Nadene Goldfoot
"KARACHI. The ethnic Afghans, or Pashtuns, originated from the biblical Lost Tribes of Israel. It's an old theory. And many Pashtun tribes proudly subscribe to it. But it's not just a theory. Not just a hypothesis. We have historical, physical and anecdotal evidence to establish a genetic connection. This is what Rabbi Harry Rozenberg believes, at least. What happened was that the 10 Northern tribes of Israel were attacked and taken away by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. They were never heard from again. None had returned.
"Pashtunwali makes it very clear to us who they [the Pashtuns] are," says the Jerusalem-based rabbi while referring to an unwritten tribal code the Pashtuns have been following unfailingly for centuries now. "It's the Mosaic Law in its most primitive form that these people in Afghanistan and Pakistan are keeping to this day."
If the Pashtuns accept their Israeli [Jewish] origin, their identity, it'll be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, says Rozenberg, a social entrepreneur who heads iTribe.us, a global platform to connect the Israelite tribes scattered across the world."
Scientists doing a Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA ( of the female line only) control region variations in four tribes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and have " linked the unexplored genetic connection between Ashkenazi Jews and Pashtun. The presence of specific haplotypes J1b (4%) and K1a1b1a (5%) pointed to a genetic connection of Jewish conglomeration in Khattak tribe. This was a result of an ancient genetic influx in the early Neolithic period that led to the formation of a diverse genetic substratum in present day Pashtun."
The most common haplogroups among Pashtuns reported in this study are: South Asian haplogroups M (28%) and R (8%); whereas, West Asians haplogroups are present, albeit in high frequencies (67%) and widespread over all; HV (15%), U (17%), H (9%), J (8%), K (8%), W (4%), N (3%) and T (3%). Now, this was all of the female line only. K is a very common female Jewish haplogroup.
Moses died in 1271 BCE before entering Canaan, so Joshua was the leader, drawing lots as to where each tribe would live. Gentile and Jewish dates differ a bit. This happened 3,292 years ago Jewish calendar time.
During this period, many other things were happening in the world such as the following: Ötzi the Iceman. City of Liangzhu in China. Norte Chico civilization in Peru, first known civilization in Americas. Piora Oscillation – redesertification of the Sahara. Yamna culture, identified with the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Menes. Phonetic writing begins in Sumer (Cuneiform), Egypt, and Elam. Invention of toilet and sewerage systems (Indus civilization and Skara Brae). Soap-like substance produced in Babylon. Early Dynastic Period in Mesopootamia. Wire. Bell Beaker culture in Europe. Pyramids of Ancient Egypt. Indus civilization, Ur. Beginning of Old Kingdom of Egypt. Stonehenge. Camel domesticated in Bactria and Arabia. Great Sphinx of Giza (possibly).
A little later, these events occurred: the "Destruction of Mari. Sargon of Akkad, Assyria conquers Sumer, Mari, and Ebla.(721-712 BCE) Courier services in Egypt. Maize cultivation in Mexico. Akkad sacked by the Gutians. 4.2 kiloyear event — a long drought that may have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Akkadian Empire. Fall of Akkad. Gilgamesh epic Law code of Ur-Nammu. Possible time of the Great Flood of China and Yu the Great. Xia dynasty. Aegean Bronze Age ends. Argaric culture in Spain. Farming starts in Kentucky – Eastern Agricultural Complex Bahr Yussef canal. Minoan Crete. Hammurabi. Avellino eruption of Vesuvius. Plimpton 322 tablet relating to Pythagorean triples. Calculation of the square root of 2 in Babylon. Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, implying an approximation of pi. Last mammoths. Thera eruption. Hollow glassware. Surgical and medical papyri in Egypt. Cannabis found in Turkmen shrine. This gives us a feeling of what this period and its people might have been like and what they thought about. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detailed_logarithmic_timeline )
Benjamin of Tudela, the famous 12th century Jewish traveler/historian, reported that the Jewish tribesmen in Persia and the Arabian Peninsula were the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel because each tribe could have had its own founding matriarchs. He wrote in his Book of Travels, "There are men of Israel in the land of Persia who say that in the mountains dwell 4 of the tribes of Israel, namely, the tribe of Dan, the tribe of Zevulun, the tribe of Asher, and the tribe of Naphtali. Benjamin of Tudela came from Tudela, Spain who started traveling in abut 1165 CE and returned home in 1172/3, having traveled for 7 years. He visited about 300 places in France, Italy, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Egypt and Sicily. His Book of Travels was published in 1543, taken from his notes that he had left. Many of these places were of information he had collected from others that he had not visited.
About the Jews of Arabia, he wrote, "These tribesmen are of the tribes Reuven and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Their seat of government is a great city surrounded by the mountains of the North." This accounts for 7 of the 10 Lost Tribes.
There were other travelers that wrote of having come in contact with the Lost tribes throughout the centuries that caused them to be thought of as a myth or legend. Eldad the Danite of the 9th century who brought news of the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher residing in the eland of Havilah, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. He had sent a letter to the Jews of Spain in 883 saying he was of the tribe of Dan and lived in east Africa near the Gulf of Aden. He said he arrived at their glorious kingdom, a land overflowing with precious gem, fertile livestock and exotic produce. He described how the many tribes, located on either side of the rumbling Sambatyon River, communicated with one another. Yiddls of Prague aka Gershon ben Eliezer, of the 17th century, traveled to the Holy Land in 1624, visiting several lands in Africa and Asia on his way. His experiences are recorded in a book he called "Sacred Epistles." In one of his tales, he relates how he joined a caravan carrying iron from Salonika and, near the border of Greater India, came across the mythical River, Sambatyon, flowing ever more wondrous and miraculous. Legends of the Sambatyon River and the Lost Tribes grew. What would they have said if they ever saw the Columbia River of Oregon?
"Research shows a relationship between Pashtun and Jewish (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi) DNA and also that Pashtun DNA is 2nd closest (68.1) to Ashkenazi DNA after Iranian and Iraqi Jews (67.9). ... Many Pashtuns proudly claim that they are Beni Israel (Children of Israel).
We Jews are accepted as such if we had Jewish mothers, yet the Jews are divided into 3 groups through their fathers; the Cohens, Levites and Israelites. For starters, we were in the beginning Jewish because of our Jewish fathers; but by Talmudic days, this changed just as marriage changed from having plural wives to marriage to one only at a time.
Cohens were descended from Aaron, the older brother of Moses, and they were both of the tribe of Levi. Levites were descended from Levi of the tribe of Levi but not of Aaron's line. Other Jews fit into the being the Israelites. Being a Cohen is very special as they have certain synagogue responsibilities that others don't have. They read first from the Torah on Shabbat. The Levites read 2nd, then the Israelites. Headstones in the cemetery often record this information.
Moses arrived at Canaan with 603,550, Israelites. He had lost 1,800 over the trek of 40 years that would have included losing the older generation and gaining babies born on the way. Judah had the largest population with 76,500 who showed increase of 1,900. We Jews are from this tribe.
In the 1930s, Lithuania had a population of 2,028,000. Of that, 155,000 were Jewish. Poland had a population of 32,183,000. Of that, 3,113,000 were Jewish. Russia had a population of 169,789,000. Of that, 3,121,000 were Jewish.
The population of Europe was 536,139,000. Out of that, 9,654,000 were Jewish. Palestine had a population of 1,467,000. Out of that, 475,000 were Jewish.
By 1939 we Jews numbered 16, 658 (given in the thousands). From Europe and Russia were 9,650. From North and South America were 5,500. From Asia were 550. From Africa were 625. From Australia and New Zealand were only 33. Then came the Holocaust when we lost 6 million Jews who were slaughtered. On its birth of May 14, 1948, it had 650,000 Jews. In 1948, Israel had only 806,000 people, and this included Arabs who stayed. This number was very close to their original number of 603,550 when they entered with Joshua. It was like beginning all over again, and just like then, they had to fight immediately for survival. Now we number about 14,000,000 with 6 million in the USA, 6 million in Israel and 2 million elsewhere.
Today, Jews are a very small group of people. We make up only 0.02% of the world population. We make a perfect group for geneticists to study as we have lived in isolated groups for many years. We are also an endogamous people; people who have married into our family because of close contact over generations without knowing of our connections.
Going through such deaths in large numbers in the language of geneticists is called a bottleneck. The bottleneck effect is an extreme example of genetic drift that happens when the size of a population is severely reduced. Events like natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, fires) can decimate a population, killing most individuals and leaving behind a small, random assortment of survivors. We are the remnants of a major bottleneck of our people.
There are specific haplotypes found in Jewish men: E3b, G, J1, J2, Q, R1a1,, and R1b; 7 different male lines. They account for 80% of the total. Of these, 5 Y chromosomal lineages, E3b, G, J1, J2, Q were part of the ancestral gene pool transmitted by Jews who migrated from the Middle East, and at least 2 ; the R1a1 and R1b, entered the Ashkenazi Jewish population after their dispersal to Europe. Haplogroup P1 (P-M45), the immediate ancestor of Haplogroup R, likely emerged in Southeast Asia. The SNP M207, which defines Haplogroup R, is believed to have arisen during the Upper Paleolithic era, about 27,000 years ago.
My father was Q; with a deeper test showing QBZ67. My mother's father was R1b1a2a1a1b4, later called (R-L21) and my son was R1b1a1a2, later (R-M269). (the "deepest subclade" of R-M269 (R1b1a1a2) – the most numerous branch of R1b in Western Europe,). Neither founding father was Jewish. There is a line of Levites that are R1bs. They may have been forced to accept a mother's line instead of the father for a position as the Levite in a synagogue. J1 is found in men carrying the Cohen gene. Some J2s are also Cohens. Levites should also be J1 or J2 being they are from the same tribe as the Cohens were; the tribe of Levi.
J1 and J2 came from the ancient Middle East from J. J1 may have arisen in Israel or southern Mesopotamia. Many Arab men also carry J1c3d.
Ashkenazi Jews may be descended from 7 families, each of which has its own Y-chromosomal lineage. They have an overall historical rate of 5% to 8% admixture on intermarriage with Europeans since the founding of the population. Today marrying out of the faith is more common as we are not all living in the same enclosed areas. Men move more often to find positions in the work force.
DNA, exclusively our own, passed down to us for thousands of years from our father and mother of mankind to our ancient ancestors and down to us. A life form existing for all these years, this is what DNA is. Life if precious. Each of us is a unique form of homo- Sapiens, made up and controlled by DNA from 2 special beings who brought us this life. Our DNA contains a tag, found and read by scientists only in this age that tells them where our line on the tree of life was created. This is a special time to live. What wonderful secrets of the universe are being discovered today, and this even might include finding Aliens in space ships that may have been watching our development for thousands of years as well. Living is exciting.
Besides studying population genetics, some diseases have turned out to also be genetic, with Jews carrying certain ones. It's reached the point where a couple that are both Ashkenazi might want to have their DNA tested for these genetic diseases before starting a family. Ostrer has studied Jewish inherited diseases.
Tay-Sachs is a Jewish genetic disease, discovered in 1880s by Warren Tay. Many years later doctors discovered it was common among Moroccan and Iraqi Jews, and also among Cajans and French-Canadians, people who most likely were also endogamous. The disease causes death before the age of 4, and is a wasting away with pneumonia of the child. It has affected one in 3,600 Ashkenazi Jewish children. Each pregnancy faced a 25% risk of the disease. With modern tools, the risk has dropped by 90%.
Another Jewish genetic disease is Canavan, a spongy degeneration of the brain coming from the areas in Eastern Europe: the Vilna-Kovno section of Lithuania, the adjacent Bialystok area of Poland, and the Volyhnia area of the Ukraine.
Most Jewish families having children affected with Bloom syndrome, a condition of sun-sensitive skin, severe growth retardation, and predisposition to cancer at an early age, came from the area between Warsaw and Krakow in the east and Kiev and Chernovtsy in the west, from SE Poland-Galicia, and from SW Ukraine.
Familial Mediterranean Fever is found among Ashkenazi, North African, and Middle Eastern Jews as well as Arabs, Turks, and Armenians. With this, the young between ages 10 to 20 get short periodic attacks of fever and pain in the abdomen, chest, joints, or skin.
Breast or ovarian cancer is common with those carrying BRCA and BRCA2 genes that come from mutations causing this genetic disorder during the periods of Jewish rule in Palestine. Often, cancer runs in families. The BRCA AG mutation is found in Ashkenazi, Iraqi, and Moroccan Jews, groups that are representative of the largest Jewish Diaspora communities. The mutation is also found among Bene Israel Jews from India and among Hispanics in N New Mexico who are now, through DNA, finding their Jewish roots.
It's a sad way to find one's heritage, but DNA tells it all.
Another necessary form of the Jewish Social Concept 
Israel Defense Force- IDF soldiers in Jerusalem
The state of Israel came to fruition just in time, enabling young Jews to mix; Sephardic, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi and produce healthy genetic -free of diseases children.
Resource:
https://newslab.tribune.com.pk/israeli-rabbi-calls-pashtuns-my-cousins-from-lost-tribe/#:~:text=%22Research%20shows%20a%20relationship%20between,and%20Iraqi%20Jews%20(67.9).&text=Many%20Pashtuns%20proudly%20claim%20that,Israel%20(Children%20of%20Israel). by Rabbi Harry Rozenberg
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/24701394.2016.1174222?journalCode=imdn21
Legacy, a genetic history of the Jewish people by Harry Ostrer
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/08/iranians-is-it-possible-to-find-jewish.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/ancestry-of-albert-einstein-1421903
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detailed_logarithmic_timeline
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Letters From Beyond the Sambatyon, the myth of the Ten Lost tribes, edited by Simcha Shtull--Trauring
facts about Israel: published by the division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
Tanakh, The Stone Edition
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/natural-selection/population-genetics/a/genetic-drift-founder-bottleneck#:~:text=The%20bottleneck%20effect%20is%20an,small%2C%20random%20assortment%20of%20survivors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R_(Y-DNA)#:~:text=(R2*)-,Origins,era%2C%20about%2027%2C000%20years%20ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Y-chromosome_DNA_haplogroup
