However, Templeton presents the trellis model, according to which there was also a constant lateral or horizontal flow of genes in human populations intertwined with that of vertical evolution.
An increasing number of investigators support the model according to which human populations are entangled more like a woven cloth than an ordered mosaic pattern. Theories are by principle underdetermined, and it would be impossible to exclude one or the other also in the future Gannett, , p. With the advances in analyses of DNA sequences, allowing the identification of detailed specific sequences of individuals, indications lead to sequences of common progenitors of many Jewish communities and also to a considerable overlap with Mediterranean populations.
If interpreted into vertical phylogenies these inevitably support the traditional Jewish historical lore of the contemporary Jews being the direct progeny of the historic residents of the Land of Israel.
The same genetic relationships may, however, also indicate secondary horizontal associations, of intermarriages between communities of common culture, religion, or mere common domicile. Already in the late s did Ritte and his associates Ritte et al. More recent studies of the distribution of mitochondrial DNA mtDNA which, like Judaism is passed along the maternal line, indicate that Ashkenazi mtDNA is highly distinctive, with four major and numerous minor founders.
Furthermore, most of the remaining minor founders, share a similar deep European ancestry. Thus, the great majority of Ashkenazi maternal lineages are assimilated within Europe Figure 5. These results point to a significant role for horizontal phylogeneses due to the conversion of women in the formation of Ashkenazi communities in prehistoric Europe Costa et al. Figure 5. Current advances in laboratory techniques together with sophisticated computational analyses allowed high-depth sequencing of complete genomes of Ashkenazi Jews AJ , compared with European FL samples of nuclear SNP arrays.
By applying the most advanced computation methods Shai Carmi and colleagues integrate, besides the vertical generation changes, also the impact of horizontal factors on the evolution of genomes such as vectors of population-size bottlenecks and periods of intensive trans-population admixture.
Not surprisingly, Ashkenazi Jews prove to compose a distinct yet quite integral branch of European genomic tapestry. Figure 6.
The wide arrow represents an admixture event. Horizontal arrows: effective population sizes Carmi et al. Jews were recognized over the ages as a People of a distinct religion, or as a People with unique socio-cultural bonds, in various contexts and at different times. But it was claimed that what ultimately maintained the Jews identity were their genealogical linkage: Jews were perceived as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three patriarchs, not only spiritually but primarily biologically.
Obviously, what kept Jews identity were their language, culture, tradition and religion. Thus, whatever their biological hereditary kinships, both the trans-generational vertical, and intra-generation horizontal relationships are secondary consequences. However, the increasing reliance on scientific reductionism in biological thinking of the last two centuries eventually culminated in turning the evidence of DNA sequences into the essence of the characterization of Jewishness rather than its consequence.
Still, in spite of repeated efforts, there is no agreed upon criterion to identify Jews, and samples examined for the distribution of biological or molecular markers all depend on the preconceived biases of the investigators.
Races, it is assumed, may differ in inherent properties that are evaluated differentially. But races are not biological-meaningful classification entities.
And if so, why is racism a bad property? The answer must be: Because it provides socio-cultural justifications for discrimination on the basis of presumed and irrelevant biological properties.
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Avineri, S. Moses Hess: Prophet of Communism and Zionism. Google Scholar. Behar, D. Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome variation in Ashkenazi Jewish and host non-Jewish European populations.
No evidence from genome wide data of a Khazar origin for the Ashkenazi Jews. Carmi, S. Sequencing an Ashkenazi reference panel supports population-targeted personal genomics and illuminates Jewish and European origins. Corcos, A. Costa, M. A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages. Efron, J. Jewish genetic origins in the context of past historical and anthropological inquiries.
Elhaik, E. The missing link of Jewish European Ancestry: contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian hypotheses. Genome Biol. Falk, R. Biology comes of age. Gannett, L. The biological reification of race. Goldschmidt, E. The Genetics of Migrant and Isolate Populations. Goldstein, D. Gould, S. The Mismeasure of Man. New York, NY: Norton. Hammer, M. Jewish and middle eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotype.
Lenoir, T. The Strategy of Life. Lewontin, R. A molecular approach to the study of genic heterozygosity in natural populations. Amount of variation and degree of heterozygosity in natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 54, — Mourant, A. The Genetics of the Jews. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Muhsam, H. The genetic origin of the Jews. Genus 20, 3— Oz, A. Jews and Words.
Ritte, U. The differences among Jewish communities - maternal and paternal contributions. Mitochondrial DNA affinity of several Jewish communities. Sachs, L. The genetics of Jewish populations: I. Finger print patterns in Jewish populations in Israel. Salaman, R. Heredity and the Jew. Sand, S. The Invention of the Jewish People, Transl. London; New York: Verso. Santachiara, B. Skorecki, K. Y-chromosomes of Jewish priests.
Nature , Stern, C. Race crossing in paradise? Heredity 44, — Templeton, A. Context 11, — Human races: a genetic and evolutionary perspective. Thomas, M. Origins of old testament priests. Nature , — Weiss, K. Non-Darwinian estimation: my ancestors, my genes' ancestors. But the arrival of the immigrants was a clear reminder that they had ethnic ties beyond their fellow German-Americans. Eastern European immigrants had no such ambivalence. Their self-understanding as a people was expressed in innumerable Jewish ethnic organizations and secular institutions.
Hundreds of such informal groups sprouted up during the immigrant period in North America, laying the foundation for more formal Jewish organizations such as free loan societies, trade unions, Yiddish organizations, cousin clubs, insurance and burial collectives, and synagogues. The heavy involvement of immigrant Jews in the American labor movement was an outgrowth of Jewish identity.
Common background and language enabled Jewish workers of diverse trades and economic sectors to find common political cause. The most lasting expression of ethnic Jewishness in America was the political and cultural movement of Zionism. Emerging as a movement in , Zionism competed with socialism as one of the leading ideologies of the Jewish-American immigrant community in the early s.
During those years, Zionism made its greatest inroads as the basis for the new Jewish education, bringing Hebrew language and Jewish history education to Jewish youth.
When America came to favor nationalism over socialism in the First World War, Zionism became the preferred orientation of most American Jews, both religious and secular. This was enough to convince him to pass a religious ruling in that states that this specific DNA test can be used to confirm Jewishness if all other avenues have been exhausted, which now constitutes the theological justification for the genetic testing.
But others would disagree. As DNA sequencing becomes more sophisticated, the ability to identify genetic differences between human populations has improved. Geneticists can now locate variations in the DNA so acutely as to differentiate populations living on opposite sides of a mountain range. In recent years, a number of high-profile commentators have appropriated these scientific insights to push the idea that genetics can determine who we are socially, none more controversially than the former New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade.
In his book, A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, Wade argues that genetic differences in human populations manifest in predictable social differences between those groups. His book was strongly denounced by almost all prominent researchers in the field as a shoddy incarnation of race science, but the idea that our DNA can determine who we are in some social sense has also crept into more mainstream perspectives.
And indeed, this already appears to be happening. In the United States, white nationalists have channeled the ideals of racial purity into an obsession with the reliability of direct-to-consumer DNA testing. Most concerning is how the conflation of genetics and racial identity is being mobilized politically.
In February, the New York Times reported that authorities in China are using DNA testing to determine whether someone is of Uighur ancestry, as part of a broader campaign of surveillance and oppression against the Muslim minority. While DNA testing in Israel is still limited to proving Jewishness in relation to religious life, it comes at a time when the intersections of ethnic, political and religious identity are becoming increasingly blurry.
Shlomo Sand, an Israeli historian who has written extensively on the politics of Jewish population genetics, worries that if DNA testing is normalized by the Rabbinate, it could be used to confirm citizenship in the future. For Sand, there is a particularly dark irony that this type of genetic discrimination is being weaponized by Jews against other Jews.
But for Seth Farber, the problem with a DNA test for Jewishness runs deeper than politics; it contravenes what he believes to be the essence of Jewish identity. The central principle is that when it comes to Jewish identity, the most important determinants are social — trust, kinship, commitment — not biological. That would be an unwarranted and radical reinterpretation of Jewish law. As I was reporting this story, it often struck me as oxymoronic that an institution like the Rabbinate would embrace new technology to uphold an ancient identity.
It seemed to contradict the very premise of Orthodoxy, which, by definition, is supposed to rigidly maintain tradition in the face of all that is new and unknown. But Jessica Mozersky, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St Louis, explained that part of the reason why the Rabbinate might be comfortable with using DNA to confirm Jewishness is because of an existing familiarity with genetic testing in the community to screen for rare genetic conditions.
In fact, the Orthodox Jewish community is so comfortable with the idea of genetic identity that they have even put together their own international genetic database called Dor Yeshorim , which acts as both a dating service and public health initiative. When two members of the community are being set up for marriage, Mozersky explained, the matchmaker will check whether or not they are genetically compatible on the DNA database.
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