[blam]

"You find a fair number of Jews with red hair."

I suspected as much. I read that some people believe the Northern Tribes were proto-Celtics...what is your 'take' on that?

[ChicagoHebrew]

I suspected as much. I read that some people believe the Northern Tribes were proto-Celtics...what is your 'take' on that?

Absolute total garbage. There is no genetic or linguistic connection between Jews and Celtics.

I believe the Northern Tribes mostly settled in Afganistan/Kurdistan/Pakistan. There are strong linguistic, genetic, and cultural matches between Jews and Parthans (and other groups) in Afganistan/Pakistan. Genetically, Kurds are the closest people to Jews in the world. The remainder of the Norhtern Tribes either returned and assimilated into Judah, or dispersed throughout the nations.

[ChicagoHebrew]

Oh... might as well add that my parental grandfather (origin Southern Russia) and my maternal great-uncle (origin Belarus) both have red hair. I think I and my brother wound up with recessive genes-- we've got brown hair (mine's darker than his) but grow reddish beards.

[Cronos]

"You find a fair number of Jews with red hair."

IMO Jews are no longer purely SEmitic -- especially EUropean Jews. Don't forget that:

1. They have been wandering in Europe for 2000 years
2. There MUST have been intermarriages, even if a few and this adds up in a msall community over 2000 years
3. The Kazars converted to Judaism in the first centuries AD and then when their kingdom was broken up, they moved into Europe, so many of the European Jews would have been Kazars and not descendents of Jacob

[Cronos]

I read that some people believe the Northern Tribes were proto-Celtics...what is your 'take' on that?

Blam -- you should stop reading 18th century British propaganda. Celts are an Aryan people, the Northern Tribes were Semitic.