Genetic evidence links Jews to their ancient tribe

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.

"The Following information is presented only to demonstrate the SOURCE of information being relied on by Just mythoughts and others on this thread."

You sir have done this website a severe injustice and have personally and directly insulted many of its members by accusing us of having any connection whatsoever with these vile groups.

I can only speak for myself, but I have never read these books or heard of their authors. Your false accusations fall down with your false theory that we would participate in white supremacy.

From what I can see, it appears as though YOU are the one that has been reading these books and cruising their websites, not us.

Just because two people share SOME of the same beliefs and one happens to be of vile character, you then assume they both are identical in all other ways. I would submit that there be no belief that isn't shared with at least one human of vile character and that would leave you and your beliefs in the same boat with where you've chosen to put ours.

I would suspect you are far too obsessed with nazis and the like and are projecting some personal life drama upon others.

You are simply wrong about us and your hatefilled theory.

WE DEMAND AN APOLOGY

ALS

I was responding to the post of "sources" that just_mythoughts had posted as something we should give consideration. I showed the provenance of THEIR vile thoughts, not mine. I did not include you (but if you follow their line of thinking, then you are closer to these web-sites than you might think).

ALS, I was merely showing WHERE this tripe is being sold and promoted... and making some conclusions on the motives of those who are, at the very least, apparently fellow travelers.

Several of these books (pamphlets) that were being offered as "authoritative" proofs of the supposed "facts" being posted are sold ONLY from Neo-Nazi and White Supremeacist or Christian Identity bookstores. Many are published by companies that specialize in racist literature.

I have not read them... I give them the weight they deserve based on their lack of bonefide scholarship, the truly reprehensible web-sites that sell them, and the lack of any proper educational background for their authors to be considered "authorities" in the fields they are purporting to be "experts."

If you want an apology, then I am sorry you base your world view on the questionable works of authors whose works are exalted and promoted by neo-nazis and racists. The injustice done to the web-site is the result of posting this twaddle as though it were accepted historical fact and not the deranged and deluded theories of long discredited amatuers.

I have merely posted the facts about just my thoughts' sources. They fail to meet the smell test... in fact, except for one author, they positively REEK.

If you've got more info on what groups conjoin white supremacsim with ten lost tribe theorizing please do post them.

Alright, but first, a little background...
Celtic-Lost Tribe theorists claim a scriptural basis for their theory. This amounts to an application of a few verses to the Assyrian Captivity, and extrapolating from there to suggest that European Caucasians are the descendents of the millions of captives of the Ten Lost Tribes. This supposedly took place between 700 and 600 BC, during which time they went from being captive Israelites to continent-dominating Celts.
When millions of people migrate on a scale like this in the Historical Period, they don't do so without a trace. Even if there is no contemporaneous written account, there will be artifacts, linguistic evidence, and genetic evidence,
Despite many contacts between ancient peoples of the Middle East and Europe, no conclusive examples of artifacts supporting the Celtic-Lost Tribe theory have been offered. A poster on another thread offered the psaltery, thinking that they were bagpipes and that they only occurred in Israel and the British Isles. Psalteries are stringed instruments, and like bagpipes, are found throughout the ancient world in the millennia before Christ.
Occasionally linguistic evidence will be presented, but it is generally from outdated linguistic theories or very tenuous and not supported by modern linguists, or anyone else not trying to prove the Celt-Lost Tribe link.
Genetic evidence is never presented, and requests are usually met with "genetic evidence can't exist" category. This demonstrates not only a lack of such evidence, but also a misunderstanding of the nature of genetic evidence and how it works.
Now, to be fair, the fact that none of the above type of evidence has been presented doesn't mean it doesn't exist; that's why I always begin conversations with Celtic Lost Tribe theorists with requests for that type of evidence. Because they don't have it, these theorists really only have the category contemporaneous written accounts on which to rely. Unfortunately, they find themselves in a similar predicament as when asked for other types of evidence: they don't have much.
Given that scriptural support for Celtic Lost Tribe theory is shaky, at best, they need another source. Despite the posted bibliographies, the bulk of their claim rests on a single work, Missing Links Discovered In Assyrian Tablets, by E. Raymond Capt.

It is Capt's unique translation of the tablets that allegedly gives credence the the Celtic Lost Tribe theory. Past requests for summaries of Capt's theory have been met with "buy the book." British Museum catalog numbers for the tablets in question are never offered, nor are examples of concurring peer review of Capt's research ever presented. Inquiries about Capt's credibility and credentials do not inspire confidence. Either he's a crackpot, or a lone, misunderstood genius.
Among those who lean toward the latter, and who offer Capt's books for sale, are the folks who put together this Christian Identity Links Page, and the booksellers at Kingdom Identity Ministries (here you can also find books by the previously cited Frederick Haberman, the racial identity screed "Suppose we are Israel," as well as the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion). In the Aryan Nations Catalog, one also finds the works of Raymond Capt, as well as writings by the previously cited Colonel J. C. Gawler, Mrs. Sidney Bristowe, C.R. Dickey, J.H. Allen, R.W. Morgan, and Frederick Habermann.
In fact, all but two of the authors cited by Just mythoughts at #169 are found in the Aryan Nations book catalog. The exceptions are George Jowett and E.W. Bullinger. I'm unfamiliar with Jowett, but I own Bullinger's referenced "The Witness of the Stars," and it's not about the Ten Lost Tribes or European Caucasians at all, it's a discussion of a theory that the constellations were invented and named by Adam, Shem, and Enoch to provide a means of orally proclaiming God's Word prior to the invention of writing. The only connection I can see to Bullinger is that Capt appears to have written a tract on the topic called "The Glory of the Stars".
Here's another site that tries to link the Lost Tribes to European Caucasians. Click on "NOT 'Identity'" on the left, and read on to find this quote:
"Just as the Jews in the first century took the Christian doctrine of Communion and made it into Cannibalism, so certain Jews of this day attempt to take the Israel truth labeled Identity and make it into racism, violence, Nazism, and hatred in the minds of the populace."

You see, it's just a sinister Jewish conspiracy to make the whites who claim a descent from the Ten Lost Tribes seem like Nazis. Keep reading, it only gets better.
Back to our noted scholar of the Assyrian Tablets...
Here are the Google Search Results for E. Raymond Capt and Christian Identity. E. Raymond Capt is published by Artisan Publishers. Also, here are the Google Search results for Artisan Publishers and Christian Identity. Nice, huh?
Given the disconcerting affinity these groups have for Celtic-Lost Tribe golden boy, E. Raymond Capt, and the evasiveness and lack of responsible evidence on the part of those who push his theories on FR, it seems fair to view the whole lot of them with a certain wariness. Some may be well-intentioned, if sincerely mislead. Others may be less sincere.

}The proponents of this Lost Tribe theory that Celts, Germans, or any other peoples are the direct descendants and therefore the heirs of a "chosen people" are making an EXTRAORDINARY claim...

Yes, in the sense that it is new to many ears. But that claim is no more extraordinary than the endless list of "claims" we live with every day without any thought or confirmation. Any thought which presses hard on human inertia is extraordinary, and disturbing to the smugly comfortable.

... } it is up to them to present BELIEVABLE and CONFIRMABLE evidence.

No it's not. You are really saying "it's up to them to convince ME", despite my mind being locked shut. Some people are simply faster learners than others, with some slow ones thinking they are the fast ones just because they don't "get it". There is no obligation on anyones part to "convince" the unconvinceable of anything.

}I have merely shown their sources to be neither believable nor confirmable.

Only in your dreams, where you set a very low standard of "proof" for your own "efforts".

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