INFORMATION ISSUED by the Assooanai W MUSH ROKSS M OIEAT Mmm
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MlliMMWai Volume XXXII No. 2 February, 1977 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE AssooAnai w MUSH ROKSS m OIEAT mmm Michael Rosenstock (Toronto) interesting analogy between this and the trans mission of family names in small communities; in a few generations, some may disappear al together while others become particularly A GENETIC PORTRAIT OF THE common. This raises an intriguing question in the reader's mind; do similar chance fluctu ations explain why the frequency of certain Ashkenazi "place-name" surnames seems to JEWISH PEOPLE bear no relationship to the size of medieval When Maurice Fishberg published The Jews: certainly true of Muslim countries and may Jewish communities? Thus, the communities A Study in Race and Environment in 1911, be equally true df the early Christian world, of Mainz and Speyer were probably of com the science of genetics was in its infancy, the particularly in the two or three centuries in parable size, but the name Shapiro is at least first of the blood group systems had only just which the Jews played a major role in inter five times as common as the name Mintz. been discovered and the idea of "race" was national trade. Since, according to Jewish law, The communities of Landau and Heilbronn still largely under the influence of nineteenth- slaves could not be retained for more than a were far smaller than those of Cologne and century misconceptions. A new work* attempts year unless they underwent partial conversion, Nuernberg, yet Landau and Halpem are quite to bring the layman up to date by summaris the majority of those who remained in Jewish common names while Keiner and Nierenberg ing the discoveries of the past sixty years. hands were presumably quietly absorbed by are not. Are some families more fertile than The differences between the two works are the community as slavery gradually dis others, are some names simply more popular ? striking reflection of scientific developments appeared. than others, or is there a third explanation? in the intervening period. While nearly a third Both Jewish and Christian sources provide In spite of the many pitfalls, Patai's gene of Pishberg's large book is devoted to observ evidence of illicit sexual relations between tic portrait has many interesting features. He able physical characteristics, they are given Jews and Christians. Since, as a general rule, considers the evidence provided by blood less than a dozen pages in Patai's work. On the women led far more restricted lives than men, groups, finger-print patterns and "Jewish" 9ther hand, blood groups, enzymes and "Jew they were presumably less likely to involve diseases, to name only three of the phenomena ish" diseases, medical phenomena unknown to Jewish women than Jewish men. On the other which geneticists and physical anthropologists Fishberg, occupy five times as much space. hand, rape cannot have been uncommon during study today. He also considers (and largely According to Fishberg, "as far as our present pogroms, a fact which Jewish authorities recog dismisses) the genetic aspects of such matters knowledge of the origin of racial traits can nised on occasion. Children resulting from as high achievement in certain fields and the ^each us, we know that the milieu cannot rape could, of course, be absorbed by the Jew rather nebulous attribute of "looking Jewish". change dark hair into blonde, or the reverse, ish community without question, since the Both are felt to owe far more to cultural con nor can residence in any country transform offspring of a Jevdsh mother is automatically ditioning than to heredity. a hook nose into a snub nose, or a long head considered Jewish regardless of its paternity. In recent years, it has become apparent that become round by change of climate." However, certain inherited diseases are far more com according to Patai, "many of these traits may Small Numbers in Middle Ages mon among Jews than among Gentiles. Thus, be affected by the environment or by cultural The genetic effect of all this must have the frequency of Tay-Sachs disease, perhaps Practices. Moreover, they have a complex mode the best known, is about 100 times greater ef inheritance which is poorly understood. been considerable, especially if one remem bers that the Jewish population of medieval among American Ashkenazi Jews than among This means that it is not at all certain American Gentiles. It attains its highest fre *hether or not populations which appear simi- Europe was strikingly small. In fact, it is not at all unlikely that the total number of Jews quency among the descendants of immigrants i^ in extemal characteristics are also similar from a relatively small area of Southem Lithu genetically." in what later became the area of Ashkenazi settlement did not exceed 20,000 or 25,000 ania and North Eastem Poland. Geneticists dis Nevertheless, for all their dififerences of after the First Cmsade. What this means is agree as to the reasons for this phenomenon approach, both books reach much the same that a single conversion or sexual encounter in but, historically, the most plausible explana conclusion: that the Jews are a highly varie- Rashi's day could easily have had as far-reach tion is certainly the so-called "founder effect", Sated group whose individual sub-groups tend ing a genetic effect as 500 today. What it also a form of genetic drift by which the genetic *o show some evidence of a common Eastem means, one assumes, is that some of the genes peculiarities of the founder or founders of a y^editerranean origin but in other respects of every Rabbi or proselyte alive 800 or 900 new settlement can, over a period, become l^erhaps the majority) tend to diverge very years ago may have been transmitted to every quite common in a fairly large population. njarkedly and approach the genetic make-up Ashkenazi Jew alive today. This would be consistent with what we know ?.f the populations among which they live (or When he moves on from the historical to of the pattem of Jewish settlement in parts of Ij^ed until recently). Patai produces an im- the genetic part of his book, Patai is careful Eastem Europe and, one might add, the Pi"essive mass of historical circumstantial evi to point out that the simple "certainties" of settlers' high rate of natural increase over dence to explain why this is so, perhaps to the Fishberg's day have been replaced by a com several centuries. xtent of overstating his case. After reading plex mass of uncertainty. In the first place, no It is possible to feed data on the genetic .^is section, one is certainly surprised to find more than fifty of the many thousands of genes differences between two populations into a hat Jews have retained any common genetic which determine a human being's make-up computer and so measure the "genetic dis *^aits at all. have been isolated and measured at all. tance" between them. The results where Jews , Proselytism and intermarriage have always Secondly, the extent to which even these few are concerned clearly show the pitfalls of ^.^eii features of Jevrfsh life, though their genetic traits remain unaffected by environ considering such data in isolation. Thus, the 'Snificance has varied from period to period mental factors is still very much a matter of genetic distance between the Jews of Habhan Dn t P'^ee to place. They must have been im- conjecture. Thus, some geneticists are now in Southern Arabia, a small endogamous ^ertant factors in the growth of the Graeco- convinced that there is a correlation between group, and the surrounding Arab population, g^Oin ;a n Diaspora. Gradually, of course, this certain blood groups and susceptibility to cer and between these Jews and Ashkenazim, is ji^^nsionary role was taken over by Christian- tain diseases and that the distribution of these as great as that between Eskimos and Niger P^' but it is likely that individual conversions blood groups in a particular population tends ians. Nothing could provide a better illustra ntinued throughout the medieval and early to change as medical hazards change. Another tion of the effects of genetic drift. On the "Modern periods. factor which must be taken into account is other hand, the fact that the distance between PQ*' seems likely that slavery also made its "genetic drift"—that is, the tendency of small, Ashkenazim and the non-Jevwsh population ntnbution to the Jewish gene-pool. This is endogamous groups to undergo accidental of Central and Eastern Europe is, by and large, fluctuations in gene frequencies and to de slightly greater than that between the English the j'P']ael Patai and Jennifer Patai Wing: The Mylh of velop a distinctive genetic character in a rela 197s ,*'»•• Race. Nev/ York. Charles Scribner's Sons, tively short period. One geneticist draws an Continued on page 2, colamn 1 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION February 1977 IN MEMORY OF HOME NEWS SIR HENRY D'AVIGDOR GOLDSMID AWARDS ATTLEE, BEVIN AND THE JEWS Sir Henry d'Avigdor Goldsmid, whose death New Year Honours List at the age of 67 was briefly announced in our The New Year Honours List includes a The Govemment has banned the publication previous issue, was a man of many parts. A knighthood for Heinrich (Heinz) Koeppler, of certain documents relating to British Gov partner of his old established family firm, the who came to this country as a refugee. He has emment policy on Palestine, contained in the bullion brokers Mocatta & Goldsmid, his finan been the warden of WUton Park, which was Cabinet Papers for 1946 which have just been cial expertise also became of great benefit to originally set up as a venue for training courses released under the 30-year rule of official sec his work as chairman of the Anglo-Israel for German refugees who intended to retum recy.