Wexler, Paul

Paul Wexler ( born Paul Wexler , Hebrew פאול וקסלר ) - Israeli linguist, a native of the United States, professor of linguistics, Tel Aviv University ( Israel ).

His research interests are bilingualism , Slavic linguistics, Yiddish , Hebrew , Roma (gypsy) languages , creolization .

In the early 90s, Veksler put forward a theory relating Yiddish to a group of Slavic rather than Germanic languages (in the article "Yiddish. 15th Slavic Language" Paul Wexler, Yiddish - The Fifteenth Slavic Language International Journal of the Sociology of Language 91, 1991).

Later, in The Ashkenazic Jews: A Slavo-Turkic People in Search of a Jewish Identity. Columbus: Slavica 1993, based on the vast linguistic, historical, and ethnographic material of Wexler He proposed to reconsider the whole theory of the origin of the Ashkenazi - who spoke Yiddish Eastern European Jewry. He considers them not as descendants of immigrants from the Middle East, but as the indigenous European people, descending from the descendants of the Western Slavs - Puddle Sorbits , Slavs, and others. Later, Veksler included the Khazars and numerous Slavs who lived in Kievan Rus in the number of alleged ancestors of East European Jews. IX-XII centuries.

Wexler also published a study on Sephardic Jewry , arguing that they are descendants of proselytes who converted to North African Judaism , and not descendants of Palestinian Jews .

Modern genetic research (showing a high degree of genetic affinity of the vast majority of Jewish communities, in particular Ashkenazi and Sephardic ) does not leave room for these hypotheses. Wexler’s views also did not find wide support among specialists in Jewish history and philology (the exception among philologists is Gilad Zuckerman , who relies in his work on the research of Wexler as well) ^[1] , but his works are widely cited in pseudoscientific literature and have found many followers among laymen.

At the same time, in another area of ​​his scientific interests - Slavic and, in particular, Belarusian philology - Wexler enjoys a certain authority among colleagues. Currently ^{[ when? ]} he is busy preparing a dictionary of the historical phonology of the Russian language .

In addition to scientific works, Wexler is known for his anti-Zionist views. He is, in particular, an active supporter of the boycott of Israeli scientists by their European colleagues (see, for example, his page on the website of Tel Aviv University). He advocates the rights of soldiers to refuse to serve in the occupied territories ^[2] .