“Yes they are” someone will now and then respond. Prove it is an obvious response to them, but I will try to help you. I will try to point you toward some of the research that you will need to take into account to disprove my statement above.
First of all in order to prove that the modern day Jews are Israelites one will have to debunk the 1976 New York Times best seller titled “The Thirteenth Tribe”, by Jewish author Arthur Koestler. In that book he showed that up to ninety percent of Eastern Jewry and thus world Jewry today are “of Khazar-Turkish, rather than Semitic origin.” These Jews are known as Ashkenazi Jews because they are reported to stem from Japheth’s grandson named Ashkenaz, a son of Gomer.
One would also need to dispute Jewish author Alfred Lilienthal’s book, “What Price Israel”. In it he claims that the Khazars are the lineal ancestors of Eastern European Jewry as an historical fact. There are several other Jewish and non-Jewish authors one would need to set straight if one were to prove the modern day Jews are Israelites.
One would also need to disprove King Joseph from over one-thousand years ago. He traced their ancestry not to Shem, but to Japheth’s grandson, Togarmah, the ancestor of all Turkish tribes. Joseph stated, “We have found in the family registers of our fathers, that Togarma had ten sons. We are the sons of Khazar, the seventh”.
One would need to disprove the Jewish Almanac. “Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew an ‘Israelite’ or a ‘Hebrew.'” “The Jewish Almanac”, Compiled and Edited by Richard Siegel and Carl Rheins (New York: Bantam Books, 1980) 3
One would also need to disprove the Jewish Encyclopedia. Although it is found in several different years I quote from the 1925 edition, Vol. 5, p. 41, which says, “Edom is in modern Jewry.” Genesis 36 twice tells us that “Esau is Edom”. Malachi and Paul in Romans both tell us that God hates Esau. God has a perpetual enmity with Edom. If that wasn’t bad enough the Encyclopedia Judaica 1971, 6, column 379 says “Edom is the eternal enemy of Israel and Judah”. These people whom God hates make up roughly nine percent of modern Jewry.
In the Bible the term Jew is never once found in the Hebrew and Greek text. In the old testament the word should have been translated as Judah. There was the tribe of Judah and the House of Judah, making up the two Southern tribes of Israel. In the new testament the word should have been translated as Judea, as Strong’s concordance adds “as in country”. The general term included all who lived in Judea many of whom were not Israelites.
In fact we see that there were two major groups of people living in or near Judea. The first group were of Israel, about whom the bible says, “And the common people heard him gladly.” The other group were living in Judea because of a mistake made by John Hyrcanus. These are the people who were constantly challenging Christ and plotted for Christ’s death. These people admitted they were not Israelites, but rather of Esau-Edom. Remember that most of Esau’s children were also Canaanites. Christ many times told them that they could not hear His voice because they were not His sheep, Israelites. They told Christ that they were of Abraham.
John 8:33 “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man.”
Christ told them that they were Abraham’s seed, but not Abraham’s children. The seed included Esau. By scriptural definition, the children only came from Jacob. The phrase stating that they were never in bondage to any man was only true of Esau’s children. Israel had been in bondage many times starting with Egypt.
The next time you are reading the first ten chapters of John, note how many times scripture says that one group heard Christ’s words and believed. In the book of Acts many of these became known as Christians. Note also how many times a different group heard Christ speak and hated His words. These same people’s descendants make up nine percent of today’s modern Jews.