Genes Of Most Ashkenazi Jews Trace Back To Indigenous Europe, Not Middle East

By Matthew Mientka For Medical Daily

A genetic study of Ashkenazi Jews shows a “whiter” heritage drawn more from prehistoric Europe than from the Levant, home to the modern state of Israel.

A team of international researchers from Malaysia to Salt Lake City found in a study published Tuesday that most variance in mitochondrial DNA — passed from mother to daughter, like Judaism — derives from the indigenous peoples of Western and Central Europe, as opposed to the Levant, as previously thought. Four of the major “founders” of Ashkenazi Jewry derive most variance from European sources, accounting for some 40 percent of the genome. The remaining 60 percent from minor founders, too, comes mostly from Europe.

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