Posted on 04/11/2003 5:14:00 AM PDT by Asher
Genetic evidence links Jews to their ancient tribe
By Judy Siegel
JERUSALEM (November 20) - Genetic evidence continues to provide additional proof to the claims that the Jewish people are descended from a common ancient Israelite father: Despite being separated for over 1,000 years, Sephardi Jews of North African origin are genetically indistinguishable from their brethren from Iraq, according to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
They also proved that Sephardi Jews are very close genetically to the Jews of Kurdistan, and only slight differences exist between these two groups and Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.
These conclusions are reached in an article published recently in the American Journal of Human Genetics and written by Prof. Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University (HU) and Hadassah-University Hospital in Ein Kerem.
Others involved are German doctoral student Almut Nebel, Dr. Marina Faerman of HU, Dr. Dvora Filon of Hadassah-University Hospital, and other colleagues from Germany and India.
The researchers conducted blood tests of Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Kurdish Jews and examined their Y chromosomes, which are carried only by males. They then compared them with those of various Arab groups - Palestinians, Beduins, Jordanians, Syrians and Lebanese - as well as to non-Arab populations from Transcaucasia - Turks, Armenians and Moslem Kurds.
The study is based on 526 Y chromosomes typed by the Israeli team and additional data on 1,321 individuals from 12 populations. The typing of the Jewish groups was performed at the National Genome Center at HU's Silberman Institute of Life Sciences.
The Fertile Crescent of the Middle East was one of the few centers in which the transition from hunting-gathering to permanent settlement and agriculture took place. Genetic studies suggest that migrating Neolithic farmers dispersed their technological innovations and domesticated animals from the Middle East towards Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia.
Studies of Y chromosomes have become powerful tools for the investigation of the genetic history of males, since these chromosomes are transmitted from fathers to sons.
Surprisingly, the study shows a closer genetic affinity by Jews to the non-Jewish, non-Arab populations in the northern part of the Middle East than to Arabs. These findings are consistent with known cultural links that existed among populations in the Fertile Crescent in early history, and indicate that the Jews are direct descendants of the early Middle Eastern core populations, which later divided into distinct ethnic groups speaking different languages.
Previous investigations by the HU researchers suggested a common origin for Jewish and non-Jewish populations living in the Middle East. The current study refines and delineates that connection.
It is believed that the majority of today's Jews - not including converts and non-Jews with whom Jews intermarried - descended from the ancient Israelis that lived in the historic Land of Israel until the destruction of the Second Temple and their dispersal into the Diaspora.
The researchers say that a genetic analysis of the chromosomes of Jews from various countries show that there was practically no genetic intermixing between them and the host populations among which they were scattered during their dispersion - whether in Eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal or North Africa.
A particularly intriguing case illustrating this is that of the Kurdish Jews, said to be the descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel who were exiled in 723 BCE. to the area known today as Kurdistan, located in Northern Iraq, Iran and Eastern Turkey. They continued to live there as a separate entity until their immigration to Israel in the 1950s. The Kurdish Jews of today show a much greater affinity to their fellow Jews elsewhere than to the Kurdish Moslems.
(Source: The Jerusalem Post Newspaper)
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| Our troops give so much of themselves, and we all benefit from their efforts. The next time you look at your bank balance, why not find some way to take some money and put it towards supporting the members of our armed services in some way? Maybe find a family who has someone serving, and buy them dinner, or some groceries, or a gift for their children? Maybe find a way to contribute to a fund for the memory of any of those who have fallen? Our armed forces deserve our support in tangible ways.
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A newspaper report from Jerusalem dated January 3, 1997 indicates that scientists have found a unique genetic chromosome linking Jews of the priestly tribe (Kohanim) worldwide. The researchers found these Jewish Kohanim, whether from the Ashkenazi (European) or the Sephardi (Spanish and Middle Eastern) branches share a variation of the Y chromosome. This is a very strong evidence that these individuals are descendants of one man, Aaron the High Priest, who lived 3,500 years ago. Prof. Karl Skorecki, a senior nephrologist (blood specialist) at Rambam Hospital in Haifa is the head of molecular medicine at Israel's Technion's medical school. He and his colleagues published their findings in Nature, a British science journal.
The scientists obtained genetic samples from the inside of the cheeks of unrelated Jewish men who lived in three nations. They asked if they were Kohanim, related to the priestly tribe. The genetic phenotypes of 188 Jews who believed they were descended from the Kohanim were different genetically from those Jews in the sample who were not kohanim. The researchers found a preponderance of the YAP, DYS19B haplotype in the priestly kohanim This Y chromosome is carried only by men and is passed down father to son patrilineally. Mitichondrial DNA, on the other hand, is transmitted by the mother's X chromosomes. Professor Skorecki explained that it was impressive how the characteristic Y chromosome was passed down the generations despite centuries of assimilation over the last two thousand years. Professor Skorecki did not choose kohanim based on their names (Cohen, Rappaport, or Shapiro, etc.). Rather, they asked if their family tradition claimed they were kohanim.
The professor is himself a kohen. He noticed another kohen in a synagogue and wondered if they could be genetically linked since the Bible claimed they were all descended from Aaron. "I wanted to know if it were possible to find a genetic connection." It is estimated that approximately 5 percent (350,000 men) of the 7 million male Jews worldwide are descended from the priestly tribe. The priests led Israel in its worship in the Temple and Tabernacle from the time of Aaron. God commanded that they would not be given a tribal territory like the other tribes. Instead the Levites would receive tithes from the sacrifices in the Temple. Since the Roman army burned the Temple in A.D. 70 the kohanim priesthood required its members to keep ritually pure by not touching a corpse or marrying a divorcee.
Dr. Skorecki and his fellow researchers discovered a preponderance of the YAP, DYS19B haplotype in the priestly kohanim but they did not find this in Jews that were not descended from the kohanim. This genetic evidence was found in kohanim from both the Ashkenazi (European) and the Sephardi (Spanish and Middle Eastern) branches of the worldwide Jewish population. This is a strong proof that the Aaronic priesthood existed in the distant past as the Bible relates. This provides fascinating evidence that the Jewish priesthood predated the division of the Jewish people into the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi branches, these two major ethnic groups, which occurred approximately a 1,000 years ago during the Middle Ages.
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