Three Fathers and Four Mothers (from a Seder Pessach canticle)

 

The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews

by Kevin Alan Brook

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This book presents up-to-date information on the origins of the Ashkenazic Jewish people from central and eastern Europe based on genetic research on modern and pre-modern populations. It focuses on the 129 maternal (mtDNA) haplogroups that the author confirmed that Ashkenazim have acquired from distinct female ancestors who were indigenous to diverse lands that include Israel, Italy, Poland, Germany, North Africa, and China, revealing both their Israelite inheritance and the lasting legacy of conversions to Judaism.

Genetic connections between Ashkenazic Jews and other Jewish populations, including Turkish Jews, Moroccan Jews, Tunisian Jews, Iranian Jews, and Cochin Jews, are indicated wherever they are known.

Each maternal haplogroup originated from a distinct woman who joined the Ashkenazic community. Some of these women were Judeans, some were Slavs, a few were Berbers, and several may have been Greeks—and those weren't their only origins.

Multiple Ashkenazic maternal and paternal haplogroups most likely came from Khazar and Alan converts to Judaism in medieval Khazaria. See the evidence on pages 7, 16-17, 52, and 85-86.

Two of the maternal haplogroups discussed in this book (H2a1e1a and U5a1d2b) were discovered to exist in Ashkenazim by the author and were not in any previous work about Ashkenazim.CHAPTER 3. Non-Ashkenazic Haplogroups in Populations Related to Ashkenazim

(Moroccan Jewish, Algerian Jewish, Libyan Jewish, Tunisian Jewish, Sephardic Jewish, Romaniote Jewish, Syrian Jewish, Egyptian Jewish, Iranian Jewish, Mountain Jewish, Georgian Jewish, Iraqi Jewish, Bukharan Jewish, Yemenite Jewish, Cochin Jewish, Bene Israel Jewish, Krymchak, Crimean Karaite, Chueta, Bragança Crypto-Jewish, Belmonte Crypto-Jewish, Polish, German, Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Samaritan, ancient Israel)