European state with Jewish majority

Valdemar II

Banned
How can we get a European state with Jewish majority, it doesn't need to be ruled by Jews and it doesn't need to survive to modern day, but bonus point if it does, the POD should be after 1000 AD.
 
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The Muslim state of Al Andalus, or the Caliphate of Cordoba in Spain possessed a hefty Jewish population. But that broke up into seperate "Taifa" states, which were eventually conquered by the forces of Castile and Aragon until the survival of the Emirate of Granada before 1492.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
The Muslim state of Al Andalus, or the Caliphate of Cordoba in Spain possessed a hefty Jewish population. But that broke up into seperate "Taifa" states, which were eventually conquered by the forces of Castile and Aragon until the survival of the Emirate of Granada before 1492.

Never in majority (at the best they made up 20% of the population), and I have honestly a hard time seing them becoming one.
 
How can we get a European state with Jewish minority, it doesn't need to be ruled by Jews and it doesn't need to survive to modern day, but bonus point if it does, the POD should be after 1000 AD.

My first thought was surviving Khazars. They were conquered by the Rus' in the late 10th century, so have them survive a few more decades (even if as a vassal state), and we're good.

But, they were more of a central Asian state; they did sort of extend over to Europe, but not very much. So, after that, I was thinking, how about a European Jewish Autonomous Oblast (if an autonomous region of another country suits your criteria)? Have Stalin find some worthless and/or tiny chunk of land in western Russia, and give it to be run by Jews. Dunno if it could be made into an actual majority; OTL's JAO doesn't have a Jewish majority, and a European oblast would have even less of a chance of one.
 
Never in majority (at the best they made up 20% of the population), and I have honestly a hard time seing them becoming one.

Oh, MAJORITY. Well, they were still a pretty large minority in Al Andalus.

Somehow ensuring the survival or the Kazar Kingdom would help, although they were more of a multiconfessional state where the ruling dynasty had converted to Judaism.
 

Deleted member 5719

In The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, the authors claimed Septemania was a Jewish state after it was liberated frm the Moors. But that, alas, is bollocks.
 
But Spain is a good place to start. Let's get a slightly less fanatic (or more insane) Queen, or more convincing jewish couriers, and instead of a 1492 explusion outside Spain they are spelled to, say, Extremadura or the islands of Majorca or Sicily. Cue sometime down the centuries, the age of Revolutions, and said island, now with a huge jewish mayority, gains independency -an island would probably find that easier to accomplish-

A similar chain of events could happen with the other mayor jewish expulsion, Englain in, damm, 1214? Thereabouts.
(damm... now I am thinking of zionist Eire... celebrating Chanukka with green beer)
 
Salonika becomes a city-state protected by international treaty.
Just what I was thinking- given that that the POD limit is just too late to allow things with Khazars. Unless you somehow finagle a way to get Jewish Mongols...
Would 1912 be late enough (different Balkan War)? Or would you have to go earlier- San Stefano?

There is of course the idea of an alt-Israel created in Germany in 1945, but that's unlikely for all sorts of reasons.
One slightly less unlikely (but still very marginal) modern "pin-the-Zion-on-the-Eurasia" proposal is to have the Soviets create their Jewish Autonomous Oblast somewhere west of the Urals rather than in Birobidzhan, and have it succeed and Israel fail (perhaps by losing the 1948 war). Then, have the Soviet Union fragment in such a way that it gains independence- not too unlikely, as one proposal was allegedly to put it in the Crimea!
 
Simple Salonika POD: avoid Great Fire of 1917. By the sound of it, the city was pretty vulnerable to fire at this time, but you could easily have something a bit smaller and later, extinguished faster, with nowhere near as much damage.

Bam! 50,000 more Jews, 12,500 more Orthodox and 10,000 more Muslims. That's a fairly hefty spectral alt-population for butterflies...
 
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There is of course the idea of an alt-Israel created in Germany in 1945, but that's unlikely for all sorts of reasons.
One slightly less unlikely (but still very marginal) modern "pin-the-Zion-on-the-Eurasia" proposal is to have the Soviets create their Jewish Autonomous Oblast somewhere west of the Urals rather than in Birobidzhan, and have it succeed and Israel fail (perhaps by losing the 1948 war). Then, have the Soviet Union fragment in such a way that it gains independence- not too unlikely, as one proposal was allegedly to put it in the Crimea!

ARGH.

Why did everyone ignore my post? I said the exact same thing, and no one responded. :(
 
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