How did the children of Israel get scattered to Russia and other countries?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Many Russian Jews are descendants of converts to Judaism.

For example, Wikipedia documents the arrival of ethnic Jews in the Khazar territory, followed by conversion of ethnic Khazars to Judaism: "Conversion of steppe or peripheral tribes to a universal religion is fairly well attested phenomenon, and the Khazar conversion to Judaism, though unusual, was not unique." The Jewish Encyclopedia states, "In the year 669 the Ugrians or Zabirs freed themselves from the rule of the Obrians, settled between the Don and the Caucasus, and came under the dominion of the Chazars. For this reason the Ugrians, who had hitherto been called the" White" or "Independent" Ugrians, are described in the chronicles ascribed to Nestor as the "Black," or "Dependent," Ugrians. They were no longer governed by their own princes, but were ruled by the kings of the Chazars. In 735, when the Arab leader Mervan moved from Georgia against the Chazars, he attacked the Ugrians also. In 679 the Chazars subjugated the Bulgars and extended their sway farther west between the Don and the Dnieper, as faras the head-waters of the Donetz in the province of Lebedia... It was probably about that time that the chaghan of the Chazars and his grandees, together with a large number of his heathen people, embraced the Jewish religion."

Of course, this is an emotional issue and arguments have been put forward to both prove or disprove a significant contribution of Khazar (and other) tribal DNA to European Jewry. Wikipedia explains the difficulties of resolving this argument: "The hypothesis of Khazarian ancestry in Ashkenazi has also been a subject of discussion in the new field of population genetics, wherein claims have been made concerning evidence both for and against it. The general conclusion is that, if traces of descent from Khazars exist in the Ashkenazi gene pool, the contribution would be quite minor, or insignificant. Eran Elhaik has recently argued however for a significant Khazar component, using Caucasian populations, Georgians and Armenians, as proxies. According to Nadia Abu El-Haj, the issues of origins are generally complicated by the difficulties of writing history via genome studies and the biases of emotional investments in different narratives, depending on whether the emphasis lies on direct descent or on conversion within Jewish history. The lack of Khazar DNA samples that might allow verification also present difficulties."

We now know that Jewish proselytism during the time of the Roman Empire resulted in large numbers of conversions in the Mediterranean region, and we can expect that the descendants of many of these converts would be present in modern Jewish populations. A 2010 study by Bray et al (cited by Wikipedia), using SNP microarray techniques and linkage analysis found that when assuming Druze and Palestinian Arab populations to represent the reference to world Jewry ancestor genome, between 35 to 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome can possibly be of European origin, and that European "admixture is considerably higher than previous estimates by studies that used the Y chromosome" with this reference point. Assuming this reference point the linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population was interpreted as "matches signs of interbreeding or 'admixture' between Middle Eastern and European populations." Other recent DNA studies concur with these findings. On the other hand, a genome wide genetic study carried out in 2010 by Behar et al. examined the genetic relationships among all major Jewish groups, including Ashkenazim, as well as the genetic relationship between these Jewish groups and non-Jewish ethnic populations. The study found that contemporary Jews (excluding Indian and Ethiopian Jews) have a close genetic relationship with people from the Levant. The authors explained that "The most parsimonious explanation for these observations is a common genetic origin, which is consistent with an historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant." Once again, DNA has not yet provided the conclusive evidence sought, and we may simply have to wait for advances in the science.

Answer 2

Most of Russian Jewry is from German Ashkenazic Jewish communities in the Medieval period. They share the same family names and genealogical trees. The claim that more than a small number of them are descended from converts is untrue and has been debunked conclusively by extensive DNA analysis.

Answer 3

In general terms, repeated expulsions and offers of settlement-permissions pushed Jews from country to country and region to region.

As specific to Russia, Russian Jews are a result of two major prongs of Jewish movement. The dominant population of Russian Jewry, which lives/lived in the area between Minsk and Moscow (i.e. west Russia), arrived in Russia through several distinct Jewish population movements. In the Roman Empire Diaspora Period, Jewish communities developed in Gaul and in the Germanic areas. As Western Europe became more and more inhospitable to Jews by the year 1000, Jews began to migrate eastward. Russian Jewish communities were established this way. Given Russia's more decentralized control structure (prior to the expansion of the Muscovy State), Jews were more free to practice their religion and to expand their communities, making the Russian Jewish community into one of the world's largest.

The second prong is the Russian Jewish population in Crimea and the Caucasus region. These Jews are a combination of the Diasporic population moving directly north and the conversions of the Türkic Khazars that made a small contribution to the Jewish population of the Caucasus. These Russian Jews are the antecedents of the Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan and the Bukharan Jews of Uzbekistan.