The Ashkenazi Jews who lived in Russian and Central Eastern Europe and later on migrated to Western and Southern Europe, are of Khazar origin and were converted to Judaism in the 9th century A.D. The Khazar Jews have no ethnic or historical connection with Palestine. The Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Palestine during the British Mandate and who committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people are descendants of the Khazars. The Jewish Encyclopaedia refers to the Khazars and their conversion to Judaism:

A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews of Russia. The kingdom of the Khazars was firmly established in most of South Russia long before the foundation of the Russian monarchy by the Varangians (855) ... Driven onward by the nomadic tribes of the steppes and by their own desire for plunder and revenge, they made frequent invasions into Armenia ...

In the second half of the sixth century the Khazars moved westward. They established themselves in the territory bounded by the Sea of Azov, the Don and the lower Volga, the Caspian Sea, and the northern Caucasus ... In 679 the Khazars subjugated the Bulgars and extended their sway further west between the Don and the Dnieper, as far as the head-waters of Donetz ... It was probably about that time that the Khaghan (Bulan) of the Khazars and his grandees, together with a large number of his heathen people, embraced the Jewish religion ...

It was one of the successors of Bulan, named Obadiah, who regenerated the kingdom and strengthened the Jewish religion. He invited Jewish scholars to settle in his dominions, and founded synagogues and schools. The people were instructed in the Bible. Mishnah, and Talmud ...

From the work Kitah al-Buldan written about the ninth century, it appears as if all the Khazars were Jews and that they had been converted to Judaism only a short time before that book was written ... It may be assumed that in the ninth century many Khazar heathens became Jews, owing to the religious zeal of King Obadiah. "Such a conversion in great masses says Chwolson (Izvyestiya o Khazarakh, p. 58), "may have been the reason for the embassy of Christians from the land of the Khazars to th Byzantine emperor Michael ...

The Jewish population in theentire domain of the Khazars, in the period between the seventh and tenth centuries, must have been considerable.,

The Russians invaded the trans-Caucasian country in 944 ... This seems to have been the beginning of the downfall of the Khazar kingdom ... The Russian prince Sviatoslav made war upon the Khazars ...( c. 974) the Russians conquered all the Khazarian territory east of the Sea of Azov. Only the Crimean territory of the Khazars remained in their possession until 101 6, when they were dispossessed by a joint expedition of Russians and Byzantines ... Many were sent as prisoners of war to Kiev, where a Khazar community had long existed ... Some wentto Hungary, but the great massof the people remained in their native country. Many members of the Khazarian royal family emigrated to Spain... (252)

Professor Graetz describes the Khazar kingdom as follows:

The heathen king of a barbarian people, living in the north, together with all his court, adopted the Jewish religion ... Their kings, who bore the title of Khakhan or Khaghan, had led these warlike sons of the steppe from victory to victory ...

It is possible that the circumstances under which the Khazarsembraced Judaism have beenembellished by legend, but the fact itself is too definitely proved on all sides to allow any doubt as to its reality. Besides Bulan, the nobles of his kingdom, numbering nearly four thousand, adopted the Jewish religion. Little by little it made its way among the people, so that most of the inhabitants of the towns of the Khazar kingdom were Jews ... At first the Judaism of the Khazars must have been rather superficial, and could have had but a little influence on their mind and manners...

A successor of Bulan, who bore the Hebrew name of Obadiah, was the first to make serious efforts to further the Jewish religion. He invited Jewish sages to settle in his dominions, rewarded them royally, founded synagogues and schools. caused instruction to be given to himself and his people in the Bible and the Talmud, and introduced a divine service modeled on that of the ancient communities ... After Obadiah came a long series of Jewish Khaghans, for according to a fundamental law of the state only Jewish rulers were permitted to ascend the throne... (253)

According to Dr. A. N. Poliak. Professor of Mediaeval Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, the descendants of the Khazars - "those who stayed where they were, those who emigrated to the United States and to other countries, and those who went to Israel — constitute now the large majority of world Jewry." (254)