[gothic-l] Re: Are EE Jews half-Goths?

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Dirk wrote :
>I think that there are a number of problems with your theory. Firstly,
> Yiddish is based largely on Middle High German, i.e. the language
>spoken in Germany some 600 years ago when the Jews left for Eastern
>Europe and not on East Germanic/Gothic. Secondly, there is no
>mentioning in the sources of Gothic raids to Georgia and even if there
>were, why would they have left their offspring behind in Eastern
>Europe? And finally, I am neither an expert nor Jewish, but is Judaism
>not first and foremost a religion? How do you think these decendants
>of Gothic/Caucasians obtained their Jewish religion?
>


Hi Dirk,
Those arguments make sense to me. I recall that some years ago
the well known Hungarian author Arthur Kösteler wrote a monograph
on a theory about the origin of the Eastern European Jews that had
taken his fancy. Actually, I never got around to reading the book,
but from reviews recall that its thesis must have seemed sufficiently
provocative to many. What he claims is that there once was a large group
of - not "Goths" - but rather "Khazars" who at one time or another
converted en masse to Judaism. What reasons Köstler may have quoted
I am not sure about, but I imagine it must have been political
reasons. Perhaps an effort not to be culturally absorbed by the
expanding Islam. The "Khazars", I think, also play an important role
in Ibn Fadlan's well known account of the life of Scandinavian vikings
in Russian - in the Wolga region I think it was. According to my dictionary
the Khazars are supposed to have been a Mongolian tribe, mentioned
in history between A.D. 193 and the 12th century. Exactly how the
Khazars relate to Turks, Tatars and Bulgars I am not sure about.
But of course, some Goths may have become absorbed by the Huns -
and who knows, maybe some of these tribes are to some degree descandants
of "Huns". And if you in this way adopt what may be called an
Asiatic or Eastern European "melting pot" theory, I suppose it is
possible to argue for any kind of "origin" theory - because it is
possible to find connections pointing in every possible direction.

Best regards
Keth



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