What is a Jew? The question being asked by geneticists around the world right now is what not who is a Jew. They are talking about What DNA not what religion. There was no official time of the split, it was a process, but I indicated that it BEGAN about 2000 years ago according to some researchers. But the Ashkenazi DNA did not get started until less than 1000 years ago when Jews (and I use this term to mean Jewish DNA not to define whether or not they practice) left because of political events that caused them to leave Italy, Spain, and Greece to head towards the North and East of Europe. Before the men intermarried along the way, they were primarily Mediterranean. Then the genes began to split. We cannot test with Autosomal that far back. The process began to turn the Jewish DNA into Ashkenazi DNA AKA European Jewish gradually diluting the Mediterranean portion and increasing the female Western European contribution. During this time the Yiddish language developed, and as the men married outside the religion to obtain wifes, as women typically did not travel. Some settled along the way and formed shettles that became towns...and stopped intermarriage with non-Jew when they settled no matter where. Some continued as time went on. The Yiddish language resulted from the various Jewish Diaspora, and groups of people leaving and following the paths of previous pioneers just like the history of America in the opposite direction, South and West to East and North Europe, in the case of the Jews. Yiddish was not complete until the arrival to Poland where Polish became a large part of what began as a Germanic Dialect. Now Polish forms a large portion of Yiddish. The question, What portion of the Yiddish speaking people is actually Sephardic (not my favorite term) but more important to most Jews, from the original tribes. This is a question that does not interest me. I just want to find a way to bridge the gap between the Yiddish years of formation and the Mediterranean settlement, which is between 700 years ago and 2000 years ago. I think we do not have the technology for that yet. They are trying hard at several great universities around the world to solve the puzzle, What is a Jew.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:49:01 +0000