I can certainly relate to this commenter on Haaretz who said:
and of course the recent genetic studies to the contrary but, hey, why let hard science interfere with the story some guy seems compelled to tell?

formermuslim,
I haven’t bothered to read Sand’s book myself, but I’ve seen others who have suggest he does address the the topic of genetic research. Regardless, studies of DNA evidence, when not tainted by Zionist politics, support what I’ve seen of Sand’s account of Jewish history, for example sake. This paragraph from the conclusion sums up the evidence well:

Diversity was present from Jewish beginnings, when various Semitic and Mediterranean peoples came together to form the Israelites of long ago. The genetic picture was clearly enriched during the Diaspora, when Jews spread far and wide across Europe, attracting converts and intermarrying over time with their European hosts. The most recent DNA evidence indicates that from this blending of Middle Eastern and European ancestors, the diverse DNA ancestry of the Ashkenazi Jews emerged.

The whole idea dividing humanity into separate races is simply a pseudoscientific social construct, and the notion that Jews collectively constitute a unique race is particularly absurd. While it is politically inconvenient for Zionism to acknowledge such facts, the diversity amongst Jewish people deserves to be celebrated rather than obfuscated.
The most tragic irony of it all is that Palestinians are largely of Israelite decent, their ancestors having converted to Christianity and/or Islam over the course of the millenniums. Such attempts to divide people into separate races or whatever groups are little more than deceptions used pit us against each other for the benefit of the few while the masses suffer. In reality we are all brothers, and the more people who come to respect that fact, the better off humanity will be.

The whole idea dividing humanity into separate races is simply a pseudoscientific social construct, and the notion that Jews collectively constitute a unique race is particularly absurd.
Is it a Zionist idea that Jews are a unique race?
In reality we are all brothers, and the more people who come to respect that fact, the better off humanity will be.
All people are the same? There are no differences between people/families/groups of people/ethnic groups/societies?
We must live on different planet Earths.

Avigdor, at least be glad that Jewschool didn’t give a positive review.
Sand obviously did not read his Tanakh. The fact that the first Zionists were inspired by 19th century nationalism and racial theory does not negate the vast history of the Jewish family – whose members come from both inside and out.
In other words, Jewish diversity and Jewish unity are NOT mutually exclusive!

He IS right that the myth that Jews were based SOLELY in E”Y has to be dispelled. Any honest scholar of history will tell you that Jewish life was richest in the diaspora, all the way from Babylonia to Manhattan.

It seems that, at the end of the day, the fundamental Jewscool argument about Zionism comes down to this view:
Sand obviously did not read his Tanakh. The fact that the first Zionists were inspired by 19th century nationalism and racial theory does not negate the vast history of the Jewish family – whose members come from both inside and out.
In other words, Jewish diversity and Jewish unity are NOT mutually exclusive!
versus this view:
and if there is no Jewish people? If we end up being individuals united by religion and not nationality, such as it is

Jew Guevara,
Sand is saying EXACTLY that, that the Jews do not exist as a people. Giving him the benefit of doubt is not necessary, because the man writes this exact thing in his book and proclaims it at book signings. He also explains why he says this – to deny Jews the legitimacy of owning and settling the Land of Israel, or even living there for that matter (not that he’s leaving himself). He is open about all this.
Sand has written the modern day “Protocols” (which are themselves still a bestseller in some parts of the world). This is not a one time hit; every 30 years his demented vision will come back in a new “bold” book, and every 30 years our children will have to explain how completely wrong it is. Because if we don’t explain and fight back it will just be accepted as fact by even more people.
How many serious books, written by serious historians, on Jewish history are published every year in the world? Probably dozens, maybe hundreds. And which one becomes an internationalist best seller and gets translated into a dozen languages? The one that says the Jews aren’t really Jews, building on historical theories that were already discredited by historians 30 years ago, not to mention our own Jewish tradition.
I don’t even think that most people who read these books believe them, but they want to believe them. That’s why they are not satisfied with reading one book. They want to read more. It’s important to them. They want to reaffirm what they want to be true about the Jews – that we are not really Jews, or that we did not receive the Torah, or that it’s the wrong Torah, or that we don’t look like the real Jews or speak like real Jews…
How did this book become an international best seller overnight? For many in the West, if there are no Jews, there is no G-d – it’s an atheist ideal. For many Arabs, it’s more familial and primitive – we Jews were chosen by G-d, and they are our cousins. Who wants to be the cousin of someone famous? If only they can get rid of the Jews, maybe G-d will choose them. When the Jews were weak, the Arabs thought G-d was punishing us, and they really enjoyed themselves helping G-d punish us. Now that we are not weak, back in our land, their inferiority complex is kicking in again.
To think that this is really about land or political Zionism is infantile. This book is nothing less than a direct attack on every Jewish man, woman and child. It is an assault on the spiritual identity of every Jew still in the womb. What other people are thus attacked? What other people just accept such libel about them being published around the world, much less endorse it? This book isn’t legitimate academic discourse, it’s the modern “Protocols” – it’s libel begging action. This book endangers Jewish life. For Jewschool to present it the same way it would present a cookbook is disgusting.
If no one else here has the decency to say as much, then I will.

Avigdor, what you say about the book is not supported. He is describing the origin myths of the Jewish people, labeling them as myths, and pointing to other scientific work describing our racial and genetic history.
For a Jew resting on faith, it simply doesn’t matter. For a Jew seeking historical or genetic confirmation of an authentic national entity – it doesn’t exist.
Sand says, the notion of Jews as a national entity descended from the original Hebrews of 2k years ago is a myth. So what? Not a single Israeli Jew loses his or her home as a result, not a single American Jew will stop with the circumsision or the bar mitzvahs.
Politically, removing the elements of myth and religion from arguments over political boundaries is a GOOD thing. Those who fear such a process aren’t defending the Jewish people, they are defending a specific manifestation of Jewish nationalism. A very 29th Century manifesttation. Good bye nationalist blood and land appeals! Good riddance! Hello God and Torah centered Judaism!
Thank you Sand for forcing Jews to focus on faith and behavior instead of essentialist nationhood….

Jew Guarava, you can keep weaving your own narrative into Sand’s book, or you can go read it and listen to what he himself has to say. He states it quite clearly – there is no such thing as a Jew, period.
You can interpret and pontificate over this however you like. This is the kind of material that comes out of the deep thinkers at Stormfront, and deserves to be treated as such. The world is not concerned with your inner struggle with “myths” and “nationalism”.
This book delivers a simple message to the world, articulated clearly in its title – The Invention of the Jewish People. The very fact that we’re negotiating now over whether the Jewish people exist or not is perverse. There has never been another people with our historical persistence, anywhere. Our people predate every people of Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas…
You keep arguing about the lack of some ethnic/genetic bloodline, or some religious adherence, when neither is what defines a Jew, as I’ve written above. If this point is misunderstood then it is a failure of education, not a failure of peoplehood. Ultimately, that’s what makes Sand’s work so pathetic – he doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know.
This book is not popular because Sand delves deeply to unravel some tapestry of myth and legend from Israeli consciousness. It is popular because of its salacious premise – there is no Jew.
Why this premise is enticing to so many is the real question.

The positive part of my statement is this: The deepening of an authentic Israeli civic identity that is inclusive of all those living in Israel. It’s a way station on the integration of Israeli Jews into the region, a way station towards full democracy and equal rights for all.
to the extent that myths around a ‘return’ to the land are unraveled, it’s good thing. Israeli children don’t need an ideology to stay and be good little Israelis. They need ideology to assert the moral right to rule over Palestinians and remain occupiers.
I’m a proud Jew (at least some of the time.) I don’t feel that calling the Jewish people an invention makes me less Jewish or take away from my identity. Most national identities are constructed, often in very strange ways.
BTW, Sand is a Yiddish speaking child of holocaust survivors. He doesn’t deny his Jewishness as an ethnic identity; he was born into it. He’s denying it gives him rights over real estate, and challenging anyone who disagrees.
As someone raised to believe in the myths he is debunking by the educational system in Israel, I’m glad he’s doing it. Stop teaching the kids stuff that isn’t true.

I never understood this argument. What gets removed is not replaced with anything positive afterwards. You’re left with jews who basically claim “we killed a lot of arabs and took their land but I don’t give a sh*t now”. Don’t believe me? Read em’s comment above.
What gets removed isn’t positive in the first place. Sorry, but I don’t find “We killed a lot of Arabs and took their land ’cause really it’s ours ’cause we think God says so” remotely ennobling or uplifting.
A claim (modern Jews are the descendants of ancient Israelites) is not more or less true based on how warm and fuzzy it makes me feel about the founding of the state of Israel.
And it has nothing to do with how much of a shit I give. It’s that no one can go back in time and make it happen some other way.

Hahaha. Brilliant! Pamphlet it is.

Can we discuss recent genetic research, which blows Shlomo Sand’s inventions about the Jewish people out of the water?
In particular, I’d like everyone who used Sand’s pamphlet as an opportune moment to deny the notion of Jewish peoplehood and Jewish ancestral linkage, to admit they were wrong. Or, they can argue with the most comprehensive genetic study of its kind performed on the subject.
Either way, I’ll get the popcorn ready.