What exactly is a Jewish Person?

Ancestry proportions by grandparental country of origin. For individuals from the Jewish-Israeli sample with four grandparents from the same country and for the Ethiopian-Jewish sample, proportions of ancestry for individuals from a given geographic point are shown as segments of each pie chart.

Middle Eastern ancestry may be a common factor among Jewish populations; however, the majority of Jewish populations have been located outside of the Middle East for up to 2000 years. As is the case with other highly mobile human populations there has been historically documented gene flow between Jewish populations and local host populations. In addition, because these are populations defined, in part, by religion, gene flow into Jewish populations is a product of conversion as well as marriage. Thus, there should be genetic admixture in Jewish subpopulations that reflects, in part, their migratory histories and may contribute to current genetic differences among Jewish populations. It is known that detecting and quantifying recent admixture is dependent on the time since divergence of the putative parental populations as well as the number and information content of markers. Because clustering algorithms are also dependent on the relative differences between populations, the context of a sample in a given analysis (i.e., the extent of its difference from samples of other populations included in the analysis) can affect clustering patterns. This aspect of the process of population substructure detection may be overlooked in case control association studies and may affect results if not taken into consideration. Based on this, we hypothesized that the presence or absence of putative parental populations in a STRUCTURE analysis would affect the ability to detect substructure in Jewish populations and differences between Jewish populations.

The migratory history and origins of Ashkenazi Jews are less clear than those of non-Ashkenazi Jews. During the early Middle Ages in Europe, Jews lived in close proximity with their non-Jewish neighbors in small villages with constant interaction. Intermarriage, although periodically outlawed by host-country governments, occurred with some regularity [53]. In addition, Jewish Europe was never solely inhabited by Ashkenazi Jews. Some Jews expelled from Spain during the inquisition settled in part of the Ottoman Empire, which includes the Balkans (present-day Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Bosnia, and Serbia), while others went to Italy, Holland, and France [54]. In fact, all subjects in this study who identified their grandparents as having come from Balkan countries also identified themselves as non-Ashkenazi and those with two grandparents from Balkan countries identified the parent on that side as non-Ashkenazi.

We believe that the apparent Southern genetic component of those of European descent (Jewish or not), as well as that seen in Jews, is actually originally Middle Eastern in origin. This is consistent to various degrees with previous results from y-chromosomal [3,8], mtDNA [3,5,21] and autosomal evidence [25,26] as well as historical evidence. The large Northern component in all Ashkenazi populations included in this study indicates significant local contribution to these populations, which either occurred early in their histories (German and Ukraine) or in small increments over time (other Ashkenazi populations as evidenced by high variance of Northern/Southern components). Among non-Ashkenazi Jewish populations sampled, although all have exhibited porous membership, Ethiopian and Indian Jewish communities have particularly significant local contributions to their gene pools.

BMC Genetics | Full text | Identification of population substructure among Jews using STR markers and dependence on reference populations included


The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora.

Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes

falcondule said:

Anyone who has ever read anything should know that the Jews are not like ordinary people. But what exactly are they?
Are they a race of people;a religion;a nationality;a humanistic community ;a cultural group,or just what!

Can you name me another race which includes a religious belief attached to it? Is there a religion that is race specific any where in the world.
Is there a nationality that also defines itself in terms of race .

We have white americans and black americans and other colors . If jewish people are not a race but a nationality ,then of what nation are they?

Are they automatically citizens of Israel and also of other countries?

An Italian-American can be a citizen of the usa ,but not automatically a citizen of Italy.
Are they simply a cultural group ;then why do they claim israel as their homeland?
If they are a religion and a cultural community with historical roots ,then how can a jew be an atheist and still call himself a jew at the same time?

If a Jew views Israel as the ethnic and religious homeland ,as outlined in the Old Testament;then how can he believe this if he is an atheist [as most Israelis are] and denies the beliefs expressed in the Old Testament?
just thought I'd ask!

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Semites are descended from Shem, son of Noah. That includes most Muslims in the ME.
The word "Jew" comes from the tribe of Judah but "Jew" now refers to all physical and spiritual descendants of Jacob. Jacob as you may know was given a new name by God. That name was Israel.

A Jewish person is someone who no longer believes in Judaism but is not racist or stupid enough to be a Zionist blackshirt childkiller. Salt of the earth.

Iolo said:

A Jewish person is someone who no longer believes in Judaism but is not racist or stupid enough to be a Zionist blackshirt childkiller. Salt of the earth.

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interesting opinion...and a well veiled insult.

tecoyah said:

interesting opinion...and a well veiled insult.

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Even anti-Semitics learn to curb their tongue if spanked enough.

As for Jews, it's a religion, but also a culture. Hispanic isn't a race nor a nationality; it's a culture but often also closely associated with Catholicism.

Road Warrior said:

Even anti-Semitics learn to curb their tongue if spanked enough.

As for Jews, it's a religion, but also a culture. Hispanic isn't a race nor a nationality; it's a culture but often also closely associated with Catholicism.

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What the shit does that mean? Are you calling me a Nazi?

Iolo said:

What the shit does that mean? Are you calling me a Nazi?

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I believe in was a reaction to your comment, which did not paint his heritage or culture in a very productive light...might I recommend you show a bit more class when discussing sensitive topics.

tecoyah said:

I believe in was a reaction to your comment, which did not paint his heritage or culture in a very productive light...might I recommend you show a bit more class when discussing sensitive topics.

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I don't follow. A Jew is a believer in Judaism, a Zionist is a murderous racist, and we need a word for the very large number of fascinating people who still connect with their upbringing without assimilating either to ex-Christian societies or the Nazi child-killers. Was this fellow in the SS, a camp guard, or what?

Never understood why a Jew can never be criticised? The nation of Israel was born out of the 12 sons of Jacob. The nation is comprised of twelve tribes, each named after a son of Jacob. There is the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Dan, the tribe of Benjamin, etc., and of course the tribe of Judah which members were referred to as Jews, but not before the book of Kings. But what most people confuse is all members of the house of Israel are not Jews. Just like every Texan is an American but not every American is a Texan, every Jew is an Israelite but not every Israelite is a Jew.

Aufgeblassen said:

Anthony Wiener is a good example of a moron :bounce:

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fixed it for 'ya

They are as you described them, and if not for the Christian community and western national support they wouldn't get away with that.

Aufgeblassen said:

You got that bass ackwards! The Palestinians indiscriminately TARGET innocent children, the Israelis do NOT. That alone is sub-human behavior. You have a warped mind to believe otherwise.

In fact, the Israelis go out of their way to avoid collateral damage. Palestinians dance in the streets the more innocence people they can kill.

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Did you forget what Israel did to Lebanon in June of 2006 or just ignoring it because its Israeli aggression and doesn't fit the meme?

It's not their property. It was taken from the Palestinians by edict of the UN in 1947.

Montecresto said:

It's not their property. It was taken from the Palestinians by edict of the UN in 1947.

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You would give the UN your house?

Iolo said:

I don't follow. A Jew is a believer in Judaism, a Zionist is a murderous racist, and we need a word for the very large number of fascinating people who still connect with their upbringing without assimilating either to ex-Christian societies or the Nazi child-killers. Was this fellow in the SS, a camp guard, or what?

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It's YOUR definition of "zionist" that IS Racist.
Link for it beside your hate speech?

Most Jews Are Zionists in that they support Israel's existence if Not all it policies.

You are trying the latest bigoted trick of trying to paint 3% Anti-zionist/"Good Jews" vs 97% of Jews/Zionists as "Bad Jews"/Racists.
But if you 'just' hate/Demonize 97% of Jews, the term of art Still applies.

`

A Jewish person is a person that believes in the God of Abraham but dies not believe Jesus was the Messiah nor that Mohammad was a prophet. There is certain cultural aspects that go along with the Jewish religion and people who aren't religious participate in this same culture.

Jewish is a religion. There us no such thing as an atheist Jew anymore than an atheist Muslim or Christian.

That is my opinion anyway.