How did Ashkenazim become White-Eligible? (Jewish Communities of Color Part I) 

This channel is so important to educate people, jews and non-jews alike. Congrats!

As a Brooklyn-born Molecular Biologist, I am overjoyed with this magnificent synthesis of Jewish history and science. I cannot wait to bless my bookshelf with your forthcoming publications. Many thanks!

I always enjoy Dr. Abrahmson's lectures. Sir, you always take the high road through some contentious territory.

Quite possibly your best presentation yet Henry. Spoken from the heart, yet packed with much fascinating material. As Ashkenazi myself and having lived in Israel for two years I was always amazed at the diversity of the Jewish people around me. You answered many of the questions I had.

Hello Dr. Abramson!! First of all this lecture was very educational and very timely. Answered a lot of questions for us. And WOW!!!!!!! We were expecting to see our channel featured in your lecture. We are incredibly humbled and honored. Thank you so very much for your love and support. Your words warmed our hearts!🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 And yes we cried… 😊

Fascinating! Thank you so much for compiling this and sharing it with us

Baruch Hashem Rabbi! Thank you! Always terrific content.

Your videos are always well thought & illuminating. As a non-Jew & fellow human, wishing you all the best. Keep up the great work. Peace & love

One thing I really like is how you readily work with new research such as DNA evidence to come up with new and important conclusions.

Henry, you have been a great discovery. I've really enjoyed learning all this.

Wonderful topic, thank you! It makes sense to me since I had my dna done and Sephardi and Ashkenazi are both present as well as some Italian dna! Wow!

William Blake called Jews "black" though I don't think it was with necessarily negative connotations, more as a contrast to the English

Such an interesting presentation. Thank you!

Dr. Abramson, when do you think Koren might publish that 3-part Jewish history you referenced in the video? I can't wait to get my hands on it!

G-d bless your commentary. It speaks to me and my longing for clarity of the past and all the long years since the dispersal which I have also studied. You fill in so many great details. My thanks for your work and the great value of it.

Very good presentation as always Dr. Abramson 😀

I am an Ashkenazi Jew and I think the thing that has makesb it hard for us now has been the fact that we parade as though we are "White" when in fact it is more accurate to say that we (Askenazim) are mixed. Some of us are as White as are contemporary Europeans and others are of Middle Eastern backgrounds.

With regard to Moses, wife, her point of origin was given, meaning that she wasn’t Hebrew. However, if the Hebrews weren’t dark, then, when Miriam was cursed for speaking out against her brothers marriage to a Cushite woman, and she turned white, how can you turn white if you’re already white?

Wow thank you, I really like what you're doing with the channel!! This week's format was especially delightful

I discovered Dr Abramson channel and I learned a lot of things about my own country history especially the role of Jewish communities. One mistake usually done in media is to present everything as an experience of oppression and discrimination and ignore the ways in which people cooperated and created things together.

Something interesting is that we find an even earlier Jewish presence on the Rhine. There are two fourth century documents by Emperor Constantine, one giving the Jews of Cologne the right to serve in local government office, and the other, permission for Cologne to build a synagogue.

Where in the Torah does it say that Jews come in all colors and more importantly where in the Torah does it say that they are white?

Also so called black peoples are different complexions of brown. I have family members with hazel and green eyes.

Thank you for this fascinating topic!

Truly strong presentation that covered a lot of ground - from Benjamin of Tudela's observations, the BHI movement in the US, and the bottom line of Ashkenazic origins and identity. And then focusing on what's most important - both truth and acceptance. An objective and grounded approach that is lacking in such discussions from most sides.

This Guy is so Reasonable & Logical !!

Although this is probably just piecing together a "best guess" out of what we have, I commend your efforts. The topic can be quite nebulous and fuzzy. Loved the wholesale luggage line! :-) As a great person taught me when I was young, take what you're doing very seriously but never take yourself too serious.

Thank you so much Rabbi Abramson I always follow your lectures and I find it fascinating please keep up a good job May Hashem Bless you thank you again

Question: As Ashkenazi Jews have some Italian ancestry, is it possible that Italians have Jewish ancestry? There were millions of Jews in the Roman Empire, what happened to most of them, they didn’t disappear, did they become Christians?

Something to interesting about Ashkenazim “The Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish) Egyptian community was entirely a product of the modern era and the arrival of Jews fleeing persecution in Europe in the nineteenth century. From 1865 on, the Ashkenazim of Cairo maintained a separate communal organization. They were geographically concentrated in the Darb al-Barabira quarter, where Yiddish was spoken in the streets until the 1950s. The community maintained a Yiddish theater group and a Yiddish program on the Egyptian state radio until the 1950s.[6] The more established and generally wealthier Sephardi community looked down on the Ashkenazim as social inferiors.” unfortunately can not post it with link source a message automatically removed

43:15 beautiful words. Thank you for the amazing content. I love your channel.

What you explain has a very good sense. Thank you

How would you explain it if it was translated as “I am black, and comely”

This has always confused me. Doing ancestry research there is almost always a category for race. Since Jews are viewed as a race I never understood why they are not counted. It would help to determine the progression and inclusion in communities. I don't know how that is done. This helps to clear that up.

This is fascinating stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for this Rabbi, we need more unity and understanding. Baruch HaShem!

Im Black ànd Im Jewish. Bless you for you are à blessing to this world ahk

What about European history books? They are very clear and accurate when describing what the people of the house of "judah" looked like when they were being persecuted in Spain and Portugal, and how they were sold as slaves into Africa. I presume that you are something like a scholar, to be more accurate, I would say that you're scholar - ish, and you're very careful not to show or say too much about truth in what you're teaching, in other words, you are dancing and giving half truths.

Professor Abramson, I heard this odd theory many years ago, and I wonder what you think of it. This theory posits that during the time of the shoftim (Judges), specifically the civil wars, when the tribe of Benyamin was almost wiped out, some Jews set sail for France and settled there. This would pre-date the Assyrian war by at least one thousand years. What's your opinion on this?

@Prof Henry Abramson: I just subscribed. U have a new fan. 😊 Shalom 🙏🏾

There are some other aspects and studies which I think should be discussed. There are plenty of Levantine peoples whose skin colour is also quite pale, for example, plenty of Alawites, Druze and Samaritans, although not all. Further, there's a study from 2004 which compares ancestry as we can tell it from DNA between different levantine groups, and especially many Jewish communities to that of the Samaritans, a nation whose own narrative, very much in agreement with the scholarly consensus about it, says that they are the descendants of the Israelites who were not *all* exiled by Assyria. The research pretty much agrees with the notion that Sephardic and Askenazi Jews are indeed closely related to the Samaritans. That is, we have a nation who shares ancestry with Jews on account of both genetics and the record of their own history, completely native to the Levant unless we consider our bible's narrative about them, the way I see it, their appearance should be considered as well. Some of them do indeed look very "middle eastern", so to speak, but also plenty whose skin colour is on the lighter side, for example the Israeli celebrity Sofi Tzdaka. In addition we do have colored paintings of Jews painting themselves from antiquity, as you surely know, such as the amazing painting in the synagogue of Dura Europas, and I'm positive that there are some Egyptian paintings who depict all kind of near east people from roughly the same period. Lastly there are some ancient arts which depict nearby nations which are considered very close in terms of culture and indeed descent, for example the bust of the Carthaginian leader Hanibaal. My point being, I think that the image you depicted about the original way Jews looked like was too simplistic and did not take into account some very relevant information.

Dear sir, I have a question for you. If you say part of the answer to "Jewish whiteness" is due to the fact that Jews living in Europe have been "whitened" through their long stay in the West, Is it possible that they were also darkened during their 400 years in Africa?

Fantastic webinar, thank you!

Dear Dr. Abramson, Thank you for this fascinating video!! I always enjoy learning from you!!

Numbers 12 9. So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed. 10. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, (as white as snow). Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. 11. So Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord! (Please do not lay this sin on us,) in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. 12. Please do not (let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed) when he comes out of his mother’s womb!”

Thank you for another fascinating lecture.

I’m really enjoying your channel and lectures . Thank you!

Grateful for your love and acceptance and messages! ❤

Wonderful, informative video. Thank you, from Beersheva, Israel.

I wonder about the Italian DNA mix itself in 800. I think there was a sizable Germanic admixture with the Longobardian invasions, but old stock Italian DNA was already pretty mixed, if I'm not mistaken, with some Roman, Gaul, North African, Eastern Mediterranean, etc...

Excellent lecture. Thank you!

Is there a place we purchase a book on his travels? Is Benjamin of Tudela the one known as the Jewish Marco Polo?

Glad this topic is covered. Last video someone trolled me in the comments for asking about DNA research following migratory patterns. Not that I can't slay a troll 😄

On my mothers side, My grandmothers last name is Curiel ( sephardic origin from spain) and my grandfather who is spanish also but looks very ashkenazim, i am unsure of his jewishness. Does anyone have any good resources to suggest so that i may dig a little deeper into my own jewishness? Im trying to trace back my families sephardic jewishness .

In your best opinion how did this mixing occur? Did orthodox Jewish women take white proud Italian husbands in there own country and converted them. Or did Desperate defeated Jewish men take on multiple wives and handmaidens as there fore fathers did. Is that how the language was also lost wow so many questions I have but have been afraid to ask for fear of being labeled antisemite. I’m so glad you opened this dialog.

You only get 50% of each parents’ DNA. Which DNA you get from them is random.

Henry gives such interesting webinars supported by remarkable facts from a variety of sources! Highly recommend Henry! 👍

Love your channel bro

There are many ways of looking at the topic of focus…. I am a well seasoned traveller and have visited the Cairo museum and what people see on line is not what is in the museum itself… eg the pictures of the ancient Hebrews and other tribes in Egypt of the time is not what is depicted in the video… the Hebrews depicted are dark brown skinned …. Not light skinned… we must remember we are talking about one of the hottest places on the planet for people to work out in the sun at such extreme measures… even the hair from the wigs in the museum are Afro in origin… One thing I will say is that dna doesn’t lie… original Arabs were very dark skinned eg marsh Arabs were in most cases as dark as Africans… Kush was not Ethiopia Kush is what we today call Sudan… Ethiopia did exist then as a country only as a continent…. Maps from the 16th century and before show evidence of this …. We know that Europeans do not come from the region of today known as the Middle East (a misnomer) as this region is an extension of Africa known as Canaan…. Dna shows that Ashkenazi Jews are of European decent eg from Eastern Europe as do Sephardic Jews…. As said Jews can be any colour … we also have to look at blending or passing … an Ashkenazi Jew can pass or blend into European or western society … Jews of colour cannot… Askenaz if part of modern day Germany not the same as the tribe mentioned in Genesis 10…as that tribe is under Japheth… Viewing photographs of Jews and Arabs as far back as the 18th century shows eg Arabs as being dark skinned not like the Arabs today… as we know that most Arabs from today are mixed with ottoman and some European dna …. Quite a mixed multitude… Skin colour doesn’t change over time unless it’s genetically altered by interrelationships…. Eg African people have maintained their skin colour and ethnicity since day dot with very little watering down unless slavery was involved … this is very common too in Asia and parts of Europe as dna highlights… We don’t see Africans or Asians or orientals or Europeans changing colour unless as mentioned above… Most ethnic communities didn’t move out of their villages or mix out as most of the world throughout the centuries are very tribal or fiercely tribal… Judaism today is matrilineal but according to Torah it has always been patrilineal… Also we mustn’t forget that if a group professing to be a Jew or a Hebrew believes in the NT or jesus then they are christians. Simple . I would love to hear peoples opinions on what I have stated and I always like to refer to Torah or Tanakh as a back up too… Interesting video

I grew up in a black Christian church that believes in the Sabbath and feast days. We do not preach that we are the original Jews. Some of the people I grew up with in that church have left to become Hebrew Israelites so I have more than a few that have tried to convince me that I’m Jewish or Israelite. I have never believed it and now that I’ve taken a DNA test I know I’m not. I still believe like I was raised but I don’t attend church as much due to the major support, by members and clergy, for BLM, modern black culture and liberalism/Democrat Party ideology.

Thanks so much for another great video. Recently I had me DNA done, & although I knew my heritage was Ashkenazi (& I already knew the village in Germany where they came from) no actual German DNA came up. However a substantial amount of Italian DNA was present, which came as a complete shock to me. Perhaps the information you’ve presented in this video is the reason & I’m a descendant of that particular group? Toda raba.

Shalom, I saw this video a few weeks ago. I was surprised to read in the Magazine Mishpacha (in hebrew) a Rav Stern the Rav of Ezrat Torah in Jerusalem bring a RADAK stating that after the event of "Pelegish B' Giva" 1000 people from the tribe of Benjamin left Israel and settled in Germany? Have you ever seen that?? Thx

Abramson, can you please get a Biblical map and a Biblical Timeline? 24:15 The Kingdom of Kush in Northern Sudan had nothing to do with Ethiopia. Do you realize that we have DNA samples from Meroitic period? These people were originally from the Neolithic Levant Natufians, North African and East African admixture. "4000-year-old hair from the Middle Nile highlights unusual ancient DNA degradation pattern and a potential source of early eastern Africa pastoralists"

Dr. Abramson: The Jews coming from the Spanish Inquisition to the British Isles were "white" eligible. Except for when the gene for dark skin color came to the surface and all the way to the present day you were and are considered non -white. My father was incarcerated in North Carolina in a prison for Negros because of his dark skin. Skin color was usually the primary way of determining your race. This was very true in early twentith century when eugenics was a hot topic all over the world. You could lose and your family also everything simply because your skin color was a shade dark. I was amazed to find out that I was neither American Indian or Negro as I had been told. I do not have genetic structurings from either. Thank you for your lectures.

I always smile at least 3 😁 times in your soliloquies...even though your information is worthy of attention.

Thank you for touching on this topic …

your lessons are so so interesting! i’m so sorry you get nasty comments, we all appreciate you! i love how you use the torah as a way to analyze history

Also with respect to genetics, you failed to mention the fascinating and clear differences between patriarchal and matriarchal DNA. Why?

Love the spirit of your discussions. Bless you.

Color and eligibility are topics occasionally spoken about, but they conjure up discrimination and some of the bad angels in man. This particular topic reminds me of a verse in Song of Songs 1:6 that reads in Hebrew: אל־תראוני שאני שחרחרת ששזפתני השמש בני אמי נחרו־בי שמני נטרה את־הכרמים כרמי שלי לא נטרתי

This is very informative. I am very curious about Jewish history and this explains a lot. ❤From India.

....And he will dwell in the tents of Shem....(Genesis 9:27)

I appreciate your lessons!

Ok right here Dr. Abramson. This is the discussion we're supposed to be having. Not one sided understandings. But thanks for actually talking about it. You know I Always come to your discussions first.

I always enjoy your lectures, they are always thoughtful, kind, and informative. I left Christianity 7 years ago to start practicing the Torah. I did not find out until several years later my ancestors were Crypto Jews, which explains my previously unexplained yearning for the Torah. I studied the Tanakh for several years independently and chose Karaite Judaism as a way to practice my faith, but when I tried to attend the only synagogue in my small town, which was Reform, I was told I was not welcome because “Jews must keep a gate around the culture.” It was hurtful because my ancestors fled Spain hundreds of years ago to practice our faith and were later forcibly converted by Spanish conquistadors in Mexico, making my ancestors “marranos.” To be told I’m not Jewish because I choose to keep Torah differently than rabbinic Judaism when there are Jews who don’t practice halakhah at all, made me feel a deep kinship to Uriel DaCosta for what he must’ve suffered. Lest our people forget, until Mashiach comes, we are still in the diaspora. So for those who are fortunate enough to know their Jewish history, have compassion on the ones whose heritage has been stolen from them, either by the Catholic Inquisition or the slave trade. The Torah explicitly commands kindness to the stranger, and one Torah for all. That might be because that “stranger” might actually be your brother. Shalom 🙏

Thank you for your important work in preserving and educating this ignorant and bigoted world.

I needed this

Avodah Zarah 11a, explain why this literature says the Kelonimos’s are converts. This totally debunks your Founder Event theory.

DNA from Esau how could they tell them apart from Jacob??? Twins

Im a light skinned jew of ashkenazi heritage yet ive never passed as “white european”, just passed as a light skinned eastern mediteranean like greek, turkish, or lebanese.

Excellent video, thank you.

Why no reference to the Dura-Europos synagogue wall art?

I think this is very dangerous for the attempt to insert at 32:40 these neighboring people marry into this small group of Jews. What color was the small group, what tribe did they belong to. I ask this question because it's misleading. The other point is you take a defense move in stating that Jews were shipped to Rome and were slaves. This is pure speculation and no known sources to corroborate your story. If you have any sources to provide I will greatly appreciate it. This is not to my knowledge found in history. I think your trying to debunk the Hebrew Israelite stands that Deuteronomy 28 specifies those being sent away in ships were referring to Africans Jews being they were sent in ships. I think many white jews are looking for answers when confronted with this passage and now out of nowhere they find a grave and want to position the jewish people as the people in the scripture.

Hi Rabbi, in the talk you say the Jews of Ancient Israel would have the skin tone probably about those in Iraq, but the people you use as Iraqis are Arab Iraqis, already after the Islamic conquest. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use Assyrian Iraqis, since they have less Arabian admixture? The Assyrians are also directly mentioned in the Tanach without reference to a different skin tone, so it would be reasonable to think they were close. Here’s a video of Assyrians from a couple years back: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ed1NnoNwMLU.html They are not the “Mexican” skin tone you mention, but slightly paler. It would stand to reason the Jews of ancient Israel were about this shade as well

A great lecture and video Dr. Abramson, thank you so much, fascinating.

Thank you Dr. Abramson. I'm interested in all human migrations. One puzzle I have: why was this group exogamous in Israel & Italy for thousands of years & in many other continents but endogamous after 800 CE in the Rhineland?

Finally someone is talking about this. Being thought of as Irish ☘️, most of my life, I found it a bit annoying ( nothing against the Irish) lol. My Sister was mistaken for being Swedish smh 🤦‍♀️

Thanks for addressing this topic. I would like to add some more points to take in consideration: 1. There a lot of examples of Middle Eastern people who are pale and can pass as white. there are many Christian Lebanese and Palestinians, Samaritans, Druze, Syrians and also Iraqis and more. Today the Middle Eastern stereotype is of an Arab looking person but we should remember that Arabs are originally from the Arabian Peninsula and during the Islamic conquests they had some mixing with the other peoples in the Middle East but it not the original look of the peoples in this area. 2. You mentioned Scarlet Johansson, which by Jewish law is considered Jewish but if we look genetic wise she is only half Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and the other half (father) is Scandinavian, so I think that the paradox is that Jewish assimilation in the united states is a also a reason for a lot of antisemitism because really there are so many examples of celebrities with some Jewish ancestry that identify as Jews but genetically wise they are not fully Jewish and I think it can make a "whiter" image of Jew in the eyes of people who don’t know the Jewish people that well. Not that there are no fully Ashkenazi people that can pass as white but there are also tons of examples of Ashkenazi Jews that can pass as fully middle eastern. They have really a wide range of phenotypes and tones. 3. The genetic field is something that is still evolving and there are always new findings. I think there should be more researches about Middle Easterners because I think at the moment DNA researches and knowledge are mostly about Europeans and it might effect the results and the conclusion of researches. Italians, especially south Italians have also a middle eastern admixture which may affect the similarity between them and Ashkenazim. 4. I think that every group that promote hate shouldn't be accepted to the Jewish people. these Israelites should be treated the same as white supremacist. there is not difference to me. if skin color is the only thing that matters to them, they can go to #ell.

It seems that Rashi and Ramban disagree on Avraham Avinu's birthplace. According to Ramban Avraham Avinu was born in an area in Turkey near Syria- Charan. He did go to Ur Kasim at some point.

Beautiful lecture

Ruth the Moabite is from the Lot family, so she has exactly the same genetics as our father Abraham. I really don't like it when they say Ruth to talk about different genetics from the Hebrews.

You are nicely groomed and Charismatic in your disposition.

I love dna and have studied so many cultures under that banner and find that most north Italians are light skinned and mixed with other Northern Europeans as opposed to southern Mediterranean or southern Italians who are darker in colour

I enjoy almost all your teachings, including this one, which I think is a very important topic. However, I hope to see some Jews of Color guest lecturing as you move through this series.

I did my DNA through Living DNA I'm Ashkinazi by my Mom, she has red hair, from Siberia Russia, I am Okinawan Jewish, soon to become the first Okinawan Rabbi in Oct. 2023

Regarding Song of Solomon 1:5, is it normal for vav to mean "but"? Do we have plenty of other hebrew interpretations where we make vav "but"? I have a modern Hebrew JDS education so of course I've encountered vav to mean "and" a million times, but never but. Perhaps is this a European biased translation. Because "I am black AND beautiful" sounds much more powerful, then "I am beautiful despite the fact I am black."

So is modern Judaism matriarchal (according to the Oral Traditions / Halaka) compared to the Torah which at main is patriarchal in its reckoning of a person’s nativeness? Perhaps a separate study needs to be done on how the reckoning of someone’s “Jewishness” (native born of Israel) evolved from patriarchal (Torah) to matriarchal (Oral law) as I find it hard to believe that a priest (Kohen/Son of Aaron) as an example can be reckoned to be “Jew” or not to be “Jew” based on his mother’s genealogy. That for me represents a fundamental shift from the teachings of Moshe.

Dr Abramson, I think this is one of your most fascinating lectures to date. I was aware that at the height of Rome's hegemony Jews were brought to Rome from within the Empire. Your narrative would account for the existence of an admixture, a trace, of "Italian" DNA in my family's ancestral profile. As a young man and avid reader of history, I must have been one of the first to read Arthur Koestler's 'Thirteenth Tribe' when first published in 1976. Little did I imagine then that Koestler's Khazarian thesis, now debunked, would be hijacked by a motley crew of antisemites out there...

I am Jewish/Hebrew of colour and found this a topic of fascination for years whilst looking at the world around me whilst studying Torah and Tanakh and in this topic Jews of African decent are very much discriminated against in not just Judaism but the world at large. Even though race isn’t an issue in the eyes of TMH it’s always been an issue amongst people especially of people who are ‘white’ against those who are not….. I’m not saying that people of colour cannot be racist… but getting to the facts… in Exodus 12 v 38 it is stated that A mixed multitude left Mizrahim to go to the promised land…. That tells me that the Hebrews leaving Egypt in Africa were from different tribes located in that region at the time being mistreated by the Mizrahim…. We cannot ignore the fact that in the world we live in people are primarily judged by the way they look or their skin colour… especially in the west.. To make life easier I would define people in this world as being of African South Asian Europeans or oriental or mixed in origin… we all fall into one of these categories…. Whether we like it or not. I don’t use the black and white or yellow to describe people as I find it racist .. colonialistic and not correct…. Afro people are not black …. They are infact many shades of brown to be precise….TMH identifies people by tribes… Therefore …. I would agree that Hebrew or Jews can be any colour…. TMH didn’t have an issue with whom Moses Joseph or Abraham etc married outside of the tribe as long as the women converted be the children are raised according to the laws etc of TMH.

Ok so y’all don’t wanna deal with Revelation 2:9 & 3:9 but what about the passage in the Deuteronomy 28:64-68?