Abstract

We report two previously undescribed Y-chromosome lineages identified through the Avotaynu DNA Project’s systematic sampling of non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities. The first, Avotaynu AB-370 (J-FTF9916), is found among men of Kurdish Jewish descent and has an estimated time to most recent common ancestor of 1,482 years before present (95% CI 904–2,296 YBP). The second, Avotaynu AB-514 (R-FT14557), is found among men of Bukharan and Baghdadi Jewish descent, with an estimated TMRCA of 1,312 YBP (95% CI 778–2,074 YBP). Both estimates fall within the period of expanded Silk Road commerce linking the Babylonian and Persian Jewish centers to Central Asia and beyond, and both lineages show internal divergence consistent with substantial antiquity within their respective communities.

Introduction

The Jewish communities of Kurdistan and Bukhara are among the oldest continuously attested Jewish populations outside the Land of Israel, with traditions of descent from the Babylonian exile and a documented presence along the trade corridors linking Mesopotamia to Central Asia. Both communities have been comparatively little studied from a patrilineal genetic perspective relative to Ashkenazi and Sephardi populations.

Since 2016, the Avotaynu DNA Project has systematically sought out and tested individuals from non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities worldwide. This report describes two lineages newly identified in the course of that work.

Results

The Kurdish Lineage — Avotaynu AB-370, J-FTF9916

The mean estimated age of AB-370 is 1,482 years before present, with a 95% confidence interval of 904–2,296 YBP, calculated by FamilyTreeDNA using the methodology described in Begg et al. (2023).[1] Multiple men of Kurdish Jewish descent enrolled in the Project belong to this lineage. Their short tandem repeat haplotypes are markedly divergent, which is consistent with a shared ancestor at some depth within the Kurdish Jewish community rather than a recent founder.

FTDNA: https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/J-FTF9916/story

YFull: https://www.yfull.com/tree/J-FT41076/

The Bukharan Lineage — Avotaynu AB-514, R-FT14557

AB-514 has a mean estimated age of 1,312 years before present, with a 95% confidence interval of 778–2,074 YBP. Participants belonging to this lineage include men of both Bukharan and Baghdadi Jewish descent, a distribution consistent with the historical movement of Jewish families along the corridor connecting Mesopotamia to Central Asia. Additional Next Generation Sequencing within this clade should permit refinement of both its age and its internal structure.

FTDNA: https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/R-FT14557/story

YFull: https://www.yfull.com/sc/tree/R-Y168245/

Discussion

The estimated ages of both lineages, while carrying wide confidence intervals, fall broadly within the eighth to tenth centuries CE — a period of substantial expansion in overland and maritime trade linking Iberia and Morocco in the west to China in the east. The Radhanim (Radhanites), a group of multilingual Jewish merchants described by the Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh in his Kitab al-Masalik wa-l-Mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms, c. 870 CE), are the best-known Jewish participants in that network, though the sources concerning them are thin and their relationship to settled communities is not well understood.

The dating of a lineage does not establish the date at which any particular community was founded, and we draw no such inference here. What the estimates do suggest is that both lineages were already established within the Babylonian-Persian Jewish sphere during the period in which that sphere was most extensively connected to Central Asia and the routes beyond it.

A direction for future work: the Jews of Kaifeng

The Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, greatly diminished by centuries of assimilation, has attracted scholarly attention for centuries, and several competing accounts of its origins have been proposed.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The documentary evidence points consistently toward Persia and Central Asia: manuscripts associated with the community attest to the use of Judeo-Persian,[8] and there is broad scholarly agreement that the ancestors of the Kaifeng Jews were traders, diplomats, or refugees from Persia or Central Asia who settled in China and gradually integrated into Chinese society. The rare Hebrew Union College manuscript Ms. 926,[9] a memorial book with prayers for Sabbath Eve in which names appear in both Hebrew and Chinese script, illustrates that dual heritage directly.

FTDNA BigY700 samples reported to be of Kaifeng descent have been described as falling within both of the clades reported here. We make no claim as to whether those reports are accurate or as to any relationship between them and the participants described above. Testing this connection properly would require sampling of Kaifeng descendants under an appropriate consent and review framework, together with community consultation. We identify it as a direction for future work rather than as a finding.

We note the sensitivity of such work. The surviving Kaifeng community is very small — reduced by 1980 to some 79 families bearing six surnames[10] — and questions concerning its members’ religious status remain contested. Findings of this kind can bear directly on the standing of identifiable families, including relatives who are not study participants. Any future study should be designed accordingly.

Limitations

These findings are preliminary. Y-chromosome analysis traces a single ancestral line per individual and does not characterize the broader genetic ancestry of any participant or community; autosomal analysis would be required for that purpose, and the authors intend to pursue it. The age estimates reported here carry wide confidence intervals and should be read as broadly consistent with the period discussed rather than as precise dates. The number of participants within each lineage remains small, and the estimates may shift as further samples are sequenced.

Ethics, Consent, and Data

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from [insert the institution or institutions governing the participants reported here — among Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa; NYU Langone Health; the University of Colorado; and the University of Haifa — with protocol number and approval date for each] prior to the commencement of the research.

Participants were recruited on a voluntary basis through the Avotaynu DNA Project. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants for the collection of biological samples, genetic analysis, and publication of de-identified findings. No financial compensation was provided.

Participant data were de-identified for all phases of storage and analysis, and no personally identifiable information appears in this report. Results are reported at the level of lineage; no individual-level genotype data are published.

Methods

The Avotaynu Project: The Genetic Census of the Jewish People is an independent team of academics and community historians. Since 2000 the Project has compiled over 12,000 donated DNA results, predominantly from the Ashkenazi community, and since 2016 has systematically sought out and tested approximately 2,000 individuals from non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities worldwide. Active testing continues.

The Project’s standard protocol begins with a Y37 STR panel for each participant to detect potential new lineages; representative samples within each prospective lineage are then re-analyzed using Next Generation Sequencing to define ancestral connections with specificity. Avotaynu investigators Aaron Pinkhasov, Danil Shimonov, and Myrna Ovadia Gabbay recruited participants reported here from the Kurdish and Bukharan Jewish communities.

All Avotaynu Project DNA samples were processed at the Family Tree DNA laboratory in Houston, Texas. Goran Runfeldt, Michael Sager, and Paul Maier of the FTDNA staff contributed to identifying and dating Y-chromosome variants. For the age-estimation methodology applied here, see Begg et al. (2023).[1]

Further information about the study is available at www.AvotaynuOnline.com. The study administrators welcome inquiries at Adam.Brown@AvotaynuDNA.org.

Notes

[1] Begg, T., et al. Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven. Current Biology 33(8): 1431-1447.e22 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.041

[2] Laytner, Anson H. and Jordan Paper, eds. The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng: A Millennium of Adaptation and Endurance. Lexington Books, 2017.

[3] Leslie, Donald. Survival of the Chinese Jews: The Jewish Community of Kaifeng. Vol. 10. Brill, 2023.

[4] Qianzhi, Wei, and Roger Des Forges. “An Investigation of the Date of Jewish Settlement in Kaifeng.” The Jews of China, v. 2: A Sourcebook and Research Guide. Routledge, 2018. 14-25.

[5] Chen Yuan, “A Study of the Israelite Religion in Kaifeng,” in Shapiro, Sidney. Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars. Hippocrene Books, 1984.

[6] Sharot, Stephen. “The Kaifeng Jews: A reconsideration of acculturation and assimilation in a comparative perspective.” Jewish Social Studies (2007): 179-203.

[7] White, William Charles. Chinese Jews: A Compilation of Matters Relating to the Jews of K‘ai-Fêng Fu. 2nd ed. University of Toronto, 1966.

[8] See the Judeo-Persian Haggadah of Kaifeng, Posen Library. https://www.posenlibrary.com/entry/judeo-persian-haggadah-kaifeng

[9] Hebrew Union College MS. 926. https://mss.huc.edu/phpviewer/index.php?path=MS_926, last accessed July 14, 2024.

[10] Wang Yisha, “Descendants of the Kaifeng Jews,” in Shapiro, pp. 167-186; see also Demsky, Aaron, ed. These Are the Names: Studies in Jewish Onomastics, Vol. 5. Bar Ilan University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-965-226-375-9.