Jews Are a 'Race,' Genes Reveal

Židovi su "rasa", pokazuju geni

By Jon Entin

Author Uncovers DNA Links Between Members of Tribe

Autor je otkrio DNA veze između članova "plemena"

Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People

By Harry Ostrer, Oxford University Press, 288 Pages, $24.95

U svojoj novoj knjizi " Legacy; A genetic history of the Jewish people" Harry Ostrer, medicinski genetičar i profesor na Albert Einstein College of Medicine,  New York, tvrdi da su Židovi različiti i da razlike nisu samo u "izgledu" već da postoje jasne razlike u genetskom "rukopisu".

Uzimajući u obzir da su nacisti pokušali uništiti Židove na osnovi njihovih pretpostavljenih rasnih karakteristika, takav zaključak ( u knjizi) može izazvati zabrinutost. Ali Oster smatra da je to glavno za židovski identitet.

“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.

Genetičari su već dugo bili svijesni da neke bolesti,  od karcinoma dojke do Tay -Sachs bolesti, disproporcionalno pogađaju Židove. Ostrer, koji je također i direktor genetskih i genomskih testiranja u Montefiore Medicinskom Centru, ide i dalje, pretpostavlja da su Židovi homogena grupa sa svim znanstvenim karakteristikama koje mi obično nazivamo "rasa".

dalje čitajte u originalnom članku.

For most of the 3,000-year history of the Jewish people, the notion of what came to be known as “Jewish exceptionalism” was hardly controversial. Because of our history of inmarriage and cultural isolation, imposed or self-selected, Jews were considered by gentiles (and usually referred to themselves) as a “race.” Scholars from Josephus to Disraeli proudly proclaimed their membership in “the tribe.”...

Ostrer divides his book into six chapters representing the various aspects of Jewishness: Looking Jewish, Founders, Genealogies, Tribes, Traits and Identity. Each chapter features a prominent scientist or historical figure who dramatically advanced our understanding of Jewishness. The snippets of biography lighten a dense forest of sometimes-obscure science....

Furthermore, sociologists and cultural anthropologists, a disproportionate number of whom are Jewish, ridicule the term “race,” claiming there are no meaningful differences between ethnic groups. For Jews, the word still carries the especially odious historical association with Nazism and the Nuremberg Laws. They argue that Judaism has morphed from a tribal cult into a worldwide religion enhanced by thousands of years of cultural traditions .