The Many Bottlenecks Jews Have Faced: J2 Facts Come Out of It

Nadene Goldfoot                                                      

From having many men in the mix, so many were lost and those remaining were in the bottleneck.

A bottleneck is a genetic DNA term that explains what happens to a people when a horrific incident happens that wipes out most of their population.  I'll show how that has happened to us many times without an environmental event like a volcano erupting.
                                                                       

"Some bottlenecks are religiously induced – Amish, Mennonite and Jewish, for example.  These people marry only within their religion.  Today, that’s called endogamy – but it’s a form of a bottleneck event. " In our situation, most of the time the culture helped us to be in this situation by locking Jews up in ghettos such as in Italy, or in Syria keeping us in the Jewish quarter of Yehuda Street with pain of death if one left.  For 2,000 years, we've not only preferred to marry within our own people, but Gentiles have not wanted to mix with us, either.  It's been a mutual standoff, until recent days. Of course, there's always been rape, and sometimes but rarely, love between religions.

 A wonderful example I have found is  this.  "There are 4 people, 2 couples.  Each person’s DNA is represented by a color.  The two males are blue and green and the 2 females are pink and yellow, like on the left side of the pedigree chart shown below.

In the first generation, they pass their DNA to their children and the children are blue/yellow and green/pink.  In the second generation, the children intermarry with the other couple’s children – because there are no choices.  All of the grandchildren of the original couple have DNA that is blue, yellow, green and pink.  The children and grandchildren don’t all carry the same segments of blue, yellow, green and pink – but all of them carry some part of the original 4 founders.  There is no orange or turquoise or red DNA to be found, so forever, until new people enter the landscape, they will pass the same segments of blue, green, yellow and pink DNA to their descendants.  In an isolated environment, they might not meet new humans for thousands of years – lets’ say 10,000 years." Haplogroups once active are now lost. Jews have been around for almost 4,000 years from Abraham's time.                                      

We have found that a haplotype of J1 leads from Aaron, brother of Moses and has been called the Cohen gene.   "Later research, using a larger number of Y-STR markers to gain higher resolution more specific genetic signatures, has indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish Kohanim, who share Y-chromosomal haplogroup J1c3 (also called J-P58), appear to be closely related.  

                                                                     

Someone here may be carrying a J haplogroup , all Jewish
It would have to be one of the men, as the Y haplogroup is passed on from father to son, etc.  

Cohens in the synagogue are special people.  They were selected by Moses starting with his brother, to be the priests of the people.  They have served in the synagogues all this time with certain functions such as reading first from the Torah on Saturday morning "Shabbat."  One does not need the surname of Cohen to be a Cohen, but they need the oral history from their family in lieu of a family tree.  It's something handed down from father to son.                                     

In our case, many Jews have been killed since inception with Abraham.  

When the Romans entered Jerusalem in about 60 BCE, they crucified 25,000 Jews until 70 CE when they burned the city down with the 1st Temple.   25,000 to 30,000 Jews that were left alive rebelled against the Romans  and were killed.   10,000 more  men were found and killed as well. 

By 6 BC, when Jews were living in 2nd Temple times, the Zealots were founded, which was a political party by Judah the Galilean and Zadok, the priest who demanded non-compliance with the Roman demand for a census to be taken which was really an assessment of their property.   It was at this time that the Y haplotype was mutated from J1 to become J2 most likely through Pinchas, the Zealot.                                                                 

    "According to the Holy Scriptures the seed of Zadok is supposed to be countless and measureless. The promise avows that from Zadok seed Hashem will build a continued existence family tree and from this offspring Cohanim will be selected to perform sacrifices on the Beit Hamikdash. The prophet may soon arrive and he will make holy Cohanim, sons of Zadok, and Leviim to minister and safeguard the third Temple, respectively. 

DNA revealed families from different Cohanim background with the precisely coalescence time allied, in J2 haplogroup, to Zadok. The Zadok Cohanim lineage is composed by 24 families strongly associated to Jewish priest caste, both in Ashkenazim and Sephardim communities. They present a DNA signature in J2 haplogroup that formed a well shaped tree with ramifications, branches and different houses as it should be in the face of of three thousand years of growth." 

It was identified by DNA, 24 different families confirmed positive for the Zadokite Cohanim lineage (J2a4). All of these families are strongly related to Cohanim tradition both in Sephardic and Askenazim communities.  These families may represent the 24 houses of Zadok. from "Dr. Karl Skorecki of the Ramban/Technion Medical Center in Haifa  

Zadok, son of Ahitub, a Cohen under King David:  II Sam-8:17, 15-29;   I Kin, 1:8, 34-40; 2:35, 4:4; I Chr. 8:16.  Zadok's sons were Ahimaaz and Azariah. Another important Kohan line was from Ahimelech, son of Abiathar.  (I Chronicles 18, 15-17.) I did not see Skorecki's references in either Samuel II, Kings I or I Chronicles.  It must be something else.  

The Bible states that Zadok was a patrilineal descendant of Eleazar the son of Aaron the high priest.(2 Samuel 8:17;1 Chronicles 24:3) The lineage of Zadok is presented in the genealogy of Ezra (his descendant) as being of ninth generation of direct patrilineal descent from Phineas the son of Eleazar; Ezra 7:1, see 1 Chronicles 5:30 where he is placed ninth in descent from Phineas.  Eleazar had a brother, Ithamar, who was also a priest.  He and Eleazar together succeeded their father, Aaron in the priestly office.  

The chief men of the descendants of Eleazar/Elazar  were found to be more numerous than those of the descendants of Ithamar...16 family heads for the sons of Eleazar, and 8 for the sons of Ithamar ..(Chromicles I 24-1-7). The Kohanim were from Alazar and Ihamar.

...Zadok, The son of Ahitub, son of Amaryah, son of Azaryah, son of Mirayoth, son of Zerachyah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Avishua, son of Phineas

— Ezra 7:1-4                                                                                                       

The Arch of Titus in Rome, a view of Jews being marched into the city carrying golden objects from Temple, the loot stolen by the Romans by 70 CE..  

 Finally, 1.1 million  more Jewish soldiers were killed by the Romans and the rest found were enslaved and most marched to Rome.  The slaves taken numbered 97,000 after Jerusalem was burned down.    There were about 50,000 Jews in and around Rome by the 1st Century CE, who were the poor, Greek-speaking foreigners scorned by Romans for their poverty and slave status.  Many later gained their freedom and continued to live in and around Rome.1       

Top of Masada

                                         

Herod's Palace Here

This wasn't the end of the Jews.  960 men and women had found refuge at Masada, but after 3 years of holding out, committed mass suicide rather than be taken and                                                        subjected to any criminality.

By the year 37 to 100 CE, there were about 40,000 survivors left in Judea.  

In 60 CE, it is also thought that there were about 700,000 left in Judea and 1,500,000 Jews were living in other places thoughout the land.  Many had been into trading and had moved away before 70 CE to carry on business.

The world population of Jews was now about 4,200,000 Jews before the year 132 when General Bar Kokhba, a descendant of King David, gathered up men who were his soldiers and attacked the Romans.  They took over Jerusalem and held it for 3 years, giving the Romans the hardest war they had ever fought in.  Bar Kokhba was finally killed in the battle in 135.  The Romans hadn't counterattacked  big-time until 133 when more came with an army of 35,000 under Hadrian and Julius Severus.  580,000 Jewish soldiers were killed during this final battle to regain Jerusalem.  Other Jews died from hunger and disease.  Now Jerusalem became a heathen city.  

By 600 CE, Jews were living in many parats of Europe with small settlements in TGermany, France and Spain.  Eastward, there were also small Jewish settlements along the Black Sea as well as larger communities in Greece and the Balkans. 1.  By the 12th and 13th centuries, Jews were expelled from many countries of Western Europe still suffering under the "Christ Killers accusations of anti-Semitism" but were granted charters to settle in Poland and Lithuania.  Ashkenazi Jews spread quickly into Eastern Europe, growing from about a population of 15,000-25,000 in the 13-15th centuries to 2 million by 1800 and 8 million by 1939.  Eastern European Jews became the dominant culture of the European Jews and of most Jews throughout the world.  

After all this, haplogroups were narrowed down to most likely far less than before.  The worst things was that so many men were killed most likely before they had fathered children.  If they did, girls do not carry the Y haplotype, only males do.  So many Y haplogroups could have been lost. Except, Jews basically came to be through family inheritance of one tribe.  Abraham most likely was of haplogroup J1.  I say this because at least half of the Cohens who serve in synagogues are found to be J1 and J2.  Arabs are also high in having the J1 haplogroup.  This is also showing the truth in the bible which states that Abraham's son by Hagar the Egyptian was Ishmael  who was father of the Arabs and his son by Sarah, his niece, was Isaac of the Jewish line. 

Jews lined up to enter Camps of Death

To top off our narrow haplogroup left to us through fighting, we then faced the Holocaust of WWII from about 1939 to 1945.  6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their helpers.  That's 6,000,000.                                                                         

War of Independence-attacked at announcement of being a state

1948's War of Independence for the Jews found 650,000 were populating the new tiny state.  They lost 6,000 of these people in the war, the most they have lost since then, probably the basis for another bottleneck.  

Perhaps this explains why at times a Cohen's shoes had to be filled by someone not of the immediate family.  Women have been known to marry outsiders who were also Jews.  If a tribal group needed to, they did marry outsiders and convert them.  For the Y haplogroup, J1 remains the largest group, but we also see E, G, Q, I, and R of various branches.  As for the women who pass on the mtDNA haplogroup, who number more outsiders originally than the Jewish men, we see K, H, N, J and W repeatedly.  

Pinchas is told about in Numbers in the Torah.25:1-30.  He was the son of Elazar, son of Aaron who was Moses's brother and it was Aaron who was selected to be the new High Priest.  Pichas's maternal grandfather was Jethro, a pagan  Midianite priest and father of Zipporah, Moses' wife (Exod 2-3).  The Druze still honor Jethro as Nebi Shu'aib at the shrine near Kephar Hittin.  

We have many J1 and now J2, both known as Cohens.  Through the ages, the high priest was sometimes appointed politically instead of father to son.  (read reference in Jewish Encyclopedia) 

Update: 12:15 Noon:  My Cohen friend is a J-M267 or J1 and also is a Cohen in the synagogue.  The line is said to be 20,000 years old and originated between Anatolia and Mesopotamia.  Studies were done by Hammer & Behar in 2009 and they tested 215 Jewish Cohanim and found 46% of them were of the J1 haplogroup.  Then Hammer studied 1,360 Jews per se and found 14.9% were also Cohens.  Nogueiro studied 57 Jews of Portugal and found 12.3% were Cohens.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J-M267

Update: 12/7/15

Resource: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/cohenbrazil/default.aspxhttp://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2995/jewish/The-Zealot.htmhttp://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/12/from-139-bce-to-139-ce-fight-to-remain.htmlhttp://dna-explained.com/2015/07/09/what-is-a-population-bottleneck/ http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/jewish-genes-what-haplogroup-could-they.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaronhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadok
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7689-high-priest
1. A Mosaic of People:  The Jewish Story and a reassessment of the DNA Evidence by Effen Levy -Coffman.