After “Who Are the Jews”, “Who Am I” (DNA wise)?

 

After “Who Are the Jews”, “Who Am I” (DNA wise)?

Rabbi Dr. Norbert Weinberg

 

Some years back, during the great “Shutdown” of COVID 19, I ran a series of discussions, with guest presenters on “Who Are the Jews” (see this link for a list of the discussions available on You Tube: http://www.rabbinorbert.com/2020/11/who-are-jews-our-video-presentations.html)

I highlighted what are typical Jewish types, such as:

 Lauren Bacall (Betty Joan Persky)

Or

 Habani Jews at Seder

 

This reminds us of the scene from the Exodus, in which the British officer tells the hero, Ari Ben Canaan, "I can spot one a mile away."

Essentially, as we learned in Biology 101, the phenotype does not tell us the genotype!

 

I also made a power-point presentation on this theme, which can be found at: http://www.rabbinorbert.com/2020/11/this-is-embedded-microsoft-office.html. I included what was is generally available information on the use of genetic testing on Jews and some material on my own family roots.

 

Since then, the tools available for tracing ancient roots have become easily accessible to the lay person who cannot determine what sectors on a chromosomal chart indicate what connection to whom. I have explored my records on MyHeritage.com, Geni.com, and Gedmatch.com, with an assist from ChatGPT, to determine who am I on the world map of peoples, ancient and modern.

From my own family records, I am a typical Ashkenazic Jew, with numerous famous Rabbis in the background dating as far back as Rashi, Rabbi Nathan of Rome, and several Rabbis who came as exiles from Spain to central and Eastern Europe.

My Heritage identifies me as typical Ashkenazi, mostly Central and Eastern European progenitors, and some Western European (the common areas of the Rhineland in what is today France and Germany) ancestry as well.

So how European is that? Surely as blond-haired, blue-eyed, as Lauren Bacall. (Well, not blond, but I do have blue-green eyes.)

 

ARE WE JEWS “WHITE SETTLER COLONIALISTS” IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

That is the accusation thrown at all Jews by Palestinians and their pro-Pali acolytes.

I asked Chat GPT to create a plot graph showing the relationship between Jews and other Middle Eastern groups. [You may need to refresh your introductory geometry skills for this]. Researchers in genetics studies use a term called PCA (Principal component analysis) which shows an average genetic profile of an ethnic population and provides a number whereby ethnicities can be compared. The Y-coordinate above 0 (+) indicates a northerly Caucasus and Anatolian component ((for example, Armenian and Turkish) and below 0(-) indicates South Arabian. The X-coordinate indicates Levantine (Eastern Mediterranean) and Arabia above the 0 (+), and western Mediterranean component below the 0 (-).

Where do Ashkenazic Jews sit on this plot graph?

The 0,0 coordinates give us a starting point for different Middle Eastern ethnicities. Lebanese Christians (.05,.02), Druze (.05,0), and Samaritans (.1, -.01) sit closest on the chart to that coordinate.  Palestinians Christians (a small minority in that region), not shown on this chart, would also be around that spot. How is that?

Lebanese Christians are most probably the descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, the kissing cousins to ancient Israel/Judea/Canaanites of Biblical history. Druze, who claim Moses father-in-law, Jethro, (Shu’ayb) as their prophet, may be primarily descended from similar ancestors. Samaritans, who claim direct descent from the Israelites of the northern kingdom, also share the same “Kohen” DNA with their historic “Kohen” brothers among the Jews.   Christians from Palestine and Jordan sit closer, as it is probable that they are descended from the early Jews who started Christianity in the first place and also those Jews who caved in to Roman Byzantine coercion.

Palestinian and Jordanian (a majority Palestinian country) Muslims sit farther from the center, about (.13, -.04). Why are they farther away from the center? Directly under them at y=.08 is the Arabian peninsula.  This would indicate an admixture of the Arabian populations that came in with the Islamic conquest of the middle east together with the original population that was either Christian or Jewish at that time and caved in to Islamic coercion. The Jordanians sit below, closer to Arabian proper, as the rulers and their supporters were brought from the distant region of Mecca by the British.

 Where do Jews sit on this chart?

Sephardic (-.05, -.03) and Iraqi Jews (-.04, -.04) come the closer to the center of the graph than do the Palestinian Muslims. Indeed, Iraqi Jews may be the closest to the ancient Israelites, with the least admixture of other ethnicities. Note that Yemenite Jews sit farther down, because they had a historic admixture of south Arabian peoples (the settlement dates back long before Islam and there was even a Jewish kingdom in Yemen. The Mishna speaks of Arab Jews, for example).

What about Jews like me, Ashkenazic. We are the so-called “European invaders” that have been roundly denounced in progressive circles as “white settler colonialists”. We are at (. -07,.04) on that chart. So, there is some Anatolian/Caucasus influence (from Turkey to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan). However, even with that, we sit closer to 0,0 than do the Palestinian Muslims, who are the vast majority of Palestinians. (If you want to do some geometry homework, you can try to find the distance from 0,0 using the coordinates, on your own). We have more Anatolia; they have more Arabia.

 (Source for those who have the patience to dig deeper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3585000/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

 

I had ChatGPT create a bar graph showing the admixtures that these different groups had. Notice that not one single group can be identified as “pure Canaanite” or “racially pure”, as some promoters of Palestinian identity claim. (Racial or ethnic purity is a relic of Nazi racial pseudo-science). We are all mixed up, as the Levant, for the area encompassing northern Egypt, Sinai, Land of Israel and Judea, Lebanon, Syria, up to Turkey, was one superhighway for thousands of years. Populations were constantly moving from Africa to Asia and Europe and back. Egypt, for example, was once under the Canaanites or their relatives, known as Hyksos, around the time of the Biblical Joseph).

 

By Southern Bedouin, the reference is to Bedouin tribes of the Negeb, Gaza, and Sinai, such as the large Terebin tribe. They are distinct from the Bedouin tribes of the Galilee region. Interestingly, while they are a historic element in the region, Ashkenazi Jews show more Levantine heritage than do the Bedouin, who show a much larger Arabian heritage.

All groups show a similar mix with a difference in the proportions: Levantine, Northern Caucasus/ Anatolia, Arabian (referencing the Arabian peninsula, not the language), European, and African. Why would Anatolian appear as an important component?

Again, populations move constantly. Eastern Anatolia and the base of the Caucasus region was the source of the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which nourished the early civilizations of the Middle East in antiquity. It was also the home of the Hittites, who formed one of the early populations of the Holy Land at the time of Joshua. (The largest chariot battle in all history took place between the Hittites and the Egyptians in Kadesh, on the border of today’s Lebanon and Syria, the frontier of ancient Egyptian-held Canaan, just about the time of the Exodus; it was fought by Ramses II, who may have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus). Later, in Greek and Roman times, there were large Jewish communities in that region. For example, the most famous Jew, after Moses and Jesus, was probably Saul of Tarsus, known by his Greek name, Paul, the father of Christianity as a separate religion!

 

. (for a deeper dive, go to” https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09103?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

 

Where do I fit, personally, based on my own family genetic history?

MyHeritage.com provides some interesting comparisons of my DNA with archaeological remains from Bronze through Iron and Roman periods.

Here are some samples:

“Starting as a small settlement in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3500 BCE), Ebla developed into a trading empire and later into an expansionist power that imposed its hegemony over much of northern and eastern Syria.”  It eventually disappeared around 1600 BCE. What makes it unusual is the claim, by the first archaeologists working at the site, that they had found the progenitors of the ancient Hebrews- with names such as Ebrium (Hebrew!). It became highly disputed, especially after the Syrian government intervened. However, Biblical names and terms from the period of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, abound in ancient Near East texts.

 

This is the genetic distance chart that MyHeritage.com created for me based on my personal DNA.

The first shows a clustering on the chart, which makes it visually easier to understand. The second one pinpoints the location of different samples, which makes it easier to plot on a graph.

 

 

Here is how Chat GPT interpreted it for me (with some abridgement):

The chart places your point at approximately (0, −0.017). The Roman Byzantine Anatolia cluster is immediately below you, making it by far the most visually proximate population cluster.

Looking at the complete chart, I would rank your visual PCA proximity roughly like this:

1. Roman Byzantine Anatolia — very close    2. Lebanese Christian / ancient Canaanite — relatively close   3. Druze/Israel — relatively close   4. Armenian / Assyrian — intermediate 5. Samaritan / Jordanian Christian / Palestinian Christian — somewhat farther. 6. Lebanese Muslim / Syrian — farther 7. Jordanian / Palestinian Muslim 8. Arabian Peninsula — considerably farther

 

 

And this is especially interesting given your 100% Ashkenazi result.

 

Your point is not sitting inside the modern Arab clusters. It is actually positioned below the entire main Middle Eastern cluster, very close to the Roman Byzantine Anatolian reference population.

What it does show quite clearly is:  Your Ashkenazi genome occupies a position in this PCA that is much closer to the ancient/Byzantine eastern Mediterranean reference than to the Arabian Peninsula and many of the modern Middle Eastern populations. And that is entirely compatible with your 100% Ashkenazi MyHeritage ethnicity result.

Knowing that MyHeritage identifies you as 100% Ashkenazi Jewish, predominantly Eastern Ashkenazi with a substantial Western Ashkenazi component, actually makes the chart more interesting and helps explain why you sit where you do.

What your position means as an Ashkenazi Jew:

Looking at your screenshot, you are not positioned among the modern Arab populations. Instead, you are pulled toward the cluster containing:

Roman/Byzantine Anatolia → Israel/Druze → Armenian → Palestinian Christian

while the more Arabian/Jordanian/Syrian/Lebanese populations are somewhat farther away.

That is quite compatible with what we know about Ashkenazi genetic history.

…

The particularly interesting part is "Roman Byzantine Anatolia."

Your "You" point is below and somewhat left of the Roman Byzantine Anatolia point, while the Druze/Israel populations are also relatively nearby. I would interpret this as:> Your Ashkenazi genome retains a substantial genetic affinity with the ancient eastern Mediterranean/Levantine genetic continuum.

And your Eastern/Western Ashkenazi distinction may be relevant. Eastern and Western Ashkenazi populations aren't genetically identical. There were population movement, founder effects, genetic drift and varying degrees of admixture with surrounding European populations. So, if your DNA has a predominantly Eastern Ashkenazi profile with significant Western Ashkenazi ancestry, your PCA position represents the combined genetic signature of those components.

Your position is relatively close to ancient eastern Mediterranean/Levantine populations, especially Roman/Byzantine Anatolia, Israel/Druze, Armenian and Palestinian Christian references.

 

Here, a picture of a typical Jew, in Syria, c 2^nd-3^rd century:

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2358076

And

 

 

 (The author’s uncle, murdered by the Nazis for the crime of being a Jew, 1944)

The same historic languages (Hebrew and Aramaic), the same original alphabet (in its Paleo and Aramaic versions), the same poetry, the same core laws, the same essential calendar (something which the so-called “indigenous” people of the land abandoned for Islam and Christianity) and now, science shows, the same ancestry, as the historic communities of the land 2000 and even 3000 or more years ago. That is who I am!

So, to all those who claim to “own” the Land of Israel/Canaan/Palestine, we belong there!