Debunking the Lie: “Modern Jews Aren’t the Real Jews”

There’s a poisonous lie being peddled online, in street protests, on university campuses, and even by so-called “academics” with fancy degrees and zero backbone: that modern Jews aren’t the real Jews. This isn’t just ignorant. It’s antisemitic. It’s historical revisionism with the goal of stripping Jews of our identity, our homeland, and our truth.

So let’s tear it apart. Piece by piece.

Back of the head of a man wearing a kippah in Germany (Shutterstock)

Who Are the Real Jews?

Judaism is not just a religion. It’s a people. A nation. A family. You don’t “convert” into being a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You can join the family through conversion, but the family itself has never disappeared. We are the same people who stood at Mount Sinai. The same people who were targeted by the Babylonians, the Romans, the Nazis, the Soviets, and somehow, we’re still here.

Modern Jews, whether from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Ethiopia, or anywhere else, are all part of this ancient nation. We speak different languages, have different skin colors, and cook different foods, but we all pray facing Jerusalem. We all fast on Yom Kippur. We all mourn the destruction of the Temple that once stood on the very land that today the world accuses us of “occupying.”

The “Khazar” Lie

The biggest fantasy used to push this propaganda is the Khazar theory, a claim that Ashkenazi Jews (those from Europe) descend not from the ancient Israelites but from a Turkic tribe that supposedly converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. It's based on speculation, not documentation. There’s no credible historical record showing a mass conversion of the Khazar Empire to Judaism, and even if a few elites may have adopted Jewish customs, it had zero impact on the Jewish world. No Jewish texts mention Khazars as part of the nation. No rabbinic authorities ever recognized them. And there is no genetic trace of them in modern Jewish populations.

Ashkenazi Jews, just like Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, share clear and consistent Middle Eastern ancestry, confirmed by countless peer-reviewed genetic studies. You can trace our paternal lines straight back to the Levant. That includes the Kohanim, the priestly line, which has been preserved for thousands of years.

So this theory doesn’t just fail, it collapses under the weight of actual science and recorded history. It’s not just false; it’s laughably desperate. People who push this theory aren’t interested in truth, they’re trying to erase the Jewish people’s link to Israel. But truth doesn’t need permission to exist. We’re the descendants of the ancient Israelites. Period.

A young teenager celebrates during his Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Shutterstock)

The “Fake Jew” Accusation Is Just Antisemitism in a New Costume

There are two types of people who push this lie:

1. Islamists and anti-Zionists who want to erase the Jewish connection to Israel so they can justify attacking it.

2. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists who think Jews are secretly controlling the world and need to be “unmasked.”

Guess what? Both sides agree on one thing, hating Jews. How convenient.

This lie allows people to paint Jews as colonial imposters while simultaneously claiming we’re alien manipulators. It’s schizophrenic logic. Either we’re fake and irrelevant or we secretly run the world. Which is it?

But this lie is dangerous. It has consequences. It fuels terrorism, violence, and hatred. It inspires people to vandalize synagogues, assault Jews on the street, and deny us the basic dignity of our identity.

The Bible Has Something to Say

Want to know what God says about the Jewish people?

“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night... If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.”(Jeremiah 31:35–36)

God is crystal clear: As long as the sun and moon exist, so will Israel. Not just as a faith, but as a nation. A physical people with a land. That’s the truth.

And the land of Israel is not just a piece of real estate, it’s our inheritance. The world may hate it, but history backs it up. Our kings ruled from Jerusalem. Our prophets walked its streets. Our blood is buried in its soil.

Old Hebrew manuscript (Elements)

You can hate Jews. You can call for the destruction of Israel. But you don’t get to rewrite our history.

The Jewish people have maintained an unbroken identity for over 3,000 years. Through exile, genocide, crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, and terrorism, we have never forgotten who we are. We didn’t make this up in the 1940s. We didn’t “steal” an identity. We’ve been clinging to it with our lives.

And modern science agrees. Study after study has shown that the genetic signature of Jews, across the world, traces back to the Levant. To ancient Israel. To Jerusalem. Not to some medieval kingdom in Central Asia.

You don’t need to be a genius to see what’s going on here. These lies are a strategic attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state by erasing the people it belongs to.

But the facts are on our side. The Bible is on our side. And history is on our side.

Modern Jews are the descendants of ancient Jews.

The State of Israel is the rebirth of our homeland, not a colonial project.

And if that bothers the world, maybe it’s time they ask themselves why Jewish survival angers them so much.

We were scattered, but never destroyed.

We were persecuted, but never erased.

We were exiled, but we came home.

The lie that “modern Jews aren’t real Jews” is just one more failed attempt in a long line of efforts to kill the Jewish spirit. And guess what?

It didn’t work.