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Jews

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This article is about the Jewish people. For their religion, law and culture, see Judaism.

"Jew" redirects here. For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation).








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The Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‎‎ ISO 259-3 Yehudim Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and an ethnoreligious group, originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.^[3]^[4]^[5] Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.
In Jewish tradition, Jewish ancestry is traced to the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the second millennium BCE. The modern State of Israel defines itself as a Jewish state in its Basic Laws, and Israel's Law of Return states: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh."^[6] Israel is the only country where Jews are a majority of the population. Jews achieved political autonomy twice before in ancient history. The first of these periods lasted from 1350^[7] to 586 BCE, and encompassed the periods of the Judges, the United Monarchy, and the Divided Monarchy of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with the destruction of the First Temple. The second was the period of the Hasmonean Kingdom spanning from 140 to 37 BCE. Since the destruction of the First Temple, most Jews have lived in diaspora.^[8] A minority in every country in which they live (except Israel), they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that has fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.
As of 2010, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13.4 million by the North American Jewish Data Bank,^[1] or less than 0.2% of the total world population (roughly one in every 514 people).^[9] According to this report, about 42.5% of all Jews reside in Israel (5.7 million), and 39.3% in the United States (5.3 million), with most of the remainder living in Europe (1.5 million) and Canada (0.4 million).^[1] These numbers include all those who consider themselves Jews, whether or not they are affiliated with a Jewish organization. The total world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure. In addition to issues with census methodology, there are halakhic disputes regarding who is a Jew and secular, political, and ancestral identification factors that may affect the figure considerably.^[10]

Name and etymology

Main article: Jew (word)

The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, a loan from Old French giu, earlier juieu, ultimately from Latin Iudaeum. The Latin Iudaeus simply means Judaean, "from the land of Judaea". The Latin term itself, like the corresponding Greek Ἰουδαῖος, is a loan from Aramaic Y'hūdāi, corresponding to Hebrew: יְהוּדִי‎‎, Yehudi (sg.); יְהוּדִים, Yehudim (pl.), in origin the term for a member of the tribe of Judah or the people of the kingdom of Judah. The name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob.^[11]
The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced [jehuˈdi], with the stress on the final syllable, in Israeli Hebrew, in its basic form.^[12]
The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio (sg.); ג׳ודיוס, Djudios (pl.); Yiddish: ייִד Yid (sg.); ייִדן, Yidn (pl.).
The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., "Yahoud"/"Yahoudi" (Arabic: يهود/يهودي‎) in Arabic language, "Jude" in German, "judeu" in Portuguese, "juif" in French, "jøde" in Danish and Norwegian, "judío" in Spanish, "jood" in Dutch, etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew, e.g., in Italian (Ebreo), in Persian ("Ebri/Ebrani" (Persian: عبری/عبرانی‎)) and Russian (Еврей, Yevrey).^[13] The German word "Jude" is pronounced [ˈjuːdə], the corresponding adjective "jüdisch" [ˈjyːdɪʃ] (Jewish) is the origin of the word "Yiddish".^[14] (See Jewish ethnonyms for a full overview.)
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000):

It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the noun Jew, in phrases such as Jew lawyer or Jew ethics, is both vulgar and highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as There are now several Jews on the council, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution like Jewish people or persons of Jewish background may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply that Jew has a negative connotation when used as a noun.^[15]

Origins

Judaism

Main article: Judaism

Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life,"^[20] which has made drawing a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish identity rather difficult. Throughout history, in eras and places as diverse as the ancient Hellenic world,^[21] in Europe before and after The Age of Enlightenment (see Haskalah),^[22] in Islamic Spain and Portugal,^[23] in North Africa and the Middle East,^[23] India,^[24] and China,^[25] or the contemporary United States^[26] and Israel,^[27] cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews or specific communities of Jews with their surroundings, others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to from the religion itself. This phenomenon has led to considerably different Jewish cultures unique to their own communities, each as authentically Jewish as the next.^[28]

Who is a Jew?

Main article: Who is a Jew?

Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used.^[29] Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion; those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent); and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion.^[30]
Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into the Babylonian Talmud. Interpretations of sections of the Tanakh, such as Deuteronomy 7:1–5, by learned Jewish sages, are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites because "[the non-Jewish husband] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods (i.e., idols) of others." Leviticus 24:10 says that the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man is "of the community of Israel." This is complemented by Ezra 10:2–3, where Israelites returning from Babylon vow to put aside their gentile wives and their children.^[31]^[32] Since the Haskalah, these halakhic interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged.^[33]
At times, conversion has accounted for a substantial part of Jewish population growth. In the first century of the Christian era, for example, the population more than doubled, from four to 8–10 million within the confines of the Roman Empire, in good part as a result of a wave of conversion.^[34]

Ethnic divisions

Main article: Jewish ethnic divisions

Ashkenazi Jews of late 19th century Eastern Europe portrayed in Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur (1878), by Maurycy Gottlieb

Within the world's Jewish population there are distinct ethnic divisions, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, and subsequent independent evolutions. An array of Jewish communities were established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World, often at great distances from one another resulting in effective and often long-term isolation from each other. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments; political, cultural, natural, and populational. Today, manifestation of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity, culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, as well as degrees and sources of genetic admixture.^[35]
Jews are often identified as belonging to one of two major groups: the Ashkenazim, or "Germanics" (Ashkenaz meaning "Germany" in Medieval Hebrew, denoting their Central European base), and the Sephardim, or "Hispanics" (Sefarad meaning "Spain/Hispania" or "Iberia" in Hebrew, denoting their Spanish, and Portuguese, base). The Mizrahim, or "Easterners" (Mizrach being "East" in Hebrew), that is, the diverse collection of Middle Eastern and North African Jews, constitute a third major group, although they are sometimes termed Sephardi for liturgical reasons.^[36]
Smaller groups include, but are not restricted to, Indian Jews such as the Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin Jews, and Bene Ephraim; the Romaniotes of Greece; the Italian Jews ("Italkim" or "Bené Roma"); the Teimanim from Yemen and Oman; various African Jews, including most numerously the Beta Israel of Ethiopia; and Chinese Jews, most notably the Kaifeng Jews, as well as various other distinct but now almost extinct communities.^[37]
The divisions between all these groups are approximate and their boundaries are not always clear. The Mizrahim for example, are a heterogeneous collection of North African, Central Asian, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern Jewish communities that are often as unrelated to each other as they are to any of the earlier mentioned Jewish groups. In modern usage, however, the Mizrahim are sometimes termed Sephardi due to similar styles of liturgy, despite independent development from Sephardim proper. Thus, among Mizrahim there are Egyptian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Lebanese Jews, Kurdish Jews, Libyan Jews, Syrian Jews, Bukharian Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Iranian Jews and various others. The Teimanim from Yemen and Oman are sometimes included, although their style of liturgy is unique and they differ in respect to the admixture found among them to that found in Mizrahim. In addition, there is a differentiation made between Sephardi migrants who established themselves in the Middle East and North Africa after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s and the pre-existing Jewish communities in those regions.^[37]
Despite this diversity, Ashkenazi Jews represent the bulk of modern Jewry, with at least 70% of Jews worldwide (and up to 90% prior to World War II and the Holocaust). As a result of their emigration from Europe, Ashkenazim also represent the overwhelming majority of Jews in the New World continents, in countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Brazil. In France, emigration of Jews from North Africa has led them to outnumber the Ashkenazim .^[38] Only in Israel is the Jewish population representative of all groups, a melting pot independent of each group's proportion within the overall world Jewish population.^[39]

Languages

Main article: Jewish languages

A page from Elia Levita's (right to left) Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary (1542) contains a list of nations, including an entry for Jew: Hebrew: יְהוּדִי‎, Yiddish: יוּד, German: Jud, Latin: Iudaeus

Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed l'shon ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue"), the language in which the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century BCE, Aramaic, a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea.^[40] By the third century BCE, Jews of the diaspora were speaking Greek.^[41]
For centuries, Jews worldwide have spoken the local or dominant languages of the regions they migrated to, often developing distinctive dialectal forms or branches that became independent languages. Yiddish is the Judæo-German language developed by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Central Europe. Ladino is the Judæo-Spanish language developed by Sephardic Jews who migrated to the Iberian peninsula. Due to many factors, including the impact of the Holocaust on European Jewry, the Jewish exodus from Arab lands, and widespread emigration from other Jewish communities around the world, ancient and distinct Jewish languages of several communities, including Judæo-Georgian, Judæo-Arabic, Judæo-Berber, Krymchak, Judæo-Malayalam and many others, have largely fallen out of use.^[42]
For over sixteen centuries Hebrew was used almost exclusively as a liturgical language, and as the language in which most books had been written on Judaism, with a few speaking only Hebrew on the Sabbath.^[43] Hebrew was revived as a spoken language by Eliezer ben Yehuda, who arrived in Palestine in 1881. It had not been used as a mother tongue since Tannaic times.^[40] Modern Hebrew is now one of the two official languages of the State of Israel along with Arabic.^[44]
The three most commonly spoken languages among Jews today are Hebrew, English and Russian. Some Romance languages, such as French and Spanish, are also widely used.^[42] Yiddish has been spoken by more Jews in history than any other language,^[45] but it is far less used today, after the Holocaust and the adoption of Hebrew, first by the Zionist movement, and then by Israel.

Genetic studies

Main article: Genetic studies on Jews

Genetic studies indicate various lineages found in modern Jewish populations; however, most of these populations share a lineage in common, traceable to an ancient population that underwent geographic branching and subsequent independent evolutions.^[46] While DNA tests have demonstrated both inter-marriage and conversion to Judaism in all of the various Jewish ethnic divisions over the last 3,000 years, it was substantially less than in other populations.^[47] The findings lend support to traditional Jewish accounts accrediting their founding to exiled Israelite populations, and counters theories that many or most of the world's Jewish populations were founded entirely by local populations that adopted the Jewish religion, devoid of any actual Israelite genetic input.^[47]

The J2 DNA Kohanim migration graphic, based on Joseph Felsenstein software results

DNA analysis further determined that modern Jews of the priesthood tribe—"Kohanim"—share an ancestor dating back about 3,000 years.^[48] This result is consistent for all Jewish populations around the world.^[48] The researchers estimated that the most recent common ancestor of modern Kohanim lived between 1000 BCE (roughly the time of the Biblical Exodus) and 586 BCE, when the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple.^[49] They found similar results analyzing DNA from Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews.^[49] The scientists estimated the date of the original priest based on genetic mutations, which indicated that the priest lived roughly 106 generations ago, between 2,650 and 3,180 years ago depending whether one counts a generation as 25 or 30 years.^[49] These Jews belong to the haplotypes J1e and J2a. However, more recent research has shown that many ethnic groups in the Middle East and Mediterranean area also share this genetic profile.^[50]
Although individual and groups of converts to Judaism have historically been absorbed into contemporary Jewish populations, it is unlikely that they formed a large percentage of the ancestors of modern Jewish groups, and much less that they represented their genesis as Jewish communities.^[46]^[51]
Biologist Robert Pollack stated in 2003 that one cannot determine the biological "Jewishness" of an individual because "there are no DNA sequences common to all Jews and absent from all non-Jews".^[52] A 2009 study was able to genetically identify individuals with full or partial Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.^[53]

Male lineages: Y chromosomal DNA

A study published by the National Academy of Sciences found that "the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population", and suggested that "most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora".^[46] Researchers expressed surprise at the remarkable genetic uniformity they found among modern Jews, no matter where the diaspora has become dispersed around the world.^[46]
Other Y-chromosome findings show that the world's Jewish communities are closely related to Kurds, Turks and Armenians,^[48]^[54] the hypothesis being that "Jews, Kurds, Armenians and Anatolian Turks all carry the genetic markers of ancient indigenous populations of the Fertile Crescent, while Palestinian Arabs and Beduin may largely descend from the Arab conquerors". Skorecki and colleague wrote that "the extremely close affinity of Jewish and non-Jewish Middle Eastern populations observed ... supports the hypothesis of a common Middle Eastern origin".^[48] According to another study of the same year, more than 70% of Jewish men and half of the Arab men (inhabitants of Israel and the territories only) whose DNA was studied inherited their Y-chromosomes from the same paternal ancestors who lived in the region within the last few thousand years. The results are consistent with the Biblical account of Jews and Arabs having a common ancestor. About two-thirds of Israeli Arabs and Arabs in the territories and a similar proportion of Israeli Jews are the descendants of at least three common ancestors who lived in the Middle East in the Neolithic period. However, the Palestinian Arab clade includes two Arab modal haplotypes which are found at only very low frequency among Jews, reflecting divergence and/or large scale admixture from non-local populations to the Palestinians.^[55]
A study of haplotypes of the Y-chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer et al.^[46] found that the Y chromosome of some Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews contained mutations that are also common among Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East. The proportion of male genetic admixture in Ashkenazi Jews amounts to less than 0.5% per generation over an estimated 80 generations, with "relatively minor contribution of European Y chromosomes to the Ashkenazim," and a total admixture estimate "very similar to Motulsky's average estimate of 12.5%." This supported the finding that "Diaspora Jews from Europe, Northwest Africa, and the Near East resemble each other more closely than they resemble their non-Jewish neighbors." However, when all haplotypes were included in the analysis, m (the admixture percentage) increased to 23% ± 7%. In addition, of the Jewish populations in this cluster, the Ashkenazim were closest to South European populations, specifically the Greeks, and to the Turks.^[46]
In Jewish populations, Haplogroup J1 (defined by the 267 marker) constitutes 30% of the Yemenite Jews^[56] 20.0% of the Ashkenazim results and 12% of the Sephardic results.^[56]^[57]^[58]^[59] However, J1 is most frequent in Yemen (76%),^[60]^[61] Saudi (64%),^[62] Qatar (58%).^[61] J1 is generally frequent amongst Negev Bedouins (62%^[63]). It is also very common among other Arabs such as those of the Levant, i.e. Palestinian (38.4%),^[57] Syria (30%), Lebanon (25%).^[64]^[65] In Europe, higher frequencies have been reported in the central Adriatic regions of Italy: Gargano (17.2%),^[66] Pescara (15%),^[66] in the Mediterranean Paola (11.1%)^[66] and in South Sicilian Ragusa (10.7%).^[67] Fairly high frequencies have also been reported in other nearby Mediterranean areas: Crete (8.3%),^[68] Malta (7.8%), Cyprus (6.2%),^[69] Greece (5.3%).^[68]
Haplogroup J2 which is found in the Sephardic Jews (29%)^[70] and Ashkenazi Jews (23%),^[70] or 19%.^[71] is found mainly in the Fertile Crescent, the Caucasus,^[72] Anatolia, the Balkans, Italy, the Mediterranean littoral, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, and South Asia.^[70] More specifically, it is found in Iraq,^[73] Syria, Lebanon,^[74] Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Greece, Italy and the eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula,^[66] and more frequently in Iraqis 29.7%,^[75] Lebanese 25%,^[76] Palestinians 16.8%,^[70] Syrians 22.5%,^[77] Kurds 28.4%, Saudi Arabia 15.92%,^[78] Jordan 14.3%, Oman 10–15%,^[79] UAE 10.4%, Yemen 9.7%,^[61] in Israel,^[70] in Palestine,^[70] and in Turkey.^[80]

Female lineages: Mitochondrial DNA

Before 2006, geneticists largely attributed the genesis of most of the world's Jewish populations to founding acts by males who migrated from the Middle East and "by the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism", though no genetic relation was found between Jewish and non Jewish female lineages. However, more recent findings of studies of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, at least in Ashkenazi Jews, has led to a review of this archetype.^[81] This research has suggested that, in addition to Israelite male, significant female founder ancestry might also derive from the Middle East-with 40% of Ashkenazim descended from four women lived about 1000–1500 years ago in the Middle East.^[81] In addition, Behar (2006) suggested that the rest of Ashkenazi mtDNA is originated from about 150 women, most of those were probably of Middle Eastern origin.^[82] Approximately 32% of people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry belong to the mtDNA haplogroup K. This high percentage points to a genetic bottleneck occurring some 100 generations ago.^[83]
Research in 2008 found significant founder effects in many non-Asheknazi Jewish populations. In Belmonte, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Bene Israel and Libyan Jewish communities "a single mother was sufficient to explain at least 40% of their present-day mtDNA variation". In addition, "the Cochin and Tunisian Jewish communities show an attenuated pattern with two founding mothers explaining >30% of the variation." In contrast, Bulgarian, Turkish, Moroccan and Ethiopian Jews were heterogeneous with no evidence "for a narrow founder effect or depletion of mtDNA variation attributable to drift". The authors noted that "the first three of these communities were established following the Spanish expulsion and/or received large influxes of individuals from the Iberian Peninsula and high variation presently observed, probably reflects high overall mtDNA diversity among Jews of Spanish descent. Likewise, the mtDNA pool of Ethiopian Jews reflects the rich maternal lineage variety of East Africa." Jewish communities from Iraq, Iran, and Yemen showed a "third and intermediate pattern... consistent with a founding event, but not a narrow one".^[84]
In this and other studies Yemenite Jews differ from other Mizrahim, as well as from Ashkenazim, in the proportion of sub-Saharan African gene types which have entered their gene pools.^[85] African-specific Hg L(xM,N) lineages were found only in Yemenite and Ethiopian Jewish populations.^[84] Among Yemenites, the average stands at 35% lineages within the past 3,000 years.^[85]

Genome-wide association and linkage studies

In genetic epidemiology, a genome-wide association study (GWA study, or GWAS) is an examination of all or most of the genes (the genome) of different individuals of a particular species to see how much the genes vary from individual to individual. These techniques were originally designed for epidemiological uses, to identify genetic associations with observable traits.^[86]
A 2006 study by Seldin, et al. used over five thousand autosomal SNPs to demonstrate European genetic substructure amongst the Ashkenazi. The results showed "a consistent and reproducible distinction between 'northern' and 'southern' European population groups". Most northern, central, and eastern Europeans (Finns, Swedes, English, Irish, Germans, and Ukrainians) showed >90% in the 'northern' population group, while most individual participants with southern European ancestry (Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, Spaniards) showed >85% in the 'southern' group. Both Ashkenazi Jews as well as Sephardic Jews showed >85% membership in the "southern" group. Referring to the Jews clustering with southern Europeans, the authors state the results were "consistent with a later Mediterranean origin of these ethnic groups".^[87]
A 2007 study by Bauchet, et al. found that Ashkenazi Jews were most closely clustered with Arabic North African populations when compared to Global population, and in the European structure analysis, they share similarities only with Greeks and Southern Italians, reflecting their east Mediterranean origins.^[88]^[89]
A 2010 study on Jewish ancestry by Atzmon-Ostrer et al. stated "Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry.", as both groups—the Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews shared common ancestors in the Middle East about 2500 years ago. The study examines genetic markers spread across the entire genome and shows that the Jewish groups (Ashkenazi and non Ashkenazi) share large swaths of DNA, indicating close relationships and that each of the Jewish groups in the study (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish, Greek and Ashkenazi) has its own genetic signature but is more closely related to the other Jewish groups than to their non Jewish fellow countrymen.^[90] Atzmon's team found that the SNP markers in genetic segments of 3 million DNA letters or longer were 10 times more likely to be identical among Jews than non-Jews. Results of the analysis also tally with biblical accounts of the fate of the Jews. Using their DNA analysis, the authors traced the ancestors of all Jews to Persia and Babylon, areas that now form part of Iran and Iraq.^[91] The study also found that with respect to non-Jewish European groups, the population most closely related to Ashkenazi Jews are modern-day Italians. The study speculated that the genetic-similarity between Ashkenazi Jews and Italians may be due to inter-marriage and conversions in the time of the Roman Empire. It was also found that any two Ashkenazi Jewish participants in the study shared about as much DNA as fourth or fifth cousins^[92]^[93]
These authors also found that the genetic evidence was compatible with the historically attested 'demographic miracle' when the population of Ashkenazi Jews rose from 50,000 at the beginning of the 15^th century to 5,000,000 at the start of the 19^th century.
A 2010 study by Bray et al, using SNP microarray techniques and linkage analysis, estimated that 35 to 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome is specifically traceable to Europe, and that European "admixture is considerably higher than previous estimates by studies that used the Y chromosome". The study assumed Druze and Palestinian Arabs populations to represent the reference to world Jewry ancestor genome. With this reference point, the linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population was interpreted as "matches signs of interbreeding or 'admixture' between Middle Eastern and European populations". In their press release, Bray stated: "We were surprised to find evidence that Ashkenazi Jews have higher heterozygosity than Europeans, contradicting the widely-held presumption that they have been a largely isolated group". "Thus, the AJ population shows evidence of past founding events; however, admixture and selection have also strongly influenced its current genetic makeup." The authors note that their results will require further investigation.^[94]^[95]
A 2012 study by Campbell et al of North African Jewish groups (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Djerban and Libyan) by a variety of methods including principal components, neighbor joining trees and identity by descent showed that these populations showed a high degree of endogamy and were part of a larger Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish group.^[96] These findings are consistent with the known history of the North African Jews: the founding of the population during Classical Antiquity with proselytism of local populations; this in turn was followed by genetic isolation with the rise of Christianity and then Islam; and finally admixture following the emigration of Sephardic Jews during the Inquisition.^[96]

Demographics

Population centres

Further information: Jewish population by country and Jewish population by urban areas

Country^[1]	Jews, №	Jews, %
Israel	5,916,200^[97]	75.52%
United States	5,275,000	1.71%
France	483,500	0.77%
Canada	375,000	1.11%
United Kingdom	292,000	0.47%
Russia	205,000	0.15%
Argentina	182,300	0.45%
Germany	119,000	0.15%
Australia	107,500	0.50%
Brazil	95,600	0.05%
Ukraine	71,500	0.16%
South Africa	70,800	0.14%
Hungary	48,600	0.49%
Mexico	39,400	0.04%
Belgium	30,300	0.28%
Netherlands	30,000	0.18%
Italy	28,400	0.05%
World	13,558,300	0.21%

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics there were 13,421,000 Jews worldwide in 2009, roughly 0.19% of the world's population at the time.^[98]
According to the estimates for 2007 of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the world's Jewish population is 13.2 million.^[99] Adherents.com cites figures ranging from 12 to 18 million.^[100] These statistics incorporate both practicing Jews affiliated with synagogues and the Jewish community, and approximately 4.5 million unaffiliated and secular Jews.

State of Israel

Main article: Israeli Jews

Israel, the Jewish nation-state, is the only country in which Jews make up a majority of the citizens.^[101] Israel was established as an independent democratic and Jewish state on May 14, 1948.^[102] Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset,^[103] currently, 12 members of the Knesset are Arab citizens of Israel, most representing Arab political parties and one of Israel's Supreme Court judges is a Palestinian Arab.^[104]
Between 1948 and 1958, the Jewish population rose from 800,000 to two million.^[105] Currently, Jews account for 75.8% of the Israeli population, or 5.4 million people.^[106] The early years of the state of Israel were marked by the mass immigration of Holocaust survivors and Jews fleeing Arab lands.^[107] Israel also has a large population of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom were airlifted to Israel in the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[108] Between 1974 and 1979 nearly 227,258 immigrants arrived in Israel, about half being from the Soviet Union.^[109] This period also saw an increase in immigration to Israel from Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States^[110]
A trickle of immigrants from other communities has also arrived, including Indian Jews and others, as well as some descendants of Ashkenazi Holocaust survivors who had settled in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Australia, Chile, and South Africa. Some Jews have emigrated from Israel elsewhere, due to economic problems or disillusionment with political conditions and the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict. Jewish Israeli emigrants are known as yordim.^[111]

Diaspora (outside Israel)

Main article: Jewish diaspora

The waves of immigration to the United States and elsewhere at the turn of the 19th century, the founding of Zionism and later events, including pogroms in Russia, the massacre of European Jewry during the Holocaust, and the founding of the state of Israel, with the subsequent Jewish exodus from Arab lands, all resulted in substantial shifts in the population centers of world Jewry by the end of the 20th century.^[112]

Public Hanukkah menorah in Nicosia, Cyprus

In this Rosh Hashana greeting card from the early 1900s, Russian Jews, packs in hand, gaze at the American relatives beckoning them to the United States. Over two million Jews fled the pogroms of the Russian Empire to the safety of the US between 1881 and 1924.^[113]

Currently, the largest Jewish community outside Israel, and either the largest or second-largest Jewish community in the world is located in the United States, with 5.3 million to 6.4 million Jews by various estimates. Elsewhere in the Americas, there are also large Jewish populations in Canada, Argentina, and Brazil, and smaller populations in Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, and several other countries (see History of the Jews in Latin America).^[106]
Western Europe's largest Jewish community, and the third-largest Jewish community in the world, can be found in France, home to 490,000 Jews, the majority of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (or their descendants).^[114] The United Kingdom has a Jewish community of 295,000. In Eastern Europe, there are anywhere from 350,000 to one million Jews living in the former Soviet Union, but exact figures are difficult to establish. Germany, with 119,000 Jews, has the fastest-growing Jewish community outside Israel, especially in Berlin. Tens of thousands of Jews from the former Eastern Bloc have settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall,^[115] and thousands of Israelis live in Germany, either permanently or temporarily, for economic reasons.^[116]
The Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East were home to around 900,000 Jews in 1945. Fueled by anti-Zionism^[117] after the founding of Israel, systematic persecution caused almost all of these Jews to flee to Israel, North America, and Europe in the 1950s (see Jewish exodus from Arab lands). Today, around 8,000 Jews remain in all Arab nations combined.^[118]
Iran is home to around 10,800 Jews, and has the second-largest Jewish population in the Middle East after Israel. From 1948 to 1953, about one-third of Iranian Jews, most of them poor, emigrated to Israel. Before the 1979 revolution, there were 100,000 Jews living in the country. After the revolution, most of them left Iran for Israel, Europe, or the United States. Most Iranian-Jewish emigres, along with many non-Jewish Iranians, went to the US, especially Los Angeles, where the principal Iranian community is called "Tehrangeles".^[118]^[119]
Outside Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia, there are significant Jewish populations in Australia and South Africa.^[118]

Demographic changes

Main article: Historical Jewish population comparisons

Assimilation

Main article: Jewish assimilation

Since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks, a proportion of Jews have assimilated into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity.^[120] Assimilation took place in all areas, and during all time periods,^[120] with some Jewish communities, for example the Kaifeng Jews of China, disappearing entirely.^[121] The advent of the Jewish Enlightenment of the 18th century (see Haskalah) and the subsequent emancipation of the Jewish populations of Europe and America in the 19th century, accelerated the situation, encouraging Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, secular society. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community.^[122]
Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States, they are just under 50%,^[123] in the United Kingdom, around 53%, in France, around 30%,^[124] and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10%.^[125]^[126] In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate themselves with Jewish religious practice.^[127] The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.

War and persecution

Main article: Persecution of Jews

Further information: Antisemitism, Islam and antisemitism, History of antisemitism, and New antisemitism

Jews (identifiable by the distinctive hats that they were required to wear) being killed by Christian knights. French Bible illustration from 1255.

World War I poster shows a soldier cutting the bonds from a Jewish man, who says, "You have cut my bonds and set me free - now let me help you set others free!"

The Jewish people and Judaism have experienced various persecutions throughout Jewish history. During late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages the Roman Empire (in its later phases known as the Byzantine Empire) repeatedly repressed the Jewish population, first by ejecting them from their homelands during the pagan Roman era and later by officially establishing them as second-class citizens during the Christian Roman era.^[128]^[129]
According to James Carroll, "Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if other factors had not intervened, there would be 200 million Jews in the world today, instead of something like 13 million."^[130]
Later in medieval Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were massacred—and a series of expulsions from England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain and Portugal after the Reconquista (the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula), where both unbaptized Sephardic Jews and the ruling Muslim Moors were expelled.^[131]^[132]
In the Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called ghettos.^[133] In the 19th and (before the end of World War II) 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good antisemitism" and "bad antisemitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged Jewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about accumulation of wealth, etc.^[134]
Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religions and to administer their internal affairs, but subject to certain conditions.^[135] They had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to the Islamic state.^[135] Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims.^[136] Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The one described by Bernard Lewis as "most degrading"^[137] was the requirement of distinctive clothing, not found in the Qur'an or hadith but invented in early medieval Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic.^[137] On the other hand, Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession.^[138]
Notable exceptions include the massacre of Jews and/or forcible conversion of some Jews by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus in the 12th century,^[139] as well as in Islamic Persia,^[140] and the forced confinement of Moroccan Jews to walled quarters known as mellahs beginning from the 15th century and especially in the early 19th century.^[141] In modern times, it has become commonplace for standard antisemitic themes to be conflated with anti-Zionist publications and pronouncements of Islamic movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Turkish Refah Partisi."^[142]

Jews in Minsk, 1941. Before World War II some 40% of the population was Jewish. By the time the Red Army retook the city on 3 July 1944, there were only a few Jewish survivors.

Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. The history of antisemitism includes the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews;^[131] the Spanish Inquisition (led by Torquemada) and the Portuguese Inquisition, with their persecution and autos-da-fé against the New Christians and Marrano Jews;^[143] the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in Ukraine;^[144] the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars;^[145] as well as expulsions from Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled.^[132] According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics 19.8% of the modern Iberian population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry,^[146] indicating that the number of conversos may have been much higher than originally thought.^[147]^[148]
The persecution reached a peak in Nazi Germany's Final Solution, which led to the Holocaust and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews.^[149] The Holocaust — the state-led systematic persecution and genocide of European Jews (and certain communities of North African Jews in European controlled North Africa) and other minority groups of Europe during World War II by Germany and its collaborators remains the most notable modern day persecution of Jews.^[150] The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II.^[151] Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease.^[152] Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.^[153] Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers.^[154] Virtually every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."^[155]

Migrations

Etching of the expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt on August 23, 1614. The text says: "1380 persons old and young were counted at the exit of the gate"

Jews fleeing pogroms, 1882

Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled from both their original homeland and the areas in which they have resided. This experience as refugees has shaped Jewish identity and religious practice in many ways, and is thus a major element of Jewish history.^[156] The incomplete list of major and other noteworthy migrations that follows includes numerous instances of expulsion or departure under duress:

The patriarch Abraham was a migrant to the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees^[157] after an attempt on his life by King Nimrod.^[158]
The Children of Israel experienced the Exodus (meaning "departure" or "exit" in Greek) from ancient Egypt, as recorded in the Book of Exodus.^[159]
The Kingdom of Israel was sent into permanent exile by Assyria, initially to the Upper Mesopotamian provinces of the Assyrian Empire,^[160] from whence they scattered all over the world (or at least to unknown locations).^[161]
The Kingdom of Judah was exiled by Babylonia,^[162] then returned to Judea by Cyrus the Great of the Persian Achaemenid Empire,^[163] and then many were exiled again by the Roman Empire.^[164]
The 2,000 year dispersion of the Jewish diaspora beginning under the Roman Empire, as Jews were spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land, and settled wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion. Over the course of the diaspora the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia^[165] to the Iberian Peninsula^[166] to Poland^[167] to the United States^[168] and, as a result of Zionism, back to Israel.^[169]
Many expulsions during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment in Europe, including: 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England, see the (Statute of Jewry); in 1396, 100,000 from France; in 1421 thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of these Jews settled in Eastern Europe, especially Poland.^[170]
Following the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, the Spanish population of around 200,000 Sephardic Jews were expelled by the Spanish crown and Catholic church, followed by expulsions in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The expelled Jews fled mainly to the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and North Africa, others migrating to Southern Europe and the Middle East.^[171]
During the 19th century, France's policies of equal citizenship regardless of religion led to the immigration of Jews (especially from Eastern and Central Europe).^[172]
The arrival of millions of Jews in the New World, including immigration of over two million Eastern European Jews to the United States from 1880–1925, see History of the Jews in the United States and History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union.^[173]
The Pogroms in Eastern Europe,^[145] the rise of modern antisemitism,^[174] the Holocaust,^[175] and the rise of Arab nationalism^[176] all served to fuel the movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent to continent, until they arrived back in large numbers at their original historical homeland in Israel.^[169]
The Islamic Revolution of Iran caused many Iranian Jews to flee Iran. Most found refuge in the US (particularly Los Angeles, CA) and Israel. Smaller communities of Persian Jews exist in Canada and Western Europe.^[177]
When the Soviet Union collapsed, many of the Jews in the affected territory (who had been refuseniks) were suddenly allowed to leave. This produced a wave of migration to Israel in the early 1990s.^[111]

Growth

A man praying at the Western Wall

Israel is the only country with a consistently growing Jewish population due to natural population increase, though the Jewish populations of other countries in Europe and North America have recently increased due to immigration. In the Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining or steady, but Orthodox and Haredi Jewish communities, whose members often shun birth control for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth.^[178]
Orthodox and Conservative Judaism discourage proselytism to non-Jews, but many Jewish groups have tried to reach out to the assimilated Jewish communities of the Diaspora in order for them to reconnect to their Jewish roots. Additionally, while in principle Reform Judaism favors seeking new members for the faith, this position has not translated into active proselytism, instead taking the form of an effort to reach out to non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples.^[179]
There is also a trend of Orthodox movements pursuing secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past 25 years, there has been a trend of secular Jews becoming more religiously observant, known as the Baal Teshuva movement, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown.^[180] Additionally, there is also a growing movement of Jews by Choice by gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.^[181]

Leadership

Main article: Jewish leadership

There is no single governing body for the Jewish community, nor a single authority with responsibility for religious doctrine.^[182] Instead, a variety of secular and religious institutions at the local, national, and international levels lead various parts of the Jewish community on a variety of issues.^[183]

Notable individuals

Main article: Lists of Jews

Jews have made contributions in a broad range of human endeavors, including the sciences, arts, politics, and business.^[184]^[185] Although Jews comprise only 0.2% of the world's population, over 20%^[185]^[186]^[187]^[188]^[189]^[190]^[191] of Nobel Prize laureates have been Jewish, with multiple winners in each field.

Jews
Hebrew: יהודים‎ (Yehudim)

Total population

13,428,300 ^[1]

Regions with significant populations

Israel	5,703,700	^[1]^[2]
United States	5,275,000	^[1]
France	483,500	^[1]
Canada	375,000	^[1]
United Kingdom	292,000	^[1]
Russia	205,000	^[1]
Argentina	182,300	^[1]
Germany	119,000	^[1]
Australia	107,500	^[1]
Brazil	95,600	^[1]
Ukraine	71,500	^[1]
South Africa	70,800	^[1]
Hungary	48,600	^[1]
Mexico	39,400	^[1]
Belgium	30,300	^[1]
Netherlands	30,000	^[1]
Italy	28,400	^[1]
Chile	20,500	^[1]
All other countries	250,200	^[1]

Languages

Predominant spoken languages:
Hebrew · English · Russian · the vernacular languages of other countries in the diaspora

Historical languages:
Yiddish · Ladino · Judeo-Arabic · others

Sacred languages:
Biblical Hebrew · Aramaic

.

Jews with Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)

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There are significant numbers of Jewish men found within multiple subgroups of haplogroup G (Y-DNA). Haplogroup G is found in significantly different percentages within the various Jewish ethnic divisions, ranging from about a third of Moroccan Jews to almost none reported among the Indian, Yemenite and Iranian communities.^[1] These percentages often have a poor correlation with the percentages of haplogroup G in the non-Jewish population of the same country.

Haplogroup G Subgroups with Jewish Members

The Jewish clusters of men within haplogroup G subgroups often have distinctive shared oddities of values at certain STR markers but sometimes are recognizable by having close genetic distances when dozens of STR marker values are compared. These Jewish clusters are found within all the major haplogroup G subgroups.^[2]

G1a -- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1a persons who are negative for G1a subgroups. These Jewish men share a value of 16 at STR marker DYS19 and 27 at DYS389b.

G1a1 -- Another cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1a1 persons. So far they seem to comprise the only men who are G1a1, and this is the only known grouping of haplogroup G Jews whose grouping is defined by a SNP mutation.

G1c -- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe comprises another subgroup, this time within G1c. These Jewish men share an odd value of 12 at STR marker DYS446.

G2a1a -- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G2a1a. Almost all differ from the nonJewish G2a1a men in having two distinctive STR marker values: YCA=21,21 and typically DYS19=16.

G2a3a -- A cluster of mostly Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G2a3a persons negative for the G2a3a subgroup. Some samples from the western Mediterranean exist which may represent conversos. These men have distinctive values for two STR markers: DYS454=12 and DYS392=12.

G2a3b1a -- A number of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe are found within the large number of G2a3b1a men who share the STR marker value of 13 for marker DYS388. These Jewish men lack distinctive STR marker values, but have each other as the nearest matches in comparing STR marker samples.

G2a3b1a -- A number of men who share the unusual STR marker values and are otherwise genetically close to each other. This subgroup includes men who may not have known Jewish roots.

G2a3b1a1 -- A small group of Ashkenazi Jewish men with ancestral origins in northeastern Europe is found in G2a3b1a1. They share a 12 value for slowly mutating STR marker DYS392, a rarity among G2a3b1a1a1 men.

G2a3b1a1a -- A cluster of men whose ancestors were western Mediterranean conversos or had ties to Sephardic Jewish communities is found in G2a3b1a1a. They lack distinctive STR marker values, but have each other as nearest matches in comparing STR marker samples

G2a3b1a3a -- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found within the large number of G2a3b1a men who share the STR marker value of 9 for marker DYS568. These Jewish men have distinctive low marker values at STR marker DYS385a and a high value at DYS385b when compared with other DYS568=9 men.

G2c -- A high percentage of G2c men from Europe are Ashkenazi Jewish men who are negative for G2c1. These Jewish men have the distinctive feature within G2c of a shared null value for STR marker DYS425. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.

Haplogroup G Found within Jewish Communities

The following percentages of haplogroup G persons have been found in the various Jewish communities listed in descending order by percentage of G.

population	usual origin	total N	G %	N=G	notes

Moroccan Jews	Morocco	83	19.3%	16	^[1]
Sephardim	Bulgaria/Turkey	174	16.7%	29	^[1]
Mountain Jews	Azerbaijan	57	15.8%	9	^[1]
Libyan Jews	Libya	20	10.0%	2	^[3]
Iraqi Jews	Iraq	79	10.1%	8	^[1]
Ashkenazim	Pale of Settlement/Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (NE Europe), Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands	856	7.2%	61	^[1]
Bene Israel	Konkan, North India	31	6.5%	2	^[1]
Georgian Jews	Georgia	62	4.8%	3	^[1]
Yemenite Jews	Yemen	74	6.8%	0	^[1]
Persian Jews	Iran	49	0%	0	^[1]
Bukharan Jews	Uzbekistan	15	0%	0	^[1]
Cochin Jews	Cochin, South India	45	0%	0	^[1]
Ethiopian Jews	Gondar, Ethiopia	27	0%	0	^[1]

Haplogroup G Men Already Present among Jews When Judaism Began?

One of the basic questions is whether haplogroup G persons were already living in lands occupied by the Jews of the Hebrew Bible -- corresponding mostly to the modern state of Israel -- when distinctly Jewish states first came into existence about 1350 BCE.^[4] By this point in time, the major G haplogroup divisions were in existence, but only ancient DNA can today confirm the geographical spread of G then. The presence of haplogroup G to some extent in all populations throughout the Middle East does not rule out the possibility that G persons were living in Jewish lands during the formative years of the religion.

In the pre-Jewish period the Hurrians once controlled Jerusalem through rulers such as Abdi-Heba The Hurrian kingdom at times stretched from today's Syria to the eastern Persian Gulf^{[citation needed]}. Farther back in time in the prehistorical period, movements into the Middle East that may have resulted in population admixture are completely unknown due to the absence of written materials.

Haplogroup G Assimilated into Early Jewish Populations?

In the Hebrew Bible there are references to intermarriages with Egyptian male slaves^[5] In the time of Joshua about 3400 years ago, Israelites were also described as settling among the Hittites, an ancient Anatolian people—probably the ones inhabiting Mount Lebanon -- and also among the Amorites who were associated with Mesopotamia and intermarrying with persons from both these groups.^[6] The Assyrian king, Shalmaneser, during the tenure of Hoshea as King of Israel in the 700s BCE carried the Israelites off to his kingdom and replaced the Israelites who were living in Samaria with persons brought from various Babylonian locales.^[7] This event also led to a permanent population of Jews within today's Iran. The presence of the non-Israelites in Samaria could have provided an opportunity for additional population admixture on the return of the Israelites. In the 500s BCE, Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon on more than one occasion. This provided another opportunity to obtain accretions from regional peoples though the sources do not address whether this happened. During the period of the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, persons from various towns in today's Syria and Iraq were among the Babylonian captives returning to Israel who could not show how they were descended from Israelites.^[5] Not all the Israelites returned to Israel from Babylonia.

In the 500s BCE at the end of the Babylonian exile, Cyrus allowed additional Jews into Persia. In 135 CE, there was yet another wave of emigration into Persia by Jews fleeing the Roman persecutions. At the time of the original emigrations, Jews intermarried with the local population. The Assyrians also deported Jews to Armenia, and 10,000 Jews moved there on their own.^[8]

The omnipresent ancient slave trade provided another opportunity for admixture with Jews because the covenant given to Abraham and his descendants had required that Jewish slaves would be required to undergo circumcision.^[9] There is a strong implication that the slaves became Jewish.

Haplogroup G Obtained from Non-Jews during the Diaspora or Medieval Trading?

In 70 CE, the Romans exiled Jews from the ancient land of their ancestors (the Diaspora) and enslaved many of them. This resulted in the dispersal of Jews throughout the Roman Empire.

During portions of the Early Middle Ages, the hostility between Muslims and Christians provided an opportunity for Jewish Radhanites merchants to set up trade routes and establish new Jewish communities throughout Eurasia. Later restrictions by Christian rulers on occupations Jews could pursue led to specific Jewish involvement in international migrations and trade. Throughout the Middle Ages, expulsions of Jews from some Christian countries led to further dispersals to distant locations. While a number of Jews were forced to convert to other religions, they also received converts into their ranks.

Genetic Findings as to Origins

There are several findings that are inconsistent with Jews acquiring haplogroup G from populations with which they came in contact. 1. Haplogroup G1 is especially concentrated in today's Iran and its borders,.^[10] but the Jews from Iran who were sampled had no haplogroup G of any type present.^[1] 2. The Republic of Georgia has a substantial percentage of G in its population,.^[11] but the percentage of G among Georgian Jews is modest.^[1] 3. In Morocco, there is a substantial amount of G among Jews,^[1] but the non-Jews have negligible amounts.^[12]

Findings are also available to take the opposite side of the argument. Yemenite Jews have about the same small percentage of haplogroup G as found among the non-Jews,^[1] with the division between G1 and G2 similar in both groups.^[13] Yemenite Jews are, however, quite different from other Jews and more close to average Yemenis in other haplogroups as well.

The resolution of the question as to which populations originally supplied the haplogroup G can be partly resolved by comparing detailed STR marker samples of Jews and non Jews within the same population. This allows an estimate of time separation because markers mutate at a somewhat predictable rate. The only such comparisons currently available involve Ashkenazi Jews.

Over 50 detailed samples of Ashkenazi G2c Jewish men in the Haplogroup G Project^[14] indicate that these Ashkenazis do not share common ancestors with any other G person living in Europe within the Current Era based on the number of marker values that are different. And the type of haplogroup G seen among non-Jews in eastern Europe from where these men originated is rarely G2c. It can be deduced, for this group at least, that they very likely did not share post-Roman era ancestry with the non-Jewish population of eastern Europe.

Famous Jews within Haplogroup G

John G. Cramer (b. 1934)

Physicist and author.

James Franciscus (1934–1991)

Leading American film and television actor.

Newton Minow (b. 1926)

Former Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

E1b1b1 Jewish haplogroup

E1b1b1 (M35) Migration through Jericho

According to Wikipedia :The linguistic group and E1b1b1 may have dispersed together from the region of origin of this language family. Amongst populations with an Afro-Asiatic speaking history, a significant proportion of Jewish male lineages are E1b1b1 (E-M35). Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18% to 20% of Ashkenazi and 8.6% to 30% of Sephardi Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.

And the Museum of Learning : The E1b1b1 haplogroup formerly known as E3b1 has been observed in all Jewish groups worldwide. It is considered to be the second most prevalent haplogroup among the Jewish population outside of the J haplogroups. According to one non-peer reviewed paper it has also been observed in moderate numbers among individuals from Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Samaritan communities having traditions of descending from the tribe of Levi, suggesting that the E1b1b1 men claiming to be Levites may have existed in Israel before the Diaspora of 70 CE.

And Loftin DNA Testing : Previously it had been assumed that the Haplogroup E1b1b1 (E-M35) "arose in East Africa" and the Haplogroup was "often incorrectly described as “African,” leaving a misimpression regarding the origin and complex history of this Haplogroup". According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) and National Geographic's Genographic Project, E1b1b1 may have arisen instead in the Near East or the Middle East and then expanded into the Mediterranean with the spread of agriculture.

E-M35, the most current group of E1b1b1 includes the individuals with no known sub-clade mutations (who are therefore said to be in the "ancestral state" referred to as E1b1b1 or E-M35).

Recently published research in the field of molecular genetics –- the study of DNA sequences –- indicates that Jewish populations of the various Diaspora communities have retained their genetic identity throughout the exile. Despite large geographic distances between the communities and the passage of thousands of years, far removed Jewish communities share a similar genetic profile. This research confirms the common ancestry and common geographical origin of world Jewry.

Jewish men from communities which developed in the Near East –- Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Yemen -- and European Jews have very similar, almost identical genetic profiles.

"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora."
(M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)

The basis of this new field of population research is the study of the Y-chromosome, which is passed virtually unchanged from father to son. The rare mutations -– which are changes in the non-coding portion of its DNA –- can serve as markers, which can distinguish peoples. By studying the genetic signatures of various groups, comparisons can be made to determine the genetic relationships between the groups.

Y-chromosome research of the Jewish people began as an outgrowth of the study of Cohanim –- the Jewish priestly family. These studies showed a very high genetic affinity among present-day Cohanim, indicating that they do have a common paternal ancestor, estimated to have lived some 3,000 years ago. (See The Cohanim/DNA Connection)

MOST RECENT RESEARCH

The most recent genetic research consists of obtaining DNA samples, and doing laboratory analysis and comparison of the DNA markers on the Y-chromosome –- which is passed from father to son, and on the mtDNA (mitrocondrial DNA) –- which is passed intact from mother to son and daughter. This genetic anthropology promises to be particularly informative for tracking the history of Jewish populations, and helping to resolve the debate on the origins and migrations of Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

The researchers proposed to answer the question whether the scattered groups of modern Jews can be identified as the descendants of the ancient Hebrews of the Bible, or whether their common ancestry has been diluted through influx of converts and through intermarriage so that little remains of their "Jewish genes."

The complex recorded history of dispersal from the Land of Israel and subsequent residence in and movements between various countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East is expected to produce a complex pattern of genetic relationships among Jewish populations as well as between them and the non-Jewish peoples among whom they lived.

The research was based on samples from 29 populations, 7 Jewish, categorized into five major divisions: Jews, Middle-Eastern non-Jews, Europeans, North Africans, and sub-Saharan Africans.

The findings were that most Jewish communities do indeed seem to be genetically similar.

The findings were that most Jewish communities -- long separated from one another in Europe, North Africa, the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula -- do indeed seem to be genetically similar and closely related to one another, sharing a common geographical origin.

These Jewish communities are more closely related to each other and to other Middle Eastern Semitic populations -– Palestinians, Syrians, and Druze -- than to their neighboring non-Jewish populations in the Diaspora.

The results also indicate a low level of admixture (intermarriage, conversion, rape, etc.) into the gene pool of these various Jewish communities.

Among the Jewish communities sampled, North Africans (Moroccans, etc.) were most closely related to Babylonian (Iraqi) Jews. These populations may best represent the paternal gene pool of the ancient Jewish/Hebrew population dating back to the First Temple period, before the Babylonian exile (approx. 2,500 years ago).

The Y-chromosome signatures of the Yemenite Jews are also similar to those of other Jewish and Semitic populations. In contrast, the paternal gene pool of Ethiopian Jews more closely resembles that of non-Jewish Ethiopian men.

ASHKENAZI LINKS

Although the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish community separated from their Mediterranean ancestors some 1,200 years ago and lived among Central and Eastern European gentiles, their paternal gene pool still resembles that of other Jewish and Semitic groups originating in the Middle East.

A low rate of intermarriage between Diaspora Jews and local gentiles was the key reason for this continuity. Since the Jews first settled in Europe more than 50 generations ago, the intermarriage rate was estimated to be only about 0.5% in each generation.

The findings oppose the suggestion that Ashkenazim are descended from the Kuzars.

The Ashkenazi paternal gene pool does not appear to be similar to that of present-day Turkish speakers. This finding opposes the suggestion that Ashkenazim are descended from the Kuzars, a Turkish-Asian empire that converted to Judaism en masse in or about the 8th century CE.

The researchers are continuing and expanding their studies particularly of the Ashkenazi community. They are hoping that by examining the DNA markers in Jewish populations from different parts of Europe, they will be able to infer the major historical and demographic patterns in Ashkenazi populations.

MIGRATION CLUES

In addition to questions of medical interest, there are many interesting possibilities concerning the origin of Ashkenazi populations and how they migrated in Europe. It seems likely that Jews began to arrive in Europe perhaps 1,000 to 1,200 years ago, when settlement was already sufficiently developed to provide them with opportunities to make a living.

One theory claims that the Jews of Eastern Europe derive predominantly from Jewish migrants from the Rhineland or from Italy, being fairly direct descendants of the original ancient Jewish/Hebrew populations.

A second theory suggests a northerly migration from the Balkans or from Central Asia, with the possibility of large-scale conversions of Slavs and/or Kuzars to Judaism.

This argument parallels the controversy over the origin and development of Yiddish -– the language of Eastern European Jews. One theory proposes that Jews, migrating from the Rhineland and neighboring regions spoke an old form of German which provided the basis of Yiddish.

Other scholars reject the German origin of Yiddish. These linguists see Yiddish grammar as fundamentally Slavonic, with modern Yiddish developed by incorporating large numbers of German and Hebrew words into the context of a basically Slavic grammar and syntax.

There has not been enough historical evidence to decide between such theories. Now, with the newly developed genetic methods, it is possible to test these ideas, for example to see if there was a significant Slavic contribution to modern Ashkenazic Jewry.

CONTINUING RESEARCH

The researchers plan to continue their research by investigating genetic variation in populations that can trace their Jewish ancestry to localized communities of Europe, in order to better understand the history and development of Ashkenazic Jewry.

The genetic research findings support Jewish tradition –- both written and oral.

These genetic research findings support Jewish tradition –- both written and oral.

After over 1,000 years of history in the Land of Israel, Jews dispersed to many and distant locations throughout the world. Some Jewish exile communities were relatively stable for two millennia -– such as in Babylonia (Iraq) and Persia (Iran). Others developed centuries later, following successive migrations to North Africa and Europe.

All of these communities maintained their Jewish customs and religious observance despite prolonged periods of persecution. Jews remained generally culturally isolated from their host communities. These genetic studies are a testimony to Jewish family faithfulness.

Click here to receive Aish.com's free weekly email.

Only the Jewish people in the history of mankind has retained its genetic identity for over 100 generations, while being spread throughout the world –- truly unique and inspiring.

Jewish DNA Haplogroups and the 10-Israel Question

The Y-Chromosome Haplogroups most common in the male Jewish population are subgroups of J (including the Cohen Modal Haplotype), E, I, Q, and R, but there are smaller representations as well, such as F, G, K and others. See the paper: Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome variation in Ashkenazi Jewish and host non-Jewish European populations

Many attribute the myriad of apparently non-Hebrew or non-Semitic haplogroups inside the Jewish male population as an indicator of historical non-Jewish conversions into Judaism, such as that found in the Khazar period, but there are others who simply attribute at least some of the presence of these groups as an indicator of 10-Israel populations re-merging with the Jewish population at various times, haplogroups R and Q being the most obvious because of the Central Asian migration paths. See article: Israelite and Noahic Haplogroup Hypotheses.

Also obscuring and confusing the interpretation of the data is the use of various dating methods being employed, such as Radiocarbon dating of pertinent archaeological sites. See the article: Are Radiometric Dating Methods Reliable?.

Y-chromosomal Aaron

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Y-chromosomal Aaron is the name given to the hypothesised most recent common ancestor of many of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim (singular "Kohen", "Cohen", or Kohane). In the Torah, this ancestor is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses. The hypothetical most recent common ancestor was therefore jocularly dubbed "Y-chromosomal Aaron", in analogy to Y-chromosomal Adam.

The original scientific research was based on the discovery that a majority of present-day Jewish Kohanim either share, or are only one step removed from, a pattern of values for 6 Y-STR markers, which researchers named the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH). However it subsequently became clear that this six marker pattern was widespread in many communities where men had Y chromosomes which fell into Haplogroup J; the six-marker CMH was not specific just to Cohens, nor even just to Jews, but was a survival from the origins of Haplogroup J, about 30,000 years ago.^{[citation needed]}

More recent research, using a larger number of Y-STR markers to gain higher resolution more specific genetic signatures, has indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish Kohanim, who share Y-chromosomal haplogroup J1c3 (also called J-P58), do indeed appear to be very closely related. A further approximately 15% of Kohanim fall into a second distinct group, sharing a different but similarly tightly related ancestry. This second group fall under haplogroup J2a (J-M410). A number of other smaller lineage groups are also observed. Only one of these haplogroups could indicate ancestry from Aaron.

The J1e and J2a possible Cohen clusters, when including those tested who are of Sephardi background, have been estimated as descending from most recent common ancestors living 3,200 ± 1,100 and 4,200 ± 1,300 years ago respectively. Ashkenazis only have been estimated by the same article as descending from most recent common ancestors living 2,400 ± 800 and 3,800 ± 1,200 years ago respectively.^[1]

Background

Although membership in the Jewish community has, since at least the second century CE, been passed maternally (see: Who is a Jew?), tribal identity, and membership in the group that originally comprised the Jewish priesthood (Cohen or Kohen; plural: Cohanim or Kohanim), has been patrilineal. Modern Kohanim claim descent from a biblical person, Aaron, brother of Moses, in the direct lineage from Levi, the patriarch of the Tribe of Levi, great grandson of Abraham, according to the tradition codified in the Tanakh (שמות / Sh'mot/Exodus 6). DNA testing is aiding scholars to trace the lineages found among modern Jewish populations, including contemporary Cohen families, to decipher origins of the people groups who were joined to the ancient Israelites and to identify genetic admixture and genetic drift.

For human beings, the normal number of chromosomes is 46, of which 23 are inherited from each parent. Two chromosomes, the X chromosome and Y chromosome, determine sex. Women have two X chromosomes, one inherited from their mother, and one inherited from their father. Men have an X chromosome inherited from their mother, and the Y chromosome inherited from their father.

Males who share a common patrilineal ancestor also share a Y chromosome, diverging only with respect to accumulated mutations. Since Y-chromosomes are passed from father to son, all Kohanim men should theoretically have almost identical Y chromosomes; this can be tested with a genealogical DNA test. As the rate that mutations accumulate on the Y chromosome is relatively constant, scientists can estimate the elapsed time since two men had a common ancestor. (See molecular clock.) "The Samaritan M267 lineages differed from the classical Cohen modal haplotype at DYS391, carrying 11 rather than 10 repeats", as well as, have a completely different haplogroup, which should have been "J1". Samaritan Kohanim descend from a different patrilineal family line, having haplogroup E1b1b1a (M78) (formerly E3b1a).^[2]

Genetic studies

The Cohen hypothesis was first tested by Prof. Karl Skorecki and collaborators from Haifa, Israel, in 1997. In their study, "Y chromosomes of Jewish priests," published in the journal Nature,^[3] they found that the Kohanim appeared to share a different probability distribution compared to the rest of the Jewish population for the two Y-chromosome markers they tested (YAP and DYS19). They also found that the probabilities appeared to be shared by both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Cohens, pointing to a common Cohen population origin before the Jewish diaspora under the Roman empire. However, this study also indicated that only 48% of Ashkenazi Cohanim and 58% of Sephardic Cohanim have the J1 Cohen Modal Haplotype.

In a subsequent study the next year (Thomas MG et al., 1998),^[4] the team increased the number of Y-STR markers tested to six, as well as testing more SNP markers. Again, they found that a clear difference was observable between the Kohanim population and the general Jewish population, with many of the Cohen STR results clustered around a single pattern they named the Cohen Modal Haplotype:

	xDE^[3]	xDE,PR^[4]	Hg J^[5]	CMH.1^[4]	CMH^[4]	CMH.1/HgJ	CMH/HgJ
Ashkenazi Cohanim (AC):	98.5%	96%	87%	69%	45%	79%	52%
Sephardic Cohanim (SC):	100%	88%	75%	61%	56%	81%	75%
Ashkenazi Jews (AI):	82%	62%	37%	15%	13%	40%	35%
Sephardic Jews (SI):	85%	63%	37%	14%	10%	38%	27%

Here, becoming increasingly specific, xDE is the proportion who were not in Haplogroups D or E (from the original paper); xDE,PR is the proportion who were not in haplogroups D, E, P, Q or R; Hg J is the proportion who were in Haplogroup J (from the slightly larger panel studied by Behar et al. (2003)^[5]); CMH.1 means "within one marker of the CMH-6"; and CMH is the proportion with a 6/6 match. The final two columns show the conditional proportions for CMH.1 and CMH, given membership of Haplogroup J.

The data shows that the Kohanim were more than twice as likely to belong to Haplogroup J than the average non-Cohen Jew. Of those who did belong to Haplogroup J, the Kohanim were more than twice as likely to have an STR pattern close to the CMH-6, suggesting a much more recent common ancestry for most of them compared to an average non-Cohen Jew of Haplogroup J.

Further study published in 2009 found new markers and better defined variant J1e* (now J1c3, also called J-P58*). This research demonstrates that 46.1% of Kohanim carry Y chromosomes belonging to a single paternal lineage (J-P58*) that likely originated in the Near East well before the dispersal of Jewish groups in the Diaspora. Support for a Near Eastern origin of this lineage comes from its high frequency in our sample of Bedouins, Yemenis (67%), and Jordanians (55%) and its precipitous drop in frequency as one moves away from Saudi Arabia and the Near East (Fig. 4). Moreover, there is a striking contrast between the relatively high frequency of J-58* in Jewish populations (»20%) and Kohanim (»46%) and its vanishingly low frequency in our sample of non- Jewish populations that hosted Jewish diaspora communities outside of the Near East.^[6]

Thomas, et al. dated the origin of the shared DNA to approximately 3,000 years ago (with variance arising from different generation lengths). The techniques used to find Y-chromosomal Aaron were first popularized in relation to the search for the patrilineal ancestor of all contemporary living humans, Y-chromosomal Adam.

Responses

The finding led to excitement in religious circles, with some seeing it as providing some "proof" of the historical veracity of part of the Bible^[7] or other religious convictions.^[8] There was also criticism that the paper's evidence was being overstated.^[9]

Cohens in other haplogroups

Behar's 2003 data^[5] points to the following Haplogroup distribution for Ashkenazi Cohens (AC) and Sephardic Cohens (SC) as a whole:

Hg:	E3b	G2c	H	I1b	J	K2	Q	R1a1	R1b	Total
AC	3	0	1	0	67	2	0	1	2	76
	4%		1½%		88%	2½%		1½%	2½%	100%
SC	3	1	0	1	52	2	2	3	4	68
	4½%	1½%		1½%	76%	3%	3%	4½%	6%	100%

The detailed breakdown by 6-marker haplotype (the paper's online-only table B) suggests that at least some of these groups (eg E3b, R1b) contain more than one distinct Cohen lineage. It is possible that other lineages may also exist, but were not captured in the sample.

Does a CMH prove Cohen ancestry?

One source of early confusion was a widespread popular notion that only Cohens or only Jews could have the Cohen Modal Haplotype. It is now clear that this is not the case. The Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), whilst notably frequent amongst Cohens, is also far from unusual in the general populations of haplogroups J1 and J2 with no particular link to the Cohen ancestry. These haplogroups occur widely throughout the Middle East and beyond.^[10]^[11] Thus, while many Cohens have haplotypes close to the CMH, a greater number of such haplotypes worldwide belong to people with no likely^{[clarification needed]} Cohen connection at all.

Statistically the value of matching the CMH can be assessed using Bayes' theorem, which in its odds form can be written:

$\frac{P(C|D,I)}{P({C^'}|D,I)} = \frac{P(C|I)}{P({C^'}|I)} \cdot \frac{P(D|C)}{P(D|{C^'})}$

In words, this says that the odds in favour of Cohen ancestry C (i.e., the probability of having Cohen ancestry, divided by the probability of not having Cohen ancestry), having observed some piece of data D, is given by the odds one would assign given only one's initial information I, multiplied by the probability of having observed D if C is true, divided by the probability of having observed D if C is false.

(In fact, for convenience we shall work with the reciprocal of this equation, i.e. work in terms of odds against, rather than odds on).

The proportion of the whole male Jewish population that has Cohen ancestry has been estimated at 5%.^[3] So if we take that 5% as our initial estimate of the probability of shared Cohen ancestry, then on the basis of the data above:

Not belonging to haplogroups D or E improves the odds for a Sephardic Jew from 19/1 against to (19/1)*(0.85/1.00) = 16.2/1 against (a 5.8% probability)
Not belonging to haplogroups D,E,P,Q or R takes the odds to (19/1)*(0.63/0.88) = 13.6/1 against (6.8% probability).
Membership of Haplogroup J improves the odds to (19/1)*(0.37/0.75) = 9.4/1 against (9.6% probability).
Being within the CMH.1 group takes the odds to (19/1)*(0.14/0.61) = 4.4/1 against (18.7% probability).
A full 6/6 match takes the odds to (19/1)*(0.10/0.56) = 3.4/1. (22.7% probability).

Even a full 6/6 match for the 6 marker CMH thus cannot "prove" Cohen ancestry. It can only somewhat strengthen a previously existing belief. But for populations where the background probability assessment of shared Cohen ancestry must be vanishingly low, such as almost all non-Jews, even a full 6/6 match makes only a small difference. For individuals in such populations, the CMH probably indicates Haplogroup J, but a completely different ancestry to the Kohanim.

Higher resolution

Principal components analysis scatterplot of Y-STR haplotypes from Haplogroup J, calculated using 6 STRs. With only six Y-STRs, it is not possible to resolve the different subgroups of Hg J.

Principal components analysis scatterplot of Y-STR haplotypes from Haplogroup J, calculated using 37 STRs. With 37 Y-STR markers, clearly distinct STR clusters can be resolved, matching the distinct J1, J2 and J2b subgroups. The haplotypes often associated with Cohen lineages in each group are highlighted as J1 C37 and J2 C37, respectively.

The discussion above applies to the published scientific papers. In principle, additional resolution could be obtained by determining the Cohen haplogroup more narrowly, and/or testing more Y-STR markers to determine whether there is an extended characteristic Cohen haplotype.

Haplogroup placement

The largest population of Kohanim which most closely match the 6-marker CMH cluster are believed to belong to subgroup J1 of haplogroup J, thus often identified as Y-Aaron.^[12]^[13] ^[14] Nevertheless, various opinions exist about which Haplogroup the direct descendants of Biblical Aaron belong to.

Note, some lineages of subgroup J2 also, coincidentally, developed a similar set of genetic markers corresponding to the Cohen Modal Haplotype. Low frequencies of individuals with these lineages even exist among Jewish Kohanim, albeit they do not descend from Y-Aaron.

The subdivision of J2 which most closely matches the genetic signature of the J1 Cohens is subclade J2a4b (M67), a large fraction of members of which will also have a 6/6 match for the 6-marker CMH. However, this is an example of haplotype convergence: Basically the haplotype "distribution" within one lineage (Haplogroup) overlaps with the haplotype "distribution" of another lineage – it is like overlapping branches from two different trees. The more likely reason for the match is convergence (coincidence) or sharing a common haplotype in the same lineage (Haplogroup). Convergence: Mutation is a random process and over thousands of years can occur in different lines so that by coincidence, different "lines" end up with "matching" haplotypes. This accidental agreement is called convergence of different genetic lines, which it is believed have been not been closely related for at least the last 10,000 years; the group in J2a4b (M67) who have the 6-marker CMH are devoid of any Cohen traditions in their families.^[15]

On the other hand, there are families in Haplogroup J2 who do have a Cohen religious tradition (as there are in several other haplogroups, including Haplogroup R1b). The haplotypes of these Haplotype J2 Kohanim cluster under J2a4h (L24), not the J2a4b (M67) clade.^[15] These J2 Kohanim typically have a 4/6 match for the 6-marker CMH (with DYS19=15 rather than 14, and DYS388=15 rather than 16). The J2 Cohens do not match the 12-marker J1-extended CMH. The important difference is the two SNP mutations, M172 and M267. These mutations are believed to be at least 10–15,000 years old; but they are equal co-inheritors of a patrilineal tradition which appears to date back well before the Diaspora. Some suggest that this group may, in fact, descend from the biblical Levi, but not Aaron.^{[citation needed]}

As it happens, three of the four markers for which they do match the CMH-6 were the markers tested by Malaspina et al. (2001).^[16] This appears to explain the finding of that paper that "typing a limited number of Italian Cohanim (A. Novelletto unpublished obs.) for the STRs used here, we determined that the Cohen Modal Haplotype ('an important component in the sharing of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Israelite Y chromosomes', Thomas et al. 2000) does indeed belong to network 1.2" (i.e. the population having DYS413a,b<=18, which is the signature of the J2a4 subclades).

More detailed Cohen haplotypes

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (March 2009)

In the table below, the first line gives the original 6 marker Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH-6), which was the basis for the original published papers. The second gives an extended 12 marker haplotype (CMH-12) informally released by the private company Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), based on further work by much of the same research team. It has not yet been peer group reviewed by other scientists or published in the open technical literature.

The next sequence of rows identify other 6-marker haplotypes in haplogroup J found to occur more than once in the sample of 145 Kohanim tested in Behar et al. (2003)^[5] (table B (web-only) in that paper). Probable extensions of these haplotypes to 12 markers are shown, where it has been possible to find corresponding clusters of Cohen-type names in publicly accessible DNA databases, together with the apparent sub-clade of haplogroup J. This is more possible for the apparently Ashkenazi clusters than for Sephardim, who are much less strongly represented in the databases.

Finally, for comparison, the 12-marker modal haplotypes for the haplogroups J1 and J2 are also shown. It is apparent that in both cases, their haplotype clusters are also centred very close to the Cohen modal haplotype. However, because of the much greater time that has elapsed since the mutations occurred that define the haplogroups, there has been much more time for Y-STR mutations to build up; so, although they have almost the same centre as the Cohen cluster, the J1 and J2 haplotype clusters are much more diffusely spread out. Thus although the CMH-6 is also very near to the most probable haplotype for both J1 and J2, its occurrence frequency is only about 1 to 8% amongst arbitrary members of haplogroup J with no particular Cohen connection.^{[citation needed]}

Hg	Clade or cluster^[17]	Y-STR 393	DYS 390	DYS 19	DYS 391	DYS 385a	DYS 385b	DYS 426	DYS 388	DYS 439	DYS 389i	DYS 392	DYS 389ii	AC^[5]	SC^[5]	Some DNA matches
	CMH-6	12	23	14	10				16			11
J1	CMH-12	12	23	14	10	13	15	11	16	12	13	11	30	47%	52%	8EZ7F
J2	J2a4h (L24,L25)	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	16	12	14	11	30	13%	0	XWPTP
J2	J2a4h (L24,L25)	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29	5%	0	645CH
J2	J2b2e (M241)	12	24	15	10	15	17	11	15	12	12	11	29	11%	0	F6FSU
J2	J2a4h1a ?	12	24	15	9				16		13	11	29	0	6%
J1	J1 "388=13"	12	23	14	10				13			11		0	6%
J1	modal	12	23	14	10	13	15	11	16	11	13	11	30
J2	modal	12	23	14	10	13	15	11	15	11	13	11	30
J2	J2a1b (M67)	12	23	14	10	13	17	11	16	11	13	11	30

Other carriers of the DNA

Following the discovery of the very high prevalence of 6/6 CMH matches amongst Cohens, others were quick to look for it, and often to see it as a signpost for possible Jewish ancestry, though the chromosome itself is not exclusive to Jews.

News of 6/6 matches in the Lemba of Southern Africa were seen as confirming a possible Jewish lineage (Thomas MG et al. 2000);^[18] possible links were discussed between the Jews and the Kurds;^[19] and some suggested that 4/4 matches in non-Jewish Italians might be a genetic inheritance from Jewish slaves, deported by Emperor Titus in large numbers after the fall of the Temple in AD 70, some of whom were put to work building the Colosseum in Rome.

Such speculation was to some extent tempered when it was realised that Haplogroups J1 and J2 represented at least two different lineages which could be associated with the CMH, (the Italians mostly belong to Haplogroup J2); and that individuals with at least 5/6 matches for the original 6 marker Cohen Modal Haplotype occur widely across the Middle East, with significant frequencies in various Arab populations mainly with J1 Haplogroup, "that are not traditionally considered admixed with mainstream Jewish populations" – notably Yemen (34.2%), Oman (22.8%), Negev (21.9%), and Iraq (19.2%); and amongst Muslim Kurds (22.1%), Bedouins (21.9%), and Armenians (12.7%).^[20]

On the other hand, Jewish populations were found to have a "markedly higher" proportion of full 6/6 matches, according to the same (2005) meta-analysis,^[20] compared to these non-Jewish populations, where "individuals matching at only 5/6 markers are most commonly observed".^[20]

The authors nevertheless warn that "using the current CMH definition to a infer relation of individuals or groups to the Cohen or ancient Hebrew populations would produce many false-positive results," and note that "it is possible that the originally defined CMH represents a slight permutation of a more general Middle Eastern type that was established early on in the population prior to the divergence of haplogroup J. Under such conditions, parallel convergence in divergent clades to the same STR haplotype would be possible."^[20]

Y-DNA patterns from around the Gulf of Oman were analysed in more detail by Cadenas et al. in 2007.^[21] The detailed data confirms that the main cluster of haplogroup J1 haplotypes from the Yemen appears to be some genetic distance different from the CMH-12 pattern typical of Eastern European Ashkenazi Cohens.

J2 Kohanim haplotype tree

The J2 Kohanim haplotype tree^[22]

The J2 DNA Kohanim Migration^[23]

Dr. Karl Skorecki,^[3] the founder of CMH, reported during a Conference for Kohanim in Jerusalem 2007,^[24] that he and his research team have discovered not one but two Cohen Modal Haplotypes, which he called J1 and J2. “Pinchas the zealot mentioned in the Bible may be the origin of J2^[25]” said Skorecki. According to the observed mutations rates, certain J2 haplotypes found on FTDNA^[26] database projects share a common ancestor who lived 3100+/-200 years bp, as Skorecki revealed to the public. Below we can see the J2 Cohanim haplotype tree formed by 21 different traditional surnames related to Cohanim lineages in both Ashkenazi^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34]^[35]^[36]^[37] and Sephardic^[38]^[39]^[40] respective communities. –^[32]^[41] This is how Joseph Felsenstein`s scientific genetic computer software^[42] placed them, considering their haplotypes. Only one different Cohanim surname was used in this case to represent the closest haplotype found in each family that can best stand for the exclusive cluster below formed by these 21 haplotypes.^[43]

Cohen	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29
Kahan	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29
Mazer	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29
Kaplan	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29
Katz	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29
Cowan	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	13	11	29
Coyne	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	16	12	13	11	29
HaKohen	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	13	16	11	15	12	13	11	29
CohenPereira	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	13	18	11	15	12	13	11	29
CohenRodrigues	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	13	18	11	15	12	13	11	29
CohenMachado	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	13	18	11	15	12	13	11	29
Shapiro	Family	J2	12	23	15	9	13	17	11	16	12	13	11	29
Ben Ezra	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	13	15	11	14	13	13	11	29
Levy	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	17	11	15	12	14	11	31
Pereira Cunha	Family	J2	12	23	13	10	14	16	11	15	12	13	11	29
Garfinkel	Family	J2	12	23	15	10	14	16	11	15	12	13	11	29
Kagan	Family	J2	12	23	16	10	14	18	11	15	12	13	11	30
Kovacs	Family	J2	12	23	15	11	14	19	11	15	12	13	11	29
Kohn	Family	J2	12	23	15	11	14	19	11	15	12	13	11	29
Kohen	Family	J2	12	23	15	11	14	18	11	15	12	13	11	29
Kunha	Family	J2	12	23	15	11	14	16	11	15	12	13	11	29

The left branch is the Sephardim branch. All J2 Kohanim families listed have a surname and tradition directly related to Sephardic Kohanim,^[32]^[38]^[39] as Askenazi Kohanim^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30]^[31]^[32]^[34] also carry in their respective communities. In this case illustrated above with table and graphic, Joseph Felsenstein`s methods for making coalescence statistically independent comparisons using 21 familiar markers haplotypes shows a well shaped, defined, and geographically distributed Kohanim Tree. Despite two thousand years since the destruction of the Second Temple, and the spread of the Jewish population into the Diaspora, the deadly Crusades, Kohanim families managed to survive the persecutions and kept their lineages intact, imprinted in their Y Chromosomes as a unique and common signature. This signature, distinctly reflecting the Kohanim ancestral haplotype, visibly identifies today and recognizes these 21 Jewish priest families, directly related to one common Kohanim ancestor who by some estimates lived 2400 ± 300 years ago. This is because both Askenazi and Sephardic Kohanim for thousands of years preserved their genealogical lineages since the Temple period. Of course they did not think in terms of the DNA, however, they have faithfully followed priestly Jewish tradition until present day. As a result this is exactly what the haplotype tree shows. Families which haplotypes sit on the tree next to each other on flat branches live (or lived) in close territories and more likely share a recent common ancestor, as the tree shows. The Kohanim Tree places the correspondent families in the branches based on respective mutations. DNA results confirmed, by positioning the families in their respective places of origin, that the geographical location is correctly connected in genetics according to the Jewish tradition and records found in each one of these 21 different Kohanim families. It formed two branches, Askenazi and Sephardic. The Sephardic Kohanim is the older lineage compared to Ashkenazi, though both of them are derived from the same common ancestor. The Shapiro family from Marrocos presented the oldest signature among all, passing from Sephardi branch in Spain, Portugal, and Netherlands and from there moving to Northern East Europe to Central and reaching Southern East Europe. As the history and records tells, correctly confirmed by DNA, Kohanim fled the Romans after destruction of the Temple and went to Marrocos, Spain/Portugal, to England, France, Germany. In the 14th century many fled to Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia.

Y-chromosomal Levi

A similar investigation was made with men who consider themselves Levites. Whereas the priestly Kohanim are considered descendants of Aaron, who in turn was a descendant of Levi, son of Jacob, the Levites (a lower rank of the Temple) are considered descendants of Levi through other lineages. Levites should also therefore share common Y-chromosomal DNA.

The investigation of Levites found high frequencies of multiple distinct markers, suggestive of multiple origins for the majority of non-Aaronid Levite families. One marker, however, present in more than 50% of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish Levites points to a common male ancestor or very few male ancestors within the last 2000 years for many Levites of the Ashkenazi community. This common ancestor belonged to the haplogroup R1a1 which is typical of Eastern Europeans or West Asians, rather than the haplogroup J of the Cohen modal haplotype, and most likely lived at the time of the Ashkenazi settlement in Eastern Europe,^[5]^[44]^[45], and thus was not really a Levite.

The E1b1b1 haplogroup (formerly known as E3b1) has been observed in all Jewish groups worldwide. It is considered to be the second most prevalent haplogroup among the Jewish population outside of the J haplogroups. According to one non-peer reviewed paper^[46] it has also been observed in moderate numbers among individuals from Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Samaritan communities having traditions of descending from the tribe of Levi, suggesting that the E1b1b1 men claiming to be Levites may have existed in Israel before the Diaspora of 70 CE.

Samaritan Kohanim

The Samaritan community in the Middle East survives as a distinct religious and cultural sect and constitutes one of the oldest and smallest ethnic minorities in the world, numbering just less than 700 members. As a religious sect, reportedly, the Samaritans broke away from the mainstream Judaism around the fifth century BCE but according to Samaritan accounts it was the southern tribes that left the original worship set forth by Joshua. The Samaritans have maintained their religion and history to this day. Samaritans claim to descend from the Biblical Israelite tribes of Ephraim, Menashe and Levi.

Since the Samaritans maintain extensive and detailed genealogical records for the past 13–15 generations (approximately 400 years) and further back, it is possible to construct accurate pedigrees and specific maternal and paternal lineages. Y-Chromosome studies have shown that the majority of Samaritans belong to haplogroups J1 and J2, while the Samaritan Kohanim belong to haplogroup E1b1b1a (formerly known as E3b1a).^[2] However, the last member of the Samaritan High-Priestly family, which claimed descent from Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died in 1623 or 1624. There was a time in later periods like the 17-18Th centuries that Samaritan sages by mistake wrote to European scholars that their priests are from Uziel b. Kehat. But Samaritan sources, chronicles and lists of lineage connecting the Samaritan Priests of the last 387 years since 1624 [The year that the Priestly Family from Phinhas was ceased] to Itamar b. Aaron the nephew of Moses, meaning that they are all from Aaronic origin. All Samaritan Priests of the present are linked to the father of the family that lived in the 14Th century 'Abed Ela b. Shalma that was the House of 'Abtaa from Itamar, son of Aaron. Since that date the priest has called himself "Ha-Kohen Ha-Lewi", which means the Priest-Levite, instead of "Ha-Kohen Ha-Gadol", a title which referred to the High-Priest as in previous times.

The biblical tradition of the Cohen family living among the Samaritans is found in 2 Kings 17:27–28, where it indicates that only one Israelite Cohen was sent back from exile from Assyria by the King of Assyria to teach those living in the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria). This suggests why some Samaritans may claim association of haplogroup E3b1a with the biblical Kohanim. In the same period only 27,290 (Annals of Sargon)of the ten Northern Tribes were exiled to Assyria, the Assyrians relocated those non-Israelites to the region around Samaria, explaining why those claiming to be Leviim or Kohanim were actually Syrians, who appointed other non-Israelites as priests ("Kohanim") from their own people.

Thus far, no claims of ancestry of coming from the Levite tribe for male haplogroups outside of the "J" series can be scientifically substantiated because the mutation of haplogroups is so slow that no one coming from the family of Levi could have another haplogroup.

Multiple Origins of Ashkenazi Levites: Y Chromosome Evidence for Both Near Eastern and European Ancestries

Doron M. Behar,^1,^* Mark G. Thomas,^2,^* Karl Skorecki,¹ Michael F. Hammer,⁴ Ekaterina Bulygina,² Dror Rosengarten,¹ Abigail L. Jones,² Karen Held,² Vivian Moses,² David Goldstein,³ Neil Bradman,² and Michael E. Weale²

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Abstract

Previous Y chromosome studies have shown that the Cohanim, a paternally inherited Jewish priestly caste, predominantly share a recent common ancestry irrespective of the geographically defined post-Diaspora community to which they belong, a finding consistent with common Jewish origins in the Near East. In contrast, the Levites, another paternally inherited Jewish caste, display evidence for multiple recent origins, with Ashkenazi Levites having a high frequency of a distinctive, non–Near Eastern haplogroup.

Here, we show that the Ashkenazi Levite microsatellite haplotypes within this haplogroup are extremely tightly clustered, with an inferred common ancestor within the past 2,000 years. Comparisons with other Jewish and non-Jewish groups suggest that a founding event, probably involving one or very few European men occurring at a time close to the initial formation and settlement of the Ashkenazi community, is the most likely explanation for the presence of this distinctive haplogroup found today in >50% of Ashkenazi Levites.

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Introduction

Jewish identity, since at least Talmudic times (∼100 b.c.e.–500 c.e.), has been acquired either by maternal descent from a Jewish woman or by rabbinically authorized conversion. Only in recent years have some strands of the Jewish religion accepted paternal descent as a qualifying criterion. Within the Jewish community, however, membership in the three male castes (Cohen, Levi, and Israelite) is determined by paternal descent. Cohanim (plural of “Cohen,” the Hebrew word for priest) are, in Biblical tradition, the descendants of Aaron the brother of Moses; Levites are, in that tradition, considered to be those male descendants of Levi, the third son of the patriarch Jacob and paternal ancestor of Aaron, who are not Cohanim. The Cohanim have both rights and duties in religious law, as well as being subject to restrictions that do not apply to the other castes. They are, for example, called first to the reading of the Torah in synagogue and forbidden entry into a cemetery. Levites have some rights similar to those of Cohanim (for example, exemption from payment of a special tax on the birth of a first-born male) but are not subject to the particular restrictions placed on the Cohanim. Strict adherence to the qualifying rules would mean that the male descendants of men who were not Jews at birth could be Israelites but not Cohanim or Levites (Encyclopaedia Judaica 1972). It is estimated that Cohanim and Levites each comprise ∼4% of the Jewish people (Bradman et al. 1999).

In addition to classification by caste, Jews, on the basis of their ancestry and religious practice, can be assigned to one or other of a few long-standing, geographically separated Jewish communities, the most numerous of which are the Ashkenazi and Sephardi groupings (Reif 1993). The term “Ashkenaz” describes a relatively compact area of Jewish settlement in northwestern Europe, including northeastern France and northern Germany, where Jewish settlement is documented dating back to at least the 6th century c.e. From the 10th century, Ashkenazi Jews spoke a common language (Yiddish), written with Hebrew characters but borrowing its lexicon mostly from German. By the 16th century, Jews speaking this language and following the Ashkenazi religious rite and cultural tradition populated communities extending from the Loire in the west to the Dnieper in the east and from Rome in the south to the Danish border in the north. During the past 500 years, there has been rapid population growth, culminating in an estimated population size of ∼8 million Ashkenazi Jews just prior to the outbreak of World War II. There is uncertainty concerning the relative contributions to Ashkenazi Jewry of, on one hand, western versus eastern immigration of Jews and, on the other hand, internally generated population growth versus conversion to Judaism. In particular, it has been suggested that subjects of the Khazar Empire (located to the northeast of the Black Sea), who had adopted Judaism in the last quarter of the first millennium c.e., were an important constituent of the nascent Ashkenazi community (Encyclopaedia Judaica 1972).

The term “Sephardi” originally described Jews descended from the communities that existed in Spain prior to the expulsion in 1492 c.e. However, current usage applies this designation to all descendants of the communities of North Africa and the Near East who follow the Sephardi rite of worship and cultural traditions. It is thought that, prior to the middle of the 20th century, gene flow between the Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi groups was relatively restricted.

The purported different modes of transmission of Levite and Cohen versus Israelite status provide a priori expectations about patterns of genetic variation on the paternally inherited nonrecombining region of the Y chromosome (NRY). In particular, because of recent shared ancestry, Cohanim and Levites would be expected to display lower gene diversity of NRY haplotypes than would Israelites. In addition, the distribution of haplotype frequencies, in the absence of drift, should be similar (a) in Cohanim and (b) in Levites across the Ashkenazi-Sephardi division, given that this division occurred after the founding of these two groups.

In fact, previous studies have indeed shown that the NRYs of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Cohanim are genetically more closely related to each other than they are to the NRYs of Israelites or non-Jews (Skorecki et al. 1997; Thomas et al. 1998). This pattern arises primarily from differences in the frequency of a particular NRY haplotype (the Cohen Modal Haplotype [CMH], defined by six rapidly mutating microsatellites [Thomas et al. 1998]), and a cluster of closely related haplotypes within a single haplogroup (defined by slowly mutating unique event polymorphisms [UEPs]).

Chromosomes belonging to this haplotype and its related cluster were found at high frequency among Cohanim but at a much lower frequency among Israelites. Furthermore, the pattern of diversity within the cluster was found to be consistent with descent from a common ancestor who lived between 2,100 and 3,900 years ago. The CMH is also found, at lower frequency, in non-Jewish populations in the Near East, which would be consistent with its origin in this geographic region. However, the same studies found high frequencies of multiple haplogroups in the Levites, indicating that no single recent origin could be inferred for the majority of this group, despite an oral tradition of a patrilineal descent similar to that of the Cohanim. Moreover, a cluster of closely related NRY haplotypes was identified within a distinctive deep-rooting NRY clade that was found at much higher frequency among Ashkenazi Levites than in either Sephardi Levites or any other Jewish group. However, the reasons for this difference in the Ashkenazi Levites were not explored.

Given the importance of the paternally defined Levite caste in Jewish history and tradition, the multiple theories of the ethnogenesis of the Ashkenazi Jewish community, and a suggestion that Yiddish is a relexified Slavic tongue (Wexler 1993), we undertook a detailed investigation of the paternal genetic history of Ashkenazi Levites and compared the results with matching data from neighboring populations among which the Ashkenazi community lived during its formation and subsequent demographic expansion. By analyzing NRY haplotypes, we have revealed (a) a plausible historical explanation for the multiple paternal histories of the Levite caste, (b) the probable period during which a European introgression into the caste took place, and (c) the likely demographic scale of the event.

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Subjects and Methods

Sampling

We analyzed NRY variation in a set of 988 unrelated males from Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, and four non-Jewish European populations. Populations were categorized using a combination of geographic, religious, and ethnohistorical criteria and individual affiliation within a category was determined according to self-designation by the participant providing the sample. Three of the four non-Jewish groups (88 Germans, 112 Sorbians, and 306 Belarusians) were chosen because of their geographic location relative to the ancestral European communities of the Ashkenazi Jews, and also because of prior knowledge of the geographic areas known to have high frequencies of the NRY haplogroup within which the distinctive Ashkenazi Levite high-frequency cluster was previously reported. This haplogroup is designated “R1a1” according to the Y Chromosome Consortium (2002). An additional non-Jewish group consisting of 83 samples previously collected in Norway (Weale et al. 2002) was chosen, to represent a geographic location that excluded Jewish entry until the middle of the 19th century and is known to be outside the area in which Ashkenazi communities originated.

The Jewish samples comprised 236 Ashkenazi Jews (AJ) and 163 Sephardi Jews, who were further divided into 100 Ashkenazi Israelites (AI), 76 Ashkenazi Cohanim (AC), 60 Ashkenazi Levites (AL), 63 Sephardi Israelites (SI), 69 Sephardi Cohanim (SC), and 31 Sephardi Levites (SL). The 60 AL samples were collected from Ashkenazi males who identified themselves as Levites, with a paternal ancestry from one of the following nine Ashkenazi Jewish communities; Austria-Hungary (10), Belarus (4), France (6), Germany (10), Lithuania (8), Netherlands (5), Poland (7), Romania (4), and Russia (6). Current political borders (including the current borders of Austria and Hungary) were used to define geographic origin. When the Ashkenazi Levite sample was split into western (France, Netherlands, and Germany) versus eastern (all others) communities, no significant differences were found in haplogroup or haplotype frequencies (using the exact test of Raymond and Rousset [1995]), but we note that the sample size is too small to have power to detect anything other than very large differences in frequency. Information regarding paternal lineage was collected from each of the participants. Paternal population affiliation was determined by the oldest male-line ancestor that the participants identified, which extended back to at least the grandparental level. The participants were not related through their paternal lineages. The ethics review committees of the participating institutions approved the sampling protocols.

Genotyping

Haplogroups

In all population samples except the Ashkenazi Levites and Germans, we typed a set of 12 biallelic markers including one Alu insertion and 11 SNPs to investigate the data reported herein. The 12 markers were: 92R7, M9, M13, M17, M20, SRY₊₄₆₅, SRY₄₀₆₄, SRY₁₀₈₃₁, sY81, Tat, YAP, and p12f2. PCR protocols for detection of these polymorphisms have been reported elsewhere (Thomas et al. 1999; Rosser et al. 2000). These 12 markers give rise to the following 10 observed haplogroups, labeled according to the Y Chromosome Consortium (2002) nomenclature: Y*(xBR,A3b2), BR*(xDE,JR), E*(xE3a), J, K*(xL,N3,O2b,P), L, N3, P*(xR1a), R1a*, and R1a1. We note that one of these is a very rare haplogroup (R1a*) that has previously been observed only in two Armenian men (Weale et al. 2001). We now report the same haplogroup in one additional Belarusian man. The Ashkenazi Levites were typed for a set of 25 biallelic markers including P9, M216, M217, YAP, P2, M35, P14, M201, P15, M52, P19, 12f2b, M172, M9, M20, LLY22g, Tat, M175, P27, P36, M207, M173, SRY₁₀₈₃₁, M17, and P25. PCR protocols for detection of these polymorphisms have been reported elsewhere (Hammer et al. 2001; Underhill et al. 2001). This set of biallelic markers allowed the designation of the Ashkenazi Levite chromosomes into the same 10 observed haplogroups. The exact labeling of the Ashkenazi Levite haplogroups, by use of all 25 biallelic markers, is reported in table A (online only). The German data are reported elsewhere (Capelli et al. 2003) and were not typed for M13, M20, SRY₁₀₈₃₁, and SRY₊₄₆₅ as these markers distinguish haplogroups (taking other typed markers into account) that are extremely rare in Europe and the Near East (Underhill et al. 2000). In place of YAP, SRY₄₀₆₄, and sY81, the German sample was typed for M35, as intermediate haplogroups (derived for YAP, ancestral for M35) are, again, very rare in this part of the world.

Table A

Ashkenazi Levites: Counts of Haplogroups by Use of 25 Biallelic Markers and of Haplotypes by Use of 12 Microsatellite Markers^[Note]

Haplotypes

We genotyped all samples for six STRs, DYS19 (equivalent to DYS394), DYS388, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, and DYS393, according to protocols previously reported by Thomas et al. (1999). In the case of the Ashkenazi Levite samples, we also typed six additional STRs (DYS385a, DYS385b, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS426, and DYS439), to allow more accurate estimation of the time to most recent common ancestor (TMRCA). PCR primers and conditions for the typing of the additional six STRs are as described by Redd et al. (2002), multiplexes I and II. PCR products were analyzed on ABI310 and ABI3100 DNA Analyzers, and fragment lengths were converted to repeat numbers by the use of allelic ladders. We define DYS389CD as equivalent to DYS389I, and we define DYS389AB as equivalent to DYS389II minus DYS389I (Rolf et al. 1998).

Statistical Analysis

Estimation of Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor

If the root haplotype is known, central estimates can be obtained of the TMRCA that are independent of population demography and shape of the genealogy and are dependent only on the mutation model assumed (Stumpf and Goldstein 2001). We obtained central estimates of the TMRCA under two models of microsatellite mutation. Under the simple stepwise mutation model (S-SMM), mutation rate is independent of microsatellite repeat number and mutations are equally likely to result in an increase or decrease in length. It can be shown that equation M1 is an unbiased estimator of the TMRCA (in generations), where equation M2 is the average squared difference in repeat length between each sampled NRY and the root haplotype, averaged over loci, and equation M3 is the S-SMM mutation rate (per generation) averaged over loci (Goldstein et al. 1995a, 1995b; Slatkin 1995). Locus-specific estimates of mutation rates are currently hampered by lack of data, so we chose to estimate a common mutation rate by combining data on all tri- and tetra-nucleotide NRY microsatellites for which direct data (including mean repeat sizes) are available. Combining the pedigree-based data of Bianchi et al. (1998), Forster et al. (1998), Heyer et al. (1997), and Kayser et al. (2000) leads to an estimate of equation M4 . A more recent pedigree-based study estimated a higher mutation rate of 0.0042 for the same 12 STRs as were used for the Ashkenazi Levites (Bonne-Tamir et al. 2003), as did a study based on mutational analysis of single sperm cells (Holtkemper et al. 2001). In contrast, some other studies based on dating deep-rooting Y chromosome clades have suggested lower “evolutionary” mutation rates (Caglia et al. 1997; Forster et al. 2000).

These considerations introduce additional uncertainty in the true value of equation M5 for our loci (Zhivotovsky et al. 2001). We allowed for some uncertainty in equation M6 when calculating confidence limits for the TMRCA, and we note that the length-dependent model described below may also accommodate some locus-specific variation in mutation rate (Carvalho-Silva et al. 1999). Two microsatellite loci typed in our study, DYS385a and DYS385b, are homologous, so that reported repeat lengths cannot be assigned unambiguously to this locus. This problem is overcome by adding the two repeat lengths together and treating this as a single “locus” with a mutation rate of 2μ.

The second microsatellite mutation model we used was a linear length dependent stepwise mutation model (LLD-SMM). Under this model, motivated by a proportional slippage mutation mechanism, the mutation rate is determined by the linear equation μ=a+bL, where L is the current repeat size. Length-dependency has been proposed as one possible explanation for large inter-locus variability in Y chromosome microsatellites (Forster et al. 2000). It can be shown that equation M7 is an unbiased estimator of the TMRCA, where equation M8 is as defined above and equation M9 is the mutation rate for the root haplotype, averaged over loci (Calabrese et al. 2001). Again, due to limited data we assume common values for a and b over all loci, and use the estimates reported by Stumpf and Goldstein (2001), anchored by assuming μ=0.00193 when L=15.77 (from the direct data, described above, of Bianchi et al. [1998], Forster et al. [1998], Heyer et al. [1997], and Kayser et al. [2000]). This results in estimates of a=-4.03×10^-3 and b=3.78×10^-4. The two homologous loci DYS385a and DYS385b were accommodated by adding their repeat lengths together into a single value of L and treating them as a single “locus” with μ=2a+bL. If negative values of μ were produced, these were treated as zero.

Unlike the central estimates, CIs on the TMRCA are dependent on population demography, regardless of the mutation model used. These were found by Monte Carlo simulation, using a coalescent-with-exponential-growth model scaled in units of the TMRCA, incorporating uncertainty in mutation rate, and implemented in the program Ytime.

Estimation of genetic diversity and distance

Genetic diversity was measured using Nei’s unbiased h statistic (Nei 1987). Tests for population differentiation were performed using the exact test of Raymond and Rousset (1995). Two common measures of genetic distance are F_ST (Reynolds et al. 1983) and 1−I, where I is Nei’s Genetic Identity. We found a poor correlation between F_ST and 1−I for the population samples analyzed in this study (r=0.383 among the 10 population data sets using haplotype frequencies and using all 45 pairwise combinations). We propose that 1−I is a better measure of genetic distance (in the sense of a metric summarizing useful aspects of interpopulation differences in gene frequency), for comparisons among populations where recent admixture is a likely demographic model. This is because if two different populations A and B admix to form a population C, the expected immediate I value between C and either A or B is dependent only on the admixture proportion between A and B, the I value between A and B, and the relative gene diversities (via the ratio (1-h_A)/(1-h_B)), whereas the expected F_ST value is dependent not only on these factors but also on the absolute diversities of A and B. This results in an unwanted dependency of F_ST on the absolute gene diversities of A and B (F_ST is larger when the gene diversities are smaller, because F_ST is a measure of between-population diversity divided by the sum of between- and within-population diversities). This unwanted dependency is avoided by the use of 1−I. We note that the same arguments apply to Nei’s Genetic Distance, D=-log(I), as to 1−I, since there is a monotonic relationship between the two. We found the same conclusions when we analyzed our data using D as we did using 1−I.

Visualization of genetic-distance patterns

We visualized patterns of genetic differentiation using Principal Coordinates Analysis, performed on I to form the similarity matrix. Values along the main diagonal of the similarity matrix, representing the similarity of each population sample to itself, were calculated from the estimated genetic distance between two copies of the same population sample (for I values, the resulting self-similarity values simplify to n/(n-1), where n is the sample size).

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Results

The haplogroup frequencies found in the six Jewish and four non-Jewish data sets are shown in table 1. The table confirms the presence of R1a1 as the modal haplogroup in the Ashkenazi Levite Jews (52% of chromosomes).

This haplogroup is found at similarly high frequencies in the two Slavonic-speaking populations (Sorbians and Belarusians), but at a maximum frequency of only 5.8% among the other five Jewish data sets (mean frequency 3.2%). Pairwise genetic similarities (Nei’s genetic identity I) and P values for population differentiation at the haplogroup level are shown in table 2, and figure 1 displays the principal coordinates plot derived from the genetic similarity values. Figure 1 reflects the unusual distribution of Ashkenazi Levite haplogroup frequencies. The other Jewish data sets separate according to whether they are Cohanim or non-Cohanim, and, within these two groups, there are no significant differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi data sets (all tests for population differentiation performed using the exact test of Raymond and Rousset (1995).

The genetic similarities among these five Jewish data sets range from 0.79 to 1.0. In contrast, the Ashkenazi Levites cluster more with the Slavonic data sets than they do with the other Jewish data sets. The genetic similarities with the other Jewish data sets range from 0.22 to 0.47, whereas the I values with the Sorbian and Belarusian data sets are 0.95 and 0.88, respectively. When a bootstrap test is used, the I value for Ashkenazi Levites with Sorbians and Belarusians is, in both cases, significantly higher than the I value for Ashkenazi Levites with Sephardi Israelites, the most similar Jewish data set to the Ashkenazi Levites (P=.004 for Sorbians and .008 for Belarusians).

Table 1

Haplogroup Frequencies across Six Jewish and Four Non-Jewish Sample Sets

Table 2

Pairwise Comparisons at Haplogroup Level among Six Jewish and Four Non-Jewish Sample Sets^[Note]

Figure 1

Principal coordinates plot of the genetic identity values (haplogroup level) shown in table 2. Axis labels indicate the percentage explained by the first two principal axes.

At the haplotype level (combining UEP information with the six microsatellite loci), significant differences in haplotype frequency emerge between all data sets (table 3), but the same underlying patterns of similarity remain (fig. 2). Full haplotype information for all data sets is available in supplemental tables tablesAA and andBB (online only). The genetic similarities between the Ashkenazi Levites and the other Jewish data sets range from 0.04 to 0.18, whereas the I values with the Sorbian and Belarusian data sets are 0.52 and 0.49 respectively. Using a bootstrap test, the I value for Ashkenazi Levites with Sorbians and Belarusians is again significantly higher in both cases than the corresponding I value for Ashkenazi Levites with their most similar Jewish group, the Ashkenazi Israelites (P=.006 for Sorbians and .004 for Belarusians).

Table 3

Pairwise Comparisons at Haplotype Level among Six Jewish and Four Non-Jewish Sample Sets^[Note]

Figure 2

Principal coordinates plot of the genetic identity values (haplotype level) shown in table 4. Axis labels indicate the percentage explained by the first two principal axes.

Table B

Microsatellite Haplotype Frequencies in All Haplogroups across Six Jewish and Four Non-Jewish Sample Sets^[Note]

Within haplogroup R1a1, the microsatellite haplotypes found in the AL data set are tightly clustered around a modal haplotype (16-12-25-10-11-13) that comprises 74% of Ashkenazi Levites within this haplogroup, and 38% of Ashkenazi Levites overall (table 4). This modal haplotype is evenly distributed across the geographically defined communities from which the Ashkenazi Levite sample was taken (see the “Subjects and Methods” section and table A), so that clues to its origin could not be found from these data. The very high frequency of this modal haplotype makes the genetic diversity of Ashkenazi Levite NRYs within the R1a1 haplogroup much lower than in the non-Jewish comparative data sets in which R1a1 is found at high frequency (table 5). Bootstrap tests indicate that, within R1a1, h is significantly lower in AL than in the Sorbian, Belarusian, and Norwegian data sets (P<.001 in each case). The P value for the comparison with the German data set is of borderline significance (P=.064), but the number of R1a1 chromosomes within this data set is small (n=11), resulting in a larger sampling variance. The additional six microsatellites genotyped for Ashkenazi Levites only reduce the modal haplotype frequency within the R1a1 haplogroup to 58%, also confirming the high degree of haplotype homogeneity (table 6). As is explained in the “Discussion” section, this arrangement of R1a1 haplotypes within the Ashkenazi Levite data set is consistent with common descent from a recent ancestor and is unlikely to have resulted from a large number of founding lineages.

By assuming that the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) possessed the modal haplotype and by using a male intergeneration time of 25 years, we estimated a mean TMRCA of 663 years before present under the Simple Stepwise Mutation Model and a mean time of 1,000 years before present under the Linear Length-Dependent Stepwise Mutation Model (see the “Subjects and Methods” section). These dates coincide with the historically estimated time when compact settlements of Jews in northwest Europe began and the important religious communities of Mainz and Worms were established (Encyclopaedia Judaica 1972), but they also come with very wide CIs.

If we assume a genealogy generated under no population growth, the 95% CIs are 0–2,425 years before present under the simple stepwise mutation model, and 0–3,672 years before present under the linear length-dependent stepwise mutation model. However, the Ashkenazi Jewish population has undergone rapid population growth in the past 1,000 years, estimated at a 17.5% growth rate per generation in the Ashkenazi Jewish population over this period (DellaPergola 2001).

The starlike pattern for the R1a1 haplotypes for AL is consistent with this pattern of population expansion for the Ashkenazi Jewish population in general. By use of this estimate of 17.5% for growth and under the assumption of 4.5 million male Ashkenazi Jews in 1939, a 1:5 ratio of effective population size to census population size due to reproductive variance and the fact that Ashkenazi Levites make up 4% of Ashkenazi Jews, the 95% CI is reduced substantially to 244–1,570 years before present (BP) under the simple stepwise mutation model, and 375–2,248 years BP under the linear length-dependent stepwise mutation model. It should be noted that our estimations of the TMRCA rely on pedigree mutation rates. It has been argued that “evolutionary” mutational rates may occur at a lower rate (Caglia et al. 1997; Forster et al. 2000). If so, the TMRCA is underestimated by our method. On the other hand, if our assumption of a single founder is false, then the TMRCA of this clade would overestimate the founding event. An alternative method for dating the founding event, again under the assumption of a single founder, derives from consideration of the fact that it is easier to affect a large frequency change in the Ashkenazi Levite male gene pool when it is small than when it is large.

We allowed for a possible initial reproductive advantage to the founder—for example, due to elevated wealth or status—such that he contributed, at most, 100 grandsons to the Ashkenazi Levite population (i.e., 20 grandsons to the effective population size, under the assumption of a 1:5 ratio, as above), after which time the differential reproductive fitness was lost. As above, we assumed a general Ashkenazi Levite growth rate of 17.5% per generation and an Ashkenazi Levite effective population size of 36,000 in 1939. Performing coalescent simulations with exponential growth, we found that the 20 grandsons needed to be added at least 35 generations ago to provide a chance of >5% that 31 of 60 modern Ashkenazi Levites sampled would descend from this founding group. Under the assumption of a male intergeneration time of 25 years, this implies an original founding event that occurred at least 990 years BP (925 years before 1939). Taken together, these separate time estimates provide a timeframe that coincides with the initial formation and early settlement of the Ashkenazi Jewish population.

Finally, we used the same growth model to investigate how many males could have moved into the Ashkenazi Levite population at the same time as the founder and yet have at least a 5% chance of leaving no descendents in a sample of 60 Ashkenazi Levites today. Because we allow for a potentially very small effective population size, it is possible for an introgression to comprise a sizeable proportion of the Ashkenazi Levite NRY gene pool at the time and yet correspond to only a relatively small number of individuals. If the event took place 37 generations before 1939 (990 years BP), such “silent” introgressors could have made up as much as 19% of the Ashkenazi Levite gene pool, equivalent to an addition of 50 men to the existing Ashkenazi Levite population. The corresponding figures for 45 generations before 1939 (1,190 years BP) and 55 generations before 1939 (1,440 years BP) are 53% (33 men) and 94% (10 men).

Table 4

Microsatellite Haplotype Frequencies within Haplogroup R1a1 across Six Jewish and Four Non-Jewish Sample Sets^[Note]

Table 5

Sample Size and Microsatellaite Diversity within Haplogroup R1a1

Table 6

Microsatellite Haplotype Frequencies within Haplogroup R1a1 for 12 Microsatellites Typed in the Ashkenazi Levite Sample

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Discussion

Our study confirms the previously reported finding of a caste-specific high-frequency haplogroup within the Ashkenazi Levites (Thomas et al. 1998). The presence of this haplogroup, R1a1, within Ashkenazi Levites is striking for several reasons. Firstly, it is found at high frequency in the Ashkenazi Levites but not in Sephardi Levites or any other Jewish grouping examined so far. This means that in paternal ancestry Ashkenazi and Sephardi Levites are genetically dissimilar, unlike Ashkenazi and Sephardi Cohanim (fig. 1). The Ashkenazi and Sephardi Israelites are also relatively similar to each other, which is consistent with the previous reports of shared overall paternal Near Eastern ancestries for these populations (Hammer et al. 2000; Nebel et al. 2000). Secondly, the microsatellite haplotypes within this haplogroup form a tight cluster within the Ashkenazi Levites, indicative of very recent origin from a single common ancestor.

Thirdly, the haplogroup is extremely rare in other Jewish groups and in non-Jewish groups of Near Eastern origin, but is found at high frequency in populations of eastern European origin. This contrasts with the Cohen Modal Haplotype, for example, which belongs to a haplogroup that is more likely to be of Near Eastern origin. Finally, the haplogroup represents ∼50% of all Ashkenazi Levite NRYs, which indicates that, as a group, the Ashkenazi Levites have heterogeneous origins in comparison with the Cohanim, who are dominated by a single haplogroup and whose origins are consistent with an event antedating the Diaspora.

The greatly elevated frequency of haplogroup R1a1 only within the Ashkenazi Levites suggests an event specific to the Ashkenazi Levites. This is borne out by the fact that the haplogroup is virtually absent from the Sephardi Levites, which would indicate an event that occurred after the separate formation of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi groupings, and also by the very recent inferred date for the common ancestor of the NRYs within this haplogroup in the Ashkenazi Levites, which also supports an event occurring after the Ashkenazi split from other Jewish populations.

The pattern of microsatellite haplotype diversity within haplogroup R1a1 in the Ashkenazi Levites suggests that any founding event is unlikely to have involved a large number of founding lineages contributing to today’s Ashkenazi Levite NRY gene pool. If large numbers were involved, then the lack of microsatellite diversity would imply that all the founding lineages were very closely related to each other. Furthermore, under this scenario the microsatellite diversity seen today would partly result from diversity among the founding lineages, in which case the evidence would suggest a founding event even more recent than that estimated above, under the assumption of a single founding individual. Although a more recent event is not impossible, the current range of estimated dates fits very nicely with the known origins of the Ashkenazi, a time when the estimated population size was small and which would therefore make it easier for the descendents of a single founder to expand to high frequency within the population, as our simulations demonstrate.

Furthermore, if there had been a large influx of founder lineages, the haplotype frequency distribution of the source population would be expected to match the haplotype frequency distribution found in Ashkenazi Levites today. Such a matching source population has yet to be identified. In the case of the two non-Jewish populations of Eastern European origin examined in this study, neither the Sorbians nor the Belarusians would be suitable candidates. This is because, in both cases, the modal haplotype within haplogroup R1a1 for the Sorbians and the Belarusians is either completely absent or found only as a singleton within the Ashkenazi Levite sample (table 4).

Although the number of founding lineages contributing to the current Ashkenazi Levite NRY gene pool appears to be small and could involve only a single founding male, it is possible that the founding event also coincided with a larger introgression event but subsequent drift led to the loss of these other lineages from the NRY gene pool. Our simulations suggest that up to 50 men could have been involved in such an event. This result assumes a 5:1 ratio of real:effective population size, and there are processes that could make this ratio even more pronounced (see, for example, the work of Gagnon and Heyer [2001]). However, this would result in such small effective population sizes and so much resultant drift that one would not expect to find the close NRY genetic similarity observed between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Cohanim, who make up a percentage of the Jewish population very similar to the Levites’. Two further arguments against a recent large introgression of non-Jews into the Ashkenazi Levite caste are: (a) it would have to breach a well-regulated rabbinically controlled barrier, and (b) it would most likely leave some prominent trace in the historical record—which it has not.

For the reasons stated above, it is likely that the event leading to a high frequency of R1a1 NRYs within the Ashkenazi Levites involved very few, and possibly only one, founding father. A question, then, arises regarding the possible origins of the founder(s). Haplogroup R1a1 is found at very low frequency in other Jewish groups (table 1). It is possible, therefore, that this haplogroup was also present at very low frequency in the Ashkenazi Levites, before some event specific to the Ashkenazi Levites occurred that led to a founder who, by chance, had this very rare haplogroup and whose descendents became very numerous within the Ashkenazi Levites. Likewise, the haplogroup is also found at very low frequency within some non-Jewish populations of Near Eastern origin (data not shown). It is therefore also possible that a conversion event prior to the formation of the Ashkenazi grouping led to the founding of this haplogroup and its emergence at high frequency within the Ashkenazi Levites. Although it is not possible to formally refute either of these two possible explanations, it would be a remarkable coincidence that the geographic origins and demographic expansion of the Ashkenazi are within Northern and Eastern Europe and that this haplogroup is found at very high frequency within neighboring non-Jewish populations of European origin but not at high frequency elsewhere. An alternative explanation, therefore, would postulate a founder(s) of non-Jewish European ancestry, whose descendents were able to assume Levite status.

If a European origin for the Ashkenazi Levite haplogroup R1a1 component is accepted as a reasonable possibility, it is of interest to speculate further on the possible timing, location, and mechanism of this event. Because the modal haplotype of haplogroup R1a1 found in the Ashkenazi Levites is found at reasonably high frequency throughout the eastern European region, it is not possible to use genetic information to pinpoint the exact origin of any putative founder from the currently available data sets. Intriguingly, the Sorbian tongue, relexified with a German vocabulary, has been proposed as the origin of Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazim, but there has been no suggestion of an association between Ashkenazi Levites in particular and the Sorbian language. One attractive source would be the Khazarian Kingdom, whose ruling class is thought to have converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century (Dunlop 1967). This kingdom flourished between the years 700 c.e. and 1016 c.e. It extended from northern Georgia in the south to Bulgar on the Volga River in the north and from the Aral Sea in the east to the Dnieper River in the west—an area that falls within a region in which haplogroup R1a1 NRYs are found at high frequency (Rosser et al. 2000). Archival material also records migration of Khazars into the Hungarian Duchy of Taskony in the 10th century. The break-up of the Khazar Empire following their defeat by invading Rus led to the flight of some Khazars to central and northern Europe. Although neither the NRY haplogroup composition of the majority of Ashkenazi Jews nor the microsatellite haplotype composition of the R1a1 haplogroup within Ashkenazi Levites is consistent with a major Khazar or other European origin, as has been speculated by some authors (Baron 1957; Dunlop 1967; Ben-Sasson 1976; Keys 1999), one cannot rule out the important contribution of a single or a few founders among contemporary Ashkenazi Levites.

Finally, it is interesting to speculate on the possible mechanism by which the descendant of a non-Jew or convert could have acquired Levite status. The fact that Ashkenazi Cohanim NRYs show no evidence for an introgression of this nature suggests a lesser degree of stringency for the assumption of Levite status than for the assumption of Cohen status. This may be because there are more rights and duties associated with the Cohen status than with that of the Levite, leading to more rigorous protection of the former. Cohanim, for example, are called upon, on special occasions, to bless the assembled congregation and are prohibited from marrying divorcees and converts, religious laws that do not apply to Levites. Indeed, Talmudic sources may possibly be interpreted to support the notion of differences in the social, religious, and legal barriers that relate to the assumption of Cohen and Levite status. These include descriptions of the possible assumption of Levite status other than through patrilineal descent, in a Talmudic passage describing a debate regarding the potential assignment of Levite status to a man (and his descendants) whose father was a non-Jew and whose mother was the daughter of a Levite. Such differences could have provided the backdrop for the sanctioned acceptance of Levite status other than through patrilineal descent.

The comparative study of patterns of NRY variation among Ashkenazi Jews and other populations has revealed evidence for an unexpected and unusual historical event, which was not appreciated using other, more conventional historical approaches.

This finding may motivate historians and social scientists to seek further information regarding the possibility of such an event and, more generally, to include information gleaned from studies of DNA variation in the repertoire of tools used to uncover historical events of interest.

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Marrano

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Marranos: Secret Seder in Spain during the times of inquisition, painting by Moshe Maimon

Marranos (Spanish: [maˈranos]; Portuguese: [mɐˈʁɐnuʃ], sing. marrano) were originally Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who had converted, or been forced to convert, to Christianity, some of whom may have continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret. The term came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree, reversing protections originally in the Treaty of Granada (1491). The converts were also known as Cristianos nuevos (Spanish) and Cristãos novos (Portuguese), which mean New Christians, and conversos (the converted).

Etymology

The term Marrano derives from Arabic مُحَرّمٌ muḥarram; meaning "forbidden, anathematized". Marrano in 15th century Spanish first meant pig, from the ritual prohibition against eating pork, practiced by both Jews and Muslims. Marrano in Spanish still means pig and dirty, but it is no longer commonly related to religious beliefs.

Although originally the term was used by common people, the insult was mostly racist, as people associated in a superstitious and prejudiced way to the descendants of forced New Christians as a racially identifiable people by their bad denture, which allegedly proved their sinful soul. In the sixteenth century, marrano was used to refer to both the forced converts from Judaism and the forced converts from Islam, as both religions prohibit eating pork. Over time by scholars, the latter were called Moriscos, and the voice marrano was only to designate the Jews of converso descent. In the sixteenth century sense, marrano was used by rival "Old Christians" to insult Miguel de Cervantes, supposedly of Muslim or Jewish descent, to disparage him as a "New Christian".

Marrano acquired connotations of "filthy-dirty" (sucio) and "unscrupulous" (sin escrúpulos) during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, when the term was used to impugn the character of the recalcitrant crypto-Jew. In contemporary Portuguese the word refers only to crypto-Jews, with marrão meaning the animal pig or swine.

Today, even among Jewish historians, the term 'marrano' is no longer considered correct. The preferred terms are 'anusim' (Hebrew for "forced"); or 'conversos' or 'conversas' (Spanish) for men and woman respectively (singular 'converso' and 'conversa').

Demographics

Under state pressure in the late 15th century, an estimated 100,000–200,000 Jews in the Iberian Peninsula converted to Christianity.^{[citation needed]} The numbers who converted and the effects of various migrations in and out of the area have been the subject of historical debate.

A phylogeographic study in 2008 of 1150 volunteer Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups appeared to support the idea that the number of forced conversions has been significantly underestimated, as 20% of the tested Iberian population had haplogroups consistent with Sephardic ancestry. This percentage was suggested as representing the proportion of Sephardi in the population at the time of mass conversions in the 14th and 15th centuries.^[1] However, these results have not been replicated in the broad array of genetic studies that have looked at Iberian heritage,^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] and the conclusion has been questioned even by the authors themselves^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] and by Stephen Oppenheimer, who pointed out that much earlier migrations, 5000 to 10,000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean, might also account for these haplogroup proportions.^[11] Indeed, in a different study the same year the same authors attributed most of those haplogroup lineages in Iberia and the Balearic Islands to Phoenician origin.^[6]

Portugal

Main article: History of the Jews in Portugal

Some Portuguese conversos or Cristãos novos continued to practice as crypto-Jews. In the early 20th century, historian Samuel Schwartz wrote about crypto-Jewish communities discovered in northeastern Portugal (namely, Belmonte, Bragança, Miranda, and Chaves). He claimed that members had managed to survive more than four centuries without being fully assimilated into the Old Christian population.^[12] The last remaining crypto-Jewish community in Belmonte officially returned to Judaism in the 1970s and opened a synagogue in 1996. In 2003, the American Sephardi Federation founded the Belmonte Project to raise funds to acquire Judaic educational material and services for the Belmonte community, who then numbered 160-180.^{[citation needed]}

Two documentary films are known to have been made in north-eastern Portugal where present day descendants of Marranos were interviewed about their lives. In 1974 for "The Marranos of Portugal" the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) sent reporter Ron Ben-Yishai to carry out interviews with families about their religious practice. After being asked to prove he knew Hebrew before they would talk he found people still reluctant to talk openly but did eventually gain a remarkable insight into their version of Jewish customs, prayers and songs The film was commended at the 1976 Jerusalem Jewish Film and TV Festival. Another documentary, "The Last Marranos" was made by the New York Jewish Media Fund in 1997.

After the expulsion of Jews and Muslims in 1492 from Spain and Portugal, conversos continued to be suspect in times of social strain. In 1506, a months-long plague caused people to look for scapegoats for the misfortune. Some became suspicious that conversos might be practicing Judaism and therefore be at fault. On April 17, 1506, several conversos were discovered who had in their possession "some lambs and poultry prepared according to Jewish custom; also unleavened bread and bitter herbs according to the regulations for the Passover, which festival they celebrated far into the night." Officials seized several, but released them after a few days.

The populace swore vengeance. On the same day on which the conversos were freed, the Dominicans displayed a crucifix and a reliquary in glass from which a peculiar light issued in a side-chapel of their church, where several New Christians were present.

A New Christian who tried to explain the miracle as due to natural causes, was dragged from the church and killed by an infuriated woman. A Dominican roused the populace still more. Friar João Mocho and the Aragonese friar Bernardo, crucifix in hand, were said to go through the streets of the city, crying "Heresy!" and calling upon the people to destroy the conversos.^{[citation needed]} Attracted by the outcry, sailors from Holland, Zeeland and others from ships in the port of Lisbon, joined the Dominicans and formed a mob with local men to pursue the conversos.

The mob dragged converso victims from their houses and killed some. Old Christians who were in any way associated with New Christians were also attacked. The mob attacked the tax-farmer João Rodrigo Mascarenhas, a New Christian; although a wealthy and distinguished man, his work also made him resented by many. They demolished his house. Within 48 hours, many "conversos" were killed; by the third day all who could have escaped, often with the help of other Portuguese. The killing spree lasted from 19 to 21 April, in what came to be known as the Easter Massacre.

King Manuel severely punished those who took part in the killings. The ringleaders were executed. The Dominicans who encouraged the riot were also executed. Local people convicted of murder or pillage suffered corporal punishment, and their property was confiscated. The king granted religious freedom for 20 years to all conversos in an attempt at compensation. Lisbon lost Foral privileges. The foreigners who had taken part generally escaped punishment, leaving with their ships.

New Christians were attacked in Gouvea, Alentejo, Olivença, Santarém, and other places. In the Azores and the island of Madeira, mobs massacred former Jews. Because of these excesses, the king began to believe that a Portuguese Inquisition might help control such outbreaks.

The Portuguese conversos worked to forestall such actions, and spent immense sums to win over the Curia and most influential cardinals. Spanish and Portuguese conversos made financial sacrifices. Alfonso Gutierrez, Garcia Alvarez "el Rico" (the rich), and the Zapatas, conversos from Toledo, offered 80,000 gold crowns to Emperor Charles V if he would mitigate the harshness of the Inquisition (Revue des Etudes Juives, xxxvii, p. 270 et seq.).

The Mendes of Lisbon and Flanders also tried to help. None were successful in preventing Portugal from introducing the Holy Office in 1478. The conversos suffered immensely both from mob violence and interrogation and testing by the Inquisition. Attacks and murders were recorded at Trancoso, Lamego, Miranda, Viseu, Guarda, and Braga.

At Covilhã, there were rumors that the people planned to massacre all the New Christians on one day. In 1562 prelates petitioned the Cortes to require conversos to wear special badges, and to order Jewish descendants to live in ghettos (judiarias) in cities and villages as their ancestors did before the conversions.

Spain

Main article: History of the Jews in Spain

According to historian Cecil Roth, Spanish political intrigues had earlier promoted the anti-Jewish policies which culminated in 1391, when Regent Queen Leonora of Castile gave the Archdeacon of Écija, Ferrand Martinez, considerable power in her realm. Martinez gave speeches that led to violence against the Jews, and this influence culminated in the sack of the Jewish quarter of Seville on June 4, 1391. Throughout Spain during this year, the cities of Ecija, Carmona, Córdoba, Toledo, Barcelona and many others saw their Jewish quarters destroyed and massacred.

It is estimated that 200,000 Jews saved their lives by converting to Christianity in the wake of these persecutions. Other Jews left the country altogether.

In 1449 feelings rose against conversos, breaking out in a riot at Toledo. Instigated by two canons, Juan Alfonso and Pedro Lopez Galvez, the mob plundered and burned the houses of Alonso Cota, a wealthy converso and tax-farmer. They also attacked the residences of wealthy New Christians in the quarter of la Magdelena. Under Juan de la Cibdad, the conversos opposed the mob, but were repulsed. They were executed with their leader. As a result, several prominent converso men were deposed from office, in obedience to a new statute.

Nearly 20 years later in July 1467, another riot occurred where a mob attacked conversos in Toledo. The chief magistrate (alcalde mayor) of the city was Alvar Gomez de Cibdad Real, who had been private secretary to King Henry IV of Castile.

He was a protector of the conversos. Together with prominent conversos Fernando and Alvaro de la Torre, Alvar wished to take revenge for an insult by the counts de Fuensalida, leaders of the Old Christians. His intention was to seize control of the city, but fierce conflict erupted. Opponents set fire to houses of New Christians near the cathedral. The conflagration spread so rapidly that 1,600 houses were consumed. Both Christians and conversos perished. The brothers De la Torre were captured and hanged.

Tensions arose in Córdoba between Christians and conversos, where they formed two hostile parties. On March 14, 1473, during a dedication procession, a girl accidentally threw dirty water from the window of the house of one of the wealthiest conversos (the customary way to dispose of it.) The water splashed on an image of the Virgin being carried in procession in honor of a new society (from which conversos had been excluded by Bishop D. Pedro.) Thousands immediately joined in a fierce shout for revenge.

The mob went after conversos, denouncing them as heretics, killing them, and burning their houses. To stop the excesses, the highly respected D. Alonso Fernandez de Aguilar, whose wife was a member of the converso family of Pacheco, together with his brother D. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba ("El Gran Capitán"), and a troop of soldiers, hastened to protect the New Christians. D. Alonso called upon the mob to retire. Its leader insulted the count, who immediately felled him with his lance.

Aroused the people considered him a martyr. Incited by Alonso de Aguilar's enemy, they again attacked the conversos. Men, women, and children were all killed. The rioting lasted three days. Those who escaped sought refuge in the castle, where their protectors also took shelter. The government decreed that no converso should thenceforth live in Córdoba or its vicinity, nor should one ever again hold public office, as if that meant the people would never find a reason to riot.

In 1473 attacks on conversos arose in numerous other cities: Montoro, Bujalance, Adamuz, La Rambla, Santaella, and elsewhere. Mobs attacked conversos in Andújar, Úbeda, Baeza, and Almodóvar del Campo also. In Valladolid groups looted the belongings of the New Christians. At Segovia there was a massacre (May 16, 1474). D. Juan Pacheco, a converso, led the attacks. Without the intervention of the alcalde Andreas de Cabrerafamily, all New Christians may have died. At Carmona, every converso was killed.

The Inquisition

Execution of Mariana de Carabajal in Mexico, 1601.

The conversos of Seville and other cities of Castile, and especially of Aragon, bitterly opposed the Spanish Inquisition established in 1478. They rendered considerable service to the king, and held high legal, financial, and military positions. The government issued an edict directing traditional Jews to live within a ghetto and be separated from conversos. Despite the law, however, the Jews remained in communication with their New Christian brethren.

"They sought ways and means to win them from Catholicism and bring them back to Judaism. They instructed the Marranos in the tenets and ceremonies of the Jewish religion; held meetings in which they taught them what they must believe and observe according to the Mosaic law; and enabled them to circumcise themselves and their children. They furnished them with prayer-books; explained the fast-days; read with them the history of their people and their Law; announced to them the coming of the Passover; procured unleavened bread for them for that festival, as well as kosher meat throughout the year; encouraged them to live in conformity with the law of Moses, and persuaded them that there was no law and no truth except the Jewish religion." These were the charges brought by the government of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile against the Jews. They constituted the grounds for their expulsion and banishment in 1492, so they could not subvert conversos. Jews who did not want to leave Spain had to accept baptism as a sign of conversion.

The historian Henry Kamen's Inquisition and Society In Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries questions whether there were such strong links between conversos and Jewish communities. Whilst historians such as Yitzhak Baer state, "the conversos and Jews were one people",^[13] Kamen claims, "Yet if the conversos were hated by the Christians, the Jews liked them no better."^[13] He documented that "Jews testified falsely against them [the conversos] when the Inquisition was finally founded."^[13] This issue is being debated by historians.

Exodus from Spain

Threatened and persecuted by the Inquisition, many conversos left Spain, in bands or as individual refugees. Many migrated to Italy, attracted by the climate, which resembled that of the Iberian Peninsula, and by the kindred language. When they settled at Ferrara, Duke Ercole I d'Este granted them privileges. His son Alfonso confirmed the privileges to twenty-one Spanish conversos: physicians, merchants, and others (ib. xv. 113 et seq.). A thoroughly researched history of these migrations is also contained in the book about one of their leaders called, "The Woman Who Defied Kings", by the historian and journalist, Andree Aelion Brooks.

Spanish and Portuguese conversos settled also at Florence and contributed to make Livorno a leading seaport. They received privileges at Venice, where they were protected from the persecutions of the Inquisition. At Milan they materially advanced the interests of the city by their industry and commerce. At Bologna, Pisa, Naples and numerous other Italian cities, they freely exercised the Jewish religion again. They were soon so numerous that Fernando de Goes Loureiro, an abbot from Oporto, filled an entire book with the names of conversos who had drawn large sums from Portugal and had openly avowed Judaism in Italy.

In Piedmont Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy welcomed conversos from Coímbra and granted them commercial and industrial privileges, as well as the free exercise of their religion. Rome was full of conversos. Pope Paul III received them at Ancona for commercial reasons. He granted complete liberty "to all persons from Portugal and Algarve, even if belonging to the class of New Christians." By 1553 three thousand Portuguese Jews and conversos were living at Ancona.

Two years later Pope Paul IV issued orders to have all the conversos thrown into the prisons of the Inquisition which he had instituted. Sixty of them, who acknowledged the Catholic faith as penitents, were transported to the island of Malta; twenty-four, who adhered to Judaism, were publicly burned (May 1556). Those who escaped the Inquisition were received at Pesaro by Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. Guidobaldo had hoped to have the Jews and conversos of Turkey select Pesaro as a commercial center; when that did not happen, he expelled the New Christians from Pesaro and other districts in 1558 (ib. xvi. 61 et seq.).

Many conversos also went to Dubrovnik, formerly a considerable seaport. In May 1544, a ship landed there filled with Portuguese refugees.

Latin America

Main articles: History of the Jews in Latin America, History of the Jews in Mexico, and History of the Jews in Brazil

During the 16th and 17th centuries, some conversos migrated to the Americas, often the Castilian territories of the Viceroyalties of New Spain (North and Central America) and Peru (South America), where they believed that they would be able to live without persecution.^{[citation needed]}

From urban México, there was a migration of conversos into the Nuevo México Province, present day U.S. state of New Mexico, during the 18th century. An article in 1990 in The New York Times stated that about 1500 Hispanic families in northern New Mexico had Jewish backgrounds.^[14]

France

Main article: History of the Jews in France

At this same period the conversos were seeking refuge beyond the Pyrenées, settling at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Tarbes, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Marseille, and Montpellier. They lived as Christians; were married by Catholic priests; had their children baptized, and publicly pretended to be Catholics. In secret, however, they circumcised their sons, kept the Sabbath and feast-days as best they could, and prayed together. King Henry III of France confirmed the privileges granted them by Henry II of France, and protected them against such slanders and accusations as those which a certain Ponteil brought against them.

Under Louis XIII of France the conversos of Bayonne were assigned to the suburb of St. Esprit. At St. Esprit, as well as at Peyrehorade, Bidache, Orthez, Biarritz, and St. Jean de Luz, they gradually avowed Judaism openly. In 1640 several hundred conversos, considered to be Jews, were living at St. Jean de Luz; conversos who had returned to Judaism founded a synagogue at St. Esprit as early as 1660.

Migrations

Upon reaching the Ottoman Empire, conversos openly declared their return to Judaism and later built important communities in cities such as in Salonika. One of their leaders who helped them get there was the Lisbon-born international banker, Dona Gracia Nasi. They also migrated to Flanders, where they were attracted by its flourishing cities, such as Antwerp and Brussels. Conversos from Flanders and others direct from the Iberian Peninsula, went under the guise of Catholics to Hamburg and Altona about 1580, where they established a community and held commercial relations with their former homes. Some migrated as far as Scotland. Christian IV of Denmark invited some New Christian families to settle at Glückstadt about 1626, granting certain privileges to them and to conversos who came to Emden about 1649.

Large numbers of conversos, however, remained in Spain and Portugal, despite the extensive emigration and the fate of countless victims of the Inquisition. The New Christians of Portugal breathed more freely when Philip III of Spain came to the throne. By the law of April 4, 1601, he granted them the privilege of unrestricted sale of their real estate as well as free departure from the country for themselves, their families, and their property. Many, availing themselves of this permission, followed their coreligionists to North Africa and Turkey. After a few years, however, the privilege was revoked, and the Inquisition resumed its activity. Portuguese who were not affected by radicalism could see that no forcible measures would induce the conversos to fully turn away from the religion of their fathers.

Numerous New Christians migrated to London, from where their families spread to Brazil, where conversos had settled at an early date, and to other colonies of the Americas. The migrations to Constantinople and Thessaloniki, where Jewish refugees had settled after the expulsion from Spain, as well as to Italy, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, and to Vienna and Timișoara, continued to the middle of the 18th century.

Today

Late 20th century political and social changes in Spain caused reappraisal of Jewish and Muslim contributions to its culture. There has been much new scholarship on Sephardic Jews, Moors and the consequences of conversion and expulsion. In addition, there have been official governmental efforts to welcome tourists of both ancestries to Spain. Towns and regions have worked to preserve elements of Jewish and Moorish (Arab Muslim) pasts.

By Spanish Civil Code Art. 22.1, the government created concessions for gaining citizenship to nationals of several countries and Sephardi Jews historically linked with Spain. It allows them to seek citizenship after five rather than the customary ten years required for residence in Spain.^[15] In October 2006, the Andalusian Parliament asked the three parliamentary groups that form the majority to support an amendment that would similarly ease the way for nationals of Morisco descent to gain Spanish citizenship. The proposal was originally made by IULV-CA, the Andalusian branch of the United Left.^[16]

..

DNA: New study reveals 20% of Iberians have Sephardic ancestry

Today's New York Times reported on a new DNA study in Spain and Portugal revealing that some 20% of the Iberian Peninsula's population has Sephardic ancestry and indicating a high level of conversion among Jews, as reported online in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The study offers "new and explicit evidence of the mass conversions of Sephardic Jews and Muslims to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries." Nicholas Wade's story is here.

Of course, most Sephardim know this already and know that the events of 1391 and 1492 figure prominently in these mass conversions. Millions of Hispanics in the US and worldwide are descendants of those forcibly converted and many either know it or are learning about it. As one example, on one day in 1391, some 4,000 Jews were forcibly converted in Barcelona; others who resisted were murdered. Figures for other cities are available in the subject literature. Several books list the old Jewish family names of individuals and their "new" Catholic names. I have several of these lists and may devote a posting or two to this subject.

It is nice, however, to have scientific corroboration to what we've always known, and what has been supported by historical evidence over centuries.

However, I've been in communication with some people who have seen the actual text of the journal article. The markers used are not what are tested at FamilyTreeDNA.com and only a few were tested. It will be difficult to correlate with testing done at that company. I am attempting to get a full report so readers can understand what was exactly tested. Stay tuned for more.

Twenty percent of the population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry and 11 percent have DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors, the geneticists have found. Historians have debated how many Jews converted and how many chose exile. “One wing grossly underestimates the number of conversions,” said Jane S. Gerber, an expert on Sephardic history at the City University of New York.

The finding bears on two different views of Spanish history, said Jonathan S. Ray, a professor of Jewish studies at Georgetown University. One, proposed by the 20th-century historian Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, holds that Spanish civilization is Catholic and other influences are foreign; the other sees Spain as having been enriched by drawing from all three of its historical cultures, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim.

The study, based on an analysis of Y chromosomes, was conducted by biologists led by Mark A. Jobling of the University of Leicester in England and Francesc Calafell of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. They developed a Y chromosome signature for Sephardic men by studying Sephardic Jewish communities in places where Jews migrated after being expelled from Spain in 1492 to 1496. They also characterized the Y chromosomes of the Arab and Berber army that invaded Spain in A.D. 711 from data on people living in Morocco and Western Sahara.

After a period of getting along under the Arab Umayyad rulers, Spain was the center of religious intolerance. Muslim Berbers forced Christians and Jews to convert to Islam, and the victorious Christians then expelled Jews and Muslims or forced them to convert.

Because most of the Y chromosome remains unchanged from father to son, the proportions of Sephardic and Moorish ancestry detected in the present population are probably the same as those just after the 1492 expulsions. A high proportion of people with Sephardic ancestry was to be expected, Dr. Ray said. “Jews formed a very large part of the urban population up until the great conversions,” he said.

Dr. Ray raised the question of what the DNA evidence might mean personally. “If four generations on I have no knowledge of my genetic past, how does that affect my understanding of my own religious association?”

Dr. Calafell, one of the study's authors, has confronted this himself. His Y-DNA may be Sephardic and his surname is that of a Catalunya town. Genealogists know that it is common for Jewish families to take geographic names.

The issue raised by Ray and by Calafell is another reason why more people of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry should be DNA tested. My hope is that they will test at FamilyTreeDNA.com which already has the largest DNA database of all companies in the field, and within that database, already has the largest Jewish DNA database. The more people who test, the more information can be gleaned and the more connection

Some historians believe that more than 24 million Hispanics - I have heard even larger numbers - in the US have Sephardic roots and were forcibly converted during either 1391 or 1492, when mass conversions were forced on the Jewish population. As an example, nearly all original settlers in New Mexico were of Converso ancestry.

The flip side, of course, is finding out that numbers of Sephardim escaped these mass pogroms in 1391 and left Iberia for Europe and Eastern Europe where they were absorbed into the larger Ashkenazi populations - some have only a family myth to sustain their research ("that was our name when we left Spain."). With some judicious research, it is becoming increasingly common to do successful research and locate documents in Spanish archives.

In our IberianAshkenaz DNA project at FamilyTreeDNA.com, we continue to find genetic matches among today's Conversos with ostensible Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.

Additionally, here's another plea for removing the term marrano to describe those of converso ancestry. Conversos hate this pejorative, insulting term. If you hear someone using it, please explain to them that it is insulting and should not be used. Many conversos - with whom I am in frequent contact - continually tell me how angry and insulted they feel when the word is used, usually by people who do not know its meaning.

Education is key. I find that when I explain that the term is not nice ( in the same way that other epithets are aimed at various ethnic/religious communities), those individuals apologize and think before using it again. The Hebrew term for converso (Spanish) is bnai anousim (children of the forced) or simply anousim.

1 comment:

Ric Cooper3:40 AM
What is interesting is that, in the Middle Ages, only 7% of the Iberian population are reckoned to have been Jewish. So the male Anusim have been more successful in breeding and passing on their genetic inheritance than their Catholic masters.
Furthermore, if at least as high a percentage of Jews figures among emigrants from Iberia to the New World, and if they have been as successful at breeding (likely, as they suffered fewer prejudices), then the number of Central and South Americans with Sephardi Y-DNA might today be as high as 110 million.
Reply

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Ashkenazi Jews

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For other meanings see Ashkenaz (disambiguation).

Ashkenazi Jews
(יהודי אשכנז Y'hude Ashk'naz in Biblical Hebrew; Y'hudey Ashknoz in Ashkenazi Hebrew)

Moses Isserles • Vilna Gaon • Heinrich Heine
Sigmund Freud • Theodor Herzl • Gustav Mahler
Albert Einstein • Emmy Noether • Lise Meitner
Franz Kafka • Golda Meir • George Gershwin
John von Neumann • Leonard Bernstein • Anne Frank

Total population

8^[1]–11.2^[2] million

Regions with significant populations

United States	5–6 million^[3]
Israel	2.8–4 million^[3]^[4]

Languages

Historical: Yiddish
Modern: Local languages, primarily: English, Hebrew, Russian

Religion

primarily Judaism

Related ethnic groups

Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and other Jewish ethnic divisions.

The Jews in Central Europe (1881)

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Hebrew: אַשְׁכְּנַזִּים‎‎, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi], Modern Hebrew: [aʃkenaˈzim], [aʃkenaˈzi]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנַז Y'hudey Ashkenaz, "The Jews of Ashkenaz"), are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north.^{[citation needed]}

The name Ashkenazi derives from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). In the rabbinic literature, the kingdom of Ashkenaz was first associated with the Scythian region, then later with the Slavic territories,^[5] and, from the 11th century onwards, with northern Europe and Germany.^[6] The Jews living in these regions associated with Ashkenaz's kingdom thus came to call themselves the Ashkenazi.^[6] Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe also came to be called Ashkenazi because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany.

Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and elsewhere between the 11th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a High German language written using the Hebrew alphabet. It had developed in medieval times as the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. The Jewish communities of three cities along the Rhine: Speyer, Worms and Mainz, created the SHUM league (SHUM after the first Hebrew letters of Shpira, Vermayza, and Magentza). The ShUM-cities are considered the cradle of the distinct Ashkenazi culture and liturgy.

Although in the 11th century, they composed only three percent of the world's Jewish population, at their peak in 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for 92 percent of the world's Jews. Today they make up approximately 80 percent of Jews worldwide.^[7] Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashkenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular.

Definition

The exact definition of Jewishness is not universally agreed upon—neither by religious scholars (especially across different denominations); nor in the context of politics (as applied to those who wish to make Aliyah); nor even in the conventional, everyday sense where "Jewishness" may be loosely understood by the casual observer as encompassing both religious and secular Jews, or religious Jews alone. This makes it especially difficult to define who is an Ashkenazi Jew. The people have been defined differently from religious, cultural, or ethnic perspectives.

Since the overwhelming majority of Ashkenazi Jews no longer live in Eastern Europe, the isolation that once favored a distinct religious tradition and culture has vanished. Furthermore, the word Ashkenazi is being used in non-traditional ways, especially in Israel. By conservative and orthodox philosophies, a person can be considered a Jew only if his or her mother was Jewish (meaning, more specifically, either matrilineal descent from a female believed to be present at Mt. Sinai when the ten commandments were given, or else descent from a female who was converted to Judaism before the birth of her children), or if he or she has personally converted to Judaism. This means that a person can be Ashkenazi but not considered a Jew by some of those within the Jewish communities, making the term "Ashkenazi" more applicable as broad ethnicity which evolved from the practice of Judaism in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

By religion

Religious Jews have Minhagim, customs, in addition to Halakha, or religious law, and different interpretations of law. Different groups of religious Jews in different geographic areas historically adopted different customs and interpretations. On certain issues, Orthodox Jews are required to follow the customs of their ancestors, and do not believe they have the option of picking and choosing. For this reason, observant Jews at times find it important for religious reasons to ascertain who their household's religious ancestors are in order to know what customs their household should follow. These times include, for example, when two Jews of different ethnic background marry, when a non-Jew converts to Judaism and determines what customs to follow for the first time, or when a lapsed or less observant Jew returns to traditional Judaism and must determine what was done in his or her family's past. In this sense, "Ashkenazic" refers both to a family ancestry and to a body of customs binding on Jews of that ancestry.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition and ritual follows Ashkenazi practice. Until the Ashkenazi community first began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad and in Islamic Spain. Ashkenaz (Germany) was so distant geographically that it developed a minhag of its own. Ashkenazi Hebrew came to be pronounced in ways distinct from other forms of Hebrew.

In this respect, the counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic, since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they are ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi woman who marries into an Orthodox or Haredi Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her children to be Ashkenazi Jews; conversely an Ashkenazi woman who marries a Sephardi or Mizrahi man is expected to take on Sephardic practice and the children inherit a Sephardic identity, though in practice many families compromise. A convert generally follows the practice of the beth din that converted him or her.

With the integration of Jews from around the world in Israel, North America, and other places, the religious definition of an Ashkenazi Jew is blurring, especially outside Orthodox Judaism. Many Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews have joined liberal movements that originally developed within Ashkenazi Judaism. In recent decades, the congregations which they have joined have often embraced them, and absorbed new traditions into their minhag. Rabbis and cantors in most non-Orthodox movements study Hebrew in Israel, where they learn Sephardic rather than Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation. Ashkenazi congregations are adopting Sephardic or modern Israeli melodies for many prayers and traditional songs. Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been a gradual syncretism and fusion of traditions. This is affecting the minhag of all but the most traditional congregations.

New developments in Judaism often transcend differences in religious practice between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. In North American cities, social trends such as the chavurah movement, and the emergence of "post-denominational Judaism"^[8]^[9] often bring together younger Jews of diverse ethnic backgrounds. In recent years, there has been increased interest in Kabbalah, which many Ashkenazi Jews study outside of the Yeshiva framework. Another trend is the new popularity of ecstatic worship in the Jewish Renewal movement and the Carlebach style minyan, both of which are nominally of Ashkenazi origin.^[10]

By culture

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means "Jewishness" in the Yiddish language. Yiddishkeit is specifically the Jewishness of Ashkenazi Jews.

Before the Haskalah and the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of Torah and Talmud for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. From the Rhineland to Riga to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, and spoke Yiddish in their secular lives.

But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now encompasses not just Orthodoxy and Hasidism, but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and somehow retained a sense of Jewishness. Although a far smaller number of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association.

Broadly speaking, a Jew is one who associates culturally with Jews, supports Jewish institutions, reads Jewish books and periodicals, attends Jewish movies and theater, travels to Israel, visits ancient synagogues in Prague, and so forth. It is a definition that applies to Jewish culture in general, and to Ashkenazi Yiddishkeit in particular.

Contemporary population migrations have contributed to a reconfigured Jewishness among Jews of Ashkenazi descent that transcends Yiddishkeit and other traditional articulations of Ashkenazi Jewishness. As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Eastern Europe, settling mostly in Israel, North America, and other English-speaking areas, the geographic isolation that gave rise to Ashkenazim has given way to mixing with other cultures, and with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

For Ashkenazi Jews living in Eastern Europe, chopped liver and gefilte fish were archetypal Jewish foods. To contemporary Ashkenazi Jews living both in Israel and in the diaspora, Middle Eastern foods such as hummus and falafel, neither traditional to the historic Ashkenazi experience, have become central to their lives as Ashkenazi Jews in the current era. Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews, although many Hasidic and Hareidi groups continue to use Yiddish in daily life.

France's blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that is going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were two distinct Jewish populations. One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition and concentrated in the southwest, while the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, and speaking mainly Yiddish. The two communities were so separate and different that the National Assembly emancipated them separately in 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus affair in the 1890s. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian revolution, and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, and many Jews were involved in radical political movements. After the Vichy years and the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, first by Ashkenazi refugees from Eastern Europe, and later by Sephardi immigrants and refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone.

Then, in the 1990s, yet another Ashkenazi Jewish wave began to arrive from countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The result is a pluralistic Jewish community that still has some distinct elements of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic culture. But in France, it is becoming much more difficult to sort out the two, and a distinctly French Jewishness has emerged.^[11]

By ethnicity

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. For roughly a thousand years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe, despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Human geneticists have identified genetic variations that have high frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews, but not in the general European population. This is true for patrilineal markers (Y-chromosome haplotypes) as well as for matrilineal markers (mitotypes).^[12]

Since the middle of the 20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities and with people of other nations and faiths, while some Jews have also adopted children from other ethnic groups or parts of the world and raised them as Jews. Conversion to Judaism, rare for nearly 2,000 years, has become more common.^[13]

A 2006 study found Ashkenazi Jews to be a clear, homogeneous genetic subgroup. Strikingly, regardless of the place of origin, Ashkenazi Jews can be grouped in the same genetic cohort — that is, regardless of whether an Ashkenazi Jew's ancestors came from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, or any other place with a historical Jewish population, they belong to the same ethnic group. The research demonstrates the endogamy of the Jewish population in Europe and lends further credence to the idea of Ashkenazi Jews as an ethnic group. Moreover, though intermarriage among Jews of Ashkenazi descent has become increasingly more common, many Haredi Jews, particularly members of Hasidic or Hareidi sects, continue to marry exclusively fellow Ashkenazi Jews. This trend keeps Ashkenazi genes prevalent and also helps researchers further study the genes of Ashkenazi Jews with relative ease. It is noteworthy that these Haredi Jews often have extremely large families.^[14]

Realignment in Israel

In Israel, the term Ashkenazi is now used in ways that have nothing to do with its original meaning; it is often applied to all Jews of European background living in Israel, including sometimes for those whose ethnic background is actually Sephardic. Jews of any non-Ashkenazi background, including Mizrahi, Yemenite, Kurdish and others who have no connection with the Iberian Peninsula, have similarly come to be lumped together as Sephardic. Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, partly because of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi, and partly because many do not see such historic markers as relevant to their life experiences as Jews.^{[citation needed]}

Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in halakhic matters. In this respect, a religiously Ashkenazi Jew is an Israeli who is more likely to support certain religious interests in Israel, including certain political parties. These political parties result from the fact that a portion of the Israeli electorate votes for Jewish religious parties; although the electoral map changes from one election to another, there are generally several small parties associated with the interests of religious Ashkenazi Jews. The role of religious parties, including small religious parties which play important roles as coalition members, results in turn from Israel's composition as a complex society in which competing social, economic, and religious interests stand for election to the Knesset, a unicameral legislature with 120 seats.^{[citation needed]}

History

History of Jews in Europe before the Ashkenazim

There is a genetic and historic^[15]^{[dubious – discuss]} evidence that the Ashkenazi Jewish population originated in the Middle East.^[16]^[17]Jews have lived in Germany, or "Ashkenaz", at least since the early 4th century.^[18]^[19].^{^{[dubious – discuss]}} Throughout Gaul and Germany for this period, with the possible exception of Trier, the archeological evidence suggests at most a fleeting presence of very few Jews, itinerant traders or artisans.^[20] They brought with them both Rabbinic Judaism and the Babylonian Talmudic culture that underlies it.^{[citation needed]} Yiddish emerged as the language of Ashkenazi Jewry through contact with High German vernaculars in the medieval period.^[21] It was written with Hebrew characters, and heavily influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic. In the territory of nowadays Austria Jewish presence is documented since 3rd century CE^[22]In Hungary, Jewish presence was documented since the Roman period.^[23] In France, there was no substantial Jewish population in northern Gaul from late antiquity until the Middle Ages,^[24] but Jewish communities existed in 465 CE in Brittany, in 524 CE in Valence, and in 533 CE in Orleans, although the Jewish presence in France dates to earlier period.^[25] In Romania the Jewish history dates back to 2nd century,^[26]while the Jewish presence in Italy dates back to 1th century.^[27]

After the Roman empire had overpowered the Jewish resistance in the First Jewish–Roman War in Judea and destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the complete Roman takeover of Judea followed the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132–135 CE. Though their numbers were greatly reduced, Jews continued to populate large parts of Judaea province (renamed to Palaestina), remaining a majority in Galilee for several hundred years. However, the Romans no longer recognized the authority of the Sanhedrin or any other Jewish body, and Jews were prohibited from living in Jerusalem. Outside the Roman Empire, a large Jewish community remained in Mesopotamia. Other Jewish populations could be found dispersed around the Mediterranean region, with the largest concentrations in the Levant, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, including Rome. Smaller communities are recorded in southern Gaul (France), Spain, and North Africa.^[28]

Jews were denied full Roman citizenship until 212 CE, when Emperor Caracalla granted all free peoples this privilege. But, as a penalty for the first Jewish Revolt, Jews were required to pay a poll tax until the reign of Emperor Julian in 363. In the late Roman Empire, Jews were free to form networks of cultural and religious ties and enter into various local occupations. But, after Christianity became the official religion of Rome and Constantinople in 380, Jews were increasingly marginalized, and brutally persecuted.^{[citation needed]}

In Syria-Palaestina and Mesopotamia, where Jewish religious scholarship was centered, the majority of Jews were still engaged in farming, as demonstrated by the preoccupation of early Talmudic writings with agriculture. In diaspora communities, trade was a common occupation, facilitated by the easy mobility of traders through the dispersed Jewish communities.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout this period and into the early Middle Ages, some Jews assimilated into the dominant Greek and Latin cultures, mostly through conversion to Christianity.^[29] A remnant of this Greek-speaking Jewish population (the Romaniotes) survives to this day.

In the late Roman Empire, Jews are known to have lived in Cologne^{[dubious – discuss]} and Trier, as well as in what is now France. However, it is unclear whether there is any continuity between these late Roman communities and the distinct Ashkenazi Jewish culture that began to emerge about 500 years later.^{[dubious – discuss]} King Dagobert I of the Franks expelled the Jews from his Merovingian kingdom in 629. Jews in former Roman territories now faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were enforced.

In Mesopotamia, and in Persian lands free of Roman imperial domination, Jewish life fared much better. Since the conquest of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar II, this community had always been the leading diaspora community, a rival to the leadership of Judea. After conditions for Jews began to deteriorate in Roman-controlled lands, many of the religious leaders of Judea and the Galilee fled to the east. At the academies of Pumbeditha and Sura near Babylon, Rabbinic Judaism based on Talmudic learning began to emerge and assert its authority over Jewish life throughout the diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism created a religious mandate for literacy, requiring all Jewish males to learn Hebrew and read from the Torah. It has been suggested that this mandate led to a higher literacy rate for Jewish minorities in both Christian and Islamic lands compared to the majority of gentiles, a result which gave these Jews a comparative advantage in urban commercial and financial roles which, to some extent, may explain their relative prevalence in these fields at the time.^[30]

In the Caliphate of Baghdad, Jews took on many of the financial occupations that they would later hold in the cities of Ashkenaz.^{[citation needed]} Jewish traders from Baghdad began to travel to the west, renewing Jewish life in the western Mediterranean region.^[31]They brought with them Rabbinic Judaism and Babylonian Talmudic scholarship.

Charlemagne's expansion of the Frankish empire around 800, including northern Italy and Rome, brought on a brief period of stability and unity in Western Europe. This created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle once again north of the Alps. Charlemagne granted the Jews freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the Roman Empire. In addition, Jews from southern Italy, fleeing religious persecution, began to move into central Europe. Returning once again to Frankish lands, many Jewish merchants took on occupations in finance and commerce, including money lending, or usury. (Church legislation banned Christians from lending money in exchange for interest.) From Charlemagne's time to the present, there is a well-documented record of Jewish life in northern Europe, and by the 11th century, when Rashi of Troyes wrote his commentaries, Ashkenazi Jews had emerged also as interpreters and commentators on the Torah and Talmud.^{[citation needed]}

High and Late Middle Ages migrations

Historical records show evidence of Jewish communities north of the Alps and Pyrenees as early as the 8th and 9th century. By the end of the first millennium, Jewish populations were well-established in Western Europe, later followed the Norman Conquest into England in 1066, and settled in many cities of the Rhine area by the end of the 11th century.

Although the Jewish people in general were present across a wide geographical area as described, genetic research done by Gil Atzmon of the Longevity Genes Project at Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests "that Ashkenazim branched off from other Jews around the time of the destruction of the First Temple, 2,500 years ago. . flourished during the Roman Empire but then went through a 'severe bottleneck' as they dispersed, reducing a population of several million to just 400 families who left Northern Italy around the year 1000 for Central and eventually Eastern Europe."^[32]

With the onset of the Crusades, and the expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), and parts of Germany (15th century), Jewish migration pushed eastward into Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. Over this period of several hundred years, some have suggested, Jewish economic activity was focused on trade, business management, and financial services, due to several presumed factors: Christian European prohibitions restricting certain activities by Jews, preventing certain financial activities (such as "usurious" loans)^[33] between Christians, high rates of literacy, near universal male education, and ability of merchants to rely upon and trust family members living in different regions and countries.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at its greatest extent.

By the 15th century, the Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Poland were the largest Jewish communities of the Diaspora.^[34] This area, which eventually fell under the domination of Russia, Austria, and Prussia (Germany), would remain the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

The answer to why there was so little assimilation of Jews in Eastern Europe for so long would seem to lie in part in the probability that the alien surroundings in Eastern Europe were not conducive, though contempt did not prevent some assimilation. Furthermore, Jews lived almost exclusively in shtetls, maintained a strong system of education for males, heeded rabbinic leadership, and scorned the life-style of their neighbors; and all of these tendencies increased with every outbreak of antisemitism.^[35]

Usage of the name

In reference to the Jewish peoples of Northern Europe and particularly the Rhineland, the word Ashkenazi is often found in medieval rabbinic literature. References to Ashkenaz in Yosippon and Hasdai ibn Shaprut's letter to the king of the Khazars would date the term as far back as the 10th century, as would also Saadia Gaon's commentary on Daniel 7:8.

The word Ashkenaz first appears in the genealogy in the Tanakh (Genesis 10) as a son of Gomer and grandson of Japheth. It is thought that the name originally applied to the Scythians (Ishkuz), who were called Ashkuza in Assyrian inscriptions, and lake Ascanius and the region Ascania in Anatolia derive their names from this group.

Ashkenaz in later Hebrew tradition became identified with the peoples of Germany, and in particular to the area along the Rhine.

Ashkenaz and the Ashkenazi contrast to the land of Knaan, a geo-ethnological term denoting the Jewish populations living east of the Elbe river as opposed to the Ashkenazi Jews living to the West of it, and the Sephardic Jews of Iberian Peninsula.^[36]

The autonym was usually Yidn, however.^{[citation needed]}

Medieval references

Jews from Worms, Germany wear the mandatory yellow badge.

In the first half of the 11th century, Hai Gaon refers to questions that had been addressed to him from Ashkenaz, by which he undoubtedly means Germany. Rashi in the latter half of the 11th century refers to both the language of Ashkenaz^[37] and the country of Ashkenaz.^[38] During the 12th century, the word appears quite frequently. In the Mahzor Vitry, the kingdom of Ashkenaz is referred to chiefly in regard to the ritual of the synagogue there, but occasionally also with regard to certain other observances.^[39]

In the literature of the 13th century, references to the land and the language of Ashkenaz often occur. Examples include Solomon ben Aderet's Responsa (vol. i., No. 395); the Responsa of Asher ben Jehiel (pp. 4, 6); his Halakot (Berakot i. 12, ed. Wilna, p. 10); the work of his son Jacob ben Asher, Tur Orach Chayim (chapter 59); the Responsa of Isaac ben Sheshet (numbers 193, 268, 270).

In the Midrash compilation Genesis Rabbah, Rabbi Berechiah mentions Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah as German tribes or as German lands. It may correspond to a Greek word that may have existed in the Greek dialect of the Palestinian Jews, or the text is corrupted from "Germanica." This view of Berechiah is based on the Talmud (Yoma 10a; Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 71b), where Gomer, the father of Ashkenaz, is translated by Germamia, which evidently stands for Germany, and which was suggested by the similarity of the sound.

In later times the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern and Western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of Eastern Germany and Poland. Thus the prayer-book of Isaiah Horowitz, and many others, give the piyyutim according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz and Poland.

According to 16th century mystic Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, Ashkenazi Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to siege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger’s family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms to repay the favor.^[40] Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakhic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the 11th century.^[41]

Modern history

In an essay on Sephardi Jewry, Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs^[7] summarized the demographic history of Ashkenazi Jews in the last thousand years, noting that at the end of the 11th century, 97% of world Jewry was Sephardic and 3% Ashkenazi; in the mid-17th century, "Sephardim still outnumbered Ashkenazim three to two", but by the end of the 18th century, "Ashkenazim outnumbered Sephardim three to two, the result of improved living conditions in Christian Europe versus the Ottoman Muslim world."^[7] By 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for nearly 92% of world Jewry.^[7]

Ashkenazi Jews developed the Hasidic movement as well as major Jewish academic centers across Poland, Russia, and Belarus in the generations after emigration from the west. After two centuries of comparative tolerance in the new nations, massive westward emigration occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries in response to pogroms in the east and the economic opportunities offered in other parts of the world. Ashkenazi Jews have made up the majority of the American Jewish community since 1750.^[34]

Ashkenazi cultural growth led to the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment, and the development of Zionism in modern Europe.^{[citation needed]}

The Holocaust

Of the estimated 8.8 million Jews living in Europe at the beginning of World War II, the majority of whom were Ashkenazi, about 6 million — more than two-thirds — were systematically murdered in the Holocaust. These included 3 million of 3.3 million Polish Jews (91%); 900,000 of 1.5 million in Ukraine (60%); and 50–90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, Hungary, and the Baltic states, and over 25% of the Jews in France. Sephardi communities suffered similar depletions in a few countries, including Greece, the Netherlands and the former Yugoslavia.^[42] As the large majority of the victims were Ashkenazi Jews, their percentage dropped from nearly 92% of world Jewry in 1931 to nearly 80% of world Jewry today.^[7] The Holocaust also effectively put an end to the dynamic development of the Yiddish language in the previous decades, as the vast majority of the victims of the Holocaust, around five million, were Yiddish speakers.^[43] Many of the surviving Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to countries such as Israel, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and the United States after the war.

In Israel

Today, Ashkenazi Jews constitute the largest group among Jews,^[7] and among Israeli Jews as well. They have played a prominent role in the economy, media, and politics of Israel since its founding. During the first decades of Israel as a state, strong cultural conflict occurred between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews (mainly east European Ashkenazim). The roots of this conflict, which still exists to a much smaller extent in present day Israeli society, are chiefly attributed to the concept of the "melting pot".^{[citation needed]} That is to say, all Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel were strongly encouraged to "melt down" their own particular exilic identities within the general social "pot" in order to become Israeli.^{[citation needed]}

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbis in the Yishuv and Israel

Abraham Isaac Kook: (23 February 1921 – 1 September 1935)
Isaac Halevi Herzog: (1937 – 25 July 1959)
Isser Yehuda Unterman: (1964–1972)
Shlomo Goren: (1972–1983)
Avraham Shapira: (1983–1993)
Israel Meir Lau: (1993 – 3 April 2003)
She'ar Yashuv Cohen (acting): (3 April 2003 – 14 April 2003)
Yona Metzger: (14 April 2003 – present)

Customs, laws and traditions

The Halakhic practices of (Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jews may differ from those of Sephardi Jews, particularly in matters of custom. Differences are noted in the Shulkhan Arukh itself, in the gloss of Moses Isserles. Well known differences in practice include:

The example of the chevra kadisha, the Jewish burial society, Prague, 1772

Observance of Pesach (Passover): Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, and rice (quinoa, however, has become accepted as foodgrain in the North American communities), whereas Sephardi Jews typically do not prohibit these foods.
Ashkenazi Jews freely mix and eat fish and milk products; some Sephardic Jews refrain from doing so.
Ashkenazim are more permissive toward the usage of wigs as a hair covering for married and widowed women.
In the case of kashrut for meat, conversely, Sephardi Jews have stricter requirements—this level is commonly referred to as Beth Yosef. Meat products which are acceptable to Ashkenazi Jews as kosher may therefore be rejected by Sephardi Jews. Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the actual slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve, while many Ashkenazi Jews do not. This is not because of different interpretations of the law; rather, slaughterhouses could not find adequate skills for correct removal of the sciatic nerve and found it more economical to separate the hindquarters and sell them as non-kosher meat.
Ashkenazi Jews frequently name newborn children after deceased family members, but not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews, in contrast, often name their children after the children's grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. A notable exception to this generally reliable rule is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazim for centuries used the naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim such as Chuts.
Ashkenazi tefillin bear some differences from Sephardic tefillin. In the traditional Ashkenazic rite, the tefillin are wound towards the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim traditionally don tefillin while standing, whereas other Jews generally do so while sitting down.
Ashkenazic traditional pronunciations of Hebrew differ from those of other groups. The most prominent consonantal difference from Sephardic and Mizrahic Hebrew dialects is the pronunciation of the Hebrew letter tav in certain Hebrew words (historically, in postvocalic undoubled context) as an /s/ and not a /t/ or /θ/ sound.
Further information: Ashkenazi Hebrew
The prayer shawl, or tallit (or tallis in Ashkenazi Hebrew), is worn by the majority of Ashkenazi men after marriage, but western European Ashkenazi men wear it from Bar Mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.^[44]

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The term Ashkenazi also refers to the nusach Ashkenaz (Hebrew, "liturgical tradition", or rite) used by Ashkenazi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers. Two other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazic Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with Sephardi), which is the same as the general Polish (Hasidic) Nusach; and Nusach Chabad, otherwise known as Lubavitch Chasidic, Nusach Arizal or Nusach Ari.

This phrase is often used in contrast with Sephardi Jews, also called Sephardim, who are descendants of Jews from Spain and Portugal. There are some differences in how the two groups pronounce certain Hebrew letters and in points of ritual.

Several famous people have Ashkenazi as a surname, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy. However, most people with this surname hail from within Sephardic communities, particularly from the Syrian Jewish community. The Sephardic carriers of the surname would have some Ashkenazi ancestors since the surname was adopted by families who were initially of Ashkenazic origins who move to Sephardi countries and joined those communities. Ashkenazi would be formally adopted as the family surname having started off as a nickname imposed by their adopted communities. Some have shortened the name to Ash.

The theory that the majority of Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of the non-Semitic converted Khazars was advocated by various racial theorists and antisemitic sources in the late-19th and 20th centuries, especially following the publication of Arthur Koestler's The Thirteenth Tribe.^[45]^[46]^[47] Despite recent genetic evidence to the contrary,^[1] and a lack of any real mainstream scholarly support,^[48] this belief is still popular among antisemites.^[49]^[50]

Notable Ashkenazim

Main article: Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence

Ashkenazi Jews have a noted history of achievement in western societies.^[51] They have won a large number of the Nobel awards.^[52]^[53] In those societies where they have been free to enter any profession, they have a record of high occupational achievement, entering professions and fields of commerce where higher education is required.^[54] For example, during the 20th century in the United States, Ashkenazi Jews represented approximately 3% of the population, but won 27% of the US Nobel Prizes in science, and 25% of the ACM Turing Awards (the Nobel-equivalent in computer science).^[55]

Katya Gibel Mevorach also warns about the danger of seeking supposed inherited "genetic intelligence" in Jews as a group in her piece: "Not an Innocent Pursuit: The Politics of a 'Jewish' Genetic Signature."

Genetics

Genetic origins

Main article: Genetic studies on Jews

Efforts to identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis began in the 1990s. Like most DNA studies of human migration patterns, the earliest studies focused on two segments of the human genome, the Y-chromosome (passed on only by males), and the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA, passed on only by females). Both segments are unaffected by recombination. Genome-wide association studies have also been employed to yield findings relevant to genetic origins.

Male lineages: Y-chromosomal DNA

A study of haplotypes of the Y-chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer et al.^[56] found that the Y-chromosome of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are also common among Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East. The proportion of male genetic admixture in Ashkenazi Jews amounts to less than 0.5% per generation over an estimated 80 generations, with "relatively minor contribution of European Y chromosomes to the Ashkenazim," and a total admixture estimate "very similar to Motulsky's average estimate of 12.5%." This supported the finding that "Diaspora Jews from Europe, Northwest Africa, and the Near East resemble each other more closely than they resemble their non-Jewish neighbors."

A 2001 study by Nebel et al. showed that both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish populations share the same overall paternal Near Eastern ancestries. In comparison with data available from other relevant populations in the region, Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent.

The authors also report on Eu 19 (R1a) chromosomes, which are very frequent in Eastern Europeans (54%–60%) at elevated frequency (12.7%) in Ashkenazi Jews. They hypothesized that the differences among Ashkenazim Jews could reflect low-level gene flow from surrounding European populations and/or genetic drift during isolation.^[57] A later 2005 study by Nebel et al., found a similar level of 11.5% of male Ashkenazim belonging to R1a1a (M17+), the dominant Y-chromosome haplogroup in Eastern Europeans, suggesting possible gene flow.^[58]

Female lineages: Mitochondrial DNA

Before 2006, geneticists largely attributed the genesis of most of the world's Jewish populations, including Ashkenazi Jews, to founding effects by males who migrated from the Middle East and "by the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism." In line with this model of origin, David Goldstein, now of Duke University, reported in 2002 that, unlike male lineages, the female lineages in Ashkenazi Jewish communities "did not seem to be Middle Eastern", and that each community had its own genetic pattern and even that "in some cases the mitochondrial DNA was closely related to that of the host community." In his view this suggested "that Jewish men had arrived from the Middle East, taken wives from the host population and converted them to Judaism, after which there was no further intermarriage with non-Jews."^[59]

However, a 2006 study by Behar et al.,^[1] based on high-resolution analysis of haplogroup K(mtDNA), suggested that about 40% of the current Ashkenazi population is descended matrilineally from just four women, or "founder lineages", that were "likely from a Hebrew/Levantine mtDNA pool" originating in the Middle East in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Although Haplogroup K is common throughout western Eurasia, "the observed global pattern of distribution renders very unlikely the possibility that the four aforementioned founder lineages entered the Ashkenazi mtDNA pool via gene flow from a European host population:

"..Both the extent and location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Here, using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we show that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only four women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important exception of low frequencies among non-Ashkenazi Jews. We conclude that four founding mtDNAs, likely of Near Eastern ancestry, underwent major expansion(s) in Europe within the past millennium.."^[1]^[59]

In addition, Behar et al. have suggested that the rest of Ashkenazi mtDNA is originated from ~150 women, most of those likely of Middle Eastern origin.^[1] However, other studies by Behar indicate that this mtDNA is different from other Jewish populations found outside of Europe, leaving the possibility of a separate origin or even a European origin a distinct possibility.^[60]

Genome-wide association and linkage studies

A 2006 study by Seldin et al. used over five thousand autosomal SNPs to demonstrate European genetic substructure. The results showed "a consistent and reproducible distinction between ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ European population groups". Most northern, central, and eastern Europeans (Finns, Swedes, English, Irish, Germans, and Ukrainians) showed >90% in the ‘northern’ population group, while most individual participants with southern European ancestry (Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, Spaniards) showed >85% in the 'southern' group. Both Ashkenazi Jews as well as Sephardic Jews showed >85% membership in the "southern" group. Referring to the Jews clustering with southern Europeans, the authors state the results were "consistent with a later Mediterranean origin of these ethnic groups".^[62]

A 2007 study by Bauchet et al. found that Ashkenazi Jews were most closely clustered with Arabic North African populations when compared to Global population, and in the European structure analysis, they share similarities only with Greeks and Southern Italians, reflecting their east Mediterranean origins.^[63]^[64]

A 2010 study on Jewish ancestry by Atzmon-Ostrer et al. stated "Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry.", as both groups – the Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews shared common ancestors in the Middle East about 2500 years ago. The study examines genetic markers spread across the entire genome and shows that the Jewish groups (Ashkenazi and non Ashkenazi) share large swaths of DNA, indicating close relationships and that each of the Jewish groups in the study (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish, Greek and Ashkenazi) has its own genetic signature but is more closely related to the other Jewish groups than to their fellow non-Jewish countrymen.^[65] Atzmon's team found that the SNP markers in genetic segments of 3 million DNA letters or longer were 10 times more likely to be identical among Jews than non-Jews. Results of the analysis also tally with biblical accounts of the fate of the Jews. The study also found that with respect to non-Jewish European groups, the population most closely related to Ashkenazi Jews are modern-day Italians. The study speculated that the genetic-similarity between Ashkenazi Jews and Italians may be due to inter-marriage and conversions in the time of the Roman Empire. It was also found that any two Ashkenazi Jewish participants in the study shared about as much DNA as fourth or fifth cousins.^[16]^[66]

A 2010 study by Bray et al, using SNP microarray techniques and linkage analysis, estimated that 35 to 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome may be of European origin, and that European "admixture is considerably higher than previous estimates by studies that used the Y chromosome". The study assumed Druze and Palestinian Arabs populations to represent the reference to world Jewry ancestor genome. With this reference point, the linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population was interpreted as "matches signs of interbreeding or 'admixture' between Middle Eastern and European populations". In their press release, Bray stated: "We were surprised to find evidence that Ashkenazi Jews have higher heterozygosity than Europeans, contradicting the widely-held presumption that they have been a largely isolated group". The authors conclude that their results will require further investigation.^[67]

The genome wide genetic study carried out in 2010 by Behar at all examined the genetic relationship between all major Jewish groups, including Ashkenazim, as well as genetic relationship between this Jewish groups and non Jewish ethnic populations.

The study found that contemporary Jews (excluding Indian and Ethiopian Jews) are having close genetic relationship with the people from the Levant. The authors explained that "The most parsimonious explanation for these observations is a common genetic origin, which is consistent with an historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant".^[68]

sábado, 27 de octubre de 2012

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Male lineages: Y chromosomal DNA

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Sampling

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Estimation of Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor

Estimation of genetic diversity and distance

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Did Canaanites create the Hebrew Aleph-Bet ?

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