Here is a thought-provoking analysis of current events, drawing on genetic research and historical facts to challenge common assumptions. This is not a comprehensive study, but rather an introduction to the topic and a starting point for further inquiry. By asking questions and gaining a basic understanding, readers can delve deeper and conduct their own research.
Table of Contents:
What is Judaism?
Religion
If Judaism is a religion or faith, then claims of an ancestral and ethnic origin of the Jewish community would fall into the category of an unsubstantiated narrative. Judaism is a faith with a 4000-year history, marked by migrations, conversions, and integrations with various peoples and ethnicities. As a result, the Jewish community today is multi-ethnic in nature.
Ethnicity
If it is an ethnicity, it would mean that it is not possible to convert to Judaism or from Judaism to another religion. Being is therefore reduced to genetic and physiological aspects.
Then, if You’re Jewish you can’t stop being Jewish!
Ethno-religious groups
On the Internet you can find some who call it an ethno-religious group, but without any scientific basis or logical thesis.
The Jewish People are an ethno-religious group and nation originating in the Land of Israel, which is the current location of the State of Israel. Jews lived under Jewish self-rule in the Land of Israel off and on for many centuries in ancient times. […]
Because, logically, faith is linked to the arbitrariness of man and he is free to choose his faith or to convert to another.
Ethnicity, on the other hand, is closely linked to genetics and physiological characteristics.
Genetic Studies and Jewish Lineage
Many Jews claim to have an ancestral rather than a religious connection going back to the Kingdom of Israel.
- But what does it mean?
- Is it a spiritual connection?
- Is it a genealogical connection?
- Is it a genetic link?
The Jewish Community Today
The Jewish community today is more multi-ethnic than ever, consisting of:
- Ashkenazi Jews: Predominantly from Central and Eastern Europe, they developed a unique cultural and linguistic identity (Yiddish) while retaining Jewish religious practices.
- Sephardic Jews: Originally from Spain and Portugal, they spread to North Africa, the Ottoman Empire and beyond after the Spanish Inquisition.
- Mizrahi Jews: These Jews come from Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Syria, and retain cultural practices distinct from those of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
What genetics says
Jews and Arabs Share Recent Ancestry | Science | AAAS
- Shared ancestry: Genetic analyses show that many contemporary Jewish populations share common Y chromosome haplotypes with local Arab populations, suggesting a common ancestry going back several thousand years. For example, over 70% of Jewish men studied have Y chromosomes closely related to those of Arab men.
The population genetics of the Jewish people – PMC
- Admixture patterns: Research shows significant European admixture among Ashkenazi Jews (estimated between 30-60%), while North African Jewish groups show varying degrees of Middle Eastern and European ancestry. This admixture reflects their interactions with host populations in their respective regions.
So Who Are the Jews?
A Matter of Words
The problem is that even the scientific community is not helping to clarify the issue.
For the Western community, a “Jew” is a different being.
But if a “Jew” is different by faith, then the term used by scientists makes little sense.
On the other hand, if a ‘Jew’ is different by ethnicity, then that would mean that he has genetic traces of the people in the Middle East.
We also know that not all Jews migrated from the Middle East to Europe and America.
So this ethnic group is still present in the Middle East, and we also know that many of them have settled throughout the Middle East and Africa.
History also shows that there have been mass conversions to Christianity and then to Islam.
In the centuries that followed, the region experienced political and economic unrest, mass conversions to Christianity (and subsequent Christianization of the Roman Empire, and the religious persecution of minorities.[94][95] The immigration of Christians, the emigration of Jews, and the conversion of pagans, Jews and Samaritans, contributed to a Christian majority forming in Late Roman and Byzantine Palestine.[96][97][98][99]
Over time, the existing population adopted Arab culture and language and much converted to Islam.[97] The settlement of Arabs before and after the Muslim conquest is thought to have played a role in accelerating the Islamization process.[103][104][105][106]
Palestinians – Wikipedia
Jews or just Middle-Easters?
Here are some examples on how event the scientific community make confusion in using inaccurate words.
Jews and Arabs Share Recent Ancestry | Science | AAAS
Jews are the genetic brothers of Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, study finds | ScienceDaily
So, when you read a scientific article with this inaccuracy, it is likely that they are studying people who are now considered Westerners with genetic characteristics that link them to ethnic-Middle Easterners.
Who Are the Palestinians?
Another question that comes to mind is related to debates about rights on Palestinian land:
Where do the Palestinians come from?
The majority of Palestinians have more deeply rooted ancestral ties than other Jews who have emigrated after the 1948.
Following the 1948 establishment of Israel, the use and application of the terms “Palestine” and “Palestinian” by and to Palestinian Jews largely dropped from use. For example, the English-language newspaper The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post.
The Palestinians were Christians, Jews and Muslims and had lived together for centuries. They shared culture respecting each other’s religious choices.
Israel State
Who Wanted It?
If we look at today’s flag of Israel and do some research, we will discover that it is the flag of the Zionist party founded in 1897 during the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland, led by Theodor Herzl.
This party was founded to develop a nationalist plan proposed in Herzl’s 1896 pamphlet: “Der Judenstaat“.
Failed Attempts at Colonisation
No one knew where to go. There were several unsuccessful attempts to pursue this nationalist aspiration.
Early Emigration Efforts
- W.D. Robinson: Proposed Jewish settlements in the upper Mississippi region (1819).
- Abraham Benisch & Moritz Steinschneider: Moral efforts to organize Jewish emigration in Prague (1835).
- Mordecai Noah: Attempted to establish a Jewish refuge on Grand Isle, New York (1825).
- Failures: Early nation-building efforts by Cresson, Benisch, Steinschneider, and Noah were unsuccessful.
Notable Initiatives in Palestine
- Sir Moses Montefiore:
- Established a colony for Jews in Palestine.
- Judah Touro’s Bequest: 1854
- Funded Jewish residential settlement in Palestine; Montefiore was executor.
- Mishkenot Sha’ananim: First Jewish residential settlement and almshouse built outside Jerusalem (1860).
- Laurence Oliphant: Attempted to bring Jewish proletariat from Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire to Palestine (1879 and 1882) but failed.
Zionism Is an Outdated and Anachronistic Aspiration
When we speak of today’s state of Israel, we cannot recognise its creation without the founding Zionist political party.
The Zionist party is ultimately a political body created in Europe and supported by the West.
What I have been able to deduce from a lot of research is the historical context in which the Zionist movement was born, in the 19th century.
This century, in fact, is very particular for two factors:
- European colonialism
- Charles Darwin’s theories and Social Darwinist ideas
- Anti-Semitic sentiments
Zionism is a movement that emerged in an era where wars and colonial expansion were frequently justified using ideas of superior civilization or racial evolution. It is a result of this historical context.
In Europe the notion of white racial superiority emerged in the 1850s, propagated most assiduously by the comte de Gobineau and later by his disciple Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who first used the term “Aryan” to mean the “white race.”
Aryan | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
There is no coincidence that Nazism used pseudo-scientific methods to enforce its narrative and to classify Jews.
But today with more advanced scientific researches we can understand that we can’t classify “Jews” as an ethnicity looking to religion and culture.
Until today Zionists try to justify their narrative talking about: safety of jews, ancestrality with ancient Israelis etc…
A Safe Place
If, on the other hand, it is as the narrative of a safe place for the Jewish community suggests, then this too has no logical basis, for two reasons:
- The Jewish community was already present and firmly integrated in Palestine because they shared the same ethnographic origins.
- The Jewish community was also intrinsically integrated throughout the Middle East: let us remember that many Arabs were Jews, such as Jewish Yemenites, Jewish Iraqis and many others.
A Jewish Homeland
The narrative of having a homeland for all Jews is also baseless. It is a narrative that from the very beginning was built in bad faith.
In fact, even in the early days of the first attempts at colonial settlement, stories were told about the difficulty of the undertaking, because Palestine was deserted and had a difficult climate.
Palestine was portrayed as a deserted place inhabited only by Bedouins and uncivilised peoples.
The Narrative De-bunked
Palestine 1920: The Other Side of the Palestinian Story | Al Jazeera World Documentary – YouTube
Zionism Is Not Judaism
Moreover, Zionism has little to do with Judaism, as many professors, rabbis and Jews claim.
In fact, Zionism is mainly carried out by Jews who consider themselves secular (Jews who are not religious, whatever that means).
“Judaism and Zionism are as different from each other as the earth and the sky; they contradict each other. Judaism is about submitting to Almighty God, while Zionism is the name for extreme nationalism that aims to possess everything related to forming a nation”.
“Zionism is the ideology of the state of Israel, which tries to present itself as the Jewish state. They claim that they represent Jewish religion, they claim that they are speaking in the name of God. … That’s not true”.
Rabbi Weiss
Conclusions
After analysing the different points of view and materials.
- Whether Judaism is a religion or an ethnicity.
- Ancestrality: the genealogical and genetic link
- The attempts in the creation of the Zionist state of Israel
- The difference between Judaism and Zionism
- The pioneering narrative of Palestine as a ‘land without a people, for a people without a land’.
One can see more clearly the confusion instilled in not understanding the matter, especially to those outside the story.
The narrative is first and foremost Anglo-Saxon and should surprise no one.
In fact, it is part of Anglo-Saxon culture and history to carry out colonialist policies outside their own continent: America, Africa, India, China, etc..
Palestine is one of the last surviving British colonies, as the historic document of the ‘Balfour Declaration’ proves.
The issue is more than clear, but if we do not have the means and the intellectual capacity to question the information we are shown.
We would end up victims of an Orwellian situation, locked in a bubble from the outside world.
Ongoing Debate
Given the complexity and evolving nature of this topic, this article may not cover every aspect comprehensively.
We aim to provide a solid foundation for further exploration and encourage readers to engage critically with the topic.
We welcome contributions, insights, and resources that can enhance the discussion. If you notice any discrepancies or areas for improvement, please feel free to reach out, and we will gladly consider revisions.
This version invites discussion and feedback while emphasizing the article’s role as a starting point for further inquiry.
Sources:
- Jews and Arabs Share Recent Ancestry | Science | AAAS
- Jews are the genetic brothers of Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, study finds | ScienceDaily
- Jewish–Arab affinities are gene-deep – The Lancet
- Genetic studies of Jews – Wikipedia
- The population genetics of the Jewish people – PMC
- Zionism – Wikipedia
- Zionism from Its Inception to 1948 – Jewish Studies – Oxford Bibliographies
- Are Jews a Nation or a Religion?
- Palestine 1920: The Other Side of the Palestinian Story | Al Jazeera World Documentary – YouTube
- The letter that led to the founding of Israel | Featured Documentary – YouTube
- National Geographic Magazine – 1947
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