Jewish DNA

[dayag]

Bararallu,
Here is a link to an interesting scientific abstract called "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes" by M.F. Hammer et al. that was published in 2000:

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/97/12/6769

I found one of the charts very interesting. It shows "Genetic Affinities Among Populations" (Fig. 2).



The way we are clustered with the Palestinians and Syrians shows clearly our common origin in the Levant.

[bararallu]

Yes there is a lot to gather from this... look at the Teimani population for one.. you'd expect some Sub Saharan ancestry, or proximity to the Arabians (Dhu Nuwas and all) but not at all... a true cloistered community that had extremely little intermarriage.

The case of the Kurdish Jews, presumably "the center" of all Jews, the midpoint between most Ashkenazim and most North African Jews... what is not shown is ethnic Kurds, which I have read are extremely proximate to the Jews... and the conjecture there is not intermarriage, but common foundations of the male (Y chrom) genealogy, either pre-establishment of Israel (Aramean-Mede fusion or something like it) and or the reign of the Adiabene kingdom later on. This is probably the most interesting (and accessible) area of genetic archeology we have these days... what do you think?

In the mitochondrial world... the K studies are rather interesting, Dr. Behar holds that mito group K (the largest Ashkenazi group (perhaps 1/3-1/2 of the sampled) is a group found in many women in the "Mediterranean Basin", some critics rightfully point out that does not equate to the Levant. If you find a nice mito map of any Syrian/Lebanese study please post it.

[dayag]

Yes there is a lot to gather from this... look at the Teimani population for one.. you'd expect some Sub Saharan ancestry, or proximity to the Arabians (Dhu Nuwas and all) but not at all... a true cloistered community that had extremely little intermarriage.

The case of the Kurdish Jews, presumably "the center" of all Jews, the midpoint between most Ashkenazim and most North African Jews... what is not shown is ethnic Kurds, which I have read are extremely proximate to the Jews... and the conjecture there is not intermarriage, but common foundations of the male (Y chrom) genealogy, either pre-establishment of Israel (Aramean-Mede fusion or something like it) and or the reign of the Adiabene kingdom later on. This is probably the most interesting (and accessible) area of genetic archeology we have these days... what do you think?

In the mitochondrial world... the K studies are rather interesting, Dr. Behar holds that mito group K (the largest Ashkenazi group (perhaps 1/3-1/2 of the sampled) is a group found in many women in the "Mediterranean Basin", some critics rightfully point out that does not equate to the Levant. If you find a nice mito map of any Syrian/Lebanese study please post it.

There is a study called "The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East" by Almut Nebel et al. 2001 which you can see at
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJH...013033.web.pdf
which compares the Genetic Differentiation between Muslim Kurds, Kurdish Jews, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Palestinian Arabs, & Bedouins.

Figure 2 has a chart of relationships between these groups based on genetic distance. It shows Muslim Kurds on the same branch with Sephardic Jews and Kurdish Jews. So, there is an interesting connection there that merits further study. Kurdistan was the general area that the Assyrians settled Israelite captives. Possibly that is the source for this shared DNA?

I found this study extremely interesting because it has actual Allele values that I could compare with my own. My paternal line matched Haplotype Number 215 which was found among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. My mother's paternal DNA (based on a male cousin) matched Haplotype Number 201 and occured among Ashkenazi and Kurdish Jews as well as Muslim Kurds and Palestinian Arabs in this study.

Interesting stuff. I need to read up some more on the mitochondrial studies.
Here is the link to Dr. Doron's study in case anyone else wants to take a look at it:
http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/43026_doron.pdf

[bararallu]

Thanks I'll take a gander.

[bararallu]

Some additional data points:


Ashkenazi mtDNA distributions

[dayag]

Some additional data points:


Ashkenazi mtDNA distributions

Thanks Bararallu, that's great.

[dayag]

Interesting DNA study:

A just-published, “definitive” study of Jews of North African origin has set their place on the genetic map of the Jewish Diasporas. This completes research of contemporary Jewish populations following previous work on Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahi Jews who originated in Europe and the Middle East.

The study – led by Prof. Harry Ostrer of the departments of pathology, genetics and pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at New York’s Yeshiva University, was just published online in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences...

The findings support the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa during classical antiquity, converting non-Jews to Judaism and marrying local populations, thereby forming distinct populations that stayed largely intact for more than two millennia...

In addition, each group showed Middle-Eastern ancestry and varying degrees of mixing with surrounding populations.

Two of the major Jewish populations – Middle Eastern and European Jews – were found in the Einstein study to have diverged from each other about 2,500 years ago.

North African Jews exhibited a high degree of endogamy – a term that refers to marriage within their own religious and cultural group – in accordance with their community’s custom.

Two major subgroups within this overall population were identified – Moroccan/Algerian Jews and Djerban (Tunisian)/Libyan Jews. The two subgroups varied in their degree of European mixture, with Moroccan/Algerian Jews tending to be more related to Europeans, which most likely resulted from the expulsion of Sephardi Jews from Spain during the Inquisition starting in 1492.

Ethiopian and Yemenite Jewish populations also formed distinctive genetically linked clusters, as did Georgian Jews.

source: http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=280344

[EsserAgaroth]

I find DNA studies fascinating. It is important to remember, though, that there are limits their halakhic (Jewish legal) implications.

I believe that most Jews are some form of J, E, G, or R. J1's are generally So. Arabian Peninsula, and J2's (like me) No. Arabian Peninsula.

I HOPE that DNA studies will eventually create unity, and not division in Israel. For example, there are MANY "ashkenazim" who are really Sepharadi. So why did they get mixed with ashkenazim in Poland (for example) and keep Ashkenazi customs, even though today most Jews rant on about the importance of keeping minhaggei avoth (ancestral customs)? Because the Sepharadim took on the customs of the place, like they were supposed to. There is no halakhic source to support such ancestral customs, only strong psychological, sociological and political reasons.

And, of course, if you trace every Jew back far enough, you'll find that many are from the Arabian Peninsula.

Many of our (Jewish) ancestors were converts, more than we care to admit.

[JerichoMissile]

if there any aussies here, there was a fascinating program on SBS here in australia a few months ago and jews and the bible,and in the 3rd part if the series it said, the very early jews cam from every tribe and kingdom in the area of caanan etc... and the ONE thing that made these people come together it said, was FREEDOM, it said the very early people who first identified themselves as jews got together because they all wanted to be free from their various masters/overlords/kings etc.... from various ancient tribes, that lived in the area thats now modern day israel/samaria/western jordan etc...

So the first jews didnt actually come from the one race, they were all different , but the one thing that brought them together was a need for freedom, and they all became known as jews/israelites.

What gets me is, if judaism was first developed because they wanted freedom, why were there jewish kings later on, kings have absolute power right? sort of like a dictator?
even though all jewish kings were kind and good to their people, besides herrod of course.