AHC: Ashkenazi Jewish country

Your challenge is to create an Ashkenazi Jewish polity in Europe. You can use any POD after the Ashkenazi Jews were first recognized as a distinct ethnic group at around the end of the 1st millennium.

Oh, and just in case anyone thinks about bringing up the Khazars, a 2013 study found no evidence of Khazar origins.
 
Your challenge is to create an Ashkenazi Jewish polity in Europe. You can use any POD after the Ashkenazi Jews were first recognized as a distinct ethnic group at around the end of the 1st millennium.
Any?

The Obvious Post-1900 Option: Stalin elects to herd the surviving East European Jews into East Prussia rather than filling it with Slavs, figuring they would have no allies in the Poles or Balts.

The Less Obvious Post-1900 Option: The Palestinian Partition is negotiated/haggled/adjusted/tweaked to a point where there are far fewer Arabs starting out on the Israeli side of the line, the Arab League gives grudging acknowledgement in return for ironclad Minority Rights, and the Jews in the rest of MENA remain en situ.

Pre-1900? Hmm... the PLC is of course the place where Yiddish/Ashkenazi culture as we know it was born, so perhaps a breakup rather than a partition leads to bits of OTL's Pale of Settlement having borders around a plurality/majority of Jews....
 
If it had gone through, and possible gained more settlers Yusuf Naci's Kingdom of Cyprus could be a possibility.
 
Oh, and just in case anyone thinks about bringing up the Khazars, a 2013 study found no evidence of Khazar origins.

What about a Khazar Jewish polity surviving in, say, Crimea that later becomes majority Ashkenazim after migrations from western Europe?

Alternatively, the Free City of Krakow had a relatively high Jewish population; it might be possible for it to become majority Jewish if you can prevent it being annexed by Austria.
 

Alexanderos

Banned
Oh, and just in case anyone thinks about bringing up the Khazars, a 2013 study found no evidence of Khazar origins.
Khazars weren't much distinct from Eastern European Populations as a whole. The initial conquering peoples were Turkic and they would have melted into the population of the region(Uralic peoples, Sarmatians, Caucasians, etc) PDQ. So I can think of today's Ashkenazim having at least some significant Khazar component in them. Other sources could be Traders, European Converts, Roman era migrants, etc.

Khazaria is the best option that is available for me to complete this challenge, IMO.
 
You need either something like Cyprus, which is relatively separate geographically or some sort of mass conversion to make this happen. Jews is Europe were a small minority overall, and while in certain places, like Salonika, they might represent the largest single group, they were still a minority of the total population. You could have a Jewish city-state somewhere, but it won't last - you need a hinterland to grow food at a minimum and preferably some other resources. Certainly you could have Stalin, after WWII depopulate East Prussia and then relocate the Jews in the USSR and areas controlled by the USSR to this new entity. Given the history of Jews in Europe, I have a hard time seeing them being able to sustain a state strong enough to resist the Christian states of Europe based on the OTL Jewish population even if almost all were in one place - hence a mass conversion to make the Jewish entity populous enough and large enough to survive the hostility of all the neighbors as well as deal with the Mongols from the east (depending on where the state is) or the Ottomans from the south.
 
An Ashkenazi state might be possible in a German victory scenario in WWI where Grodno and the surrounding areas are annexed to the German Empire as Reichslands similar to Elsass-Lothringen. Afterward, the local Russians and Poles leave the area in favor of the Kingdom of Poland or whatever Russian state is to the east. More Ashkenazi Jews move into the area to replace population losses, and Reichsland Grodno-Suwulki becomes majority Jewish. Eventually, the province develops a separatist movement and votes to separate itself from the German Empire in a referendum.
 
Your challenge is to create an Ashkenazi Jewish polity in Europe. You can use any POD after the Ashkenazi Jews were first recognized as a distinct ethnic group at around the end of the 1st millennium.

Oh, and just in case anyone thinks about bringing up the Khazars, a 2013 study found no evidence of Khazar origins.
Maybe Something akin to the Utah Mormons just somewhere else in NA ?
 
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