About Jewishness

Scene out of Monty Python's Life of Brian. Life of Brian, is a 1979 comedy film by the Monty Python comedy team. It tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as and next door to Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.

[Brian and his mum enter their home to find a roman officer sitting down inside]
Mum: "Oh."
Roman officer: "Good afternoon."
Mum: "Oh, eh. Hello, officer. Eh. I'll be with you in a few moments, all right dear?"
Brian: "What's he doing here?"
Mum: "Now don't start that Brian, and go and clean your room out."
Brian: "Bloody romans."
Mum: "Look, Brian. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have all this, and don't you forget it."
Brian: "We don't owe the Romans anything, mum."
Mum: "Ahw. That's not entirely true, is it Brian?"
Brian: "What do you mean?"
Mum: "Well. You know you were asking me about your, uh..."
Brian: "My nose?"
Mum: "Yes. Well, there's a reason it's... like it is, Brian."
Brian: "What is it?"
Mum: "Well, I suppose I should have told you a long time ago, but... Well, Brian... your father isn't Mr. Cohen."
Brian: "I never thought he was..."
Mum: "Now none of your cheek. He was a Roman, Brian. He was a centurian in the Roman army.
Brian: "You mean... you were raped?"
Mum: "Aw, at first, yes."
Brian: "Who was he?"
Mum: "Naughtius Maximus his name was. Mmm. Promised me the known world he did. I was to be taken to Rome, housed by the forum. Slaves, asses milk, as much gold as I could eat. Then he, having his way with me, and VOOM. Like a rat out of an aquaduct."
Brian: "The bastard."
Mum: "Yeah. So next time you go on about the bloody romans, don't forget you're one of them."
Brian: [In a fit of rage as he goes up to his room.] "I'm not a roman, mum, and I never will be. I'm a kike, a yid, a heebie, a hook-nose, I'm kosher, mum. I'm a red sea pedestrian, and proud of it."
Mum: "Huh. Sex, sex, sex. That's all they think about, eh? Well, how are you then, officer?"
[She then kneels down as the officer stands.]

DNA is a nucleic acid that contains genetic information. It is also a blueprint of our ancestry. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes. A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA. Most mammals have one pair of sex chromosomes in each cell. Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes.
In the study of molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation. Because a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, this is what makes it possible to predict a haplogroup from haplotypes. An SNP test confirms a haplogroup. Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, and refinements consist of additional number and letter combinations, for example R1b1. Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups have different haplogroup designations. Haplogroups pertain to deep ancestral origins dating back thousands of years.
In human genetics, the haplogroups most commonly studied are Y-chromosome (Y-DNA) haplogroups and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups, both of which can be used to define genetic populations. Y-DNA is passed solely along the patrilineal line, from father to son, while mtDNA is passed down the matrilineal line, from mother to offspring of both sexes. Neither recombines, and thus Y-DNA and mtDNA change only by chance mutation at each generation with no intermixture between parents' genetic material.

Human Y chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups are lettered A through T, and are further subdivided using numbers and lower case letters. The studies of these haplogroups tell us a fascinating story about our ancestors, not just in a geographical way, but also in a timeframe.

The haplogroups (or subgroups) that are most related to Jewish ancestry are CMH, J1, J2, and R1.

Haplogroup J is believed to have arisen roughly 30,000 years ago in Southwest Asia.
The time of origin of haplogroup J1 is 15,000 to 24,000 years ago on the Arabian Plate. Highest frequencies in Semites and Dagestanis.
The frequency of haplogroup J1 collapses suddenly at the borders of Arabic speaking countries and Daghestan with other countries, such as Iran (10.5%) and Turkey (9%). The distribution of J1 outside of the Middle East may be associated with the Semites who traded and conquered in Sicily, southern Italy, Spain and Pakistan. In general J1 has a very low frequency in Europe. However, higher frequencies has been reported in the central Adriatic regions of Italy Gargano (17.2%), Pescara (15%), in the Mediterranean (11.1%), South Sicilian (10.7%), Crete (8.3%), Malta (7.8%), Cyprus (6.2%), Greece (5.3%).
In North Africa, J1 first entered Ethiopia with the spread of Semitic speakers in Eritrea (11%), Ethiopia (9%), Ethiopia-Amhara (33.3%). It spread later to North Africa in historic times; Algerians 35.0%, Tunisians 31%), where it became something like a marker of the Semitic expansion in the early medieval period. J1 also may be found with high frequency in the northern parts of Sudan: Arabs 45%, 41%, Copts 39%, Beja 36%), and present with lower frequency in the region of Darfur: Masalit 6%, 6%). Haplogroup J1 may be found in as many as 20% of Egyptian males, with the frequency of this haplogroup tending to be comparatively high in the south of the country.
Haplogroup J1, defined by the 267 marker is most frequent in Yemen(76%), Saudi (64%) Qatar (58%). J1 is generally frequent amongst Negev Bedouins (62%). It is also very common among other Arabs such as those of the Levant, i.e. Palestinian (38.4%), Syria (30%), Lebanon (25%), In Jewish populations, J1 constitutes 30% of the Yemenite Jews, 20.0% of the Ashkenazim results and 12% of the Sephardic results.

Jews have twice as much haplogroup J2 as they have J1. J1 in Jews is described as "South Levant", while J2 is described as "North Levant". J2 is more common in Mediterranean regions than in the Middle East.
The time of origin of haplogroup J2 is 18,500 to ca 3,500 years ago in the Fertile Crescent.
Its distribution, centered in Western Asia and Southeastern Europe, its association with the presence of Neolithic archaeological artifacts, such as figurines and painted pottery, and its association with annual precipitation have been interpreted as evidence that J2 belonged to the agricultural innovators who followed the rainfall. However, Di Giacomo stressed the role of post-Neolithic migratory phenomenon, specifically that of the Greeks, as being even more important in the dispersal of hapnogroup J2.

The post-Neolithic migration shows the same pattern as the dispersal of hapnogroup J2

Haplogroup J2 is found mainly in the Fertile Crescent, the Caucasus, Anatolia, the Balkans, Italy, the Mediterranean littoral, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, and South Asia. More specifically it is found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Greece, Italy and the eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, and more frequently in Iraqis 29.7%, Lebanese 25%, Palestinians 16.8%, Syrians 22.5% , Sephardic Jews 29%, Kurds 28.4%, Saudi Arabia 15.92%, Jordan 14.3%, Oman 10-15%, 10.4%, Yemen 9.7%, in Israel, in Palestine, and in Turkey.
J2 is found at very high frequencies in the peoples of the Caucasus - among the Georgians 21%-72%, Azeris 24%-48%, Ingush 32%, Chechens 26%, Balkars 24%, Ossetians 24%, Armenians 21.3%-24%, and other groups.
In Europe, the frequency of Haplogroup J2 drops dramatically as one moves northward away from the Mediterranean. In Italy, J2 is found with regional frequencies ranging between 9% and 36%. In Greece, it is found with regional frequencies ranging between 10% and 48%. Frequencies are high in Turkey, approximately 24% of Turkish men are J2 according to a recent study, with regional frequencies ranging between 13% and 40%. Combined with J1, up to half of the Turkish population belongs to Haplogroup J.
It has been proposed that haplogroup subclade J2a-M410 was linked to populations on ancient Crete by examining the relationship between Anatolian, Cretan, and populations from around early Neolithic sites. Haplogroup J2b-M12 was associated with Greece (ca. 8500 - 4300 BCE) and was reported to be found in modern Crete (3.1%) and mainland Greece ( 7.0%, Thessaly 8.8%, Argolis 1.8%).
Sephardic Jews have about 29% of haplogroup J2 and Ashkenazi Jews have 23%, or 19%. It was reported in an early study which tested only four STR markers that a small sample of Italian Cohens belonged to Network 1.2, an early designation for the overall clade now known as J2a4, defined by the deletion at DYS413. However, a large number of all Jewish Cohens in the world belong to haplogroup J1.
Haplogroup J2 has been shown to have a more northern distribution in the Middle East, although it exists in significant amounts in the southern middle-east regions, a lesser amount of it was found when compared to its brother haplogroup, J1, which has a high frequency southerly distribution. This suggests that, if the occurrence of Haplogroup J among modern populations of Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia does reflect Neolithic demic diffusion from the Middle East, the source population is more likely to have originated from West Anatolia, the Levant or northern Mesopotamia than from regions further south.
A substantial presence of J2b is found in the Balkans and neighboring parts of Greece in the West, and in both tribal and caste populations of the Indian subcontinent to the East. The high variance of J2b2 in South Asia indicates a probable pre-Neolithic migration.

The Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) is the name given to the hypothesised most recent common ancestor of many of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim (singular "Kohen", "Cohen", or Kohane). In the Torah this ancestor is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses. The hypothetical most recent common ancestor was therefore jocularly dubbed "Y-chromosomal Aaron".
The J1e and J2a Cohen clusters have been estimated as descending from most recent common ancestors living 4,200 ± 1,300 and 3,200 ± 1,100 years ago respectively.
The data shows that the Kohanim were more than twice as likely to belong to Haplogroup J than the average non-Cohen Jew. Of those who did belong to Haplogroup J, the Kohanim were more than twice as likely to have an STR pattern close to the CMH-6, suggesting a much more recent common ancestry for most of them compared to an average non-Cohen Jew of Haplogroup J.
Further study published in 2009 found new markers and better defined variant (also called J-P58*). This research demonstrates that 46.1% of Kohanim carry Y chromosomes belonging to a single paternal lineage (J-P58*) that likely originated in the Near East well before the dispersal of Jewish groups in the Diaspora. Support for a Near Eastern origin of this lineage comes from its high frequency in our sample of Bedouins, Yemenis (67%), and Jordanians (55%) and its precipitous drop in frequency as one moves away from Saudi Arabia and the Near East. Moreover, there is a striking contrast between the relatively high frequency of J-58* in Jewish populations (>20%) and Kohanim (>46%) and its vanishingly low frequency in our sample of non- Jewish populations that hosted Jewish diaspora communities outside of the Near East.
The Sephardic Kohanim is the older lineage compared to Ashkenazi, though both of them are derived from the same common ancestor. The Shapiro family from Marrocos presented the oldest signature among all, passing from Sephardi branch in Spain, Portugal, and Netherlands and from there moving to Northern East Europe to Central and reaching Southern East Europe. As the history and records tells, correctly confirmed by DNA, Kohanim fled the Romans after destruction of the Temple and went to Marrocos, Spain/Portugal, to England, France, Germany. In the 14th century many fled to Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia.

A similar investigation was made with men who consider themselves Levites. Whereas the priestly are considered descendants of Aaron, who in turn was a descendant of Levi, son of Jacob, the Levites (a lower rank of the Temple) are considered descendants of Levi through other lineages. Levites should also therefore share common Y-chromosomal DNA.
The investigation of Levites found high frequencies of multiple distinct markers, suggestive of multiple origins for the majority of non-Aaronid Levite families. One marker, however, present in more than 50% of (Ashkenazi) Jewish Levites points to a common male ancestor or very few male ancestors within the last 2000 years for many Levites of the Ashkenazi community. This common ancestor belonged to the haplogroup R1a1 which is typical of Eastern Europeans, rather than the haplogroup J of the Cohen modal haplotype, and most likely lived at the time of the Ashkenazi settlement in Eastern Europe, and thus was not really a Levite.

The E1b1b1 haplogroup (formerly known as E3b1) has been observed in all Jewish groups worldwide. It is considered to be the second most prevalent haplogroup among the Jewish population outside of the J haplogroups. According to one non-peer reviewed paper it has also been observed in moderate numbers among individuals from Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Samaritan communities having traditions of descending from the tribe of Levi, suggesting that the E1b1b1 men claiming to be Levites may have existed in Israel before the Diaspora of 70 C.E.

In human genetics, E1b1b1a (or E-M78), formerly E3b1a, is the name of a major Y chromosome haplogroup found in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia and Europe.
The time of origin is approx 18,600 years BP. Place of origin: Northeastern Africa: the region of Egypt and Libya.
While there were apparently direct migrations from North Africa to Iberia and Southern Italy (E-V12, E-V22, and E-V65), the majority of E-M78 lineages found in Europe belong to the E-V13 sub-clade which appears to have entered Europe from the Near East, where it apparently originated, via the Balkans.
Ashkenazi and Sephardic groups share similar E-M78 ancestry. However, the fact that Behar found E-M78 to be much more prevalent among eastern versus western Ashkenazim (10 out of 12 results) argues in favor of admixture with Greek, Italian, Balkan or Eastern European populations. It is also possible that the origin of this sub-clade among Ashkenazim is attributable to Khazarian ancestors.
It also suggests that Western European Ashkenazim without E-M78 ancestry took a different route (at a different time) than Eastern Ashkenazim with E-M78 ancestry.

Nebel (2005) emphasized that the R1a1 haplogroup must have entered the Ashkenazi Jewish gene pool from outside sources because the ancestral haplotype (H6) is almost completely absent in Sephardic Jews, Kurdish Jews and Palestinian population samples. He suggested that R1a1 in Ashkenazim “may represent vestiges of the mysterious Khazars.” However, he also argued for a single founder event early on in the Jewish Diaspora, proposing that the TMRCA for R1a1 among Ashkenazi was approximately 62.7 generations ago, or 1567 years ago.
However, the proposal that R1a1 originated with a single founder event early in the Diaspora has become increasingly unlikely as research on Jewish DNA progresses. Since R1a1 is spread fairly evenly in haplotype distribution and frequency throughout the Ashkenazi populations from various countries (Germany, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine), then the founders must have entered the community either before it expanded and spread to Eastern Europe, or merged separately into both eastern and western Ashkenazi groups. However, Nebel (2005) is forced to assert an extremely early TMRCA due to his belief that R1a1 must have originated with a single founder or very small group of founders. In order for R1a1 to reach its high frequency (12%) among the Ashkenazim from a single founder, a very early date must be proposed for the introgression of this haplogroup. Under this scenario, R1a1 entered the Jewish community when it was extremely small and in its formative stage. Gene flow from a single R1a founder at this early stage would likely have a huge impact on the expanding Ashkenazi population.
However, it appears that the most recently revised mutational dating techniques lend support to Behar’s (2003) later date when applied to Jewish R1a1 haplotypes. If we assume that R1a1 entered the Jewish community around 1300 CE, then there would need to be enough founders to leave a 12% genetic impact on the population. Given that the Ashkenazi population at that time is estimated to be approximately 25,000 persons, it would be nearly impossible for a single founder to make such a significant genetic impact (Behar et al. 2004b). Adopting this conservative estimate of 25,000 persons, approximately two to three thousand R1a1 males probably entered the Ashkenazi community between the 12th-13 centuries.
Interestingly, there are no historical accounts of any large scale conversions or Eastern European groups entering the Jewish community at this time – except the Khazars.
Additionally, given the relatively late date of introgression and the large number of founders, these males must have already been very closely related to each other, sharing the R1a1 haplotypes that are later reflected in the Levite results. Behar (2003) noted that the lack of Levite R1a1 haplotype diversity suggested that all the founding lineages were very closely related to each other if, in fact, a large number of founding lineages contributed to the Levite R1a1 gene pool. The ancient reports on the Khazars indicate that the majority of the Jewish converts were from the Khazarian royalty and ruling classes (Koestler 1976, p.15). Although speculative, it seems likely this group would have intermarried heavily amongst itself, helping to preserve the group’s elite status. Thus, it is probable that they would have already possessed a set of closely related R1a1 haplotypes which they simply passed on to their Levite descendants.
Integration into the Levite priesthood would have secured for the Khazarian immigrants a place in their new community while helping them maintain a sense of elite status among a new people. Yet it is clear that the Khazars had become Jews long before they became part of the larger Ashkenazi community. Thus, it should not be surprising that six hundred years after their reported conversion, the Ashkenazim may have accorded them a special role among their Levite priesthood.

Haplogroup R1b is the most frequently occurring Y-chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe, where frequencies of 70% or more have been found in populations from Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands. Haplogroup R1b has probably entered the Sephardic Jews first when they were living in the Iberian Peninsula. It is also more present in Western European Ashkenazim than in Eastern European Ashkenazim. Haplogroup R1b is more present in Dutch Jews than in any other Jewish population, probably because of religious tolerance in the Netherlands and a higher rate of intermarriage.

Conclusions
1. The Jews are a heterogeneous group.
2. What the Jews have in common is more ideological than genetical.
3. The Jews share a lot of genes with other ethnic groups, like the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Turks, the Greeks, the Italians, and several other European groups.