sign in sign up
<<
Home , Italian Jews, Mountain Jews

Diasporic Jewry… Genetics, Culture, Religion, Minhagim (Customs), Language

Jew/Israelite/Hebrew

Jew (from Judah) can be seen not as a “Religion” but a person from the Judahite ethnicity – is a term invented by the Greeks and later used by Protestant scholars to designate what do in terms of a Religion, which is itself a very lately constructed category…

Jew – from Judah “Yehuda” tribal and ethnic designation, not linguistic, though later on means “Jewish language.” Jews develop their own jargon/dialect in each country of the diaspora, including Ladino, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo Provencal, Judeo-Italian, and YIDDISH (and there are at least three major regions of Yiddish language

Diaspora – Dispersion, Hebrew: Galut

Are the various communities of Jewry all linked to the Middle East? Is Koestler correct? All share an attachment to the Holy Land, to a that has remarkably similar Liturgy. Musical traditions differ remarkably and reflect the modes and sounds of the lands in which the Jews find themselves

Hebrew word is “Galut” – pejorative…Mipnei Hatenu, Galenu M’Artzenu – The rationale for Diaspora is in Rabbinic parlance “Because of our sins we were exiled from our land”

Jewish Genetics and Populations – Some recent Research

Jews are NOT a Race

Racism is an ancient construction, and in the 19th century is developed into Scientific Racism according a hierarchy of “Races” whereby the White Race is superior…

Some Jews develop their own Racial Science and “buy into” Scientific racism…either to construct categories of Jewish “whiteness” (rendering darker skinned populations as inferior) or to support Jewish superiority …as in Max Nordau, one of Herzl’s greatest friends. There is no such thing as a “purity of blood” as the Spaniards and later the proto Nazis defined it…and yet some Jews adopted this kind of chauvinism …much of Jewish life and culture is grounded in education – a cultural not genetic influence.

There are also Jewish diseases found among populations

Zionism in the Jewish State is still dealing with the legacy of racism instituted by the largely Ashkenazic founders.

What are the markers? Can we trace all the diasporic populations back to a Middle Eastern Origin? Does it matter…it does if certain folks try to “dispossess” Jews of any rights to …because they are “Turkish” or “European” usurpers…and have therefore, no right to the land

But in fact, we can trace lineages of almost all Jewish communities that were not “conversion” communities back to the Holy Land. And yes, Jews have historically admitted thousands or hundreds of thousands converts into the Jewish people, which thus reflects this genetic diversity.

Many studies – here is a good one from Ostrer and Skorecki https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543766/

Early population genetic studies based on blood groups and serum markers provided evidence that most groups originated in the Middle East and that paired Jewish populations were more similar genetically than paired Jewish and non-Jewish populations (Bonne-Tamir et al. 1978a, b, 1977; Carmelli and Cavalli-Sforza 1979; Karlin et al. 1979; Kobyliansky et al. 1982; Livshits et al. 1991). These studies differed in their inferences regarding the degree of admixture with local populations. Subsequent studies of the monoallelic Y chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA haplotypes demonstrated founder effects of both Middle Eastern and local origin, but did not adequately resolve the degree of admixture. To resolve this issue and to improve the understanding about the relatedness of contemporary Jewish groups, our research teams and others have independently performed genome-wide analyses of Diaspora Jewish groups and comparison with neighboring populations (Atzmon et al. 2010; Behar et al. 2010; Campbell et al. 2012; Kopelman et al. 2009; Bray et al. 2010; Listman et al. 2010). These studies varied in the specific populations analyzed and in the number of individuals included from each population. Yet, they came to remarkably similar conclusions, providing evidence for shared genetic ancestries among major Jewish Diaspora groups together with variation in admixture with local populations. By principal component analysis, it was observed that the Jewish populations of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East formed a tight cluster that distinguished them from their non-Jewish neighbors (Fig. 1). Within this central cluster, each of these Jewish populations formed its own subcluster, in addition to the more remote localization of members of some Diaspora communities. The observation of a major central tight cluster was supported by statistical metrics for genetic distances (Fst, allelic sharing distances). Nearest neighbor-joining analysis robustly supported shared origins of most Jewish populations with clearly discernible European/Syrian/North African and Middle Eastern branches (Fig. 2; Campbell et al. 2012). Turkish, Greek, and shared a common branch, with Ashkenazi and forming connections to this branch. The North African populations added a sub-branch to the European/Syrian branch. In turn, this North African sub-branch bifurcated into Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian, Djerban, Libyan sub-branches. More detailed PCA analysis showed that the Tunisian Jewish group was identifiable by two clusters, one with proximity to Libyan Jews and the other with proximity to Moroccan Jews. Moreover, by PCA analysis, the North African Jewish populations were orthogonal to contemporary non-Jewish North African populations from Western Sahara, North and South Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, , and Egypt. The Middle Eastern Jewish branch included the Iranian, Iraqi and Georgian Jews as well as the non-Jewish Adygei.

The initial Diasporas of Jewry to Babylon, , the East and to Egypt

The huge significance of the Babylonian diaspora and the growth of Jewish law and the spread of the – Jews of Babylon were the longest continuously practicing Jewish community until the 20th century (with the Yemenites)

Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire

The Spanish diaspora – from the Visagoths (6th century) forward

 Jews arrived in 2000 years ago with the Romans and there are cemeteries from that time with Hebrew inscriptions in the South – as well as Marseilles France  Jews were severely persecuted by the Catholic Visagoths and eventually all were forcibly converted to Christianity, but they re-Judaized after the conquered Andalusia in the 7th century …and flourished under them

 Iberian Jewry retained a strong ethnic/genetic connection with the Jews of North Africa the “Maghreb” and with the Jews of the . They did not intermarry with Muslim or Christian populations in large numbers, though undoubtedly there were mestizo and inter- religious progeny over the centuries. A high number of contemporary Portuguese and Spaniards have Jewish lineage…millions are offspring of the , the hundreds of thousands who converted under duress to Christianity between the 14th century to the 17th.  Sephardic Jews have experienced a “Double Diaspora” since the expulsion from their beloved Spain in 1492, and many families even a third journey; recently Spain and Portugal have extended the possibility of citizenship to Jews who can prove their Iberian heritage.

Haplogroups of Iberian ethnic groups

Ashkenazic Jewry: Three theories of origin:

 From Israel through the  From Israel through to Germany and then Eastward to Poland and  From Israel through Turkish Lands.  (Growth of Polish, Ukranian and Russian communities from Spain is possible as well)

By 800 CE – or the time of Charlemagne (180 years after the founding of Islam) we have the basic designations that last until today – including the independent groups of the (who are related to the Iraqi population, the so-called “Mesopotamian” Jews, the BetaYisrael in Ethiopia, the Abuyadeya of Uganda, the Cochin/Benai Yisrael of India, the Chinese Jews, the Jews of Afghanistan, and the East.

On the Beta Yisrael see the Wikipedia article – which provides a good overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel

Ashkenazic Jewry can be found in Cologne at the time of the Roman presence in Germany among the Goths and some German Jews claim that they pre-date the death of Jesus in 33.

The growth of Yiddish and Polish Jewry.

14th century to 17th tremendous growth in learning; Jews as middlemen, carrying traditions from the Rhineland into Eastern Europe, including liturgical traditions (Mahzor Vitri) and music, costume, culture. Ashkenazim are more insulated and cut off from their Christian neighbors. Adopt Monogamy – while Sephardim and Mizrachi Jews do not until forced to give up the 2nd wife possibility in the mid twentieth century.

Yeshivot Grow in Poland; Jews of the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth develop important medical and scientific traditions. Import kabbalistic manuscripts and becomes an important theological development.

Ashkenazic Jews also adopt many Germanic/Russian folk customs and magical practices,and the have no choice but to accede to their use of these customs.

Food, , : Ashkenazic Jewry becomes more strict; the ’s are more Mahmir (strict) in their interpretation of the Law and the Halakha than Sephardic.

There is also a rejection (for the most part) of Aristotelian/Maimonidean science and an acknowledgement of God’s wondrous creation along Biblical lines and Talmudic Very significant genetic consistency and manifestation of Ashkenazic diseases and mental illness has been studied among this population (German, Russian, Northern Italian, French, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Moldavian, Scandanavian, Hungarian, Slovenian, etc) Alsace seems to be independent in terms of genetics – but close to Middle Eastern Jewry

Important recent article:

Signatures of founder effects, admixture, and selection in the Ashkenazi Jewish population Steven M. Bray,a Jennifer G. Mulle,a Anne F. Dodd,a Ann E. Pulver,b Stephen Wooding,cand Stephen T. Warrena,d,1 The Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) population has long been viewed as a genetic isolate, yet it is still unclear how population bottlenecks, admixture, or positive selection contribute to its genetic structure. Here we analyzed a large AJ cohort and found higher linkage disequilibrium (LD) and identity-by-descent relative to Europeans, as expected for an isolate. However, paradoxically we also found higher genetic diversity, a sign of an older or more admixed population but not of a long-term isolate. Recent reports have reaffirmed that the AJ population has a common Middle Eastern origin with other Jewish Diaspora populations, but also suggest that the AJ population, compared with other Jews, has had the most European admixture. Our analysis indeed revealed higher European admixture than predicted from previous Y-chromosome analyses. Moreover, we also show that admixture directly correlates with high LD, suggesting that admixture has increased both genetic diversity and LD in the AJ population. Additionally, we applied extended haplotype tests to determine whether positive selection can account for the level of AJ- prevalent diseases. We identified genomic regions under selection that account for lactose and alcohol tolerance, and although we found evidence for positive selection at some AJ-prevalent disease loci, the higher incidence of the majority of these diseases is likely the result of genetic drift following a bottleneck. Thus, the AJ population shows evidence of past founding events; however, admixture and selection have also strongly influenced its current genetic makeup.

 The disaspora of Mizrachi and North African Jewry; Ethiopian Jews; Jews of Subsaharan Africa are currently being studied for continuity with Biblical Judaism. Its’ possible that Ethiopian Jewry pre-dates , but others claim that the “origins” are fictitiously created and imagined by Christian Ethiopians who were midrashically connected to Jews…and claim descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba – who is said to originate from Ethiopia .

 Diaspora of Mizrachi Jewry – especially Iraqi/Mesoptamian goes back to the destruction of the FIRST Temple – and some of the “” claim their diaspora is from the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. Many peoples around the world claim connection to these ancient refugees who were forcibly exiled to the East. The Cherokee, the Thai Jews, the of Georgia (near Russia) all claim that they are products and continuous with the Ten Lost Tribes …but this is a huge Topic filled with very little connection to history and much folklore and fiction and imaginings.

 Foods: Empenadas, Borekhas, Cholent, Kugel, Kneidlach

 Passover – Ashkenazim and Sephardim differ as to the stringency of eating certain legumes called Kitniyot on Pesach, though Conservative Jewry is now following the old Sephardic custom

 Other interesting customs: Girl Baby naming ceremonies – “Fadar”