The Spanish Jews – according to the land of Sepharad (Obadiah 22), in which they saw Spain, they were called Sephardim, and this name is still in use today – considered themselves the noblest of their people; they claimed descent from the tribe of Judah, even from King David himself. They looked down on other Jews, especially the Germans and Poles, the Ashkenazim – Ashkenaz, the Japhethite (Gen. 10:3), was supposed to be the ancestor of the Germans – and were often themselves regarded by the Ashkenazim as the superior group. Nevertheless, anthropological research has found no racial difference between Sephardim and Ashkenazim, and based on my observations of Sephardic Jews during the World War in Üsküb, Belgrade, and Novi Pazar – Üsküb also hosted many refugees from Salonika – they are by no means lighter-skinned or ‘more beautiful,’ as is often claimed, than the Ashkenazim. Among merchants, a fairly dark mixed type predominates, but in the synagogues – I am particularly thinking of a service at the Sabbath entrance in Novi Pazar – I found among them all types of Ashkenazim, from Negroid to fair-haired Germanic Jews. Thus, the Spanish Jews cannot be considered a racially distinct group within European Jews, and their flourishing in Spain from the 10th century to the end of the 15th century, with a continuation in Holland, Italy, and the Turkish lands, is not to be attributed to race but to the fortunate circumstances that allowed them during this period to fully develop their talents in art and science. Consequently, there is no significant difference between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, which also renders the absurd Khazar theory obsolete.
