Ancient DNA Provides New Insights into Ashkenazi Jewish History: Analysis reveals medieval genetic diversity, illuminates founder event

December 1, 2022

The largest study to date of ancient DNA from Jewish individuals reveals unexpected genetic subgroups in medieval German Ashkenazi Jews and sheds light on the “founder event” in which a small population gave rise to most present-day Ashkenazi Jews.

 

The findings, spearheaded by geneticists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard Medical School, were published Nov. 30 in Cell.

About half of Jewish people around the world today identify as Ashkenazi, meaning that they descend from Jews who lived in Central or Eastern Europe. The term was initially used to define a distinct cultural group of Jews who settled in the 10th century in the Rhineland in western Germany.

Despite much speculation, many gaps exist in our understanding of the origin of Ashkenazi Jews and the demographic upheavals they experienced during the second millennium.

To answer some of these pressing questions, the 30-person team — led by Shai Carmi at The Hebrew University and David Reich at HMS — analyzed DNA from the remains of 33 individuals buried in a medieval Jewish cemetery in Erfurt, Germany.

 

Read more here.