You might find this interesting. It appears there is genetic evidence that the Ashkenazi Jews are descendant from the Middle East. Interestingly it
appears that the Ashkenazi ancestors arrived in Europe with Middle Eastern wives, rather than taking wives from the locals in their new country. That
fits with the exclusivity which the Jewish people have generally kept in their gene pool for centuries.
www.simpletoremember.com...
Although the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish community separated from their Mediterranean ancestors some 1,200 years ago and lived among Central and
Eastern European gentiles, their paternal gene pool still resembles that of other Jewish and Semitic groups originating in the Middle East.
A low rate of intermarriage between Diaspora Jews and local gentiles was the key reason for this continuity. Since the Jews first settled in Europe
more than 50 generations ago, the intermarriage rate was estimated to be only about 0.5% in each generation.
The Ashkenazi paternal gene pool does not appear to be similar to that of present-day Turkish speakers. This finding opposes the suggestion that
Ashkenazim are descended from the Kuzars, a Turkish-Asian empire that converted to Judaism en masse in or about the 8th century CE.
(emphasis
added)
www.nytimes.com...
A new look at the DNA of the Ashkenazi Jewish population has thrown light on its still mysterious origins.
Until now, it had been widely assumed by geneticists that the Ashkenazi communities of Northern and Central Europe were founded by men who came from
the Middle East, perhaps as traders, and by the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism.
But the new study, published online this week in The American Journal of Human Genetics, suggests that the men and their wives migrated to Europe
together.
The researchers, Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Technion and Ramban Medical Center in Haifa, and colleagues elsewhere, report that just four
women, who may have lived 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, are the ancestors of 40 percent of Ashkenazis alive today. The Technion team's analysis was based
on mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element that is separate from the genes held in the cell's nucleus and that is inherited only through the female line.
Because of mutations - the switch of one DNA unit for another - that build up on the mitochondrial DNA, people can be assigned to branches that are
defined by which mutations they carry.
In the case of the Ashkenazi population, the researchers found that many branches coalesced to single trees, and so were able to identify the four
female ancestors.
Looking at other populations, the Technion team found that some people in Egypt, Arabia and the Levant also carried the set of mutations that defines
one of the four women. They argue that all four probably lived originally in the Middle East.
I hope that's some help. If you have a look at the Jewish history, you'll see that the whole nation was effectively cast out, and scattered (by God,
according to the Torah). The Torah has a record of prophecy that God would again gather them together into a nation. (However there is a terrible
fate awaiting that nation according to the Torah - and according to New Testament writings - an unparalleled holocaust, until the hearts of a remnant
of that people are returned to their God. I hope that this last paragraph is not too far off topic. If anyone wants to discuss these last matters, I
recommend you U2U me, so that we don't get off the track from what the OP intended.)
edit on 25-3-2011 by latitude39 because: corrected quote
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