Khazar origin of the European jews has been confirmed by a study in John Hopkins university

[Sikeliot]

I am still interested why Sicilians and Greeks (from islands?) and Ashkenazi Jews cluster together. Coincidence? Two-three years ago anothet Jewish scientist wrote a paper of A. Jews being southern Italian converts. I wonder what will be written in the next two years.

I am torn between thinking modern European Jews are southern Italian converts, and that it is a coincidence they cluster together. Because Sicilianu101 for instance got a significant couple of shared segments with Druze, and they are a group often said to be close to Jews too. Maybe both groups just have enough Levantine ancestry and a similar Mediterranean component?

If what AngloJew says is true, that modern Jews are the best representation of ancient Israelites.. since these Jews cluster with Sicilians and Greeks then it means the Jews of the Bible would have been almost genetically identical to today's Sicilians and Greeks.

[7eleven]

I am torn between thinking modern European Jews are southern Italian converts, and that it is a coincidence they cluster together. Because Sicilianu101 for instance got a significant couple of shared segments with Druze, and they are a group often said to be close to Jews too. Maybe both groups just have enough Levantine ancestry and a similar Mediterranean component?

Yeah all of those groups share a common Mediterranean/Levantine component.

[Anglojew]

A critique of the article;


This week saw the release of yet another study on the origins of European Jews (in fact, a pre-print). This one's called "The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses".

The author seems quite content that he's finally demonstrated a link between European Jews and the Khazar Empire. But has he really?

I do like the analysis presented is this paper. It's varied, thorough, and looks at Central European Jews separately from Eastern European Jews, with some interesting outcomes. But in the end, I think the author fumbled the interpretation of the results.

His mistake was treating the Armenian reference sample as a Caucasus group, and also a proxy for the gene pool of the Khazar Empire. Thus, when the Jewish samples showed strong affinity to the Armenians, the author mistook this as a signal of Khazar ancestry in Jews, because the Khazar Empire included parts of the Caucasus.

But what do modern Armenians of the South Caucasus have to do with ancient Khazars of the Pontic Caspian Steppe? Not much, I'd say. Armenians aren't even a useful Caucasian reference set, in my opinion. They're better treated as an Eastern Anatolian group, due to their high affinity to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern populations.

Moreover, they show low North/East European input, and very little East Eurasian influence, which is actually the sort of stuff we'd want in a proxy for the inhabitants of the Khazar Empire in what is now Southern Russia.

All those looking for Khazar influence in Jews should be aware that the Eurasian steppes are part of the Northern world, and this has been the case for thousands of years. We know this from ancient DNA, from samples all the way from what is now Ukraine to South Siberia. This Northern world is separated from the Southern world by some mighty barriers to gene flow, like the Black Sea, Caucasus Mountains and the deserts of Central Asia (see here).

Based on my own analyses of Jewish genomes, I'd say that Ashkenazim Jews are genetically an Eastern Mediterranean group, but with various other admixtures, like Western European, Eastern European, Eastern Anatolian, and even African and East Asian. Does that mean ancestry from the Khazar Empire? Perhaps in part, but it's hard to say for sure.

So, what could be a sure signal of Khazar influence in modern Jews? The best bet is probably the R1a-Z94 carried by many Ashkenazim Levites. This marker is very common in modern Indo-Iranian and Turkic groups, so it's not difficult to imagine its presence in ancient Khazaria. The only problem is that it's also seen in Semitic groups, like Arabs. That's why it's not possible to say at the moment if the Z94 in Jews is of Semitic, Khazar or some other origin, like, for example, Persian. Someone should look into that.

By the way, as per the supervised ADMIXTURE bar graph from the study, it's interesting to see the much higher levels of “Eastern European” influence in Eastern European Jews than in Central European Jews. I suppose that’s to be expected, considering the geography, but the reason I find it interesting is that it indicates recent Slavic introgression into the Eastern European Jewish gene pool. That's because if it was older, like from Khazaria, then Central European Jews would also carry it at decent levels.


http://eurogenes.blogspot.com.au/201...s-finally.html

[7eleven]

Ashkenazim are pretty much half North Italian half Anatolian/Levantine.

[Annihilus]

So, what could be a sure signal of Khazar influence in modern Jews? The best bet is probably the R1a-Z94 carried by many Ashkenazim Levites. This marker is very common in modern Indo-Iranian and Turkic groups, so it's not difficult to imagine its presence in ancient Khazaria. The only problem is that it's also seen in Semitic groups, like Arabs. That's why it's not possible to say at the moment if the Z94 in Jews is of Semitic, Khazar or some other origin, like, for example, Persian. Someone should look into that.

They are also Z2122 below Z94, it arose some 1200 hundred years a go north of the black sea, guess where Khazaria was? So far no arabs have tested + for it.

[Vesuvian Sky]

Other thing I heard about this clade of M-17 is that yes its found among Arabs but its only like 3%. Usually, if a Y-DNA HG is part of a populations founder effect, its far more frequent (though its not always the case). Hence why Y-DNA J groups are far more dominant among Semites as they were likely always there dating back to the days of the Proto-Semeitc community c. 10,000 BC.

The low frequency of this clade of M-17 may therefore reflect more recent, minimal influence. Turkic groups did infiltrate parts of the ME as well after all.

[Qemist]

Given the lack of any reliable genetic data for the Khazars the study seems a little futile. Perhaps some Khazar royal mummies will be found and resolve the question.

It is amusing to see the study described as part of an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic plot to delegitimize Israel in the Zionosphere. The author is of course an Israeli Jew, who looks fairly typically semitic (or is this what Khazars looked like?)

[Sarmatian]

His mistake was treating the Armenian reference sample as a Caucasus group, and also a proxy for the gene pool of the Khazar Empire. Thus, when the Jewish samples showed strong affinity to the Armenians, the author mistook this as a signal of Khazar ancestry in Jews, because the Khazar Empire included parts of the Caucasus.

This is a very good point. Modern Armenians indeed belong to Caucasus but in the days of Khazar Khaganate there was no Armenians at all.

[Anglojew]

Ashkenazim are pretty much half North Italian half Anatolian/Levantine.

Not surprising given that many Jews were captured and taken as Slaves to Italy by the Romans.

[bronze1000]

Interesting study.

Those claiming that Armenians, and the south caucuses in general, being a bad proxy show they have no idea what they are talking about when they suggest East Asians as a better proxy. Armenians are certainly closer.

We have descriptions of the Khazars from the middle ages, and none mention an East Asian appearance, "The 10th century Muslim geographer al-Iṣṭakhrī claimed that the White Khazars were strikingly handsome with reddish hair, white skin, and blue eyes, while the Black Khazars were swarthy, verging on deep black, as if they were some kind of Indian".

This study indicates that, based on contemporary populations, Ashkenazi Jews are not a middle eastern population. This has been rationalized by saying that contemporary middle eastern populations do not represent the population of biblical times. Ok, but for the past 15 years, studies, based on contemporary populations, have been claiming that Ashkenazi Jews are a middle eastern population. This confirms Elhaik's claims that the Rhineland hypothetists have been dishonest in previous studies.