Landmark study proves 90% of Jews are genetically linked to the Levant
Jews in communities around the globe show more genetic similarities with each other than they do with their non-Jewish neighbors, except in India and Ethiopia.
By Asaf Shtull-TrauringA new study shows that Jews in communities around the globe show more genetic similarities with each other than they do with their non-Jewish neighbors.
The only three exceptions were the Jews of India, Ethiopia, and Georgia, who had more similarity to their host nations than to other Jewish communities.
The international study, led by researchers from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, mapped the Jewish genome for the first time. The research encompassed communities representing most of the world's Jewish population.
The study also showed the genetic ties between the Jewish people and other peoples of the Levant: In communities representing 90 percent of the Jewish people worldwide, Jews were more genetically similar to non-Jewish Levantines than their non-Jewish hosts were.
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Jewish men celebrate Hanukkah at Manezhnaya square in the center of Moscow December 4, 2007 |
| Photo by: Reuters |
The analysis discovered genetic substructures not found in most other Middle Eastern populations.
Researchers from eight countries - Israel, Britain, the United States, Russia, Spain, Estonia, Portugal and Italy - compared 600,000 genetic markers in 114 people from 14 Diaspora Jewish communities and 1,161 people from 69 non-Jewish populations.
Their findings were published yesterday in the journal "Nature" and will be presented today at an international conference of doctors and researchers at Rambam.
"Contemporary Jews comprise an aggregate of ethno-religious communities whose worldwide members identify with each other through various shared religious, historical and cultural traditions," said the introduction to the article, whose lead researchers were Dr. Doron Behar of Rambam and Prof. Richard Villems of the University of Tartu in Estonia. "Historical evidence suggests common origins in the Middle East, followed by migrations."
"Although many genetic studies have shed light on Jewish origins," it noted, no previous study has addressed "genome-wide patterns of variation across the vast geographic span of Jewish Diaspora communities and their respective neighbors."
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There are 2 recent but separate scientific studies. One, in June 2010 'American Journal of Human Genetics', co-autored by scientists from Europe, US, Israel. It refutes fable Jews have gentic link to Khazars. The main reason for this study is to serve as background for further research about inherited genetic illnesses. It does comport that Jews from Israel and most closely related to each other -not Arabs, a close DNA grouping, but still separate. The other study in 'Nature'. Both science publications are extremely world wide respected scientific journals.
If this is the case Syria, Jordon and Lebonon are part of Israel too. We should claim back our lands.
There is fairly recent tendency to deny Jews their true ethnic identity, by claiming the a Jewish person is the one that belongs to Jewish religion. This study is a proof of the Jewish diaspora and the proof of the Jewish ethnicity. Long overdue. Has nothing to do with eugenics or racism.
Considering not only the method but also the conclusions, as an european I must say I would be ashamed if I ever published such an article. We've seen this before.
Nothing more idiotic than this pretentious scientific conclusion. one can just as well say that all jews have red blood, musr drink water, and breath air and are thus all of the same origin. Unless of course if we take into consideration the begining with Adam and Eve having children, or Noah comming out of the arc with his three sons.
Why is everybody who prints this story illustrating their pieces with a picture of guys like this instead of regular Jews. These freaks are a tiny minority. They are to Judaism what the Amish are to Christianity, a mere curiosity. They are totally unrepresentative of the Jewish People.
Nothing but a narcisstic facination with Eugenics....
The problem here is that the people involved want to see a certain result. That makes it easy to introduce systematic errors and pseudo results. For now I would put my money on Sandl.
This study was published in nature, the most prominent peer-reviewed scientific journal. How can you and #5 possibly suggest that the results are insignificant or the sampling was incorrect? Let me guess, neither of you has ever taken even intro to statistics 101 in college.
114 people is hardly an adequate sample to make these "conclusions." And one wonders, were these 114 chosen at random or was there a careful selection process? In any case, 114 is a totally inadequate sampling.
and they share same genetic charecteristics, may be because they all use stolen human organs. And i like the word "host" as if polish were the host of jewish polish..
The original article says "But the study also found strong genetic ties to non-Jewish groups, with the closest genetic neighbours on the European side being Italians, and on the Middle Eastern side the Druze, Bedouin and Palestinians." Which tends to show that Druze, Bedouin and Palestinians have as many rights than Jews on the land, and tthat those who were expelled recently in well known circumstances have as much a right of return than those who left many centuries ago in very vaguely known circumstances and at various and distant times for various destinations.
First, with something like this I'd want to read the actual article and some informed criticism of it. Not to knock Haaretz, but a news report is of limited value with this sort of thing. Second, the implications aren't necessarily what people think they are. Like, the last one of these I read demonstrated that Jews were linked to ancient Palestine alright -- but not as closely as today's Palestinians are. Bottom line is what I started out saying -- one has to see the actual study and what others in the field have to say about it.
The fact of the matter is that Jews originated in Israel- there is simply no other place. We are not from Germany, not from Uganda, not from Costa Rica or Japan. The fact that we were pushed out and kept coming back over the last 2000 years to our natural homeland, does not take away the fact that Israel is where Jews are from. It's a scientific as well as geohistorical fact. Palestinians share their origin with all of the 80 odd Arab Muslim countries that make up the middle east
You seem to know nothing about the origin o Palestinians. Non-beduin Palestinians have roots that can be found long before the arabs came to the land of historical Palestine. Its impossible to deny that some genes are from the arabs but most are related to the ancient people of the levent incuding jews. Remember that most Palestinians were either Christians or samaritans only a few hundreds years ago. We are a mix of many people....
It would be interesting to know more about genetic studies performed on palestinians and arabs in the neighbouring countries. Also on the palestinian side there has been an influx of arabs and others in the last 150 years, maynly from Egypt, Lebanon,Jordan and Syria. Now the christian and samaritan part of population is small
So much for Prof Sand's book about the myth of the Jewish people!
Professor Sand is a well known Jewish Israeli Jew hater. It is interesting that there is no equivalent in the Moslem world. If there was he would probably be dead by now.