John R. Houk
© October 10, 2011
I have been having a discussion with a pro-Palestinian-Arab individual relation to the Jews having a right to the national heritage. The discussion has been ongoing. It was based on a Prime Minister Netanyahu speech where he proclaimed that Jerusalem is not a Settlement but the Capital of the Jewish Homeland.
The discussion surrounded around the point of argument between Jews being a religion or a race. Chugalongway said this in her last comment:
Judaism is a religion of converts. I wonder what ethnicity a American Indian is if he became Jewish???????
No such thing as the Jewish People. The Jews are made up of many ethnicities from the Lemba Jews, Chinese Jews , Berber Jews to the European Jew. The list is endless because Judaism is a world-wide religion just like Christianity and Islam.
So let’s begin to look at the reality of a Jewish race:
The new analysis shows that Jewish ancestry reflects a mosaic of genetic sources. While earlier studies focused on the Middle Eastern component of Jewish DNA, new research has revealed that both Europeans and Central Asians also made significant genetic contributions to Jewish ancestry. Moreover, while the DNA studies have confirmed the close genetic interrelatedness of many Jewish communities, they have also confirmed what many suspected all along: Jews do not constitute a single group distinct from all others. Rather, modern Jews exhibit a diversity of genetic profiles, some reflective of their Semitic/Mediterranean ancestry, but others suggesting an origin in European and Central Asian groups. The blending of European, Semitic, Central Asian and Mediterranean heritage over the centuries has led to today’s Jewish populations. (A MOSAIC OF PEOPLE: THE JEWISH STORY AND A REASSESSMENT OF THE DNA EVIDENCE; by Ellen Levy-Coffman; http://www.jogg.info)
Studies show that a significant majority of global Jewry can trace their DNA back toward the ancient Israelites. It is true that the Diaspora Jews have blended into the races in which they resided for centuries; nonetheless the DNA heritage is still there. Ergo, since Judaic culture maintained itself plus the DNA is there no matter how minute, especially European Jews do have a claim to Israel.
Judaism is more than a religion. Judaism is a community derived from ancient Israel that found itself expelled from their homeland first by Assyrians, then Babylonians and lastly by European Romans. Since intermarriage also occurred in the Middle East between Jews and Middle Eastern non-Jews, it appears Middle Eastern Jews retained a larger amount of the ancient Israelite DNA.
According to a study that I read it appears that Jews from Asia and India have the least have the least provable amount of Israelite-Jewish DNA. In most cases geneticists cannot make the direct link to most Asian and Indian Jews to the Israelites. This begs the question: Who or Why would someone convert to Judaism with its stringent qualifications to become a Jew and maintain enough of Jewish culture to call their community Jewish? The question is significant because Orthodox Rabbis will not define Chinese Jews and Indian Jews as Jewish because of the lack of heritage followed matrilineally and the Jewish cultural community is diluted to non-existent.
In 2010 respected geneticists from America determined that the majority of Jews indeed have a common gene making them a Jewish race beyond a religious culture:
Two new genome studies of Jews worldwide prove that the Jewish people — long called the “People of the Book,” the “Chosen People” or, in unkind circles, “those people” — are, indeed, a people after all.
The first study, by researchers at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, found that Jews across the globe share distinct genetic traits that are different from other groups and that trace back to the ancient Middle East.
Researchers say the study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, puts to rest age-old questions about whether Jews are a group of unrelated people who share a religious ideology or a distinct ethnicity with common ancestry.
“The debate is over,” said Dr. Edward R. Burns, one of the lead authors of the study. “The Jewish people are one people with a common genetic thread that evolved in the second or third century BC.”
The study, “Abraham’s Children in the Genome Era,” compared the genetic analyses of 237 Jews, including Sephardic (Middle Eastern) and Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews — as well as an analysis of 418 non-Jews worldwide, and found that the Jews were more closely related to each other than to their fellow countrymen.
Past studies have reached similar conclusions, but they looked at smaller populations and considered only blood groups, mitochondrial DNA (a type of DNA passed down by mothers) or Y chromosomes (passed down by fathers).
For this inquiry, researchers conducted a genome-wide analysis of the major groups of the Jewish Diaspora — Ashkenazi Jews; Italian, Greek and Turkish Sephardic Jews; and Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian Jews.
The study — and a second genetic study published Friday in the journal Nature — scientifically undermines arguments made by those who challenge Jews’ historical relationship to Israel, such as former White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who resigned last week after saying Jews in Israel should “go home” to Germany, Poland and the United States.
Turns out, the Jews in Israel are already there.
… (Genetic testing raises an age-old question — are the Jews a people, or a religion? By MAYRAV SAAR; Posted: 12:15 AM, June 13, 2010 - Last Updated: 5:15 AM, June 13, 2010; New York Post)
Is there a Jewish faith? Yes. Is there a Jewish race? Yes. Are all Jews religious Jews? Not necessarily; indeed some may be Jewish and participate in another religion. Check this out:
A big number of Palestinian Muslims have decided to convert from Islam to Judaism. Barukh HaShem. Besides the fact that some are aware of their Jewish ancestry, a increased number of Palestinian Muslims in cities such as Hebron and Shekhem (Nablus) have converted back to Judaism and Samaritanism as well as learning the truth in Judaism and the Torah. Because of their fear of Hamas persecuting them for accepting the one and only G-d, where all prophets are equally loved by him in Judaism, many of them practice secretly in their homes, other have gone to live in Israel. G-d bless them and guide them to Torah learning. Amen
This is the summary to part one of a two part video on YouTube:
Science doesn’t lie, it is the human conclusions that are manipulated. From the data I have just shown it would be moronic not to conclude that there is a Jewish race:
In some of the dry and dusty Palestinian and Bedouin villages they still circumcise their boys after the seventh day. Hidden away in some Palestinian homes are Jewish mezuzahs and tefillin. Some older residents can recall lighting candles on the Sabbath.
“Many of the Palestinians know it, but it’s not politically correct to acknowledge this publicly among Muslims,” says Steve Hagerman, founder of Turkish World Outreach. “There are two houses of Israel in the Holy Land: one aligned with the West and primarily secular or Jewish and the other aligned with the East and primarily Islam.”
When the northern kingdom of Israel was deported by the Assyrians in 745-702 B.C., most were sent to the east, Hagerman notes. After the Roman conquest, many Jews were carried away as slaves or fled to the west. “Many of the people in southern and central Italy are of Jewish origin, because so many slaves were carried away by the Romans to big estates in southern Italy.”
Hagerman cites a documentary that appeared on Israeli television in 2009 that established many common links. The documentary, produced by Nissim Mossek, quotes Rabbi Dov Stein, secretary of the New Sanhedrin, “It becomes clear that a significant part of the Arabs in the land of Israel are actually descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Islam over the centuries,” he says. “There are studies which indicate that 85% of this group is of Jewish origin.”
Genetic studies have confirmed the connection. Ariella Oppenheim PhD, a researcher at Hebrew University and the Hadassah Medical School labs, did several important studies in 2000 and 2001. She was able to demonstrate common origins and a number of surprising relationships. Oppenheim established that both the Palestinians and the Jews descended from the Kurds of Babylon, homeland of the patriarch Abraham.
Perhaps more surprising, she found the Ashkenazi Jews from Europe are genetically closer to the Palestinians than Middle East Jews.
… (Many surprised by genetic and cultural links between Palestinians and Jews; By Mark Ellis, September 16, 2011; CN Publications)
JRH 10/10/11
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