Study finds genetic links among Jewish people

Albert Einstein College of Medicine ^ | June 3, 2010 | Unknown

[rmlew]

Yes and no. Some Khazars did convert and many Ashkenazi Jews are descended from them. Some families, like mine, celebrate this and have for generations. Yet because Jews tend to be endogamous, converts or their children marry non-converts.

That said, I can think of a few 2 small population of Turkic Jews with little Israelite heritage: the Karaylar (Tatar Karaites) and the all but extinct Krimchaks (Rabbinic-Jewish Tatars). Although they speak a Kipchak dialect instead of a Oghur dialect like Khazar or Bulghar, the Karaylar claim to be descended from Karaites and they used to live in areas of major Khazar settlement. I don't have reason to dispute their claims.

[rmlew]

Jews did it once and only once as far as I know. The Hasmonian King John Hyrcanus (Yohanan Girhan) concquered and forceably converted the Idumeans (Edomites). The grandson of one the converts was the Edomite-Nabatean Roman-imposed ruler, Herod.

[twigs]

Have you checked census records?

[SunkenCiv]

Koestler, wasn’t the book called “The Thirteenth Tribe”? But yeah, it’s mysterious to me that there are people out there who want to lift the heritage of (for example) the Jews or ancient Hebrews. Here in Michigan there was a wacky cult which called itself the Black Hebrew Israelite Jews. :’)

The Jacobovici documentary also had an Assyriologist who talked about a then-recent discovery of some cuneiform records in a post-exilic context, an Assyrian trading post in n Syria or SE Turkey I think, and among the names were transliterated names including a version of “Hezekiah”. Of course, that doesn’t mitigate in favor of an exile closer to the homeland, because even then people got around; there is a school of thought that Abraham came from that very area.

The evidence for Crimean exile is circumstantial (Assyrian artifacts found, correct era) and literary.

There’s a tantalizing reference in Herodotus about how in the city of Colchis circumcision was practiced, and to his knowledge (as he says) that practice was only known (to Herodotus) from Egypt.

[SunkenCiv]

it’s an amazing likeness, too... ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

• ---

  Genetic testing raises an age-old question -- are the Jews a people, or a religion? -- The first study, by researchers at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, found that Jews across the globe share distinct genetic traits that are different from other groups and that trace back to the ancient Middle East. Researchers say the study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, puts to rest age-old questions about whether Jews are a group of unrelated people who share a religious ideology or a distinct ethnicity with common ancestry. "The debate is over," said Dr. Edward R. Burns, one of the lead authors of the study. "The Jewish people are one people with a common genetic thread that evolved in the second or third century BC."

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• Studies Show Jews' Genetic Similarity
• Events of Jewish Diaspora Seen in the Genomes
  ("large-scale southern European conversion")
• Genes set Jews apart, study finds
  (European Jews Descended from Ancient Roman Converts?)
• Penn Researchers Add Genetic Data to Archaeology and Linguistics
  to Get Picture of African Population History
• Articles Highlight Different Views on Genetic Basis of Race

[gleeaikin]

I read one of your posts about Jewish genetics. You made reference to Heroditus, Colchis and circumcism and Egypt. It is believed the one Egyptian ruler about 2,000 bc extended his reach as far as Colchis on the east end of the Black Sea. Soldiers and perhaps Egyptian merchants and settlers were stationed there and it has been reported that people there sometimes have black curly hair suggesting some African influence (interesting genetic study project). I believe the ruler was Sesostris II.

A related tidbit of information. Colchicine is a medicine (for gout?) taken from a kind of crocus found in that area. There is a picture from Santorini in ruins preserved by volcanic ash (Akrotiri?) which shows a Greek goddess surrounding with crocuses. Perhaps these were the medicinal crocuses from Colchis? That might have been around 1600 bc. The question marks are because I am too tired/lazy? to Google the facts, just using memory.