Bob Jacobson
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

Judaism is a religion, not a genetic strain. Jews have no single place of origin and in fact no definitive “homeland,” though the land of Israel de facto has assumed that title. So far as I know, no definitive DNA test has revealed otherwise, nor can it be so determined, unless one believes that Jews constitute a “race,” in which case we’re living in different universes.

My ancestors, it seems, were Varangi, Swedish Vikings invited by despairing Slavs in the 9th Century to what’s now the Ukraine and asked to bring law law and order to the land — which they did, forcefully. They founded Kiev in or around 1000 AD and established a monarchy that lasted until the 13th Century Mongolian conquest of the kingdom.

Many Varangi adopted a form of Judaism as their religion after a legendary liturgical contest between a priest and a rabbi resulted in a knockout blow by the rabbi. Others adopted Judaism after being exposed to it in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Empire, with which the Varangi conducted trade via the Danube River (and once almost conquered the city, before a truce was realized). Many stayed on as traders and others staffed the Emperor’s elite Varangian Guard. I assume the Jewish Varangi stayed on after the Ottoman’s conquest of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th Century, given the Ottoman’s tolerance for Judaism and Christianity, greater than in most surrounding regions.

My “Jewish” genetic markers aren’t Greek as you propose, rather they’re more Nordic than Hitler’s Nazis or today’s pretend-“Nordic” supremacists. So in the end, we agree, even from very different evidence, that anti-Semitic hatred almost always misses its mark.

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    Bob Jacobson

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    I’m for democracy, holism, innovation & self-determination. A patient, persistent progressive.