Nature Reports:

Researchers from the Technion and the Rambam Medical Center Led Broad Research that for First Time Has Clarified the Genetic Structure of the Jewish People over the Entire Genome Level

Researchers from eight countries examined 600,000 genetic traits; receiving an integrated picture of the genetic structure of the Jewish People by comparing the descendents of 14 Diaspora Jewish communities with 69 non-Jewish populations around the world; most of the Jewish communities showed genetic links to a Levantine component

An international team of scientific researchers from eight countries has clarified the genetic structure of the Jewish People over the entire genome level. The prestigious scientific journal “Nature” reports that researchers from eight countries examined 600,000 genetic traits and received an integrated picture of the genetic structure of the Jewish People by comparing the descendents of Diaspora Jewish communities with 69 non-Jewish populations around the world.

The primary author of the article is Dr. Doron Behar of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, who works with Prof. Richard Villems from the Estonian Biological Center in Tartu. The other Israeli researchers are Prof. Karl Skorecki and Gennady Yudkowsky from the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Rappaport Family Institute for Research in Medical Sciences and the Rambam Medical Center; and Dr. Saharon Rosset, Dr. David Gurwitz and Prof. Batsheva Bonee-Tamir from Tel-Aviv University.

“Contemporary Jewry is made up of a collection of communities whose members around the world identify with one another by virtue of common religious tradition, history and culture,” explains Dr. Behar. “Historical evidence suggests a common origin in the Middle East, followed by multiple migrations that led to the creation of Jewish communities in Europe, Africa and Asia – what we call the Jewish Diaspora. Previous genetic research showed a common patriarchal dynasty with multiple establishing events for a matriarchal dynasty – but did not examine the origin of Jews on the overall genome level and across the wide spectrum of the Jewish Diaspora.”

The international team of scientists, which included researchers from Israel, Estonia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Great Britain and the USA, completed a comprehensive analysis of more than 600,000 genetic traits dispersed over the entire genome in order to receive an integrated picture of the genetic structure of the Jewish People. They did so by comparing the descendents of 14 Diaspora Jewish communities with 69 non-Jewish populations around the world. Analysis of the results demonstrated a genetic structure in Middle Eastern populations that was not previously described and emphasized a Levantine component which shows a strong genetic link to most of the Jewish communities and more than 90% of contemporary Jewry. The genetic group of Jewish communities and its overlapping with certain Levantine populations is greater than the overlapping with host populations in the Diaspora in an overwhelming number of cases. These findings are consistent with common origins in the Levant, later migration that led to the creation of the Jewish Diaspora and different levels of mixing with non-Jewish populations among different communities in the Jewish dispersion. Therefore, the genetic evidence on a broad genome level is consistent with accepted historical testimony concerning the origin and population structure of the Jewish people.