The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus (Circassia, Dagestan), parts of Georgia, the Crimea, and northeastern Turkey.

A successor state of the Western Turks, Khazaria was a polyethnic-multifaith state with a population of Turkic, Uralic, Slavic, and Palaeo-Caucasian peoples. Khazaria was the first feudal state to be established in Eastern Europe. During the 9th and 10th centuries, Khazaria was one of the major arteries of commerce between northern Europe and southwestern Asia, as well as a connection to the Silk Road. The name "Khazar" is found in numerous languages and seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering" (Modern Turkish: Gezer).Pax Khazarica is a term used by historians to refer to the period during which the Khazaria dominated the Pontic steppe and the Caucasus Mountains.

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים‎‎, pronounced [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנָז, Y'hudey Ashkenaz, "the Jews of Ashkenaz"), are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north.^{[citation needed]}

The name Ashkenazi derives from the bibilical figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). In the Rabbinic literature, Ashkenaz's kingdom was first associated with the Scythian region, then later on with the Slavic territories, and from the 11th century onwards with Northern Europe and Germany. The Jews living in the northern regions, associated with Ashkenaz's kingdom, thus came to call themselves the Ashkenazi Jews. Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe also came to be called "Ashkenazi" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany.

Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and elsewhere between the 11th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a High German language written using the Hebrew alphabet. It had developed in medieval times as the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. The Jewish communities of three cities along the Rhine: Speyer, Worms and Mainz, created the SHUM league (SHUM after the first Hebrew letters of Shpira, Vermayza, and Magentza). The ShUM-cities are considered the cradle of the distinct Ashkenazi culture and liturgy.

Shaul Stampfer (1948–) is a researcher of East European Jewry specializing in Lithuanian yeshivas, and Jewish demography, migration and education.

Shaul Stampfer, born in Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Lincoln High School in 1965, received his BA from the Yeshiva University in 1970 and his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1982. Prof. Stampfer currently resides in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem.

In 1989-1992 Stampfer was a head of the Institute for Jewish Studies in Moscow and helped to establish the city's Jewish University. Stampfer is currently a professor of Soviet and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University. His book on Lithuanian yeshivas (published in Hebrew in 2005) has been translated into English and is scheduled for publication by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3j6Wb5ta-E8C&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=%22Shaul+Stampfer%22&source=web&ots=i4HgjxPHUS&sig=QeaVFEQPRXz_I8K4GceGc5_mgMU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA128,M1

Luc Ferry (born January 1, 1951 in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French philosopher and a notable proponent of Secular Humanism. He is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank.

He received an Agrégation de philosophie (1975), a Doctorat d’Etat en science politique (1981), and an Agrégation de science politique (1982). As a Professor of political science and political philosophy, Luc Ferry taught at the Institut d'études politiques de Lyon (1982–1988) — during which time he also taught and directed graduate research at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University —, at Caen University (1989–96), and at Paris Diderot University (since 1996).

From 2002 and until 2004 he served as the Minister of Education on the cabinet led by the conservative Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. During his tenure, he was the minister in charge of the implementation of the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. He received the award of Docteur honoris causa from the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada). He is the 2013 Telesio Galilei Academy of science Laureate for Philosophy. He was enthroned to Chevalier De La Dive Bouteille De Gaillac on the 20 march 2012 together with Max Karoubi and Francesco Fucilla.

Texe W. Marrs (born 1944) is an American writer, who runs a Christian ministry called Power of Prophecy Ministries, based in Austin, Texas.

He was previously an officer in the United States Air Force and a faculty member at the University of Texas.

Marrs has received coverage from the news media for his claims that:

Marrs has been accused of being anti-Catholic. Some of his critics, such as Edward L. King, have accused him of anti-Semitism. In 1999 he alleged that former United States President George H.W. Bush would be involved in a black mass in a chamber within the Great Pyramid of Giza during the 2000 millennium celebrations. Christian writer Constance Cumbey has accused Marrs of plagiarism of material from her book Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow.