Jewish Genes – OpEd

One of the best known verses in the Qur’an is the declaration that, “Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian; he was faithful, a Muslim.” (Imran 3:67) 

The Qur’an supports this statement by pointing out that Abraham lived long before the Torah was brought to the Jewish People by Moses, “O people of the Book, why do you argue with us about Abraham? The Torah and the Gospel were revealed long after (Abraham lived). Imran 3:65 

The Jewish religion is indeed the product of the covenant God made with the Jewish People at Mount Sinai, when God held the mountain above the children of Israel, and they agreed to submit (Islam) to God/s Torah’s commandments and instructions. (Al-Baqarah 2:63) 

This is the theological base of Jewish religious belief and Jewish Shaaria.

However, the Torah also teaches, and Jews also believe, that the Jewish People/ the children of Israel, are not only the biological descendants of Prophet Jacob, whose name was changed by God from Jacob to Israel, but Jews are also the descendants of Jacob’s grandfather Prophet Abraham, who was the first Jew. Of course, Abraham had other children, but the other descendants of Abraham are not Jews, because they are not the children of Israel/Jacob and they did not enter into the covenant with God at Mount Sinai. 

Over the past 35 centuries many descendants of the original children of Israel dropped out of the Jewish People through assimilation and conversion to other religions, and many non-Jews entered into the Jewish people through marriage and conversion to Judaism. Most of those who converted to Judaism also married into the Jewish people. Thus for their descendants; being Jewish is both a religious status as well as a ethnic status. 

So are all present day Jews really the biological descendants of  Abraham and Sarah? Yes and No. A new genetic analysis supports the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa during Classical Antiquity, actively proselytizing and marrying local populations, and, in the process, forming distinct populations that stayed largely intact for more than 2,000 years. 

The study’s new findings define North African Jews, and enhance the case for a biological basis for Jewishness,” said study leader Harry Ostrer, M.D., professor of pathology, of genetics and of pediatrics at Einstein and director of genetic and genomic testing for the division of clinical pathology at Montefiore Medical Center. 

However, as anyone who has been to present day Israel knows, Jews come in many shades and looks. This is because even in the diaspora, and even against the will of the ruling religious authorities, Jews have almost always proselytized their neighbors, and quietly welcomed converts into the Jewish community, even against the formal rules of medieval rabbis. 

That is why most Jews in different geographical locations tend to look similar to the local majority after five to ten generations. 

The rabbinical rule that one should not refer to any Jew’s convert status is evidence of the desire of Jewish leaders to keep proselytizing activities secret from the ruling religious authorities, especially in Europe.

Thus, recent studies of the DNA of Jewish and non-Jewish individuals who live in the same area, in both Europe and the Middle East, have provided scientific evidence of both an overlapping common Jewish gene pool that differs from the non-Jewish local majority, as well as evidence of large scale non-Jewish conversion into the Jewish People.

Jews are not just a single race or ethnicity. They are a diverse group of people who share a common religion and culture, but they also have different histories and backgrounds. They have lived in many places around the world, and they have mixed with different populations over time. So there is no one genetic marker that defines all Jews.

But that doesn’t mean that Jews don’t have any genetic connections to each other or to their ancient ancestors.

Scientists have done a lot of research on the DNA of Jews, and they have found some interesting patterns and clues. One of the most famous studies was on Jewish kohanim, the hereditary Jewish priests. According to tradition, the kohanim are descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was the first high priest of Israel. 

The kohanim have a special role in Jewish rituals and ceremonies, and they are supposed to follow certain rules and regulations. Now, scientists have discovered that many kohanim share a common Y-chromosome haplotype, which is a set of genetic variations that are passed down from father to son.

This haplotype is called the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), and it is found in about 45% of Ashkenazi kohanim and 56% of Sephardi kohanim. The CMH is also found in some non-Jewish populations from the Middle East, such as Kurds, Armenians, and Palestinians.

The CMH suggests that the kohanim have a common paternal ancestor who lived about 3,000 years ago in the Near East.

This ancestor could be Aaron himself, or someone else from his tribe or clan. The CMH also shows that the kohanim have maintained their lineage over time, despite migrations and conversions.

Another study that has shed light on the origins of Jews, is the one on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed down from mother to daughter. Unlike the Y-chromosome, which can only trace the paternal line, the mtDNA can trace both maternal and paternal lines.

The mtDNA of Jews reveals that they have different maternal origins depending on their geographic origin.

For example, Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe) have mostly European mtDNA, while Sephardi Jews (Jews from Spain and Portugal) have mostly Middle Eastern and North African mtDNA.

This means that Ashkenazi Jews have more European female ancestors than male ancestors, while Sephardi Jews have more Middle Eastern and North African female ancestors than male ancestors.

The mtDNA also shows that most Jews have some genetic links to other ancient peoples who lived in the Near East, such as the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, and the Samaritans. Samaritans are interesting because they claim to be the descendants of the Israelites who were not exiled by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. The Samaritans have their own version of practice of Judaism.

The mtDNA of Samaritans is very similar to that of some Jewish groups, especially the kohanim. This suggests that Samaritans and Jews share some common maternal ancestors who lived in ancient Israel or Judah.

The mtDNA also shows that Samaritans have some genetic contributions from other populations who lived in their region over time, such as Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, etc.

This means that most Jews can trace their origins back 2-3,000 years ago genetically speaking to some extent. They do have some genetic continuity with their ancient ancestors who lived in the Near East. 

But they also have a genetic admixture from non-Jewish populations living in different places and times; who converted to Judaism, and whose non-Jewish genes have enriched the Jewish community.

Genetic researchers have showed that modern-day Sephardic Jews (Greek and Turkish), Ashkenazi Jews (Eastern European) and Mizrahi Jews (Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian) who had originated in Europe and the Middle East, are more related to each other, than to their contemporary non-Jewish neighbors, with each group forming its own cluster within the larger Jewish population. 

Furthermore, each of the three geographical groups’ genes, demonstrated Middle-Eastern ancestry, plus varying degrees of inclusion of converts to Judaism from the surrounding populations. This is true even though two of the major Jewish populations — Middle Eastern and European Jews — were found to have diverged from each other approximately 2,500 years ago.