Birth Name: Betty Joan Perske Date of Birth: September 16, 1924 Birth Place: New York City, New York, United States Date of Death: August 12, 2014 Place of Death: New York City, New York Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Posted on 09/18/2014 10:35:58 AM PDT by Fenhalls555
There may be no such thing as a Jewish gene, but communities can definitely have defining characteristics, and one such community is Jews with roots in central and eastern Europe.
A model based on the genetic sequencing of 128 Ashkenazi Jews concludes that today’s Ashkenazim descend from the fusion of European and Middle-Eastern Jews during the medieval era, between 600 to 800 years ago.
The math also indicates that today’s sprawling community of Ashkenazi Jews — there are more than 10 million around the world — derived from just 350 people or so. That previously postulated population bottleneck — a drastic reduction in population size — occurred between 25 to 32 generations ago, the scientists say.
The study was published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications by a team headed by Columbia University’s Shai Carmon.
A number of genetic characteristics are associated with Ashkenazi groups, as opposed to other Jewish populations and other contemporary Middle-Eastern and European peoples. Certainly they are genetically distinguishable. “Compared with European samples, our Ashkenazi Jewish panel has 47 percent more novel variants per genome,” write the scientists.
Unfortunately, Ashkenazim are also associated with no less than 19 genetic disorders, according to the Center for Jewish Genetics. Many are fatal and arise from single-gene mutations. The list includes forms of breast and ovarian cancer, Tay-Sachs disease and so-called maple syrup urine disease, in which the pee of affected children smells sweet.
Compared with Europeans in general, Ashkenazi Jews have a slightly greater deleterious mutation load, as it were. (Sephardi Jews have illnesses of their own, including the genetic disorder Wolman’s disease and an allergy to fava beans – the ful so loved by non-allergic Israelis.)
(Excerpt) Read more at forward.com ...
well, not quite. actually not by a long shot
If “great looks” are a s sign of “Jewishness” I must have some Jewish ancestors in my family tree. /LOL
Birth Name: Betty Joan Perske Date of Birth: September 16, 1924 Birth Place: New York City, New York, United States Date of Death: August 12, 2014 Place of Death: New York City, New York Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
I’m trting to do some math on this, but having trouble. It seems to me that to have so few ancestors, that this suggests that there were some very active males involved in expanding the group of people.
“The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
Yes, absolutely correct. Fenhalls555 seems to have lost out in the brains department.
Him too...
She was a first cousin of Shimon Peres, FWIW.
Whereas you are gravely deficient in the sense of humour and backbone departments. I sincerely hope for the sake of your parents that the apple in your particular case fell a long way from the tree.
I’ve read that the Pashtuns of Afghanistan may be descendents of the Israelis carried away into captivity when the Northern Kingdom was overthrown. Maybe also some from the Southern kingdom (Judea).
I believe Kipling mentioned this.
I think his wife is prettier.
This is really odd, because there were a lot more Jews than that running around Europe in earlier years. For instance, the 1st Crusaders slaughtered thousands of Jews in the Rhineland on their way to Jerusalem.
I’m trying to think of a disaster between 110 and 1400 that could have reduced the population so drastically.
It wasn't the Black Death - though horrific in its consequences, it "only" killed 1/3 to 1/2 of Europe's population (not enough to reduce a reasonably large group like Ashkenazi Jews down to a breeding population of only 350). Oh, and Jews suffered from it at a somewhat reduced level due to their habit of ritually-washing their hands before any meal that includes bread, as well as the idea of making one's self more presentable on the Sabbath (like, for instance, taking a bath and changing dirty, possibly disease-laden, clothing). Of course, suffering from a hideous disease at lower rates in a time of great ignorance tends to give rise to conspiracy theories, esp. aimed at traditional scape goats, so a lot of Jews were killed for the "crime" of not getting the Black Death. But not enough to get down to 350 breeders.
The figure of 350 seems absurdly low to me. Even after the Cossack massacres of the mid-1600s, the generally-accepted belief regarding a population bottleneck is that there were roughly 100,000 Jews left in central and eastern Europe at that point. Again, 350 is an absurdly low number IMHO.
Well, just because modern Ashkenazi may all be descended from 350 individuals, does not necessarily mean that the population ever got as low as 350 at any time. There could have been many more alive at the time of the greatest bottleneck, but all their descendants were wiped out subsequently, in one or more different events.
The line bottle necked to about 350 and then...
Does anyone know the rate of Ashkenazi Jews marriage to non-Ashkenazi (in the United States). I imagine its pretty high and would tend to dilute the genetic issues rather quickly. Although there is a huge upside to not diluting it too considering the brain power.
Even though I’m not a homosexual, I still think he is infinitely better looking than Joanne Woodward. Still a wonderful actress, though.
So then I could understand this, unless I couldn't.
Currently around 58% up from 43% in 1970. Pretty soon most Jews will be ultra-Orthodox and they tend to have simply huge families. Good thing for the Republican Party.
Ping for genetics.
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