European Jews are Descended Almost Entirely from the Khazars

Hola, como esta? I am quite enjoyed by this theme and will debate the Con side as to "European Jews are Descended Almost Entirely from the Khazars", arguing against the statement. I will conduct this in an orderly and evidence based fashion, I will add assumptions as to general numbers though, but I will place these into the benefit of the Pro side. For Important statements that I rely on factual evidence I will provide quotations and references. Kind regards, WAM. General Statement: "European Jews are Descended Almost Entirely from the Khazars", such Jews being defined as Ashkenazi, as well as the definition of Descend are clear to me. Furthermore I acknowledge that there evidently are Khazar based Jews but I will argue the "Almost Entirely" in the statement strongly. Opening Statement: 1.) The Kingdom of Khazaria (Khazars) was a Khaganate of the mid to late first millennium CE (650-1048CE) which ultimately found its demise by the Kievan Rus'. Under the many Religions that were prominent Christianity, Islam, Buddhism but also Judaism were found. It is reported, that it was not uncommon for Khazars to be converted to Judaism, but archaeological proof of Conversion to Judaism is not apparent. However, as Judaism is a Religion older than the Kingdom of Khazar, Jewish communities existed in Europe before the founding of Khazar and still do today. The Term "Ashkenazi" though, from the Biblical "Ashkenaz" was used to describe a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates (Russell E. Gmirkin, Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch, T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 2006 pp.148, 149 n.57.). This area might be close to the area called the Kingdom of Khazaria, but historically the Cimmerians disappearing from history a mere 1200 years before the birth of Khazaria means there is no historical connection between the term Ashkenazi and Khazaria, up until the early 20th century when Theologian Samuel Krauss identified the Biblical location of Ashkenaz as Khazaria. This concludes Part 1 of my opening statement in arguing that the Term Ashkenazi has no sole connection with the kingdom of Khazaria, other than Location and not people. 2.) The number of Jewish followers that are defined as "Ashkenazi Jews" currently make up about 74% of the followers of Judaism. This number is estimated to be of around 10-11 million followers. But as 'recent' as 11th century CE only 3% of Jewish followers were defined as Ashkenazi, the rest as Sephardic, following to the 17th century with 2 out of 5 followers being defined as Ashkenazi, the other three as Sephardic, in the late 18th century Ashkenazi being 3 out of 5 and finally in the 1930 Ashkenazi making up 92% of the Jewish populous. Just a quick Mathematical calculation: Late 1700, 1 Million Jews, 600 Thousand are Ashkenazi. 1930's, 13 Million Jews, Nearly 12 Million being Ashkenazi This is an increase of 20 times the amount of followers over about 250 years. Just as a comparison, Christianity had an increase of merely 6.5, and Europe an population increase of an even smaller 4 times in the same time span. Not even looking at the impressive 20 times, or 13 times, if all Jewish followers are counted, which in my opinion might be possible for a small religious group such as Judaism, there is an issue from a minority of 3% becoming a majority of 92% while the previous majority diminishes, as well as the question as to if all these people came from Khazaria, a 'country' with a mere population of an assumed 1.4 million, with no Jewish majority. This being said that Ashkenazi are Jews living in the greater European Region. And here comes the problem: "Sometime in the early medieval period, the Jews of central and eastern Europe came to be called by this term ( Paul Kriwaczek, Yiddish Civilisation, Hachette 2011 p. 173 n. 9.)" ,regardless of origin, especially as there was a large number of followers in the European region, this definition would have increased the number of Ashkenazi drastically, even though they did not differ from other Semites, other than they were called by the general area in which they lived. There was a Jewish population present in Europe before the rise of the Khazar Kingdom and this population outnumbered the Jewish population of Khazar. In fact, German church historian Adolf von Harnack estimates a number of around 4 million Jewish followers during the 1st century CE and while this number may be excessive this is still more than twice as big of a basis as Khazar's population, with an estimated 1.5 million Jews in places other than the majority communities such as Egypt, Syria and Judea. This concludes Part 2 of my Opening Statement, arguing that the mere number of Jewish followers in Khazar had no or a mere impact on the current Jewish population of Europe. 3.) As to the third and final point, "Thus, analysis of Ashkenazi Jews together with a large sample from the region of the Khazar Khaganate corroborates the earlier results that Ashkenazi Jews derive their ancestry primarily from populations of the Middle East and Europe, that they possess considerable shared ancestry with other Jewish populations, and that there is no indication of a significant genetic contribution either from within or from north of the Caucasus region.", (as stated by Behar, Doron M.; Metspalu, Mait; Baran, Yael; Kopelman, Naama M.; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Gladstein, Ariella; Tzur, Shay; Sahakyan, Havhannes; Bahmanimehr, Ardeshir; Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Tambets, Kristiina; Khusnutdinova, Elza K.; Kusniarevich, Aljona; Balanovsky, Oleg; Balanovsky, Elena; Kovacevic, Lejla; Marjanovic, Damir; Mihailov, Evelin; Kouvatsi, Anastasia; Traintaphyllidis, Costas; King, Roy J.; Semino, Ornella; Torroni, Antonio; Hammer, Michael F.; Metspalu, Ene; Skorecki, Karl; Rosset, Saharon; Halperin, Eran; Villems, Richard; and Rosenberg, Noah A., "No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews" (2013). Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints. Paper 41) concluding the study of the here debated topic, notably saying that DNA from Ashkenazi was compared to DNA from the Khazar Khaganate by 30 geneticists, from 13 universities and academy's and 9 different countries, and there was no proof of the statement that European Jews are Descended Almost Entirely from the Khazars, or in fact significantly at all. Conclusion for part 3, recent Genetics testing provides the evidence that there is no substantial link between the Khazar and the Ashkenazi Jews. Closing Statement of the Opening Argument: As seen in part 1, I provided Historical evidence as to a lacking historical link between the word "Ashkenazi Jew" and the Khazar people as in the usage of the explanation and origin of the Term Ashkenazi, as well as the non correspondence of age specific Links between the Ashkenazi Judaism and the Khazar Kingdom. In part 2. I provided the mathematical evidence, summarized as population of the followers of Judaism at the time of the Kingdom of Khazar, not to forget the mathematical explanation as for the number of Ashkenazi and the rise of it, statistically decreasing the connection between the Khazar and the Ashkenazi people highly. Finally, in part 3, I provided quotes as to scientific evidence of the missing scientific evidence towards a substantial link, as expressed in "Almost Entirely", between Ashkenazi Jews and the Khazar Region, made by 30 geneticists and, as stated above, showing no connection. I conclusion I would state that the statement "European Jews are Descended Almost Entirely from the Khazars" is incorrect, as there is no substantial link to justify a "Almost Entirely", nor a simple but strict "Descended", but a "somewhat" would be acceptable. Muchas gracias! Thank you for reading, kind regards, looking forward to your argument, WAM Just for anyone interested, here is a link to the scientific study that I quoted, as well as links to the publishers other work in the Genetics field, some of which is quite interesting. http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu...