It drives me nuts how this one small clique have managed to craft a lie so poorly yet it has permeated every avenue and is being kept alive as everyone keeps referencing the original lie. Bagels have nothing to do with Jews other than the appropriation that has occured. Many other baked goods originating in the Russian Empire/Eastern Europe are parboiled then baked. These include Kolach, Bubliki, Baranka, Sushki and many more, which predate the "bagel". Even the referenced origin, Poland had "bagels" before bagels in Krakow as far back as 1300s (and still do) but they retain the original name Obwarzanek Krakowski. This can easily be thought to be the precursor to all these toroidal baked goods stemming from Eastern Europe due to its similarity in shape, recipe, ingredients, texture and taste and has nothing to do with Jews. In fact, white flour needed to make these baked items was considered a novelty and with its price reserved for artisans, noble upper class and royalty. It's ironic because the very source that is cited by those perpetuating the notion that Jews made the bagel states that Jews were poor and could not afford white flour, so they consumed black bread except for on Sabbath when they occasionally consumed Challah. This is not to mention all the other toroidal baked goods from other parts of the world, or those which preperation reminisce of the bagel, such as the pretzel and specifically soft pretzel. We have the pretzel dating back to 600 AD from Christian monks, Taralli from Italy in 700 AD, Arabic كعك from 1200, Rosca de Reyes from Spain/Portugal literally meaning ring as in shape from 1300-1600s, Simit from the Ottoman Empire dated around 1500 and even similar items in China by the Uyghurs (I've forgotten the name of). Not only that, but the very name "bagel" stems from German (Old / Middle High / Proto-West) "bouc"/"boug" meaning ring, bracelet and later Middle-Dutch and Austrian-German "beugel", "beigel". With only these limited facts presented here in mind it is reasonable to deduct the technique of making pretzels was spread and applied by in other areas of the continent, where in slavic regions it was simplified, ditching the knot, to a torus (ring). Conclusively, the modern Austrian region geographically aligns as it fits the linguistic heritage, cooking technique derived from pretzels and whose proximity to derived works as mentioned above can be traced to/from. While we're at it, the root of this citation that allegedly makes claim that "a community regulation from 1610" attributes the bagel to the Jews is the worst of this. The author (Leo Rosten) who is not a credited historian, linguist or any type of academic in a relevant field is in reality a comedian/storyteller and practical lexicographer, who planted that seed for this lie in his humoristic Yiddish dictionary, making no reference or attempt to provide a source for it. Which is funny because I remember a long time ago when I first came across this bagel-debacle and wanted to investigate it. Turns out, not a single Polish institute, government body, archive or historian knows about or can produce this mystical "Community Regulation" dated 1610. Now, I don't mean to continue persuing or ignite allegations but something very similar to this whole ordeal with bagels can also be witnessed with the Jewish/Israeli claims / appropriation of other cultures and nations cuisines such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and more with dishes like hummus, zaatar, falafel, shawarma and renaming them to e.g. "Israeli salad". It really doesn't help with optics in regards to these previous claims. As for the development, spread and popularization in North America it is worth noting that German/Austrian bakers immigrating to the US in the 1800s brought with them traditional European breads and pastries such as the pretzel and notably the soft pretzel which is very similar to a bagel in that the layman is unlikely to differentiate them by taste or texture. And not to discredit Jewish bakers in America, they may have popularized the item in their neighborhoods but it's important to critically distinguish causation, correlation and implication. A Jewish neighborhood is more likely to have Jewish bakers, as is true for other cases; e.g. a black neighborhood is more likely to have black barbers. And as these were immigrants from Europe it's likely they were familiar with European breads and pastries. But concluding it to be Jews as the common denominator just because Jewish bakeries in Jewish neighborhoods offered these bagels is poor reasoning as the sample population is skewed. If it had been inclusive of all bakeries in the US and thus proven that Jewish bakeries were the only or majority baking and selling bagels, then it would give merit to the claim, alas it does not. I really could continue writing pages on pages on this but I doubt anyone would read it, especially here on KZbin, if not for the horrible character limit and formatting which alone is almost enough to dissuade me.