"The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews"
by Kevin Alan Brook
http://www.barzan.com/kevin_brook.htmKurds are the Closest Relatives of Jews
In 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists
discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely
related to the Kurdish people -- more closely than they are to the
Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested.
The researchers sampled a total of 526 Y-chromosomes from 6
populations (Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Muslims, Palestinian Arabs,
Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, and Bedouin from southern
Israel) and added extra data on 1321 persons from 12 populations
(including Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Berbers, Portuguese,
Spaniards, Arabs, Armenians, and Anatolian Turks). Most of the
95 Kurdish Muslim test subjects came from northern Iraq.
Ashkenazic Jews have ancestors who lived in central and eastern
Europe, while Sephardic Jews have ancestors from southwestern
Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Kurdish Jews
and Sephardic Jews were found to be very close to each other.
Both of these Jewish populations differed somewhat from
Ashkenazic Jews, who mixed with European peoples during their
diaspora. The researchers suggested that the approximately 12.7
percent of Ashkenazic Jews who have the Eu 19 chromosomes --
which are found among between 54 and 60 percent of Eastern
European Christians -- descend paternally from eastern Europeans
(such as Slavs) or Khazars. But the majority of Ashkenazic Jews,
who possess Eu 9 and other chromosomes, descend paternally
from Judeans who lived in Israel two thousand years ago. In the
article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of
Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of
Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer
genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean
(Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in
the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins).
A previous study by Ariella Oppenheim and her colleagues,
published in Human Genetics in December 2000, showed that
about 70 percent of Jewish paternal ancestries and about 82
percent of Palestinian Arabs share the same chromosomal pool.
The geneticists asserted that this might support the claim that
Palestinian Arabs descend in part from Judeans who converted to
Islam. With their closer relationship to Jews, the Palestinian Arabs
are distinctive from other Arab groups, such as Syrians, Lebanese,
Saudis, and Iraqis, who have less of a connection to Jews.
A study by Michael Hammer et al., published in PNAS in June
2000, had identified a genetic connection between Arabs
(especially Syrians and Palestinians) and Jews, but had not tested
Kurds, so it was less complete.
Many Kurds have the "Jewish" Cohen Modal Haplotype
In the 1990s, a team of scientists (including the geneticist Michael
Hammer, the nephrologist Karl Skorecki, and their colleagues in
England) discovered the existence of a haplotype which they
termed the "Cohen modal haplotype" (abbreviated as CMH).
Cohen is the Hebrew word for "priest", and designates
descendants of Judean priests from two thousand years ago. Initial
research indicated that while only about 3 percent of general Jews
have this haplotype, 45 percent of Ashkenazic Cohens have it,
while 56 percent of Sephardic Cohens have it. David Goldstein,
an evolutionary geneticist at Oxford University, said: "It looks like
this chromosomal type was a constituent of the ancestral Hebrew
population." Some Jewish rabbis used the Cohen study to argue
that all Cohens with the CMH had descended from Aaron, a High
Priest who lived about 3500 years ago, as the Torah claimed.
Shortly after, it was determined that 53 percent of the Buba clan
of the Lemba people of southern Africa have the CMH, compared
to 9 percent of non-Buba Lembas. The Lembas claim descent
from ancient Israelites, and they follow certain Jewish practices
such as circumcision and refraining from eating pork, and for
many geneticists and historians the genetic evidence seemed to
verify their claim.
However, it soon became apparent that the CMH is not specific to
Jews or descendants of Jews. In a 1998 article in Science News,
Dr. Skorecki indicated (in an interview) that some non-Jews also
possess the Cohen markers, and that the markers are therefore not
"unique or special". The CMH is very common among Iraqi
Kurds, according to a 1999 study by C. Brinkmann et al. And in
her 2001 article, Oppenheim wrote: "The dominant haplotype of
the Muslim Kurds (haplotype 114) was only one microsatellite-
mutation step apart from the CMH..." (Oppenheim 2001, page
1100). Furthermore, the CMH is also found among some
Armenians, according to Dr. Levon Yepiskoposyan (Head of the
Institute of Man in Yerevan, Armenia), who has studied genetics
for many years. Dr. Avshalom Zoossmann-Diskin wrote: "The
suggestion that the 'Cohen modal haplotype' is a signature
haplotype for the ancient Hebrew population is also not supported
by data from other populations." (Zoossmann-Diskin 2000, page
156).
In short, the CMH is a genetic marker from the northern Middle
East which is not unique to Jews. However, its existence among
many Kurds and Armenians, as well as some Italians and
Hungarians, would seem to support the overall contention that
Kurds and Armenians are the close relatives of modern Jews and
that the majority of today's Jews have paternal ancestry from the
northeastern Mediterranean region.
The Jewish Kingdom of Adiabene in Ancient Kurdistan
In ancient times, the royal house of Adiabene and some of the
common people of Adiabene converted to Judaism. The capital
city of Adiabene was Arbela (known today by Arabs as Irbil and
by Kurds as Hawler). King Izates became closely attached to his
new faith, and sent his sons to study Hebrew and Jewish customs
in Jerusalem. His successor to the throne was his brother
Monobazos II, who also adopted Judaism. In her 2001 study,
Oppenheim references the kingdom of Adiabene, but suggests that
while Adiabene's conversion to Judaism "resulted in the
assimilation of non-Jews into the community... This recorded
conversion does not appear to have had a considerable effect on
the Y chromosome pool of the Kurdish Jews." (Oppenheim 2001,
page 1103). Some of the Jewish Adiabenians may have eventually
converted to Christianity.
Conclusions
Research has just begun into the ancient ties between Kurds and
Jews. It would be interesting to see if the various Jewish groups
have as strong a family tie to Kurds in the maternal lineages as
they do in the paternal lineages. Preliminary studies indicate that
Jewish populations in eastern Europe and Yemen have maternal
origins that contain much more non-Israelite ancestry than their
paternal origins. Despite this admixture with other groups, the
Jewish Judean people ultimately began their existence in an area
within or nearby Kurdistan, prior to migrating southwest to Israel.
This exciting research showing that Kurds and Jews may have
shared common fathers several millennia ago should, hopefully,
encourage both Kurds and Jews to explore each others' cultures
and to maintain the friendship that Kurds and Jews enjoyed in
northern Iraq in recent times (as chronicled in Michael Rubin's
recent article "The Other Iraq"). As Rubin indicates, the Kurdish
leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani once visited Israel and met with
Israeli government officials. Rubin refers to the Iraqi Kurds'
"special affinity for Israel" and writes that "In the safe haven of
Iraqi Kurdistan, the Jews and Israel are remembered fondly, if
increasingly vaguely." Let us hope that this relationship can be
renewed and strengthened.
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