
Forskningen viser, at oprindelsen af den matrilineære linje for Ashkenazi-jøderne kommer fra Europa. Dette strider imod den almindelige tro på, at jøder først ankom til Centraleuropa efter den byzantinsk-sasanske krig i 602-628 og først begyndte at bosætte sig i Tyskland i middelalderen.
Ashkenazi-jøder er det udtryk, der bruges i dag til at beskrive disse jødiske mennesker - individer, der byggede religiøst baserede samfund århundreder senere i Central- og Østeuropa. En af de ting, de er anerkendt for, er brugen af jiddisch - et højtysk sprog skrevet i det hebraiske alfabet og påvirket af klassisk hebraisk og aramæisk.
The 2013 study co-author Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in England, said that while Ashkenazi Jews have lived in Europe for many centuries, the results of the study using DNA samples show that most European Jews descend from local people who converted to Judaism, not individuals who left Israel and the Middle East around 2,000 years ago.
Ashkenazi Jews were declared a clear, homogeneous genetic subgroup following a 2006 study. Ashkenazi Jews come from the same genetic group, no matter if their ancestors were from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, or another place with a large historical Jewish population. They are all in the same ethnic group.
How could it be that Ashkenazi Jews are just one genetic group? The answer is a relatively simple one: they didn't reproduce at a noticeable level with others outside their group (not even with other Jewish people). Researchers have shown Ashkenazi Jews were a reproductively isolated population in Europe for about 1000 years.
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Kommentar: Genetic study: Ashkenazi Jews are substantially of Western European origin