AHC - have a majority Jewish state outside of Israel

How can we have a majority Jewish state outside of Israel survive independently. I'd especially like to see getting it to last to the present-day. I think the only one I know about is the Kingdom of Himyar in Yemen.
 
A bit ghoulish, but a successful Madagascar plan? Or something similar at least, with the Jews getting deported *somewhere* instead of murdered.
 
Fernando Wood's attempt to make New York City a "free city" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Wood succeeds. OK, in OTL Jews never were more than 25% of the total population of New York City, but for some reason the percentage is higher in this ATL (maybe in part because some other groups, like African Americans and Hispanics, are turned away.)
 
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is successful in attracting Jewish immigrants.
This might be because of a less repressive Stalinist system or it might be because all Soviet Jews are deported there.
It doesn't really matter how.
What matters is it that it becomes so successful that it becomes a full SSR and later becomes an independent state following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
 
Beta Israel rules Ethiopia? Instead of converting to Christianity the nation turns to Judaism. It would have a very interesting effect on the area for sure...
 
Couldn't Haile Selassie trace his roots back to King Solomon? That seems like them not having given up Judaism is possible.
 
Perhaps some kind of uprising in thessalonica against the ottomans?
To my knowledgee, the city was actually very jewish for some time.
 
The Pale of Settlement is instead condensed into either what counts as modern day Lithuania or modern day Moldova rather than spread along Russia's European border. This would mean that in the aftermath of WW1, its possible one of these states would be considered a "Jewish" one and pushed for independence by Wilson at Versailles.

Perhaps Russia decides instead to try to depopulate Poland after one of the rebellions with expulsions and transfers to Siberia and the like and instead, moves their Jews in and uses their mercantile skill to develop the region into a tax base for them.

Basically, the best idea I can see as feasible include using the massive amount of Jews in Eastern Europe and finding a way for them to eventually have a state. The Jewish populations of the Ottoman Empire were large, but never large enough to have a state be a possibility or concentrated enough. Same in North Africa. But Russia? It had Jews, and they were both urban and rural in orientation with a developing language and culture to their own. They were spread out across the Eurasian landmass from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and composed about 10-20% of the population of each border province depending on the area, with higher concentrations in Lithuania and Eastern Poland than anywhere else. If you get them into one national area, they could be a majority.
 
Jews were around half or slightly more of the population of Salonica in the beginning of the 20th century, followed by Turks, Greeks and Bulgarians; there was a proposal to make it a free city during the period of the Balkan wars. I've seen estimates that it was around 55%. Lets say it is made a free port city just before WWI or just after.
EDIT: sorry, that's post-1900.
 
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To be viable any Jewish state should have access to the sea, being surrounded by potentially hostile states is a bad idea, this is an issue for Kurds and "Kurdistan" OTL. A "free city" like NYC or Salonika is also problematic long term. While Singapore has been successful, modern city states have significant issues - even simple things like enough watershed under control are problematic. A need to import EVERYTHING including 99% of food, other than some fishing, makes such a polity potentially quite fragile. Singapore survives both because of financial strength and the fact that the current international system and powerful friends/allies means that attempts to conquer or blackmail Singapore are unlikely to work out well for any neighbors who might be tempted to try it. Prior to the mid-20th century, this is not the usual run of relations, and in any case up until modern times a Jewish city-state is much more likely to have neighbors who covet it and nobody who cares to protect it.
 
Khazaria somehow survives until the present-day?

Could be. If there are a large number of converts this could cause tension with other Jewish populations. If there aren't converts, a Jewish monarchy and Christian population could cause tension with neighboring Christian states.

A "free city" like NYC or Salonika is also problematic long term. While Singapore has been successful, modern city states have significant issues - even simple things like enough watershed under control are problematic.

A Singapore type situation could work. Maybe Jews in the Ottoman Empire move to Salonika during the Balkan Wars of Independence, like the Chinese minority in Malaysia moving to Singapore.


Or a New World Jewish colony. Wouldn't have to start independent and Jewish majority to eventually become independent and Jewish majority.
 
The kingdom of Adiabene in Assyria, which was a vassal to Parthia, converted to judaism in the first century AD. Perhaps it could have lived for longer without being invaded by the Roman Empire?

A Ladino/Sephardi state in OTL Greek Macedonia, centered in the city of Salonika and subservient to Turkey?

Beta Israel in Ethiopia, as others have pointed out?

Perhaps a jewish statelet in the OTL Wilna region? Though i think such scenario would be more likely after WWI.
 
There's the plot from The Yiddish Policemen's Union involving a Jewish district in Sitka, Alaska (based on an actual plan to settle Jewish refugees there). In the novel it's under US suzerainity, but you could probably change that without too much difficulty.
 
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is successful in attracting Jewish immigrants.
This might be because of a less repressive Stalinist system or it might be because all Soviet Jews are deported there.
It doesn't really matter how.
What matters is it that it becomes so successful that it becomes a full SSR and later becomes an independent state following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
This is post 1900s, but basically had Stalin lived longer, that horror-show would have come to fruition and Jews would have been deported there. How many of them would have survived... open to interpretation. Also, soon as the thaw occurs, most would try to get back to where they were deported from, as had happened to most peoples experiencing that event. Baltics in particular saw people deported before and after The War slowly make their way back.
 
So here's a really out there idea, but what about something involving the Kaifeng Jews? There were Jews bureaucrats involved in Chinese government from at least the late Ming. Maybe they could install a Jewish dynasty and then convert the populace over time? Or an equally unlikely idea, maybe one of the warlords from the warlord era could be Jewish and establish his own statelet, then just have China never reunify.
 
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