Dr. Doron Behar's new paper on R1a1a (R-Y2619) Ashkenazi Levites

[JeffWexler]

Dr. Doron Behar's new paper on R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites, The genetic variation in the R1a clade among the Ashkenazi Levites' Y chromosome, was published this morning. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14761-7 (I am fortunate to be one of the co-authors of the article.)

The paper concludes that: (1) all R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites share the Y-DNA SNP Y2619 and are descended from a single Jewish, Levite man who lived about 1,743 years ago; and (2) that man's line lived in the Middle East as of 3,000 years ago and was likely a minor branch among the Hebrews. A summary of the paper is posted at https://sites.google.com/site/levite...kenazi-levites

[dna]

Thank you!


Mr. W

P.S.
You may want to consider adding https://doi.org/10.4236/aa.2017.71002 (Klyosov "Excavated DNA from Two Khazar Burials") to places where the Khazarian genetic connection is discussed on your website.

[josh w.]

Dr. Doron Behar's new paper on R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites, The genetic variation in the R1a clade among the Ashkenazi Levites' Y chromosome, was published this morning. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14761-7 (I am fortunate to be one of the co-authors of the article.)

The paper concludes that: (1) all R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites share the Y-DNA SNP Y2619 and are descended from a single Jewish, Levite man who lived about 1,743 years ago; and (2) that man's line lived in the Middle East as of 3,000 years ago and was likely a minor branch among the Hebrews. A summary of the paper is posted at https://sites.google.com/site/levite...kenazi-levites

Jeff, thanks. My paternal grandmother was Bat Levi but I don't know the Y line (all cousins are female). (Some of my J2a Y line matches are Levis, but I suspect that they just adopted the role)

[JeffWexler]

Mr. W--

Thanks for the suggestion. I've added a brief discussion and link to Professor Klyosov's paper on the two Khazar burials.

Josh--

According to Dr. Behar's 2003 paper, about 10% of Ashkenazi Levites and 32% of Sephardic Levites belong to haplogroup J; I don't know the breakdown between J clusters.

It's frustrating not to have lines to test. I have Y-DNA results for three of my ancestral male lines; all of them are R1a-Y2619, but on different branches. My maternal grandmother's father was also a Levite, so there's a significant chance that he was also R1a-Y2619 (that likelihood is diminished because family lore says that he was born in Turkey, which would likely make him Sephardic). However, he had only daughters.