Ruppin enthusiastically quoted the words of many who are regarded in Holocaust historiography as the "Nazi scholars," "Nazi experts," "Nazi professors," "Nazi intellectuals" or "Nazi scientists," and even corresponded and discussed cordially with some of them, mainly because most of them were or pretend to be "primary solution Nazis," and their weltanschauung and basic theories were essentially similar to those of Ruppin. A "primary solution Nazi" was one who subscribed to the view Jews, as a fremdes Volk, to be segregated and disallowed intermarriage with Aryans (Bloom 2011, pp. 108, 334, 337). Bloom, Etan (2011). Arthur Ruppin and the Production of Pre-Israeli Culture. Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Vol. 31. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-20379-2. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
Ruppin esteemed Günther not only for his knowledge of racial theory, but also because he was a supporter of Zionism, writing, in Bloom's paraphrase, that "The 'segment of Jewry that thinks in a Jewish-völkisch way,' he observed, properly recognizes the 'process of mixing' as a 'process of decomposition' that threatens their own people. The 'racial-biological future of Jewry,' he asserted, could take one of two paths, either that of Zionism or that of 'decline (Untergang) [...] only the clear separation of the Jews from the non-Jews, and the non-Jews from the Jews,' he concluded, would provide a 'dignified solution to the Jewish question'." (Bloom 2011, p. 340) Bloom, Etan (2011). Arthur Ruppin and the Production of Pre-Israeli Culture. Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Vol. 31. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-20379-2. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"Following this initiation in mid-century Israel, research on Jewish populations has been continuous. But technologies and attitudes have changed and Abu El-Haj's book is mainly concerned with the most recent developments. Since the mid-nineties, geneticists based in Israel, Britain and the U.S. have applied advances in Y chromosome and mtDNA analysis to questions of Jewish biological difference. Apparently studying themselves, these researchers—who either self-designate as Jewish or work in teams with others who do—have largely evaded the accusations of colonial and racist prejudices that otherwise have haunted human population genetics. But even as the researchers are not anti-Semites and although their technologies and analyses are more refined than were ever those of race science, there exists a particular continuity in research objectives and questions posed: Who are the Jews? Are they a people? Where do they come from? This last question—originally whether the Jews were racially Semitic and thus foreign to Europe—has spawned another with direct political implications in the present: Is the Israeli state right to speak of Jewish settlement in Israel and on the Occupied Territories in terms of a return?" Hellström 2013, p. 439 Hellström, Petter (2013). "Genetic diaspora, genetic return (reviewing N. A. El-Haj, The genealogical science: The search for Jewish origins and the politics of epistemology)". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 44 (3). Elsevier: 439–442. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.05.007.
"Using Arabs and Jews from diverse samples and contexts, we demonstrated that those who learn that their ethnic group is genetically related to an enemy group showed more constructive intergroup attitudes, interindividual behaviors, and support for peaceful policies than those who learn about the genetic differences. Specifically, in our three studies conducted in the United States, we found that heightening perceptions of interethnic genetic similarities versus differences altered Jews' and Arabs' negative attitudes, and even the real physical aggression of Jews toward an alleged Arab individual. In fact, it led to more support for conciliatory policies among Jews—in this case related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—and, compared with a plain control condition, provided some evidence that emphasizing genetic similarities may be one way to help attenuate intergroup conflict." (Kimel et al. 2016, pp. 688–700) Kimel, Sasha Y.; Huesmann, Rowell; Kunst, Jonas R.; Halperin, Eran (30 March 2016). "Living in a Genetic World". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 42 (5): 688–700. doi:10.1177/0146167216642196. PMID27029578. S2CID21136940. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023.
"(a)die Entdeckung, daß die tiefsten Schichten unseres Wesens vom Blute bestimmt daß unser Gedanke und unser Wille zu innerst von ihm gefärbt sind. (b) Und wenn sie dennoch dem Juden eine Wirklichkeit werden kann, so liegt das eben daran, daß die Abstammung nicht bloß Zusammenhang mit dem Vergangenen bedeutet: daß sie etwas in uns gelegt hat, was uns zu keiner Stunde unseres Lebens verläßt, was jeden Ton und jede Farbe in unserem Leben, in dem was wir tun und in dem was uns geschieht, bestimmt: das Blut als die tiefste Machtschicht der Seele." (Buber 1920, pp. 19, 22) Buber, Martin (1920) [First published 1911]. Drei Reden über das Judentum [Three Speeches on Judaism] (PDF) (in German). Rütten & Loening.
"throughout all of the de-racializing stages of twentieth-century social thought, Jews have continued to invoke blood logic as a way of defining and maintaining group identity...'race' is a significant component not only of scholarly or academic modern Jewish thought, but also of popular or everyday Jewish thought. It is one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish identity construction, even if there are many who would dispute the applicability of biological or racial categories to Jews." (Hart 2011, pp. xxxiv–xxxv) Hart, Mitchell B. (2011). Jews and Race: Writings on Identity and Difference, 1880-1940. Brandeis library of modern Jewish thought. Brandeis University Press. ISBN978-1-584-65717-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"A second critique of genetics research is one that has been made about archaeological evidence as well. Here too the evidence does not speak for itself: it has to be interpreted; and geneticists do not realize the extent to which their interpretations read into the evidence more than is really there." (Weitzman 2019, p. 310) Weitzman, Steven (2019). "Biological Approaches to the Origin of the Jews". The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age. Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-19165-2.
"The biological dimension of Judaism, namely the debate about whether Judaism is 'only' a religion, or Jews are a 'people', a 'nation' or a 'race', has become central to both how Jews were thought of and to the ways in which they thought about themselves during modern times, as modern genetics was expected to both establish the determinants of "Jewishness" and to find out whether particular individuals or groups fit into this category... As has been argued elsewhere (Prainsack 2007; Falk 2006; Kirsh 2003), the interpretation of the data on different Jewish "ethnic" groups and their relatedness to one another as well as to non-Jewish neighbouring/hosting populations has always been influenced by political ideologies. While many Zionists favour a view of Jews as a distinct, non-European "ethnicity" which has remained relatively homogenous throughout history (see, for example, Cochran et al. 2006), during the 1950s and early 1960s Israeli geneticists found many genetic differences between the diverse Jewish groups gathering in Israel. Yet Kirsh (2003) argues that an unconscious internalisation of Zionist ideology by the Israeli geneticists of the time led them to emphasise points of similarity rather than points of difference between the studied groups, thereby in turn reinforcing Zionist convictions." (Prainsack & Hashiloni-Dolev 2009, p. 410) Prainsack, Barbara; Hashiloni-Dolev, Yael (2009). "Religion and nationhood: Collective identities and the New Genetics: Example 2: 'Falsifying' difference: the story of common ancestry of Palestinian Arabs and Jews". In Atkinson, P.; Glasner, P.; Lock, M. (eds.). The Handbook of Genetics & Society: Mapping the New Genomic Era. Taylor & Francis. pp. 404–421. ISBN978-1-134-12877-8.
"In every generation there are still Zionists as well as non-Zionists who are not satisfied with the mental and social notions which bind Jews together, and who seek to find the link between the national and the biological aspects of being Jews." Footnote: An interesting aspect is that of orthodox-religious circles that seek support of the "biological" argument for the Jewishness (or for membership in the Ten Lost Tribes) of tribes and congregations all over the world. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, the founder of the "Amishav" (Hebrew for "My People Return") organization and the author of the book Israel's Tribes, followed on his journeys "the footprints of forgotten Jewish communities, who lost their contact with the Jewish world... at the same time he also located tribes that have no biological relationship to the people of Israel but who want very much to join them" (Yair Sheleg, "All want to be Jewish", Haaretz, 17 September 1999, p. 27). In recent years, Rabbi Avichail "discovered" the tribe of Menasheh among the Koki, Mizo and Chin in the Manipur mountains at the border between India and Burma. In a TV program on "the search after the lost tribes", Hillel Halkin, a demographer of cultures, claimed that whereas the Jews of Ethiopia converted to Judaism during the Middle Ages and are not of ancient Jewish stock, the Koki, Mizo and Chin people are direct progeny of the Biblical tribe of Menasheh (Falk 2017, p. 16). Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
Footnote: "In conflicts like those in the Balkans, in Africa, in India, in South-East Asia or in Northern Ireland, and to some extent even in the Israeli-Arab conflict, a starting point is the existence of distinct ethnic or religious entities that struggle for the same piece of land. On the other hand, except for Nazi efforts to diagnose the biological belonging of individuals to national-ethnic entities, there is no other example known to me like the Zionists' of an intensive effort to prove the immanent biological belonging or non-belonging of communities to what is considered to be the Jewish entity." (Falk 2017, p. 6) Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
"To accept the critique of genetics as a revived form of race science, there are a lot of things one has to downplay or ignore. One has to minimize the critical role that geneticists played in discrediting the biological category of race after World War II. One has to disbelieve geneticists today when they distinguish their work from race science; and one has to discount important differences between the two kinds of science, including the differences between the concept of race and the notions of 'population' or 'cline' that have eclipsed it". "despite this profound difference from race science, population genetics does carry forward a similar intellectual project... One of the more specific links between race science and genetics, in fact, is the prominent role that Jews play as a subject of research within each field. Even as race science was being discredited after World War II, the Jews were surfacing as a subject of genetic research, and there may be connections between the two kinds of research. Some of the first postwar genetic studies of the Jews during the 1950s and 1960s were undertaken by physicians and geneticists in Israel... It is not clear how conscious early Israeli geneticists were of continuing the kind of research conducted by race scientists just a few decades earlier." (Weitzman 2019, pp. 273, 280 et seq.) Weitzman, Steven (2019). "Biological Approaches to the Origin of the Jews". The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age. Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-19165-2.
"Christian anti-Semites generally accorded Jews a limited amount of toleration, usually their goal was conversion, which wouòld give Jews the same special and legal status as Christians. Many scholars have noted the late nineteenth century shift from traditional forms of Christian anti-Semitism to secular racial anti-Semitism. Although the new racial anti-Semitism of the nineteenth century retained many of the long-standing Jewish stereotypes.. it closed the door to assimilation, since Jews could not discard their immoral character, which was now grounded in their biological essence." (Weikart 2008, p. 95) Weikart, Richard (2008). "The Impact of Social Darwinism on Anti-Semitic Ideology in Germany and Austria, 1860–1945". In Cantor, Geoffrey; Swetlitz, Marc (eds.). Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism. University of Chicago Press. pp. 93–115. ISBN978-0-226-09301-7.
Gilman cites and comments on the following passage: "'The character of the Jews may benefit from anti-Semitism. Education can be achieved only through shock treatment. Darwin's theory of imitation will be validated. The Jews will adapt. They are like seals who have been thrown back into the water by an accident of nature,.. if they return to dry land and manage to stay there for a few generations, their fins will change back to legs.' How different and yet how similar to the appropriation of today's racial arguments in genetic terms." ( Gilman 2010, pp. 10–11; Falk 2017, p. 56) Gilman, Sander L. (2010). Disease & diagnosis: The second age of biology. Taylor & Francis. ISBN978-1-351-52209-0. Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
"Zionism, in fact, was proposed as the only viable solution to the threat to Jewish collective survival. And race was seen as a necessary component of this national revival. Not all Zionist thinkers embraced such racialist notions, as the selection in this volume by Robert Weltsch testifies... Nonetheless, racial ideas and images proved quite attractive to many Jewish nationalists, offering them a language with which to define Jewishness as an objective fact, a matter of biology and history as well as subjective will. Moreover, the fact that racial thinking was closely aligned with science, that it drew much of its content—as well as whatever claim it had to mainstream legitimacy—from the natural and social sciences, was also attractive to Zionism, a movement that portrayed itself as scientific." (Hart 2011, p. xxviii-xxix) Hart, Mitchell B. (2011). Jews and Race: Writings on Identity and Difference, 1880-1940. Brandeis library of modern Jewish thought. Brandeis University Press. ISBN978-1-584-65717-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"This 'ingathering of the exiles' brought together in Israel numerous Jewish ethnic groups which so obviously and unmistakably belonged to different 'races' that their very juxtaposition in one small country seemed to relegate the view that the Jews constitute a single human race to the realm of myth. At the same time, the very presence in Israel of numerous disparate Jewish ethnic groups has produced serious cultural clashes bearing many of the hallmarks of 'racial' friction, or at least perceived as such by those directly involved in them" (Patai & Patai 1989, p. 2). Patai, Raphael; Patai, Jennifer (1989). The Myth of the Jewish Race. Jewish Folklore and Anthropology Series (Revised ed.). Wayne State University Press. ISBN978-0-8143-1948-2.
"In contrast to the rest of the region, the history of genetic research on Jews in Israel has been relatively well studied. Historians and anthropologists have critically examined how the structuring assumptions of Jewish race science in early-twentieth-century Europe and North America, and their relationship to Zionist nationalism, reverberate within the genetic studies of Jewish populations by Israeli scientists from the 1950s to the present." (Burton 2021, p. 11) Burton, Elise K. (2021). Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity. Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-503-61457-4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"race" is a significant component not only of scholarly or academic modern Jewish thought, but also of popular or everyday Jewish thought. It is one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish identity construction, even if there are many who would dispute the applicability of biological or racial categories to Jews (Hart 2011, p. xxxv). Hart, Mitchell B. (2011). Jews and Race: Writings on Identity and Difference, 1880-1940. Brandeis library of modern Jewish thought. Brandeis University Press. ISBN978-1-584-65717-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
Weitzman makes a careful distinction in construing Ostrer's metaphor: "the Jews can be described at the genetic level as a tapestry, with no single genetic thread running through the whole tapestry, (editor's italics) but with different Jewish populations woven together by various threads." (Weitzman 2019, p. 300) Weitzman, Steven (2019). "Biological Approaches to the Origin of the Jews". The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age. Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-19165-2.
"Are recent discoveries fragmentary and half-truths? I think not, because the molecular genetic studies of which Sand is critical have set the bar higher for discovery, reporting, and acceptance than the race science of a century ago—less stand-alone observation with more replication and more rigorous statistical testing. The stakes in genetic analysis are high. It is more than an issue of who belongs in the family and can partake in Jewish life and Israeli citizenship. It touches on the heart of Zionist claims for a Jewish homeland in Israel. One can imagine future disputes about exactly how large the shared Middle Eastern ancestry of Jewish groups has to be to justify Zionist claims." (Ostrer 2012, p. 220) Ostrer, Harry (2012). A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 1 July 2023.
"Human population genetics... has been called 'the most widely misused area of human genetics' largely because findings are readily appropriated into preexisting cultural narratives... where they may be presented as 'proof' in support of a variety of sociopolitical agendas. In addition, determination of what constitutes a 'population' and what constitute 'discrete and comparable populations', critical decisions for the purposes of designing or interpreting genetic studies, can also be deeply entwined with popular concepts of race and other essentialist notions of identity. Given these issues and the veritable explosion in genomic research and its applications in recent decades, some scholars have expressed concerns that we have entered an era of the 'molecularization of race'.." (Baker 2017, p. 105) Baker, Cynthia M. (2017). "Zionism's New Jew and the Birth of the Genomic Jew". Jew. Key Words in Jewish Studies. Rutgers University Press. pp. 97–110. ISBN978-0-813-57386-1. Archived from the original on 10 July 2023.
"Genetic genealogy has added new twists to the controversies around the biologization and consolidation, and returns of identities. Although genetic scientists such as Harry Ostrer, who has asserted that Jews constitute a genetically coherent group, distance themselves from eugenics and spurious 'race science', the nationalist conclusions are presented as uncontroversial: Jews are a people because there is some genetic evidence that many have ancient origins in the Levant (Ostrer 2012). Susan Martha Kahn, an anthropologist specializing in aspects of medical practice in Israel, in commenting on Ostrer's views, remarks that in his work genetic evidence is made to coincide with the Jewish oral tradition of common origins in the Middle East (Kahn 2013), with the consequence of biologization of group identity. It is not an accident that the greater visibility of converso descendants in the Jewish and the wider world coincides with the rise of genetic studies that seek to prove that Jews are a people indigenous to the Middle East, with the obvious geopolitical conclusions legitimizing the claims to Israel/Palestine (Abu El Haj 2012; Kahn 2013); (Kandiyoti 2020);"there can be no clinching biological answer to the question of identifying the original Jews, nor to any question about the shared heritage of all Jews qua Jews... Smocha argues for the emancipation of the Jewish nation from inherited notions of alleged biological unity. Shouldn't genetic research likewise shake itself loose of the effort to anchor Zionism in the supposedly shared biological origins of the Jews?" (Falk 2017, pp. 208–210); "Testament to the legacy of racial thought in giving form to a Zionist vision of Jewish peoplehood by the mid-twentieth century, Israeli population researchers never doubted that biological facts of a shared origin did indeed exist, even as finding those facts remained forever elusive... Looking at the history of Zionism through the lens of work in the biological sciences brings into focus a story long sidelined in histories of the Jewish state: Jewish thinkers and Zionist activists invested in race science as they forged an understanding of the Jewish people and fought to found the Jewish state. By the mid-twentieth century, a biological self-definition — even if not seamlessly a racial one, at least not as race was imagined at the turn of the twentieth century — had become common-sensical for many Jewish nationalists, and, in significant ways, it framed membership and shaped the contours of national belonging in the Jewish state. (Abu El-Haj 2012, p. 18) Kandiyoti, Dalia (2020). The Converso's Return: Conversion and Sephardi History in Contemporary Literature and Culture. Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-5036-1244-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023. Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
For example, a team of American, European, and Israeli psychologists turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to investigate how genetic discourses might contribute to the resolution or exacerbation of ethnic-nationalist tensions. Following a series of studies conducted mainly on Jewish subjects, the psychologists found that Jewish Israelis who read a simulated news article emphasizing the genetic differences between Jews and Arabs "showed less support for political compromise and [...] more support for collective punishment toward Palestinians and more support for the political exclusion of Palestinian citizens of Israel." The psychologists concluded that the rising publicity of research that conflates ethnicity with genetic difference could foreshadow or inflame political violence. Furthermore, this study reaffirmed the co-constitutive roles of Zionist politics and genetic science in the construction of a Jewish biological category and the chronic otherization of Palestinians (Burton 2021, p. 246). Burton, Elise K. (2021). Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity. Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-503-61457-4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
""The stakes in the debate over Jewish origins are high, however, since the founding narrative of the Israeli state is based on exilic "return." If European Jews have descended from converts, the Zionist project falls prey to the pejorative categorization as "settler colonialism" pursued under false assumptions, playing into the hands of Israel's critics and fueling the indignation of the displaced and stateless Palestinian people (McGonigle 2021, p. 36). McGonigle, Ian V. (2021). Genomic Citizenship: The Molecularization of Identity in the Contemporary Middle East. MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-36669-4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"From any one person to another unrelated person, about one letter in a thousand, more or less, will be different when their three billion-letter DNAs are compared. There is no biological data in support of the notion of being a Jew solely through the inheritance of a single specific DNA sequence, nor will there ever be such evidence. There is no chance of some human genomes being Jewish and others not; biology makes all people truly equal." (Pollack 2013, p. 1) Pollack, Robert (13 April 2013). "Ruth the Moabite, David the King, and the Fallacy of Biological Judaism"(PDF). Kol Hadash. B'nai Yeshurun.
"To be sure, 'Jewish genetics' is only one of many examples for the search of origins of today's population groups with the help of DNA analysis. Whether it is 'the origin of modern Japanese populations' ... the "genetics of ancient Romans"... or an analysis of the genomes from 'Bronze Age Bulgaria' ... to give only a few examples, ancient forefathers and -mothers are a fascinating topic for scientists as well as for the general public. In the case of "Jewish genetics, however, scientific work can get easily politicized... But rather than dealing with politicians and their use of scientific papers for populistic ends, this essay highlights, delineates, and contextualizes the ongoing debate between various geneticists and social scientists on two main points. One is whether or how narratives impact the work of the researchers. In our case, it is the association of modern Jews as the (biological) descendants of the biblical Hebrews or today's Cohanim as descendants of the biblical priestly caste. As the debate on the Khazars exemplifies, genetic research can be politically loaded. Scientific theories or research results about the origin of Ashkenazi Jews are used for political purposes – but interest in the topic also places the researchers into a context of ideology and identity politics, which is closely linked to real or perceived national interests... The other point is the discussion about the danger that genetic studies on population groups reify race. Neither of these questions applies only to genetic research on Jews, but for Jews they have a special meaning that is rooted in Jewish history and culture (Kohler 2022, pp. 1–2). Kohler, Noa Sophie (2022). "What are Jews: interrogating genetic studies and the reification of race"(PDF). Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 101 (100). Istituto Italiano Antropologia: 185–199. doi:10.4436/JASS.10001. PMID35302512.
"The extent to which today's human population genetics are compared to past theories of race varies greatly, and thus the emphasis on an inherent danger of racism. In the Jewish context, the genetic studies on collective Jewish ancestry are mainly criticized as being designed or interpreted in the framework of a 'Zionist narrative', as essentializing biology, or both" (Kohler 2022, p. 8). Kohler, Noa Sophie (2022). "What are Jews: interrogating genetic studies and the reification of race"(PDF). Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 101 (100). Istituto Italiano Antropologia: 185–199. doi:10.4436/JASS.10001. PMID35302512.
"The history of modern racial thought and the importance of the Jews as one of its objects have received substantial attention, as well as has Jewish engagement with racial thinking. However, the larger significance of this thought both for the history of racial thinking in the West and for modern Jewish history itself is still under-analysed." (Hart 2005, p. 50) Hart, Mitchell B. (January 2005). "Jews, race, and capitalism in the German-Jewish context". Jewish History. 19 (1): 49–63. doi:10.1007/s10835-005-4357-8. S2CID144189435.
"the critical response to their works, particularly within the Israeli genetics community, revealed what the authors themselves were unable or perhaps unwilling to recognize: the significant extent to which Zionism, like any other ethnic nationalism, relies on a racializing logic of biological ancestry." (Burton 2022, p. 422) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"What makes population genetics in Israel in the 1950s an interesting and unique case is the unconscious internalization of an ideology by a group of scientists. Because the Zionist ideas did not require articulation and the researchers were unaware of the influence of such ideas on their scientific work, they were not critically examined. The myths were not shattered; on the contrary, they were reinforced." (Kirsh 2003, p. 655) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
Some Zionist physicians argued that the putative physical degeneration (Entartung) of Jews regarded exclusively the masses of Jews (Ghettojuden) in eastern Europe. Others associated an increase in physical and mental disorders among Jews with adaptation to the lifestyle prevailing in Western Europe (Hart 1999, pp. 275, 277–278). Hart, Mitchell B. (June 1999). "Racial Science, Social Science, and the Politics of Jewish Assimilation". Isis. 90 (2): 268–297. doi:10.1086/384324. JSTOR237051. S2CID143667571.
These ideas were not restricted to the German cultural sphere of central Europe. Aside from Redcliffe Nathan Salaman. Anglo-Jewish physicians like Charles Singer and Charles Seligman were not averse to adopting the current language of race. By the 1930s, the latter two were at the forefront of scientists challenging Nazi notions of race. Salaman became a Zionist some time after reaching the conclusion that Jews formed a distinct race, and this belief may have been one of the factors that led him to adopt that ideology. He maintained his views until well after the war (Endelman 2004, pp. 52–92, 69, 83). Endelman, Todd M. (Autumn 2004). "Anglo-Jewish Scientists and the Science of Race". Jewish Social Studies. 11 (1): 52–92. doi:10.2979/JSS.2004.11.1.52. JSTOR4467695. S2CID162317546.
Israel formally recognized them as Jews in 1973. Subsequently, in 1984 and 1991 Operation Moses and Operation Solomon respectively airlifted Ethiopian Jews to Israel, officially permitting mass immigration both for them and their converted African slaves (Salamon 2003, pp. 3–32). Salamon, Hagar (January–April 2003). "Blackness in Transition: Decoding Racial Constructs throughStories of Ethiopian Jews". Journal of Folklore Research. 40 (1): 3–32. doi:10.2979/JFR.2003.40.1.3. JSTOR3814642.
"(the process) denotes the acceptance of terms used in the dominant discourse against a stereotyped group by that group itself, while the group changes their own valuations. In the case of racial discourse, the differences between groups are thus admitted but the negative or allegedly inferior element of the hierarchy created is revalued and renamed, and new goals and challenges are set. " (Avraham 2013, pp. 355–356) Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
"scientific racism lacked conceptual clarity allowed for multiple interpretations: the terms Rasse, Volk, Stamm (tribe), and Nation were fuzzy, implying racial-biological meanings but anthropological, sociological, and cultural ones, too. Moreover, the early Zionists' racial discourse - which in itself was not adopted by all Zionists - did not envision a struggle between Jews and other races; as demonstrated by John Efron, it was free of chauvinistic argumentation. Nevertheless, by turning ideas of blood relations, inbreeding, racial gifts, and historical selection and evolution into categories that differentiated the Jews from other peoples, these Zionists could not entirely evade biological determinism, even if couched in humanistic concepts of transnational alliance." (Avraham 2017, p. 478) Avraham, Doron (2017). "Reconstructing a Collective: Zionism and Race Between National Socialism and Jewish Renewel". The Historical Journal. 60 (2). Cambridge University Press: 471–492. doi:10.1017/S0018246X16000406. JSTOR26343366. S2CID164670161. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"This essay describes the effects of Zionist ideology on research into human population genetics carried out in Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s... The comparison reveals that during this period the Israeli human geneticists and physicians emphasized the sociological and historical aspects of their research and used their work, among other things, as a vehicle for establishing a national identity and confirming the Zionist narrative." (Kirsh 2003, p. 631) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
"Israeli geneticists in the 1950s acknowledged, yet downplayed, genetic evidence of historical admixture between Jews and non-Jews." (Burton 2022, p. 414) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Such allele differences can be accounted for by several factors, such as natural selection, founder effects, inbreeding or admixture when contiguous populations interbred (Burton 2022, pp. 412–413). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"According to their interpretation of these genetic distance values..the Jews could not constitute a race -indeed, nor could virtually any population group..Wing's discussion of the genetic distance values pointed out that the distance between Ashkenazim and Eastern European and English non-Jews was lower than that between Ashkenazim and any category of Sephardim or Mizrachim." (Burton 2022, p. 421) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"(The two books) transformed Israeli population genetics from a largely descriptive enterprise to a vigorous refutation of the two books" assertions about historical levels of admixture between Jews and non-Jews' (Burton 2022, p. 423). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
The work of two TAU-based Russian Ashklenazi physical anthropologists in Israel, Sergiu Micle and Eugene D. Kobyliansky, did buttress this conclusion in a number of studies at the time employing four different models for estimating genetic distances (Burton 2022, pp. 435–436). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"This embedded circular reasoning meant that the real controversy was over the different versions of 'known history' accepted and perpetuated by, on one side, Koestler, Patai, Wing, Neel, and Morton; on another, Bonné-Tamir, Karlin, Motulsky, and most Israeli geneticists; and finally, the ambivalent positions taken by the Bodmers, Cavalli-Sforza, Carmelli, and (Ron S.) Kenett." (Burton 2022, p. 434) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"Following this initiation in mid-century Israel, research on Jewish populations has been continuous. But technologies and attitudes have changed and Abu El-Haj's book is mainly concerned with the most recent developments. Since the mid-nineties, geneticists based in Israel, Britain and the U.S. have applied advances in Y chromosome and mtDNA analysis to questions of Jewish biological difference. Apparently studying themselves, these researchers—who either self-designate as Jewish or work in teams with others who do—have largely evaded the accusations of colonial and racist prejudices that otherwise have haunted human population genetics. But even as the researchers are not anti-Semites and although their technologies and analyses are more refined than were ever those of race science, there exists a particular continuity in research objectives and questions posed: Who are the Jews? Are they a people? Where do they come from? This last question—originally whether the Jews were racially Semitic and thus foreign to Europe—has spawned another with direct political implications in the present: Is the Israeli state right to speak of Jewish settlement in Israel and on the Occupied Territories in terms of a return?" Hellström 2013, p. 439 Hellström, Petter (2013). "Genetic diaspora, genetic return (reviewing N. A. El-Haj, The genealogical science: The search for Jewish origins and the politics of epistemology)". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 44 (3). Elsevier: 439–442. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.05.007.
"The common notion of the Jews as a pure and unalterable race turned into a presupposition for empirical research" (Lipphardt 2012, p. 577). Lipphardt, Veronika (April 2012). "Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science". Current Anthropology. 53 (S5): S69 –S82. doi:10.1086/662574. JSTOR662574. S2CID161578154.
"Nor is there any value in complaining, as Millière does, that the Palestinians are an artificial people 'invented' as a 'weapon of war against Israelis and even Jews.' Anti-Zionists play the same game by claiming that the Jewish people were invented and that few modern Jews have a genetic link to ancient Israel. The only question that arises from this argument is: so what? All nations and peoples are invented to varying degrees and at different points in history, and sometimes they disappear too; but just as Shlomo Sand cannot persuade millions of Jews that they are not really Jews, so Millière will fail to persuade millions of Palestinians that they are not really Palestinians. Trying to argue a self-conscious nation out of existence is at best futile, at worst sinister.." (Rich 2017, p. 103) Rich, Dave (25 April 2017). "Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 11 (1): 101–104. doi:10.1080/23739770.2017.1315682. S2CID152132582. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"Using Arabs and Jews from diverse samples and contexts, we demonstrated that those who learn that their ethnic group is genetically related to an enemy group showed more constructive intergroup attitudes, interindividual behaviors, and support for peaceful policies than those who learn about the genetic differences. Specifically, in our three studies conducted in the United States, we found that heightening perceptions of interethnic genetic similarities versus differences altered Jews' and Arabs' negative attitudes, and even the real physical aggression of Jews toward an alleged Arab individual. In fact, it led to more support for conciliatory policies among Jews—in this case related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—and, compared with a plain control condition, provided some evidence that emphasizing genetic similarities may be one way to help attenuate intergroup conflict." (Kimel et al. 2016, pp. 688–700) Kimel, Sasha Y.; Huesmann, Rowell; Kunst, Jonas R.; Halperin, Eran (30 March 2016). "Living in a Genetic World". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 42 (5): 688–700. doi:10.1177/0146167216642196. PMID27029578. S2CID21136940. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023.
Avraham 2013, pp. 355–357. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 358. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, pp. 354–374, . Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 371, n.7. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 362. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 356. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Burton 2022, pp. 414, 416–417, 417, n.1. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 415–417. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 414–415, 420–423. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 419–420. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 414, 417. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 428–430, 430. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 432–433. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 435–436. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Nevertheless, the idea that different Jewish groups around the world are not only culturally similar, but also "genealogically" connected, is still prominent in the public imagination both within and outside Jewish communities. The notion that Jews are a people almost "biologically" related to each other was promoted by early Zionist ideologues (Egorova 2015, p. 354). Egorova, Yulia (2015). ""Jewish genetics": DNA, culture, and historical narrative". In Valman, Nadia; Roth, Laurence (eds.). The Routledge handbook of contemporary Jewish cultures. Routledge. pp. 353–364. ISBN978-0-203-49747-0. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023.
"A Jew brought up among Germans may assume German customs, German words. He may be wholly imbued with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure will always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body, his physical-facial type are Jewish." (Jabotinsky 1961, pp. 37–49) Jabotinsky, Ze'ev (1961). "A Letter on Autonomy"(PDF). In Pedazhur, Elazar (ed.). Nation and Society: Selected Articles. Jabotinsky Institute of Israel. pp. 37–49. Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 May 2022.
isita-org.com
"To be sure, 'Jewish genetics' is only one of many examples for the search of origins of today's population groups with the help of DNA analysis. Whether it is 'the origin of modern Japanese populations' ... the "genetics of ancient Romans"... or an analysis of the genomes from 'Bronze Age Bulgaria' ... to give only a few examples, ancient forefathers and -mothers are a fascinating topic for scientists as well as for the general public. In the case of "Jewish genetics, however, scientific work can get easily politicized... But rather than dealing with politicians and their use of scientific papers for populistic ends, this essay highlights, delineates, and contextualizes the ongoing debate between various geneticists and social scientists on two main points. One is whether or how narratives impact the work of the researchers. In our case, it is the association of modern Jews as the (biological) descendants of the biblical Hebrews or today's Cohanim as descendants of the biblical priestly caste. As the debate on the Khazars exemplifies, genetic research can be politically loaded. Scientific theories or research results about the origin of Ashkenazi Jews are used for political purposes – but interest in the topic also places the researchers into a context of ideology and identity politics, which is closely linked to real or perceived national interests... The other point is the discussion about the danger that genetic studies on population groups reify race. Neither of these questions applies only to genetic research on Jews, but for Jews they have a special meaning that is rooted in Jewish history and culture (Kohler 2022, pp. 1–2). Kohler, Noa Sophie (2022). "What are Jews: interrogating genetic studies and the reification of race"(PDF). Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 101 (100). Istituto Italiano Antropologia: 185–199. doi:10.4436/JASS.10001. PMID35302512.
"The extent to which today's human population genetics are compared to past theories of race varies greatly, and thus the emphasis on an inherent danger of racism. In the Jewish context, the genetic studies on collective Jewish ancestry are mainly criticized as being designed or interpreted in the framework of a 'Zionist narrative', as essentializing biology, or both" (Kohler 2022, p. 8). Kohler, Noa Sophie (2022). "What are Jews: interrogating genetic studies and the reification of race"(PDF). Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 101 (100). Istituto Italiano Antropologia: 185–199. doi:10.4436/JASS.10001. PMID35302512.
"What makes population genetics in Israel in the 1950s an interesting and unique case is the unconscious internalization of an ideology by a group of scientists. Because the Zionist ideas did not require articulation and the researchers were unaware of the influence of such ideas on their scientific work, they were not critically examined. The myths were not shattered; on the contrary, they were reinforced." (Kirsh 2003, p. 655) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
Some Zionist physicians argued that the putative physical degeneration (Entartung) of Jews regarded exclusively the masses of Jews (Ghettojuden) in eastern Europe. Others associated an increase in physical and mental disorders among Jews with adaptation to the lifestyle prevailing in Western Europe (Hart 1999, pp. 275, 277–278). Hart, Mitchell B. (June 1999). "Racial Science, Social Science, and the Politics of Jewish Assimilation". Isis. 90 (2): 268–297. doi:10.1086/384324. JSTOR237051. S2CID143667571.
These ideas were not restricted to the German cultural sphere of central Europe. Aside from Redcliffe Nathan Salaman. Anglo-Jewish physicians like Charles Singer and Charles Seligman were not averse to adopting the current language of race. By the 1930s, the latter two were at the forefront of scientists challenging Nazi notions of race. Salaman became a Zionist some time after reaching the conclusion that Jews formed a distinct race, and this belief may have been one of the factors that led him to adopt that ideology. He maintained his views until well after the war (Endelman 2004, pp. 52–92, 69, 83). Endelman, Todd M. (Autumn 2004). "Anglo-Jewish Scientists and the Science of Race". Jewish Social Studies. 11 (1): 52–92. doi:10.2979/JSS.2004.11.1.52. JSTOR4467695. S2CID162317546.
Israel formally recognized them as Jews in 1973. Subsequently, in 1984 and 1991 Operation Moses and Operation Solomon respectively airlifted Ethiopian Jews to Israel, officially permitting mass immigration both for them and their converted African slaves (Salamon 2003, pp. 3–32). Salamon, Hagar (January–April 2003). "Blackness in Transition: Decoding Racial Constructs throughStories of Ethiopian Jews". Journal of Folklore Research. 40 (1): 3–32. doi:10.2979/JFR.2003.40.1.3. JSTOR3814642.
"scientific racism lacked conceptual clarity allowed for multiple interpretations: the terms Rasse, Volk, Stamm (tribe), and Nation were fuzzy, implying racial-biological meanings but anthropological, sociological, and cultural ones, too. Moreover, the early Zionists' racial discourse - which in itself was not adopted by all Zionists - did not envision a struggle between Jews and other races; as demonstrated by John Efron, it was free of chauvinistic argumentation. Nevertheless, by turning ideas of blood relations, inbreeding, racial gifts, and historical selection and evolution into categories that differentiated the Jews from other peoples, these Zionists could not entirely evade biological determinism, even if couched in humanistic concepts of transnational alliance." (Avraham 2017, p. 478) Avraham, Doron (2017). "Reconstructing a Collective: Zionism and Race Between National Socialism and Jewish Renewel". The Historical Journal. 60 (2). Cambridge University Press: 471–492. doi:10.1017/S0018246X16000406. JSTOR26343366. S2CID164670161. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"This essay describes the effects of Zionist ideology on research into human population genetics carried out in Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s... The comparison reveals that during this period the Israeli human geneticists and physicians emphasized the sociological and historical aspects of their research and used their work, among other things, as a vehicle for establishing a national identity and confirming the Zionist narrative." (Kirsh 2003, p. 631) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
"The common notion of the Jews as a pure and unalterable race turned into a presupposition for empirical research" (Lipphardt 2012, p. 577). Lipphardt, Veronika (April 2012). "Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science". Current Anthropology. 53 (S5): S69 –S82. doi:10.1086/662574. JSTOR662574. S2CID161578154.
"To be sure, 'Jewish genetics' is only one of many examples for the search of origins of today's population groups with the help of DNA analysis. Whether it is 'the origin of modern Japanese populations' ... the "genetics of ancient Romans"... or an analysis of the genomes from 'Bronze Age Bulgaria' ... to give only a few examples, ancient forefathers and -mothers are a fascinating topic for scientists as well as for the general public. In the case of "Jewish genetics, however, scientific work can get easily politicized... But rather than dealing with politicians and their use of scientific papers for populistic ends, this essay highlights, delineates, and contextualizes the ongoing debate between various geneticists and social scientists on two main points. One is whether or how narratives impact the work of the researchers. In our case, it is the association of modern Jews as the (biological) descendants of the biblical Hebrews or today's Cohanim as descendants of the biblical priestly caste. As the debate on the Khazars exemplifies, genetic research can be politically loaded. Scientific theories or research results about the origin of Ashkenazi Jews are used for political purposes – but interest in the topic also places the researchers into a context of ideology and identity politics, which is closely linked to real or perceived national interests... The other point is the discussion about the danger that genetic studies on population groups reify race. Neither of these questions applies only to genetic research on Jews, but for Jews they have a special meaning that is rooted in Jewish history and culture (Kohler 2022, pp. 1–2). Kohler, Noa Sophie (2022). "What are Jews: interrogating genetic studies and the reification of race"(PDF). Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 101 (100). Istituto Italiano Antropologia: 185–199. doi:10.4436/JASS.10001. PMID35302512.
"The extent to which today's human population genetics are compared to past theories of race varies greatly, and thus the emphasis on an inherent danger of racism. In the Jewish context, the genetic studies on collective Jewish ancestry are mainly criticized as being designed or interpreted in the framework of a 'Zionist narrative', as essentializing biology, or both" (Kohler 2022, p. 8). Kohler, Noa Sophie (2022). "What are Jews: interrogating genetic studies and the reification of race"(PDF). Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 101 (100). Istituto Italiano Antropologia: 185–199. doi:10.4436/JASS.10001. PMID35302512.
"the critical response to their works, particularly within the Israeli genetics community, revealed what the authors themselves were unable or perhaps unwilling to recognize: the significant extent to which Zionism, like any other ethnic nationalism, relies on a racializing logic of biological ancestry." (Burton 2022, p. 422) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"What makes population genetics in Israel in the 1950s an interesting and unique case is the unconscious internalization of an ideology by a group of scientists. Because the Zionist ideas did not require articulation and the researchers were unaware of the influence of such ideas on their scientific work, they were not critically examined. The myths were not shattered; on the contrary, they were reinforced." (Kirsh 2003, p. 655) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
"This essay describes the effects of Zionist ideology on research into human population genetics carried out in Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s... The comparison reveals that during this period the Israeli human geneticists and physicians emphasized the sociological and historical aspects of their research and used their work, among other things, as a vehicle for establishing a national identity and confirming the Zionist narrative." (Kirsh 2003, p. 631) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
"Israeli geneticists in the 1950s acknowledged, yet downplayed, genetic evidence of historical admixture between Jews and non-Jews." (Burton 2022, p. 414) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Such allele differences can be accounted for by several factors, such as natural selection, founder effects, inbreeding or admixture when contiguous populations interbred (Burton 2022, pp. 412–413). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"According to their interpretation of these genetic distance values..the Jews could not constitute a race -indeed, nor could virtually any population group..Wing's discussion of the genetic distance values pointed out that the distance between Ashkenazim and Eastern European and English non-Jews was lower than that between Ashkenazim and any category of Sephardim or Mizrachim." (Burton 2022, p. 421) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"(The two books) transformed Israeli population genetics from a largely descriptive enterprise to a vigorous refutation of the two books" assertions about historical levels of admixture between Jews and non-Jews' (Burton 2022, p. 423). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
The work of two TAU-based Russian Ashklenazi physical anthropologists in Israel, Sergiu Micle and Eugene D. Kobyliansky, did buttress this conclusion in a number of studies at the time employing four different models for estimating genetic distances (Burton 2022, pp. 435–436). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"This embedded circular reasoning meant that the real controversy was over the different versions of 'known history' accepted and perpetuated by, on one side, Koestler, Patai, Wing, Neel, and Morton; on another, Bonné-Tamir, Karlin, Motulsky, and most Israeli geneticists; and finally, the ambivalent positions taken by the Bodmers, Cavalli-Sforza, Carmelli, and (Ron S.) Kenett." (Burton 2022, p. 434) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"Using Arabs and Jews from diverse samples and contexts, we demonstrated that those who learn that their ethnic group is genetically related to an enemy group showed more constructive intergroup attitudes, interindividual behaviors, and support for peaceful policies than those who learn about the genetic differences. Specifically, in our three studies conducted in the United States, we found that heightening perceptions of interethnic genetic similarities versus differences altered Jews' and Arabs' negative attitudes, and even the real physical aggression of Jews toward an alleged Arab individual. In fact, it led to more support for conciliatory policies among Jews—in this case related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—and, compared with a plain control condition, provided some evidence that emphasizing genetic similarities may be one way to help attenuate intergroup conflict." (Kimel et al. 2016, pp. 688–700) Kimel, Sasha Y.; Huesmann, Rowell; Kunst, Jonas R.; Halperin, Eran (30 March 2016). "Living in a Genetic World". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 42 (5): 688–700. doi:10.1177/0146167216642196. PMID27029578. S2CID21136940. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023.
Burton 2022, pp. 414, 416–417, 417, n.1. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 415–417. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 414–415, 420–423. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 419–420. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 414, 417. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 428–430, 430. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 432–433. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 435–436. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"The history of modern racial thought and the importance of the Jews as one of its objects have received substantial attention, as well as has Jewish engagement with racial thinking. However, the larger significance of this thought both for the history of racial thinking in the West and for modern Jewish history itself is still under-analysed." (Hart 2005, p. 50) Hart, Mitchell B. (January 2005). "Jews, race, and capitalism in the German-Jewish context". Jewish History. 19 (1): 49–63. doi:10.1007/s10835-005-4357-8. S2CID144189435.
"the critical response to their works, particularly within the Israeli genetics community, revealed what the authors themselves were unable or perhaps unwilling to recognize: the significant extent to which Zionism, like any other ethnic nationalism, relies on a racializing logic of biological ancestry." (Burton 2022, p. 422) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"What makes population genetics in Israel in the 1950s an interesting and unique case is the unconscious internalization of an ideology by a group of scientists. Because the Zionist ideas did not require articulation and the researchers were unaware of the influence of such ideas on their scientific work, they were not critically examined. The myths were not shattered; on the contrary, they were reinforced." (Kirsh 2003, p. 655) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
Some Zionist physicians argued that the putative physical degeneration (Entartung) of Jews regarded exclusively the masses of Jews (Ghettojuden) in eastern Europe. Others associated an increase in physical and mental disorders among Jews with adaptation to the lifestyle prevailing in Western Europe (Hart 1999, pp. 275, 277–278). Hart, Mitchell B. (June 1999). "Racial Science, Social Science, and the Politics of Jewish Assimilation". Isis. 90 (2): 268–297. doi:10.1086/384324. JSTOR237051. S2CID143667571.
These ideas were not restricted to the German cultural sphere of central Europe. Aside from Redcliffe Nathan Salaman. Anglo-Jewish physicians like Charles Singer and Charles Seligman were not averse to adopting the current language of race. By the 1930s, the latter two were at the forefront of scientists challenging Nazi notions of race. Salaman became a Zionist some time after reaching the conclusion that Jews formed a distinct race, and this belief may have been one of the factors that led him to adopt that ideology. He maintained his views until well after the war (Endelman 2004, pp. 52–92, 69, 83). Endelman, Todd M. (Autumn 2004). "Anglo-Jewish Scientists and the Science of Race". Jewish Social Studies. 11 (1): 52–92. doi:10.2979/JSS.2004.11.1.52. JSTOR4467695. S2CID162317546.
"(the process) denotes the acceptance of terms used in the dominant discourse against a stereotyped group by that group itself, while the group changes their own valuations. In the case of racial discourse, the differences between groups are thus admitted but the negative or allegedly inferior element of the hierarchy created is revalued and renamed, and new goals and challenges are set. " (Avraham 2013, pp. 355–356) Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
"scientific racism lacked conceptual clarity allowed for multiple interpretations: the terms Rasse, Volk, Stamm (tribe), and Nation were fuzzy, implying racial-biological meanings but anthropological, sociological, and cultural ones, too. Moreover, the early Zionists' racial discourse - which in itself was not adopted by all Zionists - did not envision a struggle between Jews and other races; as demonstrated by John Efron, it was free of chauvinistic argumentation. Nevertheless, by turning ideas of blood relations, inbreeding, racial gifts, and historical selection and evolution into categories that differentiated the Jews from other peoples, these Zionists could not entirely evade biological determinism, even if couched in humanistic concepts of transnational alliance." (Avraham 2017, p. 478) Avraham, Doron (2017). "Reconstructing a Collective: Zionism and Race Between National Socialism and Jewish Renewel". The Historical Journal. 60 (2). Cambridge University Press: 471–492. doi:10.1017/S0018246X16000406. JSTOR26343366. S2CID164670161. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"This essay describes the effects of Zionist ideology on research into human population genetics carried out in Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s... The comparison reveals that during this period the Israeli human geneticists and physicians emphasized the sociological and historical aspects of their research and used their work, among other things, as a vehicle for establishing a national identity and confirming the Zionist narrative." (Kirsh 2003, p. 631) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
"Israeli geneticists in the 1950s acknowledged, yet downplayed, genetic evidence of historical admixture between Jews and non-Jews." (Burton 2022, p. 414) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Such allele differences can be accounted for by several factors, such as natural selection, founder effects, inbreeding or admixture when contiguous populations interbred (Burton 2022, pp. 412–413). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"According to their interpretation of these genetic distance values..the Jews could not constitute a race -indeed, nor could virtually any population group..Wing's discussion of the genetic distance values pointed out that the distance between Ashkenazim and Eastern European and English non-Jews was lower than that between Ashkenazim and any category of Sephardim or Mizrachim." (Burton 2022, p. 421) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"(The two books) transformed Israeli population genetics from a largely descriptive enterprise to a vigorous refutation of the two books" assertions about historical levels of admixture between Jews and non-Jews' (Burton 2022, p. 423). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
The work of two TAU-based Russian Ashklenazi physical anthropologists in Israel, Sergiu Micle and Eugene D. Kobyliansky, did buttress this conclusion in a number of studies at the time employing four different models for estimating genetic distances (Burton 2022, pp. 435–436). Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"This embedded circular reasoning meant that the real controversy was over the different versions of 'known history' accepted and perpetuated by, on one side, Koestler, Patai, Wing, Neel, and Morton; on another, Bonné-Tamir, Karlin, Motulsky, and most Israeli geneticists; and finally, the ambivalent positions taken by the Bodmers, Cavalli-Sforza, Carmelli, and (Ron S.) Kenett." (Burton 2022, p. 434) Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"The common notion of the Jews as a pure and unalterable race turned into a presupposition for empirical research" (Lipphardt 2012, p. 577). Lipphardt, Veronika (April 2012). "Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science". Current Anthropology. 53 (S5): S69 –S82. doi:10.1086/662574. JSTOR662574. S2CID161578154.
"Nor is there any value in complaining, as Millière does, that the Palestinians are an artificial people 'invented' as a 'weapon of war against Israelis and even Jews.' Anti-Zionists play the same game by claiming that the Jewish people were invented and that few modern Jews have a genetic link to ancient Israel. The only question that arises from this argument is: so what? All nations and peoples are invented to varying degrees and at different points in history, and sometimes they disappear too; but just as Shlomo Sand cannot persuade millions of Jews that they are not really Jews, so Millière will fail to persuade millions of Palestinians that they are not really Palestinians. Trying to argue a self-conscious nation out of existence is at best futile, at worst sinister.." (Rich 2017, p. 103) Rich, Dave (25 April 2017). "Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 11 (1): 101–104. doi:10.1080/23739770.2017.1315682. S2CID152132582. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"Using Arabs and Jews from diverse samples and contexts, we demonstrated that those who learn that their ethnic group is genetically related to an enemy group showed more constructive intergroup attitudes, interindividual behaviors, and support for peaceful policies than those who learn about the genetic differences. Specifically, in our three studies conducted in the United States, we found that heightening perceptions of interethnic genetic similarities versus differences altered Jews' and Arabs' negative attitudes, and even the real physical aggression of Jews toward an alleged Arab individual. In fact, it led to more support for conciliatory policies among Jews—in this case related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—and, compared with a plain control condition, provided some evidence that emphasizing genetic similarities may be one way to help attenuate intergroup conflict." (Kimel et al. 2016, pp. 688–700) Kimel, Sasha Y.; Huesmann, Rowell; Kunst, Jonas R.; Halperin, Eran (30 March 2016). "Living in a Genetic World". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 42 (5): 688–700. doi:10.1177/0146167216642196. PMID27029578. S2CID21136940. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023.
Avraham 2013, pp. 355–357. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 358. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, pp. 354–374, . Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 371, n.7. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 362. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Avraham 2013, p. 356. Avraham, Doron (2013). "The "Racialization" of Jewish Self-Identity: The Response to Exclusion in Nazi Germany, 1933–1938". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 19 (3): 354–374. doi:10.1080/13537113.2013.818364. S2CID147576059.
Burton 2022, pp. 414, 416–417, 417, n.1. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 415–417. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 414–415, 420–423. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 419–420. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 414, 417. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 428–430, 430. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 432–433. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
Burton 2022, pp. 435–436. Burton, Elise K. (2022). "Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971–1986". Journal of the History of Biology. 55 (3): 411–442. doi:10.1007/s10739-022-09693-6. PMID36322260. S2CID253257113.
"Nor is there any value in complaining, as Millière does, that the Palestinians are an artificial people 'invented' as a 'weapon of war against Israelis and even Jews.' Anti-Zionists play the same game by claiming that the Jewish people were invented and that few modern Jews have a genetic link to ancient Israel. The only question that arises from this argument is: so what? All nations and peoples are invented to varying degrees and at different points in history, and sometimes they disappear too; but just as Shlomo Sand cannot persuade millions of Jews that they are not really Jews, so Millière will fail to persuade millions of Palestinians that they are not really Palestinians. Trying to argue a self-conscious nation out of existence is at best futile, at worst sinister.." (Rich 2017, p. 103) Rich, Dave (25 April 2017). "Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 11 (1): 101–104. doi:10.1080/23739770.2017.1315682. S2CID152132582. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"throughout all of the de-racializing stages of twentieth-century social thought, Jews have continued to invoke blood logic as a way of defining and maintaining group identity...'race' is a significant component not only of scholarly or academic modern Jewish thought, but also of popular or everyday Jewish thought. It is one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish identity construction, even if there are many who would dispute the applicability of biological or racial categories to Jews." (Hart 2011, pp. xxxiv–xxxv) Hart, Mitchell B. (2011). Jews and Race: Writings on Identity and Difference, 1880-1940. Brandeis library of modern Jewish thought. Brandeis University Press. ISBN978-1-584-65717-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"In every generation there are still Zionists as well as non-Zionists who are not satisfied with the mental and social notions which bind Jews together, and who seek to find the link between the national and the biological aspects of being Jews." Footnote: An interesting aspect is that of orthodox-religious circles that seek support of the "biological" argument for the Jewishness (or for membership in the Ten Lost Tribes) of tribes and congregations all over the world. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, the founder of the "Amishav" (Hebrew for "My People Return") organization and the author of the book Israel's Tribes, followed on his journeys "the footprints of forgotten Jewish communities, who lost their contact with the Jewish world... at the same time he also located tribes that have no biological relationship to the people of Israel but who want very much to join them" (Yair Sheleg, "All want to be Jewish", Haaretz, 17 September 1999, p. 27). In recent years, Rabbi Avichail "discovered" the tribe of Menasheh among the Koki, Mizo and Chin in the Manipur mountains at the border between India and Burma. In a TV program on "the search after the lost tribes", Hillel Halkin, a demographer of cultures, claimed that whereas the Jews of Ethiopia converted to Judaism during the Middle Ages and are not of ancient Jewish stock, the Koki, Mizo and Chin people are direct progeny of the Biblical tribe of Menasheh (Falk 2017, p. 16). Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
Footnote: "In conflicts like those in the Balkans, in Africa, in India, in South-East Asia or in Northern Ireland, and to some extent even in the Israeli-Arab conflict, a starting point is the existence of distinct ethnic or religious entities that struggle for the same piece of land. On the other hand, except for Nazi efforts to diagnose the biological belonging of individuals to national-ethnic entities, there is no other example known to me like the Zionists' of an intensive effort to prove the immanent biological belonging or non-belonging of communities to what is considered to be the Jewish entity." (Falk 2017, p. 6) Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
Nevertheless, the idea that different Jewish groups around the world are not only culturally similar, but also "genealogically" connected, is still prominent in the public imagination both within and outside Jewish communities. The notion that Jews are a people almost "biologically" related to each other was promoted by early Zionist ideologues (Egorova 2015, p. 354). Egorova, Yulia (2015). ""Jewish genetics": DNA, culture, and historical narrative". In Valman, Nadia; Roth, Laurence (eds.). The Routledge handbook of contemporary Jewish cultures. Routledge. pp. 353–364. ISBN978-0-203-49747-0. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023.
Gilman cites and comments on the following passage: "'The character of the Jews may benefit from anti-Semitism. Education can be achieved only through shock treatment. Darwin's theory of imitation will be validated. The Jews will adapt. They are like seals who have been thrown back into the water by an accident of nature,.. if they return to dry land and manage to stay there for a few generations, their fins will change back to legs.' How different and yet how similar to the appropriation of today's racial arguments in genetic terms." ( Gilman 2010, pp. 10–11; Falk 2017, p. 56) Gilman, Sander L. (2010). Disease & diagnosis: The second age of biology. Taylor & Francis. ISBN978-1-351-52209-0. Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
"A Jew brought up among Germans may assume German customs, German words. He may be wholly imbued with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure will always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body, his physical-facial type are Jewish." (Jabotinsky 1961, pp. 37–49) Jabotinsky, Ze'ev (1961). "A Letter on Autonomy"(PDF). In Pedazhur, Elazar (ed.). Nation and Society: Selected Articles. Jabotinsky Institute of Israel. pp. 37–49. Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 May 2022.
Ruppin enthusiastically quoted the words of many who are regarded in Holocaust historiography as the "Nazi scholars," "Nazi experts," "Nazi professors," "Nazi intellectuals" or "Nazi scientists," and even corresponded and discussed cordially with some of them, mainly because most of them were or pretend to be "primary solution Nazis," and their weltanschauung and basic theories were essentially similar to those of Ruppin. A "primary solution Nazi" was one who subscribed to the view Jews, as a fremdes Volk, to be segregated and disallowed intermarriage with Aryans (Bloom 2011, pp. 108, 334, 337). Bloom, Etan (2011). Arthur Ruppin and the Production of Pre-Israeli Culture. Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Vol. 31. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-20379-2. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
Ruppin esteemed Günther not only for his knowledge of racial theory, but also because he was a supporter of Zionism, writing, in Bloom's paraphrase, that "The 'segment of Jewry that thinks in a Jewish-völkisch way,' he observed, properly recognizes the 'process of mixing' as a 'process of decomposition' that threatens their own people. The 'racial-biological future of Jewry,' he asserted, could take one of two paths, either that of Zionism or that of 'decline (Untergang) [...] only the clear separation of the Jews from the non-Jews, and the non-Jews from the Jews,' he concluded, would provide a 'dignified solution to the Jewish question'." (Bloom 2011, p. 340) Bloom, Etan (2011). Arthur Ruppin and the Production of Pre-Israeli Culture. Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Vol. 31. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-20379-2. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"scientific racism lacked conceptual clarity allowed for multiple interpretations: the terms Rasse, Volk, Stamm (tribe), and Nation were fuzzy, implying racial-biological meanings but anthropological, sociological, and cultural ones, too. Moreover, the early Zionists' racial discourse - which in itself was not adopted by all Zionists - did not envision a struggle between Jews and other races; as demonstrated by John Efron, it was free of chauvinistic argumentation. Nevertheless, by turning ideas of blood relations, inbreeding, racial gifts, and historical selection and evolution into categories that differentiated the Jews from other peoples, these Zionists could not entirely evade biological determinism, even if couched in humanistic concepts of transnational alliance." (Avraham 2017, p. 478) Avraham, Doron (2017). "Reconstructing a Collective: Zionism and Race Between National Socialism and Jewish Renewel". The Historical Journal. 60 (2). Cambridge University Press: 471–492. doi:10.1017/S0018246X16000406. JSTOR26343366. S2CID164670161. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"Zionism, in fact, was proposed as the only viable solution to the threat to Jewish collective survival. And race was seen as a necessary component of this national revival. Not all Zionist thinkers embraced such racialist notions, as the selection in this volume by Robert Weltsch testifies... Nonetheless, racial ideas and images proved quite attractive to many Jewish nationalists, offering them a language with which to define Jewishness as an objective fact, a matter of biology and history as well as subjective will. Moreover, the fact that racial thinking was closely aligned with science, that it drew much of its content—as well as whatever claim it had to mainstream legitimacy—from the natural and social sciences, was also attractive to Zionism, a movement that portrayed itself as scientific." (Hart 2011, p. xxviii-xxix) Hart, Mitchell B. (2011). Jews and Race: Writings on Identity and Difference, 1880-1940. Brandeis library of modern Jewish thought. Brandeis University Press. ISBN978-1-584-65717-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"In contrast to the rest of the region, the history of genetic research on Jews in Israel has been relatively well studied. Historians and anthropologists have critically examined how the structuring assumptions of Jewish race science in early-twentieth-century Europe and North America, and their relationship to Zionist nationalism, reverberate within the genetic studies of Jewish populations by Israeli scientists from the 1950s to the present." (Burton 2021, p. 11) Burton, Elise K. (2021). Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity. Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-503-61457-4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"race" is a significant component not only of scholarly or academic modern Jewish thought, but also of popular or everyday Jewish thought. It is one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish identity construction, even if there are many who would dispute the applicability of biological or racial categories to Jews (Hart 2011, p. xxxv). Hart, Mitchell B. (2011). Jews and Race: Writings on Identity and Difference, 1880-1940. Brandeis library of modern Jewish thought. Brandeis University Press. ISBN978-1-584-65717-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023.
"Are recent discoveries fragmentary and half-truths? I think not, because the molecular genetic studies of which Sand is critical have set the bar higher for discovery, reporting, and acceptance than the race science of a century ago—less stand-alone observation with more replication and more rigorous statistical testing. The stakes in genetic analysis are high. It is more than an issue of who belongs in the family and can partake in Jewish life and Israeli citizenship. It touches on the heart of Zionist claims for a Jewish homeland in Israel. One can imagine future disputes about exactly how large the shared Middle Eastern ancestry of Jewish groups has to be to justify Zionist claims." (Ostrer 2012, p. 220) Ostrer, Harry (2012). A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 1 July 2023.
"Human population genetics... has been called 'the most widely misused area of human genetics' largely because findings are readily appropriated into preexisting cultural narratives... where they may be presented as 'proof' in support of a variety of sociopolitical agendas. In addition, determination of what constitutes a 'population' and what constitute 'discrete and comparable populations', critical decisions for the purposes of designing or interpreting genetic studies, can also be deeply entwined with popular concepts of race and other essentialist notions of identity. Given these issues and the veritable explosion in genomic research and its applications in recent decades, some scholars have expressed concerns that we have entered an era of the 'molecularization of race'.." (Baker 2017, p. 105) Baker, Cynthia M. (2017). "Zionism's New Jew and the Birth of the Genomic Jew". Jew. Key Words in Jewish Studies. Rutgers University Press. pp. 97–110. ISBN978-0-813-57386-1. Archived from the original on 10 July 2023.
"Genetic genealogy has added new twists to the controversies around the biologization and consolidation, and returns of identities. Although genetic scientists such as Harry Ostrer, who has asserted that Jews constitute a genetically coherent group, distance themselves from eugenics and spurious 'race science', the nationalist conclusions are presented as uncontroversial: Jews are a people because there is some genetic evidence that many have ancient origins in the Levant (Ostrer 2012). Susan Martha Kahn, an anthropologist specializing in aspects of medical practice in Israel, in commenting on Ostrer's views, remarks that in his work genetic evidence is made to coincide with the Jewish oral tradition of common origins in the Middle East (Kahn 2013), with the consequence of biologization of group identity. It is not an accident that the greater visibility of converso descendants in the Jewish and the wider world coincides with the rise of genetic studies that seek to prove that Jews are a people indigenous to the Middle East, with the obvious geopolitical conclusions legitimizing the claims to Israel/Palestine (Abu El Haj 2012; Kahn 2013); (Kandiyoti 2020);"there can be no clinching biological answer to the question of identifying the original Jews, nor to any question about the shared heritage of all Jews qua Jews... Smocha argues for the emancipation of the Jewish nation from inherited notions of alleged biological unity. Shouldn't genetic research likewise shake itself loose of the effort to anchor Zionism in the supposedly shared biological origins of the Jews?" (Falk 2017, pp. 208–210); "Testament to the legacy of racial thought in giving form to a Zionist vision of Jewish peoplehood by the mid-twentieth century, Israeli population researchers never doubted that biological facts of a shared origin did indeed exist, even as finding those facts remained forever elusive... Looking at the history of Zionism through the lens of work in the biological sciences brings into focus a story long sidelined in histories of the Jewish state: Jewish thinkers and Zionist activists invested in race science as they forged an understanding of the Jewish people and fought to found the Jewish state. By the mid-twentieth century, a biological self-definition — even if not seamlessly a racial one, at least not as race was imagined at the turn of the twentieth century — had become common-sensical for many Jewish nationalists, and, in significant ways, it framed membership and shaped the contours of national belonging in the Jewish state. (Abu El-Haj 2012, p. 18) Kandiyoti, Dalia (2020). The Converso's Return: Conversion and Sephardi History in Contemporary Literature and Culture. Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-5036-1244-0. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023. Falk, Raphael (2017). Zionism and the Biology of Jews. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences. Springer International Publishing. ISBN978-3-319-57345-8. Archived from the original on 7 July 2023.
"Nor is there any value in complaining, as Millière does, that the Palestinians are an artificial people 'invented' as a 'weapon of war against Israelis and even Jews.' Anti-Zionists play the same game by claiming that the Jewish people were invented and that few modern Jews have a genetic link to ancient Israel. The only question that arises from this argument is: so what? All nations and peoples are invented to varying degrees and at different points in history, and sometimes they disappear too; but just as Shlomo Sand cannot persuade millions of Jews that they are not really Jews, so Millière will fail to persuade millions of Palestinians that they are not really Palestinians. Trying to argue a self-conscious nation out of existence is at best futile, at worst sinister.." (Rich 2017, p. 103) Rich, Dave (25 April 2017). "Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 11 (1): 101–104. doi:10.1080/23739770.2017.1315682. S2CID152132582. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
For example, a team of American, European, and Israeli psychologists turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to investigate how genetic discourses might contribute to the resolution or exacerbation of ethnic-nationalist tensions. Following a series of studies conducted mainly on Jewish subjects, the psychologists found that Jewish Israelis who read a simulated news article emphasizing the genetic differences between Jews and Arabs "showed less support for political compromise and [...] more support for collective punishment toward Palestinians and more support for the political exclusion of Palestinian citizens of Israel." The psychologists concluded that the rising publicity of research that conflates ethnicity with genetic difference could foreshadow or inflame political violence. Furthermore, this study reaffirmed the co-constitutive roles of Zionist politics and genetic science in the construction of a Jewish biological category and the chronic otherization of Palestinians (Burton 2021, p. 246). Burton, Elise K. (2021). Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity. Stanford University Press. ISBN978-1-503-61457-4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"Using Arabs and Jews from diverse samples and contexts, we demonstrated that those who learn that their ethnic group is genetically related to an enemy group showed more constructive intergroup attitudes, interindividual behaviors, and support for peaceful policies than those who learn about the genetic differences. Specifically, in our three studies conducted in the United States, we found that heightening perceptions of interethnic genetic similarities versus differences altered Jews' and Arabs' negative attitudes, and even the real physical aggression of Jews toward an alleged Arab individual. In fact, it led to more support for conciliatory policies among Jews—in this case related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—and, compared with a plain control condition, provided some evidence that emphasizing genetic similarities may be one way to help attenuate intergroup conflict." (Kimel et al. 2016, pp. 688–700) Kimel, Sasha Y.; Huesmann, Rowell; Kunst, Jonas R.; Halperin, Eran (30 March 2016). "Living in a Genetic World". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 42 (5): 688–700. doi:10.1177/0146167216642196. PMID27029578. S2CID21136940. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023.
""The stakes in the debate over Jewish origins are high, however, since the founding narrative of the Israeli state is based on exilic "return." If European Jews have descended from converts, the Zionist project falls prey to the pejorative categorization as "settler colonialism" pursued under false assumptions, playing into the hands of Israel's critics and fueling the indignation of the displaced and stateless Palestinian people (McGonigle 2021, p. 36). McGonigle, Ian V. (2021). Genomic Citizenship: The Molecularization of Identity in the Contemporary Middle East. MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-36669-4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023.
"(a)die Entdeckung, daß die tiefsten Schichten unseres Wesens vom Blute bestimmt daß unser Gedanke und unser Wille zu innerst von ihm gefärbt sind. (b) Und wenn sie dennoch dem Juden eine Wirklichkeit werden kann, so liegt das eben daran, daß die Abstammung nicht bloß Zusammenhang mit dem Vergangenen bedeutet: daß sie etwas in uns gelegt hat, was uns zu keiner Stunde unseres Lebens verläßt, was jeden Ton und jede Farbe in unserem Leben, in dem was wir tun und in dem was uns geschieht, bestimmt: das Blut als die tiefste Machtschicht der Seele." (Buber 1920, pp. 19, 22) Buber, Martin (1920) [First published 1911]. Drei Reden über das Judentum [Three Speeches on Judaism] (PDF) (in German). Rütten & Loening.
"What makes population genetics in Israel in the 1950s an interesting and unique case is the unconscious internalization of an ideology by a group of scientists. Because the Zionist ideas did not require articulation and the researchers were unaware of the influence of such ideas on their scientific work, they were not critically examined. The myths were not shattered; on the contrary, they were reinforced." (Kirsh 2003, p. 655) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
"This essay describes the effects of Zionist ideology on research into human population genetics carried out in Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s... The comparison reveals that during this period the Israeli human geneticists and physicians emphasized the sociological and historical aspects of their research and used their work, among other things, as a vehicle for establishing a national identity and confirming the Zionist narrative." (Kirsh 2003, p. 631) Kirsh, Nurit (December 2003). "Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology". Isis. 94 (4). University of Chicago Press: 631–655. doi:10.1086/386385. ISSN0021-1753. JSTOR386385. PMID15077535. S2CID42708609.
