Thanks Otto, I don't have time to read in detail, but I've always been fascinated by population migrations and genetics.
I'm not sure why it's news that Jews and Arabs share a common genetic heiritage. They both share the same patriach in Abraham. Arabs are the descendants of Abraham's first son Ishmael, Jews are descendants of his second son, Isaac.
Quick summary (and this is the core of the battle between Israel and Palestine): according to the Bible... Abram believed he couldn't have kids with his wife, Sarai (God later changed their names to Abraham and Sarah). So Sarai told Abram to father a kid with her maidservant (Hagar) so that he could have a son. But once Hagar was pregnant, Sarai changed her view and didn't like the fact that Sarai was pregnant with her hubby's kid, so she abused Hagar and she ran away. An angel came to Hagar and told her to go back. She did, and gave birth to Ishmael. Later, when Sarah finally had a son of her own (Isaac), she kicked Hagar and Ishmael out of their house. So, God said to Hagar and Ishmael that he'd take care of them because they didn't really do anything wrong. But Ishmael would not inherit any land or other stuff from Abraham because Ishmael was born of sin. They were cast out of Abraham's family. Thousands of years later, they are the Palestinians and the Arabs of the middle East. But God also said that Isaac would inherit all the land in the area (Canaan) from Abraham because he was the son of Abraham's wife, Sarah. Thousands of years later, they are the Jews of Israel.
Read about some of my distant relatives, the Lemba of Southern Africa: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2706israel.html Other African tribes claim Jewish heritage also, but I believe that the jury's still out.
That's truly fascinating, Cohen. Isn't it incredible that they may have migrated all that way from the Middle East? I finally looked into this thread, thinking it was some sort of joke or "flame war," Trader_J, of course, doing his damnedest to create just that, but there's some stuff in here that makes you think. It blows my mind that the Jewish people have stayed such a coherent tribal group, despite their fractious ways with each other, and the seemingly endless attempts to enslave and exterminate them. I've also found it interesting that groups like the Basques exist, with their own tribe and a language that is difficult to pigeonhole, after these thousands of years. Sometimes it seems that the more we learn, the less we know. Keep D&D Civil.
Deckard, I was pretty surprised by some of the details as well, some of which I should be well versed in. The theorized migrations of the lost tribes are mindboggling. Less mindboggling, but maybe most helpful....how about the possibility of Jews having spread and absorbed into nations throughout the Middle East. Even Iran is mentioned. Although we may know that Jews and Arabs are related through Abraham (and genetics) and yet that has not helped resolve the ME crisis at all. Maybe it would help all there if Jewish genetic markes were found throughout Arab and Persian populations? One could only hope.
Hope is pretty thin on the ground in the region, but something we must cling to. If what you suggested as a possibility were found to be true, how would one get the various peoples there to believe it? Jesus was Jewish, without question, and despite being agnostic, I have no doubt that he existed, and yet the Jewish people have been hounded by Christians since his death. That has never made the least amount of sense to me. I don't think it would have made the least amount of sense to Jesus, going by the philosophy that was his legacy, and yet there it is. Who knows... perhaps this will be an instance of science helping to resolve religious conflict. As you said, we can hope. Keep D&D Civil.
I don't know if people are familiar with the story of the Ethiopian Jews but I imagine that they would lend credence to the idea of South African Jews. In case people are unfamiliar there is a very strong community of Jews in Ethiopia which were essentially separated from and unknown to the rest of Judaism essentially until the 20th century. The Ethiopian Jews have the Cohanim and are morphologically indistinguishable from non-Jewish Ethiopians. They also show a divergence from the "mainstream Jewish culture" in terms of some beliefs, but it sounds like the divergence of beliefs from what I can understand is smaller in a way proportional to the distance from Israel. I don't think there are very many "mainstream Jews" who deny the existence of the Ethiopian Jews and their community, even though they might consider them less-than-perfect. I also understand that there is a traditional Jewish culture similar to the isolated Ethiopian Jewish culture in India. It is also relevant to keep the Egyptian-Jewish connection in mind and then consider further the relationship and cultural exchanges that Egypt had with the Nubian Kings to their south. IIRC, Nubian influence extended down nearly to Livingston's "mouth of the Nile", Lake Victoria. South of that (again IIRC) the land becomes much easier to traverse? In any case, there was a fairly strong linear thread of overlaping culture that extended from Nubia in Africa up around the Middle East, and into Afghanistan and the Indus river delta where Alexander's armies ground to a halt. Ptolemian Egypt was brought about by Alexander's death in India/Afghanistan.
Speaking of Ethiopian Jews, Israel finally acknowledged that they existed and finally got pushed into helping them move and integrate into Israel. Although they're still dragging their feet and nothing has really happened. Its amazing that within days of the invasion of Iraq, Israel was willing to evacuate what few Jews there were in Iraq and pay for everything they could ever need but the Ethiopian Jews who are struggling still haven't gotten anything.
Didn't they move over 50,000 to Israel over the last 15 or 20 years? I think that there's more remaining that want to emigrate but the Israeli gov considers most relatives, but not Jewish. Otto, Interesting stuff, but my impression (from documentaries) that the 'Jewishness' of the Ethiopian Jews is still a hotly debated issue.
