The Khazar hypothesis attacks Jewish claims to Israelite ancestry without evidence

Evidence

The Khazars were a people who once lived on the shores of the Black Sea and whose rulers converted to Judaism in the seventh century. A prominent strain in modern anti-Semitism has asserted that most European Jews were descended from these Khazarian converts. This thesis, for which no compelling evidence exists, has two advantages for anti-Semites: it deprived most Jews of any direct links to the biblical Israelites, while simultaneously branding them as uncivilized “Asiatics.” — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 706

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Khazar hypothesis and its two ideological functions.
• XREF: connects to: Anti-Semitism needed no organizational secret society because folklore supplied it — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 616