The Genetic Background of Ashkenazi Jews
Over at Gene Expression you can read an understandable discussion with neat graphics about the genetic background of Ashkenazi Jews. Some of the conclusions:
1) Jewish populations do have a common ancestral affinity.
2) But, that affinity is complemented by admixture with the populations amongst whom the Diaspora settled.
3) There is a suggestion that in the case of Ashkenazi Jews the European contribution was more likely to be from southern, and not northern, Europe. This is somewhat surprising in light of the fact that the Ashkenazi group crystallized during the medieval period in northern Europe, amongst German and Slavic speaking peoples. These data would imply that in fact there was a relatively strong separation between these groups and the Jews, at least when it came to gene flow into the Jewish group (other data from Poland does show the effect of Jewish assimilation into the gentile majority). Therefore, the admixture may have occurred within the bounds of the former Roman Empire, during the Imperial or early post-Imperial period.
4) The close relationship of Jews to Palestinians is not surprising. Jews are reputedly a Levantine population by origin, and the historical and genetic evidence points to Arabicization in the Levant and Mesopotamia as having occurred through acculturation, and not population replacement. Many of the Palestinians are likely of original Jewish or Samaritan origin, though I would guess that they were likely at least nominally Christianized during the Byzantine persecutions of the 6th century.
5) There remain questions as to which groups the Ashkenazi Jews admixed with, and when they admixed. There should be a different pattern of genetic variance if the admixture event was early and ceased, or if it was constant and gradual gene flow. The phylogenetics implies the former, because of the lack of much allele sharing with northern Europeans specifically, amongst whom the Ashkenazi Jews were resident for the past ~1,000 years. Within the text of the paper there are also hints of possible relationships to a population of the Caucasus, opening an avenue for some validity of the Khazar hypothesis. There have been other data which also point to the Khazar hypothesis. The origins of the Jews then likely are complex.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:28 am
It is exactly correct that Jewish ancestry is a mixture of different ethinic and other groups. Even Jewish origin in the Midle East is a mixture of different groups. That is why it so tragic that in this country, and to some extent in Israel, instead of embracing intermarriage as a given fact and attempting to open up “who is a Jew”, there are powerful segments in the Jewish community that are trying to restrict membership and claim the illusion of Jewish “purity” as reason to restrict who can claimm to be Jewish.
Harry P
December 14th, 2009 at 9:02 am
the whole argument strikes me as silly. The LCD of Jewish identity and peoplehood has always been covenental (at least as long as there are records). In other words, as opposed to early Islam, the racial/genetic factor is negligible.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Ashkenazi = Khazarian.
Ashkenazi “Jews” are not Jews at all. They came from the Euro-Asiatic Steppe. A Khazarian King in the 8th century forced the Khazarian people to convert to Judaism. The Khazars were phallic worshipers originally. They were a very violent people and were eventually forced off the Steppe by other tribes due to their natural propensity for war and general mayhem. Modern day Israel is dominated by Ashkenazi “Jews”/. Saphardic Jews are considered inferior and if an Ashkenazi marries a Saphardic Jew in Israel they are punished for the marriage. Anyone interested in learning about the true state of modern Israel should read Jack Bernstein’s book,”The Life of an American Jew in Racist, Marxist Israel”. You can read it online here: http://jackbernstein.blogspot.com/
The title of the book is very controversial but it’s an important read if you want to go further then what the mainstream media tells you is truth . Jack was assassinated for exposing the lie that is modern Israel. Just about everything the American public thinks it knows about Israel is a carefully crafted lie, propaganda on a massive scale.