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 ...
COme on Freepers be nice LOLOL!
I’m Ashkenazi myself... this is fascinating stuff. I would bet that a lot of groups of people have had similar moments in their history when there were population bottlenecks.
Fortunately for us, 80% of Jewish immigrants to the US are Ashkenazi.(This data is from the book 'Bell Curve')
I totally agree. Even if one does want to take an opportunity to bash Soros & chromsky, how does the article and the findings explain them?
I am Jewish. I am also an ardent fan of Avraham Stern and Vladimir Jabotinsky. On the other hand, I was born without a chip on my shoulder and as a result don’t take myself or what I believe in too seriously. It is the kind of self-mocking humour that has kept Jewish people alive. You should try it some time.
It was a joke about the results of inbreeding.
So the present Ashkenazis are all descended from 350 people who lived at a period between 1200 and 1400.
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.
I could be a lot less nice about those two chazerim (Yiddish = pigs).
That’s an excellent point.
I would suspect that the current existing high rate of genetic-based disorders among Ashkenazi Jews derives of course from such disorders’ presence in the very small “founding group” of a mere 350 people, but also due to a large amount of inbreeding (not breeding extensively outside the group) that has continued among them.
If there is one thing that human survival has appreciated it is genetic diversity, which is - genetic diversity - what many life’s species have succeeded with, for genetic diversity provides a greater chance of adapting to fringe conditions and/or new conditions.
I’m sure you’d agree that the Ashkenazi’s are descendants of one of THREE brothers.
Whether that 350 number is correct or not, the point you make has been widely accepted for many years. It’s one of the downsides of being Jewish. The upside of course is genius, and, in my case at least, great looks.
Then after this period, in 1650, there were enough Ashkenazis around for the Chmielnicki (sp?) revolt to kill at minimum tens of thousands of them.
I’ve always thought one of the great ironies of history is that the Nazis’ racial policies drove away many of the scientists that were pivotal to the technology of the Allies.
In particular, their inherent aversion to “Jewish science” made it very nearly impossible for them to pursue a Bomb with any chance of success.
Well we know now Hannibal Lecter isn’t a Sephardi Jew.
Just like Abraham was promised, “as numerous as stars in the sky”.
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