Editing Ashkenazi Jews (section)

===The Khazar hypothesis===
{{Main|Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry}}
In the late 19th century, it was proposed that the core of Ashkenazi Jews were genetically descended from a [[Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry|hypothetical Khazarian Jewish diaspora]] who had migrated westward from modern Russia and Ukraine into  modern France and Germany (as opposed to the currently held theory that Jews migrated from France and Germany into Eastern Europe). The hypothesis is not corroborated by historical sources,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hGILHIgEl7cC&q=any_historical|title=The Karaites of Galicia: An Ethnoreligious Minority Among the Ashkenazim, the Turks, and the Slavs, 1772–1945|first=Mikhail|last=Kizilov|author-link=Mikhail Kizilov|date=2 July 2018|publisher=Brill|via=Google Books|isbn=978-90-04-16602-8|access-date=26 March 2017|archive-date=26 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326150435/https://books.google.com/books?id=hGILHIgEl7cC&q=any_historical|url-status=live}}</ref> and is unsubstantiated by genetics,<ref name="WayneState2013" /> but it is still occasionally supported by scholars who have had some success in keeping the theory in the academic consciousness.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rubin |first1=Rita |title='Jews a Race' Genetic Theory Comes Under Fierce Attack by DNA Expert |url=http://forward.com/news/israel/175912/jews-a-race-genetic-theory-comes-under-fierce-atta/?p=all |website=The Forward |language=en |date=7 May 2013 |access-date=10 May 2022 |archive-date=12 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412010027/https://forward.com/news/israel/175912/jews-a-race-genetic-theory-comes-under-fierce-atta/?p=all |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="google.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iJN90t2gN6hxGiFQuBv-gYQE060w?docId=CNG.52483183e4e0f60d963361c17572c848.81 |title=Gene study settles debate over origin of European Jews |agency=[[Agence France-Presse|AFP]] |date=16 January 2013 |access-date=4 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601233030/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iJN90t2gN6hxGiFQuBv-gYQE060w?docId=CNG.52483183e4e0f60d963361c17572c848.81 |archive-date=1 June 2013 }}</ref>

The theory has sometimes been used by Jewish authors such as [[Arthur Koestler]] as part of an argument against traditional forms of antisemitism (for example the claim that "the Jews killed Christ"), just as similar arguments have been advanced on behalf of the [[Crimean Karaites]]. Today, however, the theory is more often associated with [[antisemitism]]<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|1992|p=242}}.</ref> and [[anti-Zionism]].<ref>{{harvnb|Vogt|1975}}</ref>

A 2013 trans-genome study carried out by 30 geneticists, from 13 universities and academies, from nine countries, assembling the largest data set available to date, for assessment of Ashkenazi Jewish genetic origins found no evidence of Khazar origin among Ashkenazi Jews. The authors concluded:

{{blockquote|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.}}

The authors found no affinity in Ashkenazim with north Caucasus populations, as well as no greater affinity in Ashkenazim to south Caucasus or Anatolian populations than that found in non-Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jewish Middle Easterners (such as the Kurds, Iranians, Druze and Lebanese). The greatest affinity and shared ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews were found to be (after those with other Jewish groups from southern Europe, Syria, and North Africa) with both southern Europeans and Levantines such as Druze, Cypriot, Lebanese and Samaritan groups.<ref name="WayneState2013" />