European DNA in Ashkenazi Jews

[Kraven]

What's the amount of European DNA in Ashkenazi Jews?

According to the study conducted by Harry Ostrer it's around 25-18% and it's coming from Central European source likely Germany. The rest comes from the Levant area. It can be seen in most of the GEDMatch calculators like for example here:



West_Asia
NE_Europe
Americas
Siberia
Oceania
South_Asia
NE_Asia
East_Africa
SE_Asia
SW_Europe
SW_Asia
West_Africa
South_Africa


Syrian_Alawite

35.50

8.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.00

0.00

1.00

0.00

31.00

23.00

0.50

0.00


Ashkenazy_Jew

25.50

17.50

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

38.50

16.50

0.50

0.00



Genetic share: 82.5%
European DNA: 17.5%

<hr>

I heard from other source that Ashkenazi Jews are modeled as being half North Italian half Samaritan Jew. Any opinion on the matter?

[Aberration]

What's the amount of European DNA in Ashkenazi Jews?

According to the study conducted by Harry Ostrer it's around 25-18% and it's coming from Central European source likely Germany. The rest comes from the Levant area. It can be seen in most of the GEDMatch calculators like for example here:



West_Asia
NE_Europe
Americas
Siberia
Oceania
South_Asia
NE_Asia
East_Africa
SE_Asia
SW_Europe
SW_Asia
West_Africa
South_Africa


Syrian_Alawite

35.50

8.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.00

0.00

1.00

0.00

31.00

23.00

0.50

0.00


Ashkenazy_Jew

25.50

17.50

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.50

0.00

0.50

0.50

38.50

16.50

0.50

0.00



Genetic share: 82.5%
European DNA: 17.5%

<hr>

I heard from other source that Ashkenazi Jews are modeled as being half North Italian half Samaritan Jew. Any opinion on the matter?

The overwhelming majority of the European admixture in Ashkenazi Jews was acquired between antiquity and the early Middle Ages before settlement in the Rhineland. The Xue et all study from 2017 determined based on IBD sharing that the last admixture between Ashkenazi Jews and Southern Europe (Italy & Greece) was not over 50 generations ago, so well after Jewish proselytism in the Roman Empire was prohibited by Septimius Severus. How later Italic admixture might have been acquired is uncertain. Even though they were not allowed to own Christian Italic slaves, Jews were active in the slave trade in the Italy at the time, so potential contact with female slaves cannot be denied. Slave contact seems more plausible than willing conversion of freemen in defiance of strict prohibition.

Yekkes (German Jews in Israel) are the most Levantine of Ashkenazi subgroups (according to Global25) so it wouldn’t make sense for the Northern European admixture to be German. From initial settlement until widespread assimilation in the 19th century, gentile gene flow into the German Jewish population was virtually non-existent. While in 19th century Eastern Europe the intermarriage rate was far lower than Germany, cases of gentile rapes of Jewish women (most notably during the Khmelnytsky Uprising) make the gentile admixture with Eastern Ashkenazics notably greater than Western Ashkenazics (although still minor) during early modern times.

Global 25 distances:
https://i.ibb.co/vLG20n2/D6959791-7-B94-40-A5-93-A8-CF965-C569-ADC.png