Why do Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews cluster with Greeks and Southern Italians?

[Sikeliot]

I don't mean to make yet another thread about Jewish genetics. But I'm legitimately curious.

I used to just say "All four groups are a similar mixture of Neolithic/West Asian/Levantine and European genetics."

But I no longer think this. What is the chance that Sephardi and Ashkenazis, both with different histories and regions of settlement (Sephardis in Southern Europe, Ashkenazis in Central-Eastern Europe) would somehow coincidentally acquire not only very similar genetics to one another, but to Greeks and south Italians/Sicilians/Maltese?

I'm wondering if before spreading out to the rest of Europe, Jews expelled from Israel ended up in SE Europe and mixed significantly with the populations of the region (I know that there had historically been significant Jewish populations in Calabria, Sicily, parts of Greece, and much of Italy during the Roman Empire). Might these people be the ancestors of the majority of today's Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews?

[Mercury]

I saw a documentary once on Hebrews that voluntarily moved to Greece soon after their exodus from Egypt. Combine that with the amount of Jews that mixed with Greeks in the Hellenic Judaism culture. Also ancient Phoenicians, close cousins of the Jews and in many time Hebrews themselves, migrating heavily to places like Southern Greece and Sicily. Finally, Christianized Hebrews who have accepted Christ and mixed with the host gentile populations.

[Sikeliot]

I saw a documentary once on Hebrews that voluntarily moved to Greece soon after their exodus from Egypt. Combine that with the amount of Jews that mixed with Greeks in the Hellenic Judaism culture. Also ancient Phoenicians, close cousins of the Jews and in many time Hebrews themselves, migrating heavily to places like Southern Greece and Sicily. Finally, Christianized Hebrews who have accepted Christ and mixed with the host gentile populations.

Then the other confusing part is why Jews are genetically closer to Sicilian/Calabrese/Maltese people than to Greeks, which means one of two things must be true;

1) today's Jews in "Greece" were in Magna Graecia and not Greece proper
2) Today's Greeks have more Slavic influence than the Greeks these Jews are descended from.

[brunette]

Because Ashkenazi Jews have 20-30 European blood. They are genetically closer to each other ( and Yemeni Jews ) than anything European.

[Sikeliot]

Because Ashkenazi Jews have 20-30 European blood. They are genetically closer to each other ( and Yemeni Jews ) than anything European.

But what was the chance they would develop a genome almost exactly like a Greek or a southern Italian? Close to none unless they are descended from them.

[brunette]

Because they spread out and broke apart so they're related to a type of Jew or two types whatever + some other European country they settled in.

[StonyArabia]

Sephardim and Ashkenazim appear to have a very weak Levantine base. It does seem that Judaism in the past was rather an open religion that encouraged conversions. The Sephardim and Ashkenazim seem to have absorbed large amounts of Greco-Roman blood, and their Levantine blood was diluted to a very non-signifcant element and in fact has become. Yemenite Jews don't cluster with Sephardim and Ashkenazim and are basically Arabian converts. Judaism was never an ethnic exclusive religion, like how it appears. Conversion were far more common than it's often believed.

[Mercury]

Sephardim and Ashkenazim appear to have a very weak Levantine base. It does seem that Judaism in the past was rather an open religion that encouraged conversions. The Sephardim and Ashkenazim seem to have absorbed large amounts of Greco-Roman blood, and their Levantine blood was diluted to a very non-signifcant element and in fact has become. Yemenite Jews don't cluster with Sephardim and Ashkenazim and are basically Arabian converts. Judaism was never an ethnic exclusive religion, like how it appears. Conversion were far more common than it's often believed.

There were hints of a "spiritual Israel" in the Old Testament. There were some accounts of gentiles converting and becoming one with the children of Abraham.

[Racial Observer 1814]

I can understand Sephardim, but the others clustering with Greeks & Southern Italians makes less sense.

[Prince Carlo]

They don't form a cluster with S.Italians and Greeks. Jews are closer to Cypriots btw.