In 1926 the Jews claimed an historical right to Crimea due to their Khazar
roots, Palestine was considered to be unsuitable.
Russian Jews have a historic right on which to base their land settling activity
in the Crimea. This was the opinion expressed by Dr. Simon Dubnow, well known
Russian Jewish historian, in an interview with the representative of the
"Menorah."
If the question of Jewish right to colonize Crimea is raised it must be
remembered that the Jews have a right to claim to be autochthons of all the
northern coast of the Black Sea. As early as the ancient Bosphorean empire,
before the Christian era, colonies of Hellenized Jews have flourished on the
Black Sea coast. Inscriptions which have been found there dating back to the
first cenutry prove the existence of organized Jewish communities in this
region. These Hellenized Jews were followed by the Byzantine Jews in the fifth
century of the Christian era. The Khazar empire, the leading classes of which
adopted Judaism, existed between the eighth and eleventh centuries. Then,
settlements of Jews and Karaites existed in this region between the thirteenth
and eighteenth centuries. Finally, the Jewish colonies have existed there since
the nineteenth century. The historic rights of the Jews to colonize Crimea and
the entire Black Sea coast from Odessa to the Caucasus cannot be doubted and it
is certainly desirable in a region where for two thousand years our ancestors
have, under the Greeks and the Scythians, engaged in agriculture, that the Jews
should again cultivate the land. However, the modern Scythians are more
dangerous than the ancient-"Time# Danaos et dona ferentes" (I fear the Danaos
even if they bring me gifts) he declared.
-- Cont'd at http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2023/10/23/in-1926-the-jews-claimed
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