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A project of user Iẓeḍwan n Nanna-Tuda and I.
We collected around 85 samples (from 23andme matches) of full Moroccan Jews (4 grandparents are Moroccan borned Jews). This is one of the largest reference group for haplogroup survey of Moroccan Jews so far.
*When it comes to Y-DNA we counted people with the same surname and haplogroup as only 1 person, to make our results more reliable.*
And.... The results:
YDNA-
The most prevalent haplogroup was haplogroup J2 at around 20%. Notice that some Moroccan Jews belong to a European (Greek) subclades of haplogroup J2 such as J-L283 (many belong to that subclade) so it's not entirely of levantine origin. Some subclades of J2 were obviously of Levantine-Judean Origin.
Other levantine related haplogroups were Q-M342 (15%), J1 (6%), T-M70 (some subclades are west Mediterranean so I can't count entire 7% as levantine), E-V22 (5%), L-M342 (3%), and R2a (1%).
We concluded that about 50% of Moroccan Jews paternal lines trace back to the levant.
The second most Prevalent haplogroup was haplogroup R-M269 (W. Euro subclades as R-DF27, R-U106, R-U152 , at 18%) which is again of Western European Origin. Other European haplogroups are some subclades of J2 as mentioned above, G-Z3428 (10%) which is also of Iberian origin, E-V13 (3%) and I2a (usually I-Y7219, 1%) probably from germanic tribes that settled in Iberia (Suevi, visigoths...).
We concluded that around 35% of Moroccan Jews paternal lines are of Western and Southern European origin
When it comes to Berber haplogroups- E-L19 (10%), some subclades of T-M70 and Haplogroup E-V65 (1%).
We concluded that about 15% of Moroccan Jews paternal lines are of Berber origin.
Mtdna:
*Again we avoided counting numerous times members of the same family.*
The most prevalent haplogroup was H1 (36%), both subclades (H1e and H1o) are of European origin, (though H1 is also common in North Africa and not enough studies have been done on gentile Moroccans to determine whether they have those haplogroups as well). H4a1a (16%) is the second most prevalent haplogroup and it's mostly found in Europe but some subclades can be of levantine origin. Haplogroup HV0 (9%) is found among Iberians and Berbers reflecting West Mediterranean ancestry.
Haplogroup K1a (8%) subclades were K1a3a1a (Western Europe), K1a2a (NW Europe) and k1c2 (Western Europe and the maghreb).
I4a1a and I5 (6%) both reflect Western European lines. Haplogroup J1C (J1C1 and J1c3) reflects West Mediterranean lines (berber and Basque depends on the specific subclade). Haplogroup HV1a (4%) reflects Middle Eastern lines while HV1c (4%) probably reflects Italian maternal lines.
Haplogroup U6a (3%) reflects West Mediterranean origins (Berber and Iberian), while Haplogroup X2b (3%) probably reflects Levantine maternal lines
Haplogroup H2 (2%) and H3 (2%) are both of European origin but H3 can be from Berber female ancestors as well.
Haplogroup M1a1 (1%) probably came with Judean mothers while haplogroup L2a1 (1%) is of SSA West African origin and came from Berbers.
Our conclusion is that the vast majority of Moroccan Jews maternal lines are European (mainly Iberia and Italy), few are Berber and even fewer are of levantine-Judean origin. That is the opposite to the paternal lines.
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