Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH,
BY ELIZABETH CALDWELL HIRSCHMAN AND
DONALD N YATES, IS PUBLISHED BY MCFARLAND
AND COMPANY, NORTH CAROLINA
Book Review
http://scojec.org/four_corners/newsletters/07ix_4C_15.pdfhttp://scojec.org/four_corners/newsletters/07ix_4C_15.pdf
KENNETH COLLINS
RESEARCH FELLOW, CENTRE FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
When I first became aware of this book I looked forward with some excitement to examining its claims that it could produce DNA evidence, archaeological evidence and an analysis of migration patterns and family records to show that Scotland had twelth century semitic roots.
Unfortunately, the book's evidence does not live up to the claims it makes for itself and I am afraid that on the basis of what is described here I could not confidently support any statement arguing for any Jewish links to Scotland's early history.
Indeed, the highly inaccurate map of Scotland on page 4, linking Skye with the mainland, having Edinburgh on an inland loch and Wick on a peninsula jutting out from Scotland's north east coast is an early indicator of errors to come.
The efforts of the authors to link Scots and semites is partly based on their own background coming as they do from the Melungeons, a people based in the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States and claiming both Scottish and semitic ancestry.
The evidence of language, place names and family records they use to establish the Jewish links for Scotland are so fanciful as to be incredible and illustrate that while the authors may have academic credentials in science and marketing, history is not one of their strong points.
There is no evidence of Scots practising Judaism in the early mediaeval period and nor is there evidence that Scots reverted to Judaism when they reached the Appalachians and there is a good reason for this; it just didn't happen. Just
because the Scots Reformation gave an emphasis to what we would call Tenach [i.e., the Old Testament,] does not mean that John Know was a secret Jew. Nor can we accept that the Burgess Role of Aberdeen 1600-1620 shows patterns of Jewish migration within Scotland.
One clear link between the book's Melungeon authors and the people of Scotland and its current Jewish community can only be described as chutzpah and this Hirschman and Yates have in large measure. It would be nice to believe their thesis that Scotland was once Jewish but the evidence just isn't there.
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Maranda Jane Cockrell 6/12/09
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Maranda Jane Cockrell 6/12/09
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Maranda Jane Cockrell 6/12/09
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Maranda Jane Cockrell 6/12/09
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Ace Maupin 6/15/09
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
Janice McAlpine 5/08/11
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH
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Re: Book Review: WHEN SCOTLAND WAS JEWISH