Kievian Letter

The Kievian Letter is an early 10th century (ca. 930) letter long thought to be written by a Khazarian Jewish community in Kiev. The letter, a Hebrew-language recommendation written on behalf of one member of their community, was part of an enormous collection brought to Cambridge by Solomon Schechter from the Cairo Geniza. It was discovered in 1962 during a survey of the Geniza documents by Norman Golb of the University of Chicago. The letter is dated by most scholars to around 930 CE. Some think (on the basis of the "pleading" nature of the text, mentioned below) that the letter dates from a time frame when Khazars were no longer a dominant force in the politics of the city. The letter apparently does not hail from Kiev but was sent to Kiev, according to Marcel Erdal.