Are Ashkenazi Jews Greek/Southern Italian or does their mix make them come out that way?

[7eleven]

It seems that in every DNA test Ashkenazim are almost identical to Southern Italians and Greek Islanders. Do they really come from them or is it just that Ashkenazim are a big mix of many groups which makes them come out that way?

I am half Ashkenazi half NW European and I asked Dr. McDonald to give me a 4 way mix and this is what he said

"English=0.539 Tuscan=0.260 Bedouin=0.175 Turkish=0.026

fit perfectly ... but the specific Jewish test is pretty clear. To explain without
Jewish ... or the some exotic combo like the above ... would require
some sort of Greek or some non-Cypriot Mediterranean island."

Though I have seen Italians also come up as Jewish on his analysis.

[Sikeliot]

Non-Cypriot Med island means Sicilian and Maltese.

All of them are basically the equivalent of Neolithic Middle Easterners with some minor Northern European and Indo-European admixture. I am not sure if it's coincidental or due to direct descent.

[Aquafina]

I honestly don't know, but I don't think we are descended from them. I think we have the same mix as them.

[alfieb]

Sicilians have Western European, Eastern European, Levantine and Maghrebi ancestry.

Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, being wanderers, have similar ancestry.

So it's not that Sicilians are Jews, or that Jews are Sicilians. Indeed, the Spanish Inquisition led to most of Sicily's Jews being deported, save for the few who converted to Catholicism. It's that we're more similar to each-other than we are to others who don't share our diverse heritage.

[Prince Carlo]

Ashkenazim don't cluster with mainland South Italians at all.

[kabeiros]

Neolithic origin, Phoenician colonization of Sicily, Greece(a few islands and Thebes) and Greco-Roman colonization of the Levant would already make eastern meds similar to each other a long time ago.

Furthermore, Jews have additional European influence which brings them even closer to us than we were in the past. Anyway, people with this genes have been proven to be ''ubermenschen'' throughout history

[Žołnir]

I watched Slovene documentary bout Jews in Slovene lands and they explained Ashkenazi steems from Ashkenaz which roughly means German lands. Anyways altho Wiki is often dubious source it dose provide similar answer;

The region of Ashkenaz was centred on the Rhineland and the Palatinate (notably Worms and Speyer), in what is now the westernmost part of Germany. Its geographic extent did not coincide with the German Christian principalities of the time and included northern France. How the name of Ashkenaz came to be associated in the rabbinic literature with the Rhineland is a subject of speculation.

In the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture formed in Central Europe which came to be called Ashkenazi, deriving its name from Ashkenaz. Though the region is no longer referred to by that name, the Jews who follow the traditions that originated in that culture are referred to as Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazi culture later spread into Eastern Europe and migrated to all parts of the world with the movement of Jews.

[Kassam]

It seems that in every DNA test Ashkenazim are almost identical to Southern Italians and Greek Islanders. Do they really come from them or is it just that Ashkenazim are a big mix of many groups which makes them come out that way?

This.

[Luchon20102012]

Ashkenazi jews don´t cluster at all with southern italian.

[Anglojew]

Combination of a confidence due to Levantine/Euro mix and also Phoenician/Roman admixure in Jews and Jewish admixture in Italians/Greeks.

After the Judean-Goth hybridization happened to create Ashkenazi Jews they travelled first to Gothic controlled Italy from where they then migrated to the Rhineland.