Article: Kids: if you are Jewish, what is your Jewish ancestry? Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Ethiopian, Yemenite, etc. (where was your family from a few hundred years ago)?
A new study, conducted by medical researchers from America and Israel, has found that all Ashkenazi Jews can trace their ancestry to about 350 individuals, about 600 to 800 years ago. First they found that 128 Ashkenazi Jews, in comparison to non-Jewish Europeans, have extremely similar genetic markings, making them all 30th cousins. Genetics show that the original Ashkenazi Jews were half European, half Middle Eastern (this clarifies a long-standing question of whether Ashkenazi Jews are 100% European in origin or had roots in the Levant). Because the Ashkenazim Jewish community started out so small and remained genetically isolated (they didn't intermarry), they developed more disease-causing mutations, like breast and ovarian cancer, Tay-Sach's disease, as well as other traits, like longevity (living a long life).
One of the benefits of the study is hopefully to map Ashkenazi Jews' genes and study diseases prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews, as well as providing insight into the history of European Jews. (Kids: how will this help or prove useful?)
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