site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 18, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

8
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I never bothered to look too deeply into it, but the Khazar upper class were known to be redheaded and the stereotype of Jews in the Middle Ages were that they were redheads. Jews in antiquity were not known to be redheaded, and Europeans didn’t have a tradition of symbolically representing character with hair color, so this could be construed as evidence that early European Jews were Khazar in origin. IIRC the hats that the Hasids wear are also common to the region of khazaria but I could be wrong on that. I don’t think anyone disputes that the khazar upper class converted, they only dispute that this did not significantly affect the gene pool of Ashkenazim.

Aren't Ashkenazi Jews genetically mostly Eastern European anyways?