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I’m not sure. If the divergence between Middle Eastern and European Jews occurred about 2,500 years ago, then it would seem arguable that the European Jews are descended from the 10 tribes that were carried off by the Assyrians and allegedly scattered into the Caucasus and parts of Central Asia. In any event, it is all interesting.

Nope, the 10 tribes are still lost. All of today's Jews are descendants of the Southern Kingdom (Judea).

It was almost exactly 2500 years ago that the Kingdom of Judea was conquered by the Babylonians and all of its inhabitants exiled to Babylon. About 70 years later, the Persians conquered Babylon and permitted the Jews to return to Judea, but most did not.

Today's Ashkenazic Jews are descended from those who returned to Judea; when Judea rebelled against Rome in 70 C.E. and again in 135 C.E., the Judeans were taken to Rome as slaves. Their descendants were permitted to move from Italy to Germany by Charlemagne, and from there they spread to Poland, Russia and eventually to the United States.

Meanwhile, the Jews who did not return to Judea stayed in Babylon (today's Iraq) until it was conquered by the Moslems; they then moved throughout the Moslem world (the Middle East, North Africa and Spain). Their descendants became the Sephardim (Jews exiled from Spain in 1492) and the Mizrachim (Jews who remained in Middle Eastern countries until the Arabs expelled them in 1948).

Yes, I know about the Babylonian exile, but it is probably the case that the dating on this sort of research has at least a 10% to 20% margin of error. In that case, perhaps the traditional story about the Ashkenazic Jews isn’t entirely right. Perhaps the Ashkenazic Jews are descended from both. In any event, there is nothing obvious that would distinguish genetically the part of the Jewish population carried off by the Babylonians from those that weren’t carried off or that would distinguish those that eventually returned from those that didn’t. I realize that there is folklore on the point, but the Babylonians probably just carried off those that they could seize and who were physically fit.

Alternatively, I suppose that the divergence 2,500 years ago could reflect the fact that Ashkenazic Jews are genetically part Babylonian. In any event, as I said, it is all interesting.