Genetics and the History of the Samaritans: Y-Chromosomal Microsatellites and Genetic Affinity between Samaritans and Cohanim

Oefner, Peter J.; Hölzl, Georg; Shen, Peidong; Shpirer, Isaac; Gefel, Dov; Lavi, Tal; Woolf, Eilon; Cohen, Jonathan C.; Cinnioğlu, Cengiz; Underhill, Peter A.; Rosenberg, Noah A.; Hochrein, Jochen; Granka, Julie M.; Hillel, J.; Feldman, Marcus W.

doi:10.3378/027.085.0601

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Sephardic Jews were also included in studies of the Y chromosome phylogeography ( Semino et al, 2004 ), in the genetic affinities between Jews and other populations from the Middle East ( Shen et al, 2004 ; Oefner et al, 2013 ) and in the construction of the genetic landscape of the Iberian Peninsula ( Adams et al, 2008 ). The genetic profile of the Sephardic Jews can be seen in Figure 1 .…”

Section: The Crypto-jews‘ Genetic Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Portuguese crypto-Jews: the genetic heritage of a complex history

et al. 2015

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The first documents mentioning Jewish people in Iberia are from the Visigothic period. It was also in this period that the first documented anti-Judaic persecution took place. Other episodes of persecution would happen again and again during the long troubled history of the Jewish people in Iberia and culminated with the Decrees of Expulsion and the establishment of the Inquisition: some Jews converted to Catholicism while others resisted and were forcedly baptized, becoming the first Iberian Crypto-Jews. In the 18th century the official discrimination and persecution carried out by the Inquisition ended and several Jewish communities emerged in Portugal. From a populational genetics point of view, the worldwide Diaspora of contemporary Jewish communities has been intensely studied. Nevertheless, very little information is available concerning Sephardic and Iberian Crypto-Jewish descendants. Data from the Iberian Peninsula, the original geographic source of Sephardic Jews, is limited to two populations in Portugal, Belmonte, and Bragança district, and the Chueta community from Mallorca. Belmonte was the first Jewish community studied for uniparental markers. The construction of a reference model for the history of the Portuguese Jewish communities, in which the genetic and classical historical data interplay dynamically, is still ongoing. Recently an enlarged sample covering a wide region in the Northeast Portugal was undertaken, allowing the genetic profiling of male and female lineages. A Jewish specific shared female lineage (HV0b) was detected between the community of Belmonte and Bragança. In contrast to what was previously described as a hallmark of the Portuguese Jews, an unexpectedly high polymorphism of lineages was found in Bragança, showing a surprising resistance to the erosion of genetic diversity typical of small-sized isolate populations, as well as signs of admixture with the Portuguese host population.

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Section: The Crypto-jews‘ Genetic Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Portuguese crypto-Jews: the genetic heritage of a complex history

et al. 2015

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“…Peter Oefner and colleagues investigate genetic variation in the Samaritans, a small Middle Eastern population that traces its heritage to a split from Israelite/Jewish populations during biblical times, and whose ancestry has been contentious for much of the time since. Oefner et al (2014) consider Y--chromosomal and autosomal genetic variation in Samaritans alongside comparable variation in Jewish and non--Jewish populations sampled in Israel, as well as in relation to various populations from surrounding regions. Their analysis of genetic distances finds that the Samaritans have genetic similarity with Cohanim, members of the Jewish priestly caste.…”

Section: The Papersmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Generation to Generation: The Genetics of Jewish Populations

Rosenberg

Weitzman

2013

Human Biology

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“…For the publications up to the year 2005, see the entries "Anthropology" and "Genetics" in the Subject Index of Crown and Pummer (2005). Genetics is also the subject of the article by Oefner et al (2013).…”

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confidence: 99%