of the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. By the beginning of the twentieth century German-speaking European Ashkenazi Jews, was 90 percent of all Jews in the world. Recall another, although not as numerous sub-ethnic group of Jews are Sephardim, who lived on the Iberian Peninsula since the times of the Roman Empire and the early middle Ages and later scattered throughout the Mediterranean.

According to the most popular first of the so-called "Rhine theory", the Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of the Israeli-Canaanite tribes, under the pressure of the Muslims left the Promised Land in the seventh century ad and settled on the territories along the middle course of the river Rhine. In the 15th century about 50 thousand people migrated to Eastern Europe where they were waited with open arms because of the pogroms was not. By the beginning of the last century their number reached 8 million people.

The American geneticist Dr. Eran Elhaik (Eran Elhaik) from the medical school of a name of John Hopkins University, in the pages of the January issue of the journal Genome Biology and Evolution, States that the analysis of more than half a million single nucleotide mutations identified in the genomes 1237 people representing both the Jewish population of these territories (obsessional were examined the genomes of 8 representatives of Jewish communities, single family ties)and the Caucasus, Asia minor and middle Eastern ethnic groups.

Comparative analysis of genetic material was carried out in seven whether they have a common ancestor, degree of kinship, the share of impurities, the dynamics of genetic drift, geographical distribution mutated genes and scenarios of their migration. Among European Jews dominated the genome of the Caucasian and European (especially the southern European origin, although substantially the availability and the middle East.

The first analysis showed that European Jews are descended from Khazar ancestors who lived in the Northern Caucasus, on the territory of the Khazar Kaganate. This is the opinion of Dr. Alaica, which confirms the hypothesis made over thirty years ago Artur Kastner. The migration of Jews to Khazaria did not stop for four centuries, until the 13th century, i.e. before the Mongol invasion, when the Jews-the Khazars massively fled to Eastern Europe, a minority settled in Western Europe, where they mingled with compact living here Jewish diasporas. Therefore, the birthplace of most European Jews should be considered the territory of 560 km South of Semender or Samandar, the ancient capital of the Khazar Kaganate, located in the Caspian Dagestan.

The results of Dr. Alaica dealt a fatal blow to the "Rhine hypothesis", because he was able to explain the facts to which shrank this was put to the scrap theory. However, the new data are not yet also not able to answer a number of questions. How significant was the influence of the Iranian ancestors to modern Jews? If in the seventh century there was no mass migration from Palestine, where are there Jews?

Critics of Ashkenazi origin of the Khazar Kaganate note, first of all, what is not sure whether all the Khazars Jews or only the tip of the khanate. Further note that the Ashkenazi Jews speak Yiddish, who experienced the influence of the middle upper German language, and there are no data on the impact of the Caucasian languages. Although large Melkonyan A. Zayonchkovskaya believed Karaites closest today relatives of the ancient Khazar from a linguistic point of view. According to the scholar, this language remains the language of oral speech and religious worship in communities Karaites and its ancient dialect they call "language Kedar". "The earth Kedar" back in the 12th century was called the lands North of the Black sea.

In his "Historical grammar" M Mises, who studied vocabulary, phonetics and syntax of Yiddish in comparison with the main dialects of German Medieval concluded: "In Yiddish no linguistic components relating to the German border with France districts. A single word from the entire list of specific words Moselle-Frankish origin, composed Th. A. Ballas was not included in the dictionary of the Yiddish. Even the Central regions of Western Germany, located around Frankfurt, has not contributed to the formation of Yiddish.

Error historians often corrected by linguists. Traditional opinion about immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from France to the East belongs to the category of historical misconceptions waiting for the hotfix". It was written in 1924. In the opinion of the German linguist component caught in hybrid Hebrew language, was born in the Eastern regions of Germany, adjacent to the Slavic belt of Eastern Europe.