The Invention of the Jewish People

2008 book by Shlomo Sand challenging traditional narratives of Jewish ethnic origins

The Invention of the Jewish People (Hebrew: Matai ve'eich humtsa ha'am hayehudi? – When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?) is a 2008 book by 'Israeli' historian Shlomo Sand. First published in Hebrew by Resling, it was translated into English by Yael Lotan and released by Verso Books in 2009. The work is a major intervention in Jewish and Israeli historiography, arguing that the modern concept of a single, ancient, ethnic "Jewish people" with a continuous biological lineage from the biblical Israelites is a 19th- and 20th-century nationalist construct rather than a historical fact.

Sand contends that Jewish identity has always been primarily religious and cultural, shaped by widespread proselytism and conversions across the ancient and medieval worlds, rather than by descent from a single exiled nation. The book became a bestseller in Israel, sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, and ignited fierce public and academic controversy.

Background and publication

Sand began researching the book after repeated shocks to his own historical assumptions while teaching at Tel Aviv University. In a 2009 interview he recalled:

I remember being shocked the first time I heard that the Exile from Egypt was not true. Hearing that David and Solomon's kingdoms didn't exist. It shocked me so much that I decided… when I have time, I will need to focus on Jewish history.

The Hebrew edition appeared in 2008 and quickly became one of the most discussed books in Israel. The English translation (2009) extended the debate to international audiences. Sand explicitly frames the work as a critique of Zionist historiography that he believes has essentialised Jewish identity to justify territorial claims in Palestine.

Main arguments

Sand’s central thesis is that the Jews are not, and have never been, a single race, ethnicity, people or nation in the biological or secular-national sense. Instead, Jewish identity was forged through religion and repeated waves of conversion.

Jews as a religion, not a race/people/ethnicity/nation

Sand rejects the idea of Jews as a coherent ethnic group descending from ancient Judeans exiled after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. He argues there was no mass deportation or exile; the vast majority of Jews in the ancient world remained in the Land of Israel and later converted to Christianity or Islam. The diaspora populations that emerged were largely the result of proselytism and conversion rather than emigration.

He writes:

The Jews were never a foreign 'ethnos' of invaders from afar but rather an autochthonous population whose ancestors, for the most part, converted to Judaism before the arrival of Christianity or Islam.

Sand demonstrates that Judaism was a proselytising religion in antiquity, attracting converts across the Mediterranean, North Africa, Arabia, and the Caucasus. He rejects the notion of a shared secular Jewish culture or common biological origin, insisting that what bound Jews historically was religion, not ethnicity or race.

History of conversions and the Khazars

A major pillar of the book is the history of large-scale conversions to Judaism. Sand examines evidence of proselytism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, including conversions among Phoenicians, Berbers in North Africa, Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula, and others. He devotes particular attention to the Khazar Kingdom in the Caucasus (8th–10th centuries), whose ruling elite and significant portions of the population converted to Judaism.

Sand argues that the Khazar conversion was not marginal but a decisive moment in the formation of Eastern European Jewry. He contends that many Ashkenazi Jews descend, at least in part, from Khazar converts rather than from Judean exiles. He also highlights other conversion events, such as those in the Berber kingdoms of North Africa and among the Himyarites in Yemen.

According to Sand, these conversions explain the rapid demographic growth of Jewish communities far from the ancient Land of Israel and undermine any claim of direct ethnic continuity with biblical Israelites. He writes that the absence of mass exile and the reality of conversion mean that most contemporary Jews are descendants of local populations who adopted Judaism, not of a wandering ancient nation.

Sand concludes that the Zionist narrative of exile and return is a modern myth constructed to legitimise the establishment of a Jewish nation-state in Palestine. He insists that Jewish identity today is a religious and cultural construct, not an ethnic or racial one, and that recognising this is essential for moving beyond ethno-nationalist conflict in the Middle East.

Reception

The book was an immediate bestseller in Israel, selling over 50,000 copies in Hebrew within months. It provoked intense controversy. Critics accused Sand of undermining Jewish identity and providing ammunition to anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. Supporters praised it as a courageous deconstruction of nationalist myths and a contribution to post-Zionist scholarship.

In Israel, the book was debated in the Knesset and on prime-time television. Internationally it was reviewed widely, with some historians praising its archival rigour while others questioned its interpretation of sources. Sand’s work has been cited by scholars in Jewish studies, postcolonial theory, and Middle Eastern politics as a landmark critique of essentialist notions of Jewish peoplehood.

Copies of the book

Notes