DNA links prove Jews are a ‘race’, says genetics expertLong, interesting article that I don't have time to excerpt. Speaking of time, I am getting ready for an international trip this week and I have a lot of other things going on as well. Blogging may be sparse and perfunctory for a while.
Conjuring fear of Nazism and anti-Semitism, Jews recoil from the thought that Judaism might be a race, but medical geneticist Harry Ostrer insists the 'biological basis of Jewishness' cannot be ignored.
By Jon Entine
Tags: Jewish World Jewish Diaspora
In his new book, “Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People,” Harry Ostrer, a medical geneticist and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, claims that Jews are different, and the differences are not just skin deep. Jews exhibit, he writes, a distinctive genetic signature. Considering that the Nazis tried to exterminate Jews based on their supposed racial distinctiveness, such a conclusion might be a cause for concern. But Ostrer sees it as central to Jewish identity.
“Who is a Jew?” has been a poignant question for Jews throughout our history. It evokes a complex tapestry of Jewish identity made up of different strains of religious beliefs, cultural practices and blood ties to ancient Palestine and modern Israel. But the question, with its echoes of genetic determinism, also has a dark side.
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UPDATE: Joseph Lauer e-mails to note that this article was originally published in The Forward (here). He also points to coverage in The Chronicle of Higher Education here and here. And I see in the archives that I have noted Dr. Ostrer's work earlier here and here.
