The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age

by Steven Weitzman

The first major history of the scholarly quest to answer the question of Jewish originsThe Jews have one of the longest continuously recorded histories of any people in the world, but what do we actually know about their origins? While many think the answer to this question can be found in the Bible, others look to archaeology or genetics. Some skeptics have even sought to debunk the very idea that the Jews have a common origin. In this book, Steven Weitzman takes a learned and lively look at what we know—or think we know—about where the Jews came from, when they arose, and how they came to be.Scholars have written hundreds of books on the topic and have come up with scores of explanations, theories, and historical reconstructions, but this is the first book to trace the history of the different approaches that have been applied to the question, including genealogy, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and genetics. Weitzman shows how this quest has been fraught since its inception with religious and political agendas, how anti-Semitism cast its long shadow over generations of learning, and how recent claims about Jewish origins have been difficult to disentangle from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He does not offer neatly packaged conclusions but invites readers on an intellectual adventure, shedding new light on the assumptions and biases of those seeking answers—and the challenges that have made finding answers so elusive.Spanning more than two centuries and drawing on the latest findings, The Origin of the Jews brings needed clarity and historical context to this enduring and often divisive topic.

Genres: History, Jewish, Nonfiction, Judaism, Religion, Cultural

409 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 22, 2017

About the author

Steven Weitzman is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion at Stanford University. He was awarded the Gustave O. Arlt Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in the Humanities for his first book, Song and Story in Biblical Narrative, and has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Yad-Hadiv Foundation. His other books include Surviving Sacrilege and The Jews: A History.

Reviews

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giving this book only a 1-star rating is perhaps unfair because there is a tremendous amount of research and scholarship here. But this book is verbose almost beyond endurance. Much of the information - 'big picture'-wise - I had already known. But the minutiae, and the academic hemming & hawing is just mind-numbing. Even the final 'Conclusion' section is wordy almost beyond bearing. And, it is totally inconclusive (not the author's fault -it's just that all the studies [seemingly hundreds] are, indeed, without meaningful results). For most readers: don't waste your time (unless you know absolutely nothing about paleontology, genealogy, genetics, linguistics .. in which case you might learn something new).

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers will find an excellent review of various branches of science and social science to address the question of the origin of the Jews --e.g. where did they come from. As the author notes once there were no Jews and now there are Jews so they must have originated some where.

The author looks at fields of linguistics, history, archaeology, psychology, and even genealogy for answers. But part of the problem is the lack of a clear definition of origin. Any group of people do not really originate at one place or time. To my way of thinking its better to think of origin as a journey as groups form and change over time. Weitzman asks could Jews have originated with Abraham, Moses, Middianites, David and Solomon, the Babyonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Christians or perhaps a more recent origin. None of these are convincing because most of these trace a path rather then a beginning point.

I think a few other books may shed additional light on this topic:
1. Soul of Judaism by Bruce Haynes
2. This Tilting World by Collete Fellous
3. Unorthodox Kin by Naomia Leite
4. Aphrodite and the Rabbis by Burton Visotosky

Visotosky makes a convincing case that Talmudic Judaism did not become the dominant strain until the 9th or 10th century at which point most Jews lived in the Muslim world. The Soul of Judaism and This Tilting World talk about the journey of Judaism outside the dominant Ashkenazic perspective. And Unorthodox Kin is a story of people who believe in their hears that they are Jews despite no direction connection or knowledge of the normative Jewish world. It all provides a lot to think about.

[Sam Kauffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thought-provoking read that tackles every major (and most minor) origin hypotheses and the concept of origin itself, the Origin of the Jews helps to exercise the mind.

Yet, the author, despite his commanding grasp on the subject, appears to have the same lack of courage of conviction as Eugene Jerome. Eager to write everything he can about the topic, he refuses time and again to convey his thoughts, to weigh more directly into the debate. He denies that origin can be obtained, and that is partly true. However, he could certainly indicate which parts of each hypothesis he thinks gets us closer to the truth.

I finish this book with a greater understanding of the ideas of origin and Jewish origin, my own thoughts are a bit more developed, and I look forward to reading authors willing to make their cases.

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Origin of the Jews: the quest for roots in a rootless age,” by Steven Weitzman (Princeton, 2017). Weitzman, who is among other things Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, looks at the question from every possible way, starting with semiotics and the question whether it is either possible or worthwhile to seek to find the origin of anything, working his way through genealogy, archeology, history, Freud (!), paleolinguistics, Hellenism, whether Jews are a modern invention, and finally DNA. In addition, when we examine what the scholars say, we need to know where the scholars themselves were coming from: what were their own agendas? He seems to be remarkably even-handed, laying out the argument in one area or another, and addressing its criticisms. Although I was at first intimidated by the thought of dealing with questions about the meaning of meaning etc., Weitzman’s writing is clear and direct enough that I was able to follow almost all of it. Were the Habiru connected with the Hebrews (probably not), who then became Israelites, then Judeans, finally Jews? What did the words mean? When did it become a religion? Is it geographically centered? Is it possible to learn anything real from deep textual analysis of the Torah? A little. How much of modern Judaism actually derived from hybridization with the Greeks? (The mikveh ritual bath was probably brought from the Greeks). Was Judaism as we know it founded by Christians, who needed something to differentiate themselves from? Is it possible that Jews today carry with them deep psychic memories of exile and persecution, as Freud’s theories held? No. People barely remember things past the second generation. Does DNA tell us anything? Mostly that Ashkenazic Jews seem to derive from the Middle East, and not sure what that means. A fascinating book, which tied together a lot of squiggles of fact and information I already had, and added a lot more to them.

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10...

[WK Dodds · Rating 5 out of 5]

To my surprise, this book was as much about the methods, history, politics and issues involved in searches for origins as well as the vast efforts to research the origins of the Jewish people themselves.

I found to be an extraordinary application of social and hard science in explaining and assessing the evidence with respect to it’s most contentious topic.

While I am no expert in the fields covered, Weizmann writes with clarity, humility and genuine interest about the search for Jewish origins. He approaches the evidence evenhandedly but does not waffle where he believes judgments can be made although when he does make judgments, he does so with humanity and logic.

This work strikes me as a terrific example of open-minded investigation and of the application of scientific rigor to a subject of complexity, sensitivity and great difficulty. It is suitable for anyone with an interest in the subject or indeed anyone with an interest in history, archeology, religion or the the use of the scientific method in understanding fields outside the realm of hard science.

[Joe Q. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not about the origin of the Jews per se, but about the search for the origin of the Jews. (Those looking for a scholarly explanation of the origin of the Jewish people or of Judaism are advised to look elsewhere.) It describes the various explanations or hypotheses advanced over time and comments on how these explanations reflect the times in which they were conceived.

I learned a lot, but was puzzled by the lengthy treatment of Freud's theories, which have no basis in either sources or historical reality and reflect Freud much more than they describe the origins of the Jews. In contrast, the genomics studies, which are converging on an unequivocal explanation of the ancestry of most Jewish groups, are given comparatively less attention (and what attention they are given is taken up largely by discussions of the Cohen Modal Haplotype and other early efforts). Perhaps a second edition will remedy this imbalance.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want what the title seems to promise, look elsewhere—Weitzman never tells you where the Jews came from. Instead, this is a book about various scholars’ failed quest to discover the origin of the Jews. Misleading title aside, the stories Weitzman tells of how people have tried to figure out the Jews’ beginnings (from genealogy to genetics) are fascinating, their motivations compelling. If you’re like me, you’ll come away asking not “Where DID the Jews come from!?” but “Why does that question interest me so much?”

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tremendous amount of research went into the creation of this book. It was much too complicated with many digressions for the casual reader. A worthy task.

[Leonid Yabloko]

True science and history

[Mills College Library]

909.04924 W436 2017