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Jewish Genetics (Jewish Studies)

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Jun 13th, 2018
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  1.  
  2. Introduction
  3. Like other research on human heredity and biological relationships, Jewish genetics has seen a surge in new research beginning in the 1980s as the larger field of genetics made use of new technologies and methods of analysis. More recently, the availability of whole-genome sequencing following the successful completion of the human genome project has opened new research possibilities as well as new ethical and political questions about the implications of genetic research. Despite this newness, contemporary geneticists and their critics often consider similar questions and controversies such as those raised in pre-1980s studies based on blood groups, and even earlier biometric studies undertaken by 19th- and early-20th-century eugenicists and their critics. Zionist and anti-Zionist politics significantly inform historical and contemporary Jewish genetics literatures, at times explicitly and more often implicitly in the questions that scholars ask, such as the extent to which Jews constitute a biological community, and the extent to which Jews throughout the world can trace their ancestry to the Middle East. The Jewish genetics literature includes genetic studies and book-length overviews written from the perspective of genetic scientists, qualitative studies and critical analyses of the methods and implications of Jewish genetics written by humanities and social sciences scholars, and popular nonfiction accounts of both written by journalists. This article includes work from all of these categories but emphasizes humanities and social sciences research. The work on Jewish genetics produced in the humanities and social sciences draws from the interdisciplinary fields of Jewish cultural studies, comparative ethnic studies, and science and technology studies, as well as from disciplines such as history, anthropology, and sociology. Scholars seeking to speak across humanities and sciences divides have also explored Jewish genetics, especially in the context of race and genomics, biological citizenship, and anthropological questions about ancestry, medicine, and belonging. Whether authors position themselves as scientists or humanists, a common theme emerges in the Jewish genetics literature; much of the work on Jewish genetics examines continuities between contemporary Jewish genetics research and earlier scholarship devoted to the interrelationships among Jewish identity, Jewish biology, and cultural/political ideas about race and ethnicity. It is thus necessary to consider the critical literature on genetics and race more broadly in addition to texts specifically concerned with Jewish genetics and to approach the topic of Jewish genetics from an interdisciplinary and historical point of view.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6. Those without a background in human molecular genetics will find Marks 1995 to be an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the field in the context of anthropology, race, and ancestry (see also Race and Genetics: Eugenics Histories). Royal 2006 introduces the larger field of race and ethnicity in genetics research, of which Jewish genetics is a part. Fishberg 2006, originally published in 1911, provides a prehistory of Jewish genetics, asking many of the same questions later asked by geneticists and sharing many of the same concerns with how to use biological measurement to understand Jewish demography, diversity, and medicine. Mourant, et al. 1978 summarizes the field of Jewish genetics as of the 1970s when serological (blood group) studies dominated. For an up-to-date state of the field, the following three excellent texts offer marked differences in their approaches and purposes: Abu El-Haj 2012, Ostrer 2012, and Rosenberg and Weitzman 2013 (the latter is a special issue of the journal Human Biology). Harry Ostrer, a medical geneticist, aims to make Jewish genetics accessible for a popular audience, whereas Nadia Abu El-Haj, an anthropologist and science and technology studies scholar, examines the epistemologies that facilitate and result from Jewish genetic ancestry research. Both explain the basics of genetics research for a nonspecialist audience, and they complement one another by taking different positions regarding what Jewish genetics tell us about race, ethnicity, biology, culture, and politics. Ostrer emphasizes scientists’ biographies and viewpoints in an account that is oriented toward explicating the central finding of his “Jewish HapMap” research, which is that disparate Jewish groups are genetically linked to one another (see Jewish Genetic History and Identity for more on this research, as well as dissenting views from other geneticists). Abu El-Haj 2012 also includes detailed accounts of relevant genetic studies and background information about scientists but emphasizes an analysis of genetic ancestry’s epistemological underpinnings as a novel—but not self-evident—form of knowledge about biology and culture. Rosenberg and Weitzman 2013 in this special issue aim to include geneticists and social scientists in one conversation. Although not exhaustive, the other articles signal some of the current concerns within Jewish genetics: the extent to which historical controversies can be addressed through genetic ancestry studies, the relatedness of Jewish populations to others in the Middle East and Europe, and the significance of pro- and anti-Zionist politics to how Jewish genetics research is produced and interpreted.
  7.  
  8. Abu El-Haj, Nadia. The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
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  11.  
  12. Abu El-Haj argues that genetic history seeks historical, cultural meaning through statistical differences gleaned from genomic data. She highlights changing understandings of Jewish genetic research vis-à-vis biological essentialisms and cultural meanings, as well as changing forms of Zionist politics and ideas about nationhood.
  13.  
  14. Find this resource:
  15.  
  16. Fishberg, Maurice. Jews, Race, & Environment. New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Transaction Publishers, 2006.
  17.  
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  19.  
  20. Originally published in 1911, Fishberg’s study of the racial characteristics of Jews concludes that Jews do not constitute a race. Its original context was public debates about the racial and assimilation status of Jews as an American immigrant population. Readers will note that the book was written prior to the possibility of genetic research. However, this is an especially important text for those interested in historicizing Jewish genetics. Recent research addresses similar questions, such as the extent to which Jews are similar to one another and the way in which to evaluate associations between Jews and specific diseases.
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  23.  
  24. Kahn, Susan Martha. “The Multiple Meanings of Jewish Genes.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 29.2 (June 2005): 179–192.
  25.  
  26. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-005-7424-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  27.  
  28. Kahn examines the implications of Jewish genetic research for essentialist notions of identity. In this succinct analysis of Jewish genetics, Kahn argues that a consideration of genetics alongside other biomedical technologies in which bodily substances are exchanged ultimately challenges the essentialisms that Jewish genetic identity appears to present.
  29.  
  30. Find this resource:
  31.  
  32. Marks, Jonathan. Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1995.
  33.  
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  35.  
  36. Marks is an anthropologist who writes prolifically on genetics and race. This book is an excellent introduction to how genes, race, and history are understood within biological anthropology, as well as to the tradition in anthropology that cites genetic evidence for the position that biological races do not exist.
  37.  
  38. Find this resource:
  39.  
  40. Mourant, Arthur Ernest, Ada C. Kopeć, and Kazimiera Domaniewska-Sobczak. The Genetics of the Jews. Oxford: Clarendon, 1978.
  41.  
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  43.  
  44. The authors present a summary overview of Jewish genetics to the 1970s, emphasizing blood group data and questions of race and ancestry. They argue that all of the Jewish populations show similarities with each other as well as in varying degrees with the non-Jewish populations among whom they live.
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  46. Find this resource:
  47.  
  48. Ostrer, Harry. Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  49.  
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  51.  
  52. Ostrer provides a detailed genealogy of major events in the history of Jewish genetics research, along with clear explanations of technical terms. Ostrer emphasizes biographies of major Jewish geneticists and explanations for a general audience. He argues that disparate Jewish groups are genetically linked to one another.
  53.  
  54. Find this resource:
  55.  
  56. Rosenberg, Noah A., and Steven P. Weitzman. “Introduction.” In Special Issue: From Generation to Generation: The Genetics of Jewish Populations. Edited by Noah A. Rosenberg and Steven P. Weitzman. Human Biology 85.6 (December 2013): 817–824.
  57.  
  58. DOI: 10.3378/027.085.0603Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  59.  
  60. The introduction to this special issue emphasizing Jewish population genetics explains why Jewish genetic ancestry is of interest to population geneticists and to scholars in Jewish studies and related fields.
  61.  
  62. Find this resource:
  63.  
  64. Royal, Charmaine. “‘Race’ and Ethnicity in Science, Medicine and Society.” BioSocieties 1.3 (September 2006): 325–328.
  65.  
  66. DOI: 10.1017/S1745855206003048Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  67.  
  68. Royal explains why and how scientists use the terms “race” and “ethnicity” in biomedical and genetic ancestry research. She highlights how these concepts can be misleading or otherwise problematic and advocates for a more nuanced approach to human genetic variation.
  69.  
  70. Find this resource:
  71.  
  72. Anthologies
  73. Although as of the early 21st century there are no anthologies devoted to Jewish genetics, a series of edited books have analyzed genetic research in relation to race and ethnicity. Goodman, et al. 2003 and Koenig, et al. 2008 include foundational essays by many of the leading scholars in the field of race and genomics. Wailoo, et al. 2012 provides a multidisciplinary analysis of topics such as knowledge production, the uses of history, and medical genetics. Hartigan 2013 shifts debates about race as being a social construction or genetically determined to instead analyze the biological effects of racial inequality. These texts have been especially influential in defining the parameters of the field of race and genetics in anthropology, sociology, and history. They therefore offer necessary background for those interested in Jewish genetics in relation to the social and historical study of science, despite the nearly complete absence of discussion of Jewish contexts in particular. The lack of direct discussion of Jewish genetics in these texts suggests an important area for new research.
  74.  
  75. Goodman, Alan H., Deborah Heath, and M. Susan Lindee, eds. Genetic Nature/Culture: Anthropology and Science Beyond the Two-Culture Divide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
  76.  
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  78.  
  79. This book forges conversation among biological anthropologists, cultural anthropologists, science studies scholars, geneticists, and others in related disciplines. None of the essays is explicitly about Jewish genetics, but a number of leading researchers are represented. Troy Duster’s essay (pp. 258–277) briefly discusses Jewish genetic disease screening.
  80.  
  81. Find this resource:
  82.  
  83. Hartigan, John, ed. Anthropology of Race: Genes, Biology, and Culture. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press, 2013.
  84.  
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  86.  
  87. Although not explicitly about Jewish genetics, this book advocates shifting the conversation among anthropologists from an emphasis on the social construction of race to an analysis of race as “biosocial,” a concept that is a better explanation of how social inequality influences biology. This will be of interest to those who wish to analyze recent Jewish genetics studies in relation to changing ideas about the relationship between biology and culture.
  88.  
  89. Find this resource:
  90.  
  91. Koenig, Barbara A., Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, and Sarah S. Richardson, eds. Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008.
  92.  
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  94.  
  95. This book provides an excellent overview of the relationships between ideas of race and genetic research. Like Goodman, et al. 2003, a number of leading researchers are represented here; the two volumes can be read together productively for an excellent overview of the larger field of social studies of race and genetics.
  96.  
  97. Find this resource:
  98.  
  99. Wailoo, Keith, Alondra Nelson, and Catherine Lee, eds. Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012.
  100.  
  101. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  102.  
  103. This book emphasizes that multidisciplinary inquiry is necessary to understand the implications of genetic research, especially regarding race, history, identity, and politics. Although the focus is on genetics research in relation to African Americans, native North Americans, and Africans, many of the issues raised about kinship, relationships between the past and the present, medical genetics, and questions about knowledge production are relevant for those researching Jewish genetics.
  104.  
  105. Find this resource:
  106.  
  107. Special Issues of Journals
  108. Although there are no journals devoted to Jewish genetics as of the early 21st century, a small number of special issues of journals have been completely or partially devoted to Jewish genetics. These include those of Developing World Bioethics (Johnston and Elliot 2003), Patterns of Prejudice (Gilman 2006), BioSocieties (de Chadarevian 2010), and Human Biology (Rosenberg and Weitzman 2013). In addition to those just noted with substantial content devoted to Jewish genetics, a series of journal special issues examine broad questions regarding the increasing pervasiveness of genetics in areas such as race, medicine, law, history, and ancestry and provide useful comparative analyses for those wishing to situate Jewish genetics within the field of social studies of genetics. These include Culture Medicine and Psychiatry (Brodwin 2005), two issues of Social Studies of Science (Fujimura, et al. 2008; Kowal, et al. 2013), and Current Anthropology (Aiello 2012). Culture Medicine and Psychiatry (Brodwin 2005) includes one essay specifically about Jewish genetics; the others do not specifically include Jewish genetics but are, nevertheless, useful background reading for humanities and social sciences approaches to the study of genetics and various social, cultural, and political issues.
  109.  
  110. Aiello, Leslie C. “The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks.” In Special Issue: Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 5. Edited by Susan Lindlee and Ricardo Ventura Santos. Current Anthropology 53 (Supp. 5) (April 2012): S1–S2.
  111.  
  112. DOI: 10.1086/663328Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  113.  
  114. This special issue emphasizes the need to make research more international, a perspective that is especially important for Jewish genetics research. Many of the articles focus on specific national histories of biological anthropology. The articles in this issue provide thorough and wide-ranging accounts of ethical and epistemological issues in the history and practice of anthropological genetics. This issue includes only one essay dealing specifically with Jewish genetics, Lipphardt 2012 (cited under Race and Genetics: Eugenics Histories). The other essays nevertheless provide useful for background and context.
  115.  
  116. Find this resource:
  117.  
  118. Brodwin, Paul. “Genetic Knowledge and Collective Identity.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 29.2 (June 2005): 139–143.
  119.  
  120. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-005-7422-3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  121.  
  122. This issue addresses two questions: how genetics transforms collective identity and belonging, and how genetic knowledge is characterized by “mutual misunderstandings” between scientists and people who seek out genetic testing. Most authors are humanists, although one essay by biological anthropologist Sloan R. Williams is included (pp. 225–252). The essays emphasize that seeking genetic ancestry is always a political act and that genetics is not necessarily privileged in collective and individual assessments of self and community. For Jewish genetics in this issue, see Kahn 2005 (cited under General Overviews) and Parfitt and Egorova 2005 (cited under Identifying “Lost” Jews.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126. de Chadarevian, Soraya. “Introduction.” In Special Issue: Genetic Evidence and Interpretation in History. Edited by Soraya de Chadarevian. BioSocieties 5.3 (September 2010): 301–305.
  127.  
  128. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  129.  
  130. This special issue emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary work among geneticists, historians, and anthropologists. Articles emphasize contemporary genetics research alongside earlier histories of human biological research and advocate integrating genetic knowledge production with robust and up-to-date historical research. For Jewish genetics, see Lipphardt 2010 and Egorova 2010 (cited under Jewish Genetic History and Identity: Overviews, Histories, Methodologies).
  131.  
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  133.  
  134. Fujimura, Joan H., Troy Duster, and Ramya Rajagopalan. “Introduction: Race, Genetics, and Disease: Questions of Evidence, Matters of Consequence.” In Special Issue: Race, Genomics, and Biomedicine. Edited by Joan Fujimura. Social Studies of Science 38.5 (October 2008): 643–656.
  135.  
  136. DOI: 10.1177/0306312708091926Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  137.  
  138. Although this special issue does not address Jewish genetics directly, this introduction and several articles are essential reading for those interested in Jewish medical genetics because they detail now-foundational humanist approaches to analyzing race and medical genetics. For example, this introductory essay explains the differential use of “race” and “population” among geneticists researching genetic bases for disease susceptibility and drug reaction differences. Other essays explain concepts such as “admixture” and the politics of racial inclusion in drug trials.
  139.  
  140. Find this resource:
  141.  
  142. Gilman, Sander. “Introduction: Race and Medicine.” In Special Issue: Race and Contemporary Medicine: Biological Facts and Fictions. Edited by Sander Gilman. Patterns of Prejudice 40.4–5 (November 2006): 297–301.
  143.  
  144. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  145.  
  146. Several articles in this special issue consider Jewish genetics, specifically the implications of a genetically reinforced Jewish ethnicity that emerges from genetic disease markers. See especially Azoulay 2006 (cited under Race and Genetics: Race and Genetics Overviews), Gilman 2006 (cited under Race and Genetics: Race and Jewish Genetics), and Neulander 2006 (cited under Jewish Medical Genetics and Reproductive Technologies: Race and Contemporary Medical Genetics). The special issue as a whole interrogates the use and reification of racial categories in biomedical research.
  147.  
  148. Find this resource:
  149.  
  150. Johnston, Josephine, and Carl Elliott. “From the Guest Editors.” Special Issue. Developing World Bioethics 3.2 (December 2003): iii–iv.
  151.  
  152. DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8731.2003.00063.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  153.  
  154. This special issue contains several articles about Jewish genetics, with an emphasis on Jewish genetic ancestry studies in South Africa and India. The introductory essay raises questions about identity politics in the wake of genetic testing. With an emphasis on bioethics, this special issue seeks to address questions related to scientific authority and social justice.
  155.  
  156. Find this resource:
  157.  
  158. Kowal, Emma, Joanna Radin, and Jenny Reardon. “Indigenous Body Parts, Mutating Temporalities, and the Half-Lives of Postcolonial Technoscience.” In Special Issue: Indigenous Body Parts and Postcolonial Technoscience. Edited by Emma Kowal, Amy Hinterberger, and Joanna Radin. Social Studies of Science 43.4 (August 2013): 465–483.
  159.  
  160. DOI: 10.1177/0306312713490843Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  161.  
  162. This article appears in a special issue that emphasizes the intersections between genetics research and indigenous and postcolonial studies and people. Although not explicitly about Jewish genetics, it will be of interest to those hoping to consider Jewish genetics in larger political contexts or within the broader field of postcolonial science studies.
  163.  
  164. Find this resource:
  165.  
  166. Rosenberg, Noah A., and Steven P. Weitzman. “Introduction.” In Special Issue: From Generation to Generation: The Genetics of Jewish Populations. Edited by Noah A. Rosenberg and Steven P. Weitzman. Human Biology 85.6 (December 2013): 817–824.
  167.  
  168. DOI: 10.3378/027.085.0603Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  169.  
  170. In addition to this introduction, this special issue includes two articles by social scientists considering contemporary Jewish genetics ancestry research in relation to long-standing historical questions about Jewish origins and identity, Efron 2013, cited under Race and Jewish Genetics (pp. 427–441), and Kahn (pp. 919–924). It also includes two articles by geneticists presenting recent Jewish genetics findings in relation to Samaritan ancestry and Khazar debates, Oefner, et al. (pp. 825–875) and Behar, et al. 2013, cited under Ashkenazi Ancestry Debates (pp. 859–900). The geneticists cite recent genetic studies that weigh in on one side or another of these debates, demonstrating how these have been reanimated in the context of Jewish genetics.
  171.  
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  173.  
  174. Race and Genetics
  175. The following sections examine Jewish genetics in relation to both the larger literature on race and genetics and the specific issues in Jewish genetics in which race is implicated. These include the politics and potential dangers of defining Jewishness biologically, as well as the histories of eugenics that often loom large in critics’ concerns about Jewish genetics. The section Jews and Intelligence considers the persistence of genetic discourse about one supposedly biological trait: intelligence.
  176.  
  177. Race and Genetics Overviews
  178. The Jewish genetics literature in the humanities and social sciences is a subset of the literature on race and genetics. This section lists particularly influential texts in the larger field. All scholars cited here are anthropologists and sociologists. Abu El-Haj 2007 is a review essay that surveys the state of the field, and Reardon 2004 is an account of the human genome diversity project that investigates how genetics researchers understand human diversity and race and how science and technology scholars might analyze this work. Duster 2006, Fullwiley 2008, and Montoya 2007 each contribute far-reaching interventions in discussions of how race matters in genetics research. TallBear 2013 examines the politics of the genetic search for origins—in this case, that of American Indians—and is a prominent example of current work in this field that will be useful for comparative study as a way to understand Jewish genetics as part of the larger genetic ancestry field. Azoulay 2006 incorporates a critique of Jewish genetics into her larger critique of the use of race in contemporary genetics research. See the sections Anthologies and Special Issues of Journals for additional overviews not listed here and Race and Jewish Genetics in this section for work specifically engaging race and genetics in relation to Jews.
  179.  
  180. Abu El-Haj, Nadia. “The Genetic Reinscription of Race.” Annual Review of Anthropology 36.1 (2007): 283–300.
  181.  
  182. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120522Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  183.  
  184. This comprehensive review essay examines how group-based diversity has come to be an important object of genetic study and how scientists interpret genetic ancestry data. The author pays particular attention to historicizing “new genetics”—also called “postgenomics”—terms used to describe genetic research that has emerged since the successful mapping of the human genome.
  185.  
  186. Find this resource:
  187.  
  188. Azoulay, Katya Gibel. “Reflections on ‘Race’ and the Biologization of Difference.” In Special Issue: Race and Contemporary Medicine: Biological Facts and Fictions. Edited by Sander Gilman. Patterns of Prejudice 40.4–5 (November 2006): 353–379.
  189.  
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  191.  
  192. Through an analysis of popular and scientific texts that reference race, Azoulay recounts slippages between race and ethnicity as biological identifiers. Turning to genetic studies about the Lemba, she argues against genetic research that identifies a Jewish genetic signature. She notes that investing in the validity of genetics to comment on Jewish ancestry also enables it to be used to invalidate Jewish identity. Doing so would negate the complexity of Jewish identity and long histories of conversion. For more on the Lemba, see Jewish Genetic History and Identity: Identifying “Lost” Jews.
  193.  
  194. Find this resource:
  195.  
  196. Duster, Troy. “The Molecular Reinscription of Race: Unanticipated Issues in Biotechnology and Forensic Science.” Patterns of Prejudice 40.4–5 (2006): 427–441.
  197.  
  198. DOI: 10.1080/00313220601020148Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199.  
  200. Duster explains how the idea of improving health has facilitated the use of race and racially defined groups in genetics research. He argues that racially targeted drug trials and genetic forensics are examples of the molecular reinscription of race and that the use of race in genetics research lends scientific credibility to racial essentialism.
  201.  
  202. Find this resource:
  203.  
  204. Fullwiley, Duana. “The Biologistical Construction of Race: ‘Admixture’ Technology and the New Genetic Medicine.” Social Studies of Science 38.5 (October 2008): 695–735.
  205.  
  206. DOI: 10.1177/0306312708090796Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207.  
  208. Fullwiley explains what geneticists mean by “population” and “admixture.” She demonstrates how geneticists’ social contexts and commitments shape their research questions, their reporting of results, and ultimately public understandings of the connections between race and genetics in the contexts of medicine and ancestry.
  209.  
  210. Find this resource:
  211.  
  212. Montoya, Michael J. “Bioethnic Conscription: Genes, Race, and Mexicana/o Ethnicity in Diabetes Research.” Cultural Anthropology 22.1 (February 2007): 94–128.
  213.  
  214. DOI: 10.1525/can.2007.22.1.94Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215.  
  216. Montoya’s concept of “bioethnic conscription” facilitates an analysis of the mechanisms through which genetics research, mediated by marketing and publicity, produces links between race/ethnicity and genetics.
  217.  
  218. Find this resource:
  219.  
  220. Reardon, Jenny. Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.
  221.  
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  223.  
  224. This influential book lays important groundwork for how to think about genetic knowledge production in relation to race, identity politics, and power. Reardon examines the human genome diversity project, emphasizing the disconnection between popular critiques that labeled it the “vampire project” and scientists’ views of what they hoped it would accomplish.
  225.  
  226. Find this resource:
  227.  
  228. TallBear, Kimberly. Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
  229.  
  230. DOI: 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665853.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231.  
  232. This book covers issues relevant in Jewish genetics, such as consumer genetic testing. The introduction provides methodological insight, and chapter 4, “The Genographic Project: the Business of Research and Representation,” will be of special interest to those with an interest in Jewish genetic mapping.
  233.  
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  235.  
  236. Race and Jewish Genetics
  237. A body of literature has emerged that addresses the implications of Jewish genetic research for how we think about Jewishness in relation to race. The classic study on race and Jewish genetics is Patai and Patai 1989. Entine 2007 is a trade book that touches on many aspects of Jewish genetics and race, although it offers more of an overview of narratives of Jewish history and politics than an analysis of Jewish genetics. For scholarly critique and analysis of the racial politics entailed in identifying specific genetic sequences as “Jewish,” see Azoulay 2003. Efron 2013, Gilman 2006, Lipphardt 2008, and Stone 2008 add historical perspectives to this body of work. See also Abu El-Haj 2012 (cited under General Overviews) for an analysis of the shifting racial claims of Jewish geneticists. Tamarkin 2014 calls attention to the racialized subjectivities and politics that play out among those implicated in Jewish genetics studies, and Tenebaum and Davidman 2007 addresses race and Jewish genetics through a sociological study on essentialism and identity.
  238.  
  239. Azoulay, Katya Gibel. “Not an Innocent Pursuit: The Politics of a ‘Jewish’ Genetic Signature.” Developing World Bioethics 3.2 (2003): 119–126.
  240.  
  241. DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8731.2003.00067.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  242.  
  243. Azoulay raises concerns that the search for an announcement of Jewish genetic signatures constitutes an example of the privileging of biological over social forms of identity and identification. She argues that genetic studies tend to resurrect notions of biological racial differences through research on “populations.”
  244.  
  245. Find this resource:
  246.  
  247. Efron, John M. “Jewish Genetic Origins in the Context of Past Historical and Anthropological Inquiries.” Human Biology 85.6 (December 2013): 901–918.
  248.  
  249. DOI: 10.3378/027.085.0602Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  250.  
  251. Efron notes that 19th-century scientists’ questions parallel the questions asked by geneticists in the early 21st century, especially the question of Jewish connection vs. Jewish difference. Efron argues that the questions that preoccupy Jewish genetics researchers are actually broad questions about Jewish identity that necessarily exceed genetic answers.
  252.  
  253. Find this resource:
  254.  
  255. Entine, Jon. Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People. New York: Grand Central, 2007.
  256.  
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  258.  
  259. This trade book summarizes a large range of issues relevant to discussions of Jewish genetics and race, supplemented by interviews with geneticists. This book is useful as an introduction to controversies generated by Jewish genetics studies; however, in this text geneticists’ claims are taken at face value rather than analyzed, and the citations are not conducive to further research. In contrast to much of the scholarly humanistic literature, this book somewhat uncritically endorses Jewish genetics research.
  260.  
  261. Find this resource:
  262.  
  263. Gilman, Sander. “Alcohol and the Jews (Again), Race and Medicine (Again): On Race and Medicine in Historical Perspective.” Special Issue: Race and Contemporary Medicine: Biological Facts and Fictions. Edited by Sander Gilman. Patterns of Prejudice 40.4–5 (November 2006): 335–352.
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  266.  
  267. Gilman argues that current work in genetics investigating links between racial groups and genetic features (e.g., the study of Jews and alcohol), reiterates ideas drawn from 19th-century race science, which ultimately undermines the potentially positive effects of medical genetics research.
  268.  
  269. Find this resource:
  270.  
  271. Lipphardt, Veronika. Biologie der Juden: Jüdische Wissenschaftler über “Rasse” und Vererbung, 1900–1935. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008.
  272.  
  273. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  274.  
  275. Lipphardt is a historian of science, and here she examines early-20th-century German scientific debates about the racial status of Jews. The emphasis is on the contributions of German-Jewish geneticists and physical anthropologists to these debates.
  276.  
  277. Find this resource:
  278.  
  279. Patai, Raphael, and Jennifer Patai. The Myth of the Jewish Race. Rev. ed. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989.
  280.  
  281. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  282.  
  283. Originally published in 1975, this book uses published genetic data to argue that Jews do not constitute a race. They explain the lack of genetic cohesion among Jews in two ways: (1) the idea of “pure” races is scientifically untenable, and (2) Jews have always experienced gene flow. Although more recent genetic research emphasizes population history over explicit concepts of pure races, critics argue that geneticists’ “populations” have much in common with “race.” This text is useful as a way to analyze historical differences and continuities in the practice of Jewish genetics.
  284.  
  285. Find this resource:
  286.  
  287. Stone, Dan. “‘Not a Race but Only a People After All’: The Racial Origins of the Jews in Fin-de-Siècle Anthropology.” Patterns of Prejudice 42.2 (2008): 133–149.
  288.  
  289. DOI: 10.1080/00313220801996063Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  290.  
  291. Stone argues that questions about Jewish racial status that appeared in late-19th-century anthropology textbooks highlight tensions between evolutionary frameworks and those that emphasized fixed racial characteristics. He also demonstrates how these writings drew on stereotypes of Jews.
  292.  
  293. Find this resource:
  294.  
  295. Tamarkin, Noah. “Genetic Diaspora: Producing Knowledge of Genes and Jews in Rural South Africa.” Cultural Anthropology 29.3 (August 2014): 552–574.
  296.  
  297. DOI: 10.14506/ca29.3.06Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  298.  
  299. This ethnographic study examines encounters between Lemba South Africans and American Jews who sought connections with the Lemba on the basis of genetic ancestry studies. Tamarkin emphasizes Lemba subjectivities to reframe analyses of Jewish genetics around the experiences and perspectives of those who have been targeted for genetic testing.
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303. Tenebaum, Shelly, and Lynn Davidman. “It’s in My Genes: Biological Discourse and Essentialist Views of Identity among Contemporary American Jews.” The Sociological Quarterly 48.3 (Summer 2007): 435–450.
  304.  
  305. DOI: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.2007.00084.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  306.  
  307. This article considers how secular Jews use genetic essentialism to describe their Jewish identities. Noting the similarities that emerge in their interviews to 19th-century race science, the authors ask why language that has long been avoided by scientists and other scholars has become pervasive at the level of identity.
  308.  
  309. Find this resource:
  310.  
  311. Eugenics Histories
  312. Some critics of research on Jewish medical and historical genetics join other scholars of race and genetics in insisting that we attend to eugenicist legacies when evaluating the effects of contemporary genetics research (Duster 2003; Markel 1997). Most contemporary Jewish genetics researchers, however, emphasize that their work is quite distinct from anything that might be associated with eugenics. A historical perspective provides context for these debates about the role of eugenics legacies in Jewish genetics. Bashford and Levine 2010 is a comprehensive guide to the subject and includes an essay specifically about Jewish eugenics (see Falk 2010). Marks 2012 is an analysis of continuities between early-20th-century eugenics and contemporary genetics. For more on the history of Jewish eugenics and the relationships of Jewish geneticists to race science, see Efron 1994, Endelman 2004, and Lipphardt 2012. See also Abu El-Haj 2012 (cited under General Overviews). Abu El-Haj presents an overview of the intersection between Zionism and eugenics as concurrent social movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and she argues that these histories continue to influence demographic preoccupations in Israel today.
  313.  
  314. Bashford, Alison, and Philippa Levine. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  315.  
  316. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195373141.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  317.  
  318. This edited volume provides an extensive overview of the history of eugenics, including the emergence of eugenics science, movements, and policies from the 1880s to the 1930s; relationships between eugenicist ideas and genetics; and contemporary manifestations of eugenicist ideas and practices. See also Falk 2010 for chapter 27, “Eugenics and the Jews.”
  319.  
  320. Find this resource:
  321.  
  322. Duster, Troy. Backdoor to Eugenics. 2d ed. New York: Routledge, 2003.
  323.  
  324. DOI: 10.4324/9780203426951Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  325.  
  326. Originally published in 1990, this classic text critiques late-20th-century genetics research. Duster examines the use of race and ethnicity in genetics screening programs, medical research, and forensics and argues that this work may provide space for racially discriminatory eugenicist practices, despite scientific and public condemnation of historical eugenicist scientific research.
  327.  
  328. Find this resource:
  329.  
  330. Efron, John. Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin-de-Siècle Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994.
  331.  
  332. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  333.  
  334. Efron examines how Jewish doctors and scientists across Europe investigated whether Jews constituted a race and, if so, what characteristics defined them. He argues that many Jewish scientists contributed to the literature on Jewish biological difference as a way to work against anti-Semitic discourses and to promote Zionism.
  335.  
  336. Find this resource:
  337.  
  338. Endelman, Todd M. “Anglo-Jewish Scientists and the Science of Race.” Jewish Social Studies 11.1 (Fall 2004): 52–92.
  339.  
  340. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  341.  
  342. Endelman profiles Redcliffe Nathan Salaman, an early-20th-century Anglo-Jewish scientist who argued that Jews are a race and advocated for eugenics in relation to the broader context of contemporary British views. Endelman examines how Salaman’s position on Jews, race, and Zionism changed in opposition to Nazi science.
  343.  
  344. Find this resource:
  345.  
  346. Falk, Raphael. “Eugenics and the Jews.” In The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Edited by Alison Bashford and Philippa Levine, 462–476. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  347.  
  348. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195373141.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  349.  
  350. Falk reviews the intersections between eugenicist ideas and Jews in four contexts: biblical and rabbinic commentary, pre–World War II Jewish debates about Jews and race, anti-Semitic Nazi eugenics, and Zionism as eugenics. Falk concludes by arguing that contemporary Jewish genetic disease screening constitutes Jewish eugenics as it is practiced today.
  351.  
  352. Find this resource:
  353.  
  354. Lipphardt, Veronika. “Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science.” Current Anthropology 53 (Suppl. 5) (April 2012): S69–S82.
  355.  
  356. DOI: 10.1086/662574Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  357.  
  358. This article supports the idea that eugenics histories are relevant to analyses of contemporary genetics research. Lipphardt demonstrates continuity in pre– and post–World War II German race science and argues that such continuities should make us skeptical of contemporary research that invokes biological Jewishness.
  359.  
  360. Find this resource:
  361.  
  362. Markel, Howard. “Di Goldine Medina (The Golden Land): Historical Perspectives of Eugenics and the East European (Ashkenazi) Jewish-American Community, 1880–1925.” Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine 7.1 (Winter 1997): 49–65.
  363.  
  364. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  365.  
  366. Markel considers emerging BRCA breast cancer screening among Ashkenazi Jews in the historical context of eugenics and concludes that, although there are some echoes that might serve as a cautionary note for medical practitioners, commercialization of high-priced private-market testing is far more alarming than eugenicist legacies in this instance.
  367.  
  368. Find this resource:
  369.  
  370. Marks, Jonathan. “The Origins of Anthropological Genetics.” Current Anthropology 53 (Suppl. 5) (April 2012): S161–S172.
  371.  
  372. DOI: 10.1086/662333Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  373.  
  374. Marks traces histories of genetics in anthropology, including the relationships of historically significant researchers to eugenics movements, organizations, and ideas.
  375.  
  376. Find this resource:
  377.  
  378. Jews and Intelligence
  379. Although eugenics language invoking racial hygiene is rare in contemporary work, pro-eugenicist arguments do persist, and these are most evident in research invoking the eugenicist trope of racially variable intelligence. Cochran, et al. 2006 claims to demonstrate a higher IQ among Ashkenazi Jews, positing a genetic cause. Gilman 1996 and Ostrer 2012 explain why historians and geneticists, respectively, reject this idea. Duster 2003 provides a historical reading of Jewish IQ.
  380.  
  381. Cochran, Gregory, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending. “Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence.” Journal of Biosocial Science 38.5 (September 2006): 659–693.
  382.  
  383. DOI: 10.1017/S0021932005027069Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  384.  
  385. This controversial article argues that Ashkenazi Jews have a higher average intelligence than could be explained without the mechanism of natural selection. The authors propose that intelligence was a selection factor in the Middle Ages when Jews were limited to professions that could not be successfully performed by those with low intelligence.
  386.  
  387. Find this resource:
  388.  
  389. Duster, Troy. Backdoor to Eugenics. 2d ed. New York: Routledge, 2003.
  390.  
  391. DOI: 10.4324/9780203426951Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  392.  
  393. This classic text laid important groundwork for decades of work on race and genetics when it was first published in 1990. Chapter 1 examines histories of IQ tests in relation to Jews.
  394.  
  395. Find this resource:
  396.  
  397. Gilman, Sander. “The Bell Curve, Intelligence, and Virtuous Jews.” Discourse 19.1 (Fall 1996): 58–80.
  398.  
  399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  400.  
  401. Gilman contributes to the many critiques of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray (New York: Free Press, 1994) by pointing out the role of a concept of “virtue” in assessments of racially variable intelligence and by historicizing the myth of high intelligence among Ashkenazi Jews.
  402.  
  403. Find this resource:
  404.  
  405. Ostrer, Harry. Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  406.  
  407. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  408.  
  409. Ostrer is a prominent Jewish genetics researcher with a background in medical genetics. This book is an overview of Jewish genetics. As part of his presentation of recent research, Ostrer directly critiques Cochran, et al. 2006 from the perspective of a genetics researcher.
  410.  
  411. Find this resource:
  412.  
  413. Jewish Genetic History and Identity
  414. The application of population genetics to questions about history and ancestry constitutes one of the main areas of research in Jewish genetics. The following sections break down this body of work into five overlapping categories. First, a section on overviews, histories, methodologies, and critiques emphasizes work that considers this kind of research broadly or analyzes the methodologies of Jewish genetic history research. The other four sections present research topics that have constituted this field and, in many cases, have sparked controversy and debate. These include the relatedness of disparate Jewish populations, debates about the ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews, use of genetics to ascertain relationships between African and Indian Jewish communities and other Jews in the world, and the intersection between Jewish genetics and identity. As in other sections, a few prominent genetic studies are cited along with commentary and critique from science and technology studies scholars and others in the humanities and social sciences.
  415.  
  416. Overviews, Histories, Methodologies
  417. The field of “genetic history” claims to apply genetics to historical puzzles, thus providing a new and important historical methodology. Two books stand out here as essential reading for an overview of research in this emerging field and related critical analysis of Jewish genetic history and identity. Abu El-Haj 2012 and Ostrer 2012, as noted in General Overviews, present wide-ranging histories of Jewish genetics research, including but not limited to the body of research on Jewish genetic history and identity. The two texts take very different approaches: Abu El-Haj emphasizes critique and analysis of the epistemology of this type of research, whereas Ostrer emphasizes geneticists’ biographies and summaries of significant studies and findings. A number of articles join Abu El-Haj in analyzing the methods and epistemologies of genetic history. See de Chadarevian 2010 and Royal, et al. 2010 for general critiques and analyses, and Egorova 2010 and Kohler and Mishmar 2013 for analyses that focus specifically on Jewish genetic history. Several case studies provide additional depth and specificity to this body of literature: Kirsh 2003 presents a historical analysis of Israeli population genetics in the 1950s, and Lipphardt 2010 examines the case of the Jewish community of Rome in the 1950s.
  418.  
  419. Abu El-Haj, Nadia. The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
  420.  
  421. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  422.  
  423. Abu El-Haj argues that genetic historians look to genetic data for evidence of cultural histories, whereas eugenicists see in genetics evidence of essential racial differences. She pays particular attention to the politics of this research, especially in relation to histories of Zionism and contemporary politics in Israel and Palestine.
  424.  
  425. Find this resource:
  426.  
  427. de Chadarevian, Soraya. “Introduction.” In Special Issue: Genetic Evidence and Interpretation in History. Edited by Soraya de Chadarevian. BioSocieties 5.3 (September 2010): 301–305.
  428.  
  429. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  430.  
  431. Chadarevian presents an overview of some of the problems that historians in particular have with the emerging field of genetic history while also highlighting some of the innovative interdisciplinary efforts to forge better understanding and collaboration among geneticists and historians.
  432.  
  433. Find this resource:
  434.  
  435. Egorova, Yulia. “DNA Evidence? The Impact of Genetic Research on Historical Debates.” In Special Issue: Genetic Evidence and Interpretation in History. Edited by Soraya de Chadarevian. BioSocieties 5.3 (September 2010): 348–365.
  436.  
  437. DOI: 10.1057/biosoc.2010.18Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  438.  
  439. This article provides useful context for what the field of genetic history is and does, as well as why and how it has developed into a distinct subfield of genetics instead of a subfield of history or a truly interdisciplinary space between the sciences and humanities.
  440.  
  441. Find this resource:
  442.  
  443. Kirsh, Nurit. “Population Genetics in Israel in the 1950s: The Unconscious Internalization of Ideology.” Isis 94.4 (December 2003): 631–655.
  444.  
  445. DOI: 10.1086/386385Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  446.  
  447. Kirsh examines research by Israeli geneticists on the 1950s Israeli population and that of their contemporaries of other nationalities and finds that Israeli genetic research of that time is notably more marked by nationalist politics. Kirsh argues that Israeli geneticists used genetics as a means of bolstering Zionist narratives and Israeli national identity.
  448.  
  449. Find this resource:
  450.  
  451. Kohler, Noa Sophie, and Dan Mishmar. “Genes as Jewish History? Human Population Genetics in the Service of Historians.” In Race, Color, Identity: Rethinking Discourses about “Jews” in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Efraim Sicher, 234–246. New York: Berghahn, 2013.
  452.  
  453. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  454.  
  455. Kohler, a social historian, and Mishmar, a geneticist, argue that the genetic history of Jews can contribute otherwise inaccessible data to understandings of Jewish history, against the view of many historians that such work does not clarify history but instead lends authority to biological definitions of Jewishness and the idea of race. They discuss their collaborative project and advocate for more collaborations between geneticists and historians.
  456.  
  457. Find this resource:
  458.  
  459. Lipphardt, Veronika. “The Jewish Community of Rome: An Isolated Population? Sampling Procedures and Bio-historical Narratives in Genetic Analysis in the 1950s.” BioSocieties 5.3 (September 2010): 306–329.
  460.  
  461. DOI: 10.1057/biosoc.2010.16Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  462.  
  463. Lipphardt analyzes a 1950s genetic study that examined the Jewish community of Rome as an isolated population. Lipphardt demonstrates how presumptions about isolation shaped the methodology of the study and the interpretation of the data. This case study is also instructive for learning how to analyze more recent Jewish genetics studies.
  464.  
  465. Find this resource:
  466.  
  467. Ostrer, Harry. Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  468.  
  469. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  470.  
  471. Ostrer is a lead investigator on the “Jewish Hap-Map Project,” which aims to map the Jewish genome. This book emphasizes findings that suggest all Jews are genetically related and explains the methodologies used by the project’s researchers.
  472.  
  473. Find this resource:
  474.  
  475. Royal, Charmaine D., John Novembre, Stephanie M. Fullerton, et al. “Inferring Genetic Ancestry: Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 86.5 (2010): 661–673.
  476.  
  477. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.03.011Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  478.  
  479. This white paper is an effort to establish ethical guidelines for those testing and making claims about genetic ancestry. It evaluates claims in light of what can and cannot be determined through genetic data and is a useful guide to geneticists’ assessments of the limitations of genetic history research.
  480.  
  481. Find this resource:
  482.  
  483. Jewish Ancestry and Relatedness of Jewish Populations
  484. Dozens of genetic studies have examined the relatedness of disparate Jewish populations and aim to trace Jewish migratory history through genetic data. Nebel, et al. 2000 is an early example of genetic research that aimed to situate Jewish populations by explicitly comparing them to other populations. Atzmon, et al. 2010 and Behar, et al. 2010 investigate Jewish relatedness in large-scale genome projects, whereas Thomas, et al. 2002 focuses on matrilineal ancestry. Hammer, et al. 2009, Thomas, et al. 1998, and Zoossmann-Diskin 2000 each consider the possibility of a genetic signature of the paternally inherited Jewish priesthood. For critical analysis of this body of literature that specifically engages most of the genetic studies included in this section, see Abu El-Haj 2012 and Egorova 2014.
  485.  
  486. Abu El-Haj, Nadia. The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
  487.  
  488. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  489.  
  490. Abu El-Haj analyzes the epistemology of the genetic search for Jewish origins, arguing that it naturalizes Jewish ethno-nationalist territorial claims. Readers unfamiliar with specialized genetics research will find the author’s analysis of the framing and methodologies of genetic ancestry studies particularly instructive.
  491.  
  492. Find this resource:
  493.  
  494. Atzmon, Gil, Li Hao, Itzek Pe’er, et al. “Abraham’s Children in the Genome Era: Major Jewish Diaspora Populations Comprise Distinct Genetic Clusters with Shared Middle Eastern Ancestry.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 86.6 (June 2010): 850–859.
  495.  
  496. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.04.015Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  497.  
  498. These geneticists argue that the seven Jewish populations they sampled cluster into two groups—which they named “European/Syrian” and “Middle Eastern”—and that both groups demonstrate a degree of Middle Eastern ancestry. They concluded that all Jewish populations are related through shared Middle Eastern ancestry.
  499.  
  500. Find this resource:
  501.  
  502. Behar, Doran M., Bayazit Yunusbayev, Mait Metspalu, et al. “The Genome-Wide Structure of the Jewish People.” Nature 466.7303 (2010): 238–242.
  503.  
  504. DOI: 10.1038/nature09103Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  505.  
  506. Based on a wide-ranging comparison of genetic samples from Jewish and neighboring populations, these geneticists argue that most Jewish samples cluster with each other and with Druze and Cypriot samples, demonstrating Middle Eastern origins. They note that Ethiopian and Indian Jewish samples instead cluster with neighboring populations.
  507.  
  508. Find this resource:
  509.  
  510. Egorova, Yulia. “Theorizing ‘Jewish Genetics’: DNA, Culture, and Historical Narrative.” In The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Jewish Cultures. Edited by Nadia Valman and Laurence Roth, 353–364. New York: Routledge, 2014.
  511.  
  512. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  513.  
  514. Egorova situates recent Jewish genetic ancestry studies within Jewish studies literatures that critique essentialist notions of Jewish identity. Drawing on interviews with Jewish genetic scientists, she examines the extent to which Jewish genetics has shifted conceptualizations of Jewish identity among researchers, the general Jewish public, and groups often labeled as “emerging” Jewish communities because they are not widely accepted as Jews.
  515.  
  516. Find this resource:
  517.  
  518. Hammer, Michael F., D. M. Behar, T. M. Karafet, et al. “Extended Y Chromosome Haplotypes Resolve Multiple and Unique Lineages of the Jewish Priesthood.” Human Genetics 126.5 (November 2009): 707–717.
  519.  
  520. DOI: 10.1007/s00439-009-0727-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  521.  
  522. This study builds on earlier work that named a genetic sequence shared by around 50 percent of the tested samples from self-identified Jewish priests as the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) (see also Thomas, et al. 1998). This study incorporates a larger number of genetic markers and finds that the CMH actually can be further delineated into several separate genealogies. The authors argue that their Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype is a more precise tool for defining this genetic history.
  523.  
  524. Find this resource:
  525.  
  526. Nebel, Almut, Dvora Filon, Deborah A. Weiss, et al. “High-Resolution Y Chromosome Haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs Reveal Geographic Substructure and Substantial Overlap with Haplotypes of Jews.” Human Genetics 107.6 (December 2000): 630–641.
  527.  
  528. DOI: 10.1007/s004390000426Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  529.  
  530. The authors compared Y-chromosome data from Israeli and Palestinian Moslem Arabs, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, and North Welsh individuals. They argue that the data show common origins among the Arab and Jewish populations and that divergence and admixture from other populations accounts for differences among them.
  531.  
  532. Find this resource:
  533.  
  534. Thomas, Mark G., Karl Skoreckiad, Haim Ben-Amid, Tudor Parfitt, Neil Bradman, and David B. Goldstein. “Origins of Old Testament Priests.” Nature 394.6689 (July 1998): 138–140.
  535.  
  536. DOI: 10.1038/28083Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  537.  
  538. The authors hypothesize that the oral tradition of a Jewish priesthood that passes from father to son should be testable. They argue that although they do not see evidence of a genetic marker among Levites, they name the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) as a priestly marker. The CMH has subsequently been used as the basis of a number of other studies.
  539.  
  540. Find this resource:
  541.  
  542. Thomas, Mark G., Michael E. Weale, Abigail L. Jones, et al. “Founding Mothers of Jewish Communities: Geographically Separated Jewish Groups Were Independently Founded by Very Few Female Ancestors.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 70.6 (2002): 1411–1420.
  543.  
  544. DOI: 10.1086/340609Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  545.  
  546. These geneticists find that Jewish genetic samples show much less mtDNA variation than Y-chromosome variation, whereas non-Jewish samples show mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation rates that are similar to one another. They argue that this suggests a small number of distinct female founders across Jewish communities.
  547.  
  548. Find this resource:
  549.  
  550. Zoossmann-Diskin, Avshalom. “Are Today’s Jewish Priests Descended from the Old Ones?” Homo: Journal of Comparative Human Biology 51.2 (April 2000): 156–162.
  551.  
  552. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  553.  
  554. The author questions the reported findings from earlier studies (including Thomas, et al. 1998 in this section and Thomas, et al. 2000, cited under Identifying “Lost” Jews). Specifically, he argues that sampling bias skewed the interpretation of the genetic data, invalidating the studies.
  555.  
  556. Find this resource:
  557.  
  558. Ashkenazi Ancestry Debates
  559. Most large-scale Jewish genetics studies invoke questions about the origins of Ashkenazi Jews. An especially well-known study that is part of the Jewish HapMap project, Atzmon, et al. 2010 (cited under Jewish Ancestry and Relatedness of Jewish Populations) suggests that their data refute the hypothesis that a large portion of Ashkenazi Jews descend from Khazar converts to Judaism. This and other similar declarations, such as Behar, et al. 2006 that traces matrilineal lineages, have reignited debate about Ashkenazi ancestry and the extent to which Ashkenazi Jews might descend from the Khazars. Zoossmann-Diskin 2010 critiques studies that claim to demonstrate genetic commonality among Jewish populations by arguing that the conclusions result from sampling bias; in other words, the researchers designed the studies to show the results that they were seeking. Costa, et al. 2013 directly challenges Behar, et al. 2006, arguing that matrilineal data points to European, not Levantine, female origins for the majority of Ashkenazi Jews. Elhaik 2013 takes on the Jewish HapMap project and the Atzmon, et al. 2010 study (cited under Jewish Ancestry and Relatedness of Jewish Population) in his efforts to demonstrate via genetics that a significant proportion of Ashkenazi Jews descend not from Jews who left the Middle East, but from Khazars. Like Zoossmann-Diskin 2010 and Costa, et al. 2013, Eran Elhaik takes issue with what he considers the flawed methodologies and misleading assumptions of the majority of Jewish genetic ancestry studies, especially the studies that aim to demonstrate the Levantine origins of Jewish populations throughout the world (see also Elhaik’s related website Khazar DNA Project). Elhaik’s work has sparked responses from those who feel that the HapMap project research and its conclusions are sound, e.g., Behar, et al. 2013 takes the position that Ashkenazi Jews do not have significant Khazar ancestry. To contextualize these Jewish origins and identity debates, see Sand 2009, which argues forcefully for the Khazarian origins of Ashkenazi Jews. The book is controversial, in part because of the Israeli author’s anti-Zionist politics. The Khazar debates highlight two broader debates that inform all of the studies included in the Jewish Genetic History and Identity section: (1) the extent to which Jewish ancestry can be traced to the Middle East, and (2) the extent to which Jewish populations can be differentiated from non-Jewish populations.
  560.  
  561. Behar, Doron M., Mait Mespalu, Yael Baran, et al. “No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews.” Human Biology 85.6 (December 2013): 859–900.
  562.  
  563. DOI: 10.3378/027.085.0604Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  564.  
  565. The authors refute the Elhaik 2013 study. Drawing from Elhaik’s data and their own data, they argue that, although there is evidence for Middle Eastern and European ancestry for Ashkenazi Jews, there is no clear evidence for significant Caucasus ancestry. The authors suggest that such evidence would be expected if the Ashkenazi Jewish population significantly descended from Khazarian ancestors, as Elhaik contends.
  566.  
  567. Find this resource:
  568.  
  569. Behar, Doron M., Ene Metspalu, Toomas Kivisilid, et al. “The Matrilineal Ancestry of Ashkenazi Jewry: Portrait of a Recent Founder Event.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 78.3 (2006): 487–497.
  570.  
  571. DOI: 10.1086/500307Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  572.  
  573. The authors identify four founding lineages that together account for 40 percent of their Ashkenazi Jewish sample, and they argue that these lineages most likely trace to the Levant, the Mediterranean, and the Near East.
  574.  
  575. Find this resource:
  576.  
  577. Costa, Marta D., Joanna Pereira, Maria Pala, et al. “A Substantial Prehistoric European Ancestry amongst Ashkenazi Maternal Lineages.” Nature Communications 4.2543 (October 2013).
  578.  
  579. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  580.  
  581. The authors refute the conclusions of Behar, et al. 2006, arguing that the four lineages identified by Behar, et al. as originating in the Levant, the Mediterranean, and the Near East actually can be traced to prehistoric Europe, along with the majority of the remaining 60 percent of female Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. This supports the view that Ashkenazi maternal lineages originated in European rather than Middle Eastern populations.
  582.  
  583. Find this resource:
  584.  
  585. Elhaik, Eran. “The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses.” Genome Biology and Evolution 5.1 (December 2013): 61–74.
  586.  
  587. DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evs119Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  588.  
  589. Elhaik argues that the Khazarian hypothesis, which suggests that a significant proportion of the Ashkenazi population actually descends from members of the Khazarian empire of the Caucasus region who converted to Judaism in the 8th century, has never been adequately tested. He contends that his data supports the Khazarian hypothesis.
  590.  
  591. Find this resource:
  592.  
  593. Khazar DNA Project.
  594.  
  595. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  596.  
  597. This website is linked to Elhaik’s research and features blog reviews of newly published studies relevant to questions about Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Although one-sided in support of the Khazarian origins of Ashkenazi Jews, the website is useful to stay abreast of recent developments in these debates because it links to related newly published work on both sides.
  598.  
  599. Find this resource:
  600.  
  601. Sand, Shlomo. The Invention of the Jewish People. Translated by Yael Lotan. New York: Verso, 2009.
  602.  
  603. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  604.  
  605. Originally published in Hebrew as Matai ve’ekh humtza ha’am ha-Yehudi (Tel Aviv: Resling, 2008). Sand argues against Zionism in part by seeking to demonstrate that a unified concept of “the Jewish people” is based on Zionist myth rather than historical fact. Recent genetic studies that aim to substantiate various versions of Jewish history invoke this book as either a discredited text that their work further discredits or a groundbreaking text that their work supports. It is therefore essential reading for a better understanding of the stakes of these debates, especially in relation to geneticists’ questions about the extent of Jewish biological commonality and why it has mattered in Zionist and anti-Zionist politics.
  606.  
  607. Find this resource:
  608.  
  609. Zoossmann-Diskin, Avshalom. “The Origin of Eastern European Jews Revealed by Autosomal, Sex Chromosomal and mtDNA Polymorphisms.” Biology Direct 5.57 (October 2010): 1–18.
  610.  
  611. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  612.  
  613. Zoossmann-Diskin critiques earlier studies that claim to demonstrate genetic links among disparate Jewish populations by comparing relative percentages of the presence of specific genetic markers. He instead charts the data according to overall genetic distance. Based on the results of this method of data analysis, he argues that Eastern European Jews likely descend from Roman converts to Judaism and that future research must take into account the genetic similarity between Eastern European Jewish samples and Italian samples.
  614.  
  615. Find this resource:
  616.  
  617. Identifying “Lost” Jews
  618. Genetic studies that aimed to determine the relatedness of Jewish populations from around the world have relied on samples from populations that are widely accepted as Jewish. However, genetic tools have also been brought to bear on communities in Africa and India that see themselves as Jews but that are not always considered Jewish by others. These types of studies are sometimes characterized as “Lost Tribes of Israel” studies because they are framed as potentially identifying “lost” Jews and because the communities involved are sometimes associated with stories of the lost tribes of Israel. Abu El-Haj 2011 analyzes how this “lost tribe” framing articulates with efforts to convert “found” Jewish communities. There have been a relatively small number of genetic studies in this category: for the Lemba in Southern Africa, see Thomas, et al. 2000 and Soodyall 2013; see also Spurdle and Jenkins 1996 (cited under Identity and Genetics). For an account of these studies and their aftermath that emphasizes Lemba subjectivities and interactions between Lemba people and other Jews, see Tamarkin 2014. Although a genetic study on the origins of the Bene Israel is discussed in Parfitt and Egorova 2005 and Parfitt and Egorova 2006 (cited under Identity and Genetics), it does not appear to have been published; however, see Behar, et al. 2010 (cited under Jewish Ancestry and Relatedness of Jewish Populations) for large-scale Jewish population research that includes data for Indian Jews and Ethiopian Jews. Case studies in Johnston and Elliot 2003 analyze these studies in relation to Jewish identity politics, and Parfitt and Egorova 2005 and Parfitt and Egorova 2006 (cited under Identity and Genetics) add to this literature, while also analyzing the role of media representation on Jewish identity formation in African and Indian communities. Based on ethnographic research in South Africa, Tamarkin 2011 instead analyzes Lemba genetics in relation to Lemba political histories in South Africa and global histories of race and Jewishness. For additional essays that draw on these studies, see the section Race and Jewish Genetics. See also Abu El-Haj 2012 (cited under Overviews, Histories, Methodologies), particularly chapter 5, “The Right of Return,” which analyzes genetic inquiry into the origins of the Lemba and the Bene Menashe, and the efforts of the organization Kulanu to bring these groups into an idea of mainstream Judaism and Zionism, the latter facilitated through partnerships with the Israeli organizations Amishav and Shavei Israel.
  619.  
  620. Abu El-Haj, Nadia. “Jews—Lost and Found: Genetic History and the Evidentiary Terrain of Recognition.” In Rites of Return: Diaspora Poetics and the Politics of Memory. Edited by Marianne Hirsch and Nancy K. Miller, 40–58. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
  621.  
  622. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  623.  
  624. This chapter examines how genetic connections have been interpreted as demonstrating that the Lemba might plausibly be “lost Jews.” Abu El-Haj focuses on the organization Kulanu, the complex discourses of “return,” and the politics of recognition at play in Kulanu’s interest in the Lemba.
  625.  
  626. Find this resource:
  627.  
  628. Johnston, Josephine, and Carl Elliot. “From the Guest Editors.” Special Issue. Developing World Bioethics 3.2 (December 2003): iii–iv.
  629.  
  630. DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8731.2003.00063.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  631.  
  632. This introduction explains the emphasis, throughout this special issue, on bioethics, identity politics, and scientific authority. The issue emphasizes articles about Jewish genetic ancestry studies in South Africa and India. It includes a case study by Johnston (pp. 103–108), two essays by Tudor Parfitt (pp. 112–118 and 178–185), and an essay by Katya Gibel Azoulay that emphasizes the politics of using genetics to define or determine Jewish identity (pp. 119–126); for Azoulay 2003 see also Race and Jewish Genetics and Identity and Genetics.
  633.  
  634. Find this resource:
  635.  
  636. Parfitt, Tudor. Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel. New York: Vintage, 2000.
  637.  
  638. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  639.  
  640. This book includes an account of Parfitt’s involvement in collecting genetic samples for the Thomas, et al. 2000 study. Parfitt argues that the genetic data indicate the possibility that Jews were in southern Africa hundreds of years ago and that the Lemba are descended from Jewish migrants into Africa.
  641.  
  642. Find this resource:
  643.  
  644. Parfitt, Tudor, and Yulia Egorova. “Genetics, History, and Identity: The Case of the Bene Israel and the Lemba.” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 29.2 (June 2005): 193–224.
  645.  
  646. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-005-7425-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  647.  
  648. This article presents some of the research later published in Parfitt and Egorova 2006, cited under Identity and Genetics. In this article, the authors emphasize that the media portrayal of Bene Israel and Lemba genetic studies significantly shaped the development of Judaism in these communities.
  649.  
  650. Find this resource:
  651.  
  652. Soodyall, Himla. “Lemba Origins Revisited: Tracing the Ancestry of Y Chromosomes in South African and Zimbabwean Lemba.” South African Medical Journal 103.12 (Suppl. 1) (2013): 1009–1013.
  653.  
  654. DOI: 10.7196/samj.7297Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  655.  
  656. Soodyall notes that the identification of the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) in Lemba samples by Thomas, et al. 2000 relied on a now-outdated version of the CMH. She analyzes the data again in light of the more precise Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype and argues that this analysis does not support Lemba genetic links to Jews.
  657.  
  658. Find this resource:
  659.  
  660. Tamarkin, Noah. “Religion as Race, Recognition as Democracy.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 637.1 (2011): 148–164.
  661.  
  662. DOI: 10.1177/0002716211407702Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663.  
  664. This article contextualizes the Lemba DNA studies in relation to Lemba political histories as black South Africans under apartheid. Tamarkin argues for a more robust historical and anthropological analysis of the significance of Jewish genetic studies.
  665.  
  666. Find this resource:
  667.  
  668. Tamarkin, Noah. “Genetic Diaspora: Producing Knowledge of Genes and Jews in Rural South Africa.” Cultural Anthropology 29.3 (August 2014): 552–574.
  669.  
  670. DOI: 10.14506/ca29.3.06Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  671.  
  672. In this ethnographic study of encounters between Lemba South Africans and American Jews, Tamarkin emphasizes Lemba subjectivities to reframe analyses of Jewish genetic ancestry around the experiences and perspectives of those who have been targeted for genetic testing for potential incorporation into Jewish collectivities. Turning questions about “lost” Jews completely around, he demonstrates that Lemba South Africans redefine their genetic results as proof of the Africanness of Jewish history.
  673.  
  674. Find this resource:
  675.  
  676. Thomas, Mark G., Tudor Parfitt, Deborah A. Weiss, et al. “Y Chromosomes Traveling South: The Cohen Modal Haplotype and the Origins of the Lemba—The ‘Black Jews of Southern Africa.’” The American Journal of Human Genetics 66.2 (February 2000): 674–686.
  677.  
  678. DOI: 10.1086/302749Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679.  
  680. The authors use the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) as a genetic tool that might indicate Jewish descent to try to determine genetically the veracity of Lemba oral history. They find that the CMH is present in Lemba samples.
  681.  
  682. Find this resource:
  683.  
  684. Identity and Genetics
  685. To some extent, all Jewish genetic history studies implicate questions of Jewish identity. Two representative genetics studies in which questions of identity are especially salient are Need, et al. 2009, which considers European Jews, and Spurdle and Jenkins 1996, which examines the Lemba oral history of their descent from Jews. In Goldstein 2008, geneticist David Goldstein explains and promotes his Jewish genetics research and includes a preface (pp. ix–xvi) in which he situates his interest in Jewish genetics in relation to his own Jewish identity. Tamarkin 2014 examines how people who participate in Jewish genetic history studies go on to produce new knowledge about Jewishness and about genetics years after those studies were published. Parfitt and Egorova 2006 considers how the representation of Jewish genetic ancestry studies in mass media influences Jewish identity. Azoulay 2003 and Kahn 2010 consider the politics of the idea of Jewish genes or a Jewish genetic signature, as well as the implications of these concepts for Jewish identity. See also Mozersky 2012 (cited under Jewish Medical Genetics and Reproductive Technologies: Race and Contemporary Medical Genetics) for an extensive analysis of how cancer genetics, and specifically targeted screening for Jews, has shaped Jewish identity.
  686.  
  687. Azoulay, Katya Gibel. “Not an Innocent Pursuit: The Politics of a ‘Jewish’ Genetic Signature.” Developing World Bioethics 3.2 (2003): 119–126.
  688.  
  689. DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8731.2003.00067.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  690.  
  691. Azoulay argues against the idea of a Jewish genetic signature, directly responding to the use of the concept in Need, et al. 2009. She argues that such studies tend to resurrect notions of biological racial differences through research on “populations,” in this case, Jewish populations.
  692.  
  693. Find this resource:
  694.  
  695. Goldstein, David B. Jacob’s Legacy: A Genetic View of Jewish History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
  696.  
  697. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  698.  
  699. Goldstein is a geneticist who has produced a number of Jewish genetic history studies, perhaps most famously the study that identified a gene sequence that correlated with Jewish priestly identity (the Cohen Modal Haplotype [CMH]). This trade book aims to translate Goldstein’s research for a nonspecialist audience. Goldstein stresses that Jewish identity cannot be simply a matter of biology.
  700.  
  701. Find this resource:
  702.  
  703. Kahn, Susan Martha. “Are Genes Jewish? Conceptual Ambiguities in the New Genetic Age.” In Boundaries of Jewish Identity. Edited by Susan A. Glenn and Naomi B. Sokoloff, 12–26. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010.
  704.  
  705. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  706.  
  707. Kahn argues that disparate kinds of Jewish genetics research endorse a biological essentialness to Jewish identity. These kinds of studies therefore present a challenge to nonbiological ways of defining Jewishness.
  708.  
  709. Find this resource:
  710.  
  711. Need, Anna C., Dalia Kasperavičiūtė, Elizabeth T Cirulli, and David B Goldstein. “A Genome-Wide Genetic Signature of Jewish Ancestry Perfectly Separates Individuals with and without Full Jewish Ancestry in a Large Random Sample of European Americans.” Genome Biology 10.1 (2009): R7.1–R7.7.
  712.  
  713. DOI: 10.1186/gb-2009-10-1-r7Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  714.  
  715. This study used samples from self-identified American Jews with Jewish grandparents alongside Americans with no known Jewish ancestry. The authors argue that those with four Jewish grandparents and those with no known Jewish ancestry form distinct clusters, and that those with one or more Jewish grandparents can be statistically distinguished from those without Jewish ancestry.
  716.  
  717. Find this resource:
  718.  
  719. Parfitt, Tudor, and Yulia Egorova. Genetics, Mass Media and Identity: A Case Study of the Genetic Research on the Lemba and Bene Israel. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
  720.  
  721. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  722.  
  723. This book presents histories of the Lemba and the Bene Israel, details of genetic studies that aimed to test each group’s oral history accounts of links to Jews, analysis of media reports of these genetic tests, and survey results of a questionnaire that Parfitt and Egorova designed to assess the impact of these tests on these communities.
  724.  
  725. Find this resource:
  726.  
  727. Spurdle, Amanda B., and Trefor Jenkins. “The Origins of the Lemba ‘Black Jews’ of Southern Africa: Evidence from p12F2 and Other Y-Chromosome Markers.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 59.5 (November 1996): 1126–1133.
  728.  
  729. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  730.  
  731. Spurdle and Jenkins aimed to test the veracity of Lemba oral history by testing Y-chromosome data against other racially defined samples. They argue that the Lemba likely have some Semitic origins and that their oral history is supported by the data.
  732.  
  733. Find this resource:
  734.  
  735. Tamarkin, Noah. “Genetic Diaspora: Producing Knowledge of Genes and Jews in Rural South Africa.” Cultural Anthropology 29.3 (August 2014): 552–574.
  736.  
  737. DOI: 10.14506/ca29.3.06Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  738.  
  739. This article advocates expanding the frame of genetic knowledge production so that the perspectives of people implicated in genetic studies are accounted for in critiques of genetic history, rather than taking geneticists’ published studies as the primary point of analysis.
  740.  
  741. Find this resource:
  742.  
  743. Jewish Medical Genetics and Reproductive Technologies
  744. The intersection between medical genetics, including new reproductive technologies and genetic disorders and disease, and Jewishness or Judaism has generated a substantial literature that encompasses genetic studies, empirical research about the effects or implications of genetic studies and practices, and humanistic analyses that put Jewish genetics in conversation with larger bodies of literature in the medical humanities. The following sections present major areas of research in these fields. Work that focuses on specific conditions, such as Tay-Sachs or breast cancer, are included based on how the work is situated in relation to Race and Contemporary Medical Genetics and Jews and Genetic Disease Screening.
  745.  
  746. Overviews and Jewish Genetic Diseases
  747. Interdisciplinary literatures examine how medical genetics impact and implicate Jews. For some researchers, such as Abel 2001 and Goodman 1979, “Jewish genetic disease” simply describes genetic conditions that occur in higher-than expected percentages of self-identified Jews; see also the Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium website for brief information about a large number of such conditions. For others, the idea of “Jewish genetic disease” is one that is historically constructed, scientifically untenable, and/or potentially racially discriminatory. Jewish medical genetics has thus generated debate about the potential benefits of increased knowledge of disease susceptibility versus the potential dangers of associations between heritable disease and Jewishness, whether those dangers consist of potential health-care discrimination, the potential for new racializations, or echoes of Nazi persecution and eugenicist practice. See Angrist 2010 for discussions of the risk of genetic discrimination and Carmeli 2004 and Davis, et al. 2010 for debates about whether there is too much emphasis on Jewish genetic diseases in medical research. See Ostrer 2012 (also discussed in General Overviews) for a summary of work in Jewish medical genetics that also includes examples of how Jewish ancestry and Jewish medical research have sometimes merged. See Rosner 2007 for a discussion of medical genetics in relation to Jewish ethics. See Rose 2006 for a foundational analysis of medical genetics as a form of biopolitics.
  748.  
  749. Abel, Ernest L. Jewish Genetic Disorders: A Layman’s Guide. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001.
  750.  
  751. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  752.  
  753. Abel describes symptoms and testing options for a large number of genetic disorders that are found in higher frequencies among Jews than in the general population. Although the author takes the category “Jewish genetic disorders” as unproblematically self-evident, he includes suggested readings related to specific disorders.
  754.  
  755. Find this resource:
  756.  
  757. Angrist, Misha. Here Is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics. New York: Harper, 2010.
  758.  
  759. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  760.  
  761. Angrist draws on his background as a geneticist and a genetic counselor in this reflection on his decision to participate in a project in which individuals would have their whole genomes sequenced and published online. He writes about his Ashkenazi personal history and how the knowledge that it increased his likelihood of carrying a BRCA mutation factored into his decision about how to proceed.
  762.  
  763. Find this resource:
  764.  
  765. Carmeli, Daphna. “Prevalence of Jews as Subjects in Genetic Research: Figures, Explanation, and Potential Implications.” American Journal of Medical Genetics 130A (September 2004): 76–83.
  766.  
  767. DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.a.20291Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  768.  
  769. In this quantitative study, Carmeli found that Jewish populations are overrepresented in genetic research, especially in relation to research on genetic mutations. She notes positive effects, such as screening programs, and negative effects, such as an association of Jews with genetic illness and biologically defining Jews as an ethnic or racial group.
  770.  
  771. Find this resource:
  772.  
  773. Davis, Dena S., Nancy Gerson, Roselle Ponsaran, and Laura A. Siminoff. “Ashkenazi Jews: Overburdened and Overexposed?” New Genetics and Society 29.3 (September 2010): 241–260.
  774.  
  775. DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2010.507484Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  776.  
  777. The authors used focus group surveys to discern whether Ashkenazi Jews feel they are overresearched and whether they are interested in the idea of community consent for genetic research. The findings were that most believe the potential benefits of genetic research outweigh the risks and that individual consent is preferable to community consent.
  778.  
  779. Find this resource:
  780.  
  781. Goodman, Richard. Genetic Disorders among the Jewish People. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.
  782.  
  783. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  784.  
  785. The bulk of this text exhaustively catalogues genetic conditions that as of the 1970s were known to occur in Jewish populations. Goodman also includes chapters on treatment, potential reasons for genetic anomalies, future predictions based on then-current demography, and textbook-style explanations about genetics and Jewish demographic history.
  786.  
  787. Find this resource:
  788.  
  789. Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium.
  790.  
  791. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  792.  
  793. The Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium is an umbrella organization that unites relevant organizations and activities run by medical professionals and Jewish educators. A comprehensive list of genetic conditions associated with Jews links to brief descriptions and resources, including information about genetic screening programs and counseling services.
  794.  
  795. Find this resource:
  796.  
  797. Ostrer, Harry. Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  798.  
  799. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  800.  
  801. Ostrer, a medical geneticist and genetic historian, emphasizes biographies of major Jewish figures in the field of Jewish genetics and explanations for a general audience of major questions and findings in Jewish genetics studies, including Jewish medical genetics. This is a useful place to begin for those interested in the history of Jewish medical genetics and overviews of specific genetic conditions that affect Jews.
  802.  
  803. Find this resource:
  804.  
  805. Rose, Nikolas. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
  806.  
  807. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  808.  
  809. This book is essential reading for those interested in the intersection of genetics and medicine. Rose argues that the molecularization of medicine has reorganized not only that field, but also the enactment of biopolitics through the molecular manipulation and the management of “life itself.”
  810.  
  811. Find this resource:
  812.  
  813. Rosner, Fred. Contemporary Biomedical Ethical Issues and Jewish Law. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing, 2007.
  814.  
  815. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  816.  
  817. Rosner writes widely on Jewish medical ethics. This volume discusses genetic screening and genetic therapy, the ethical use of stem cells, and human cloning.
  818.  
  819. Find this resource:
  820.  
  821. Race and Contemporary Medical Genetics
  822. As with other aspects of Jewish genetics, Jewish medical genetics is inseparable from questions of race and racialization, and it can be read as a subset of a larger body of work analyzing medical genetics and race. See Epstein 2007, Fullwiley 2008, and Montoya 2011 for overviews of this larger field. Many studies in the race and medical genetics literature specifically focus on Jews and Jewishness: Gilman 2006 provides historical arguments against this type of work and calls geneticists’ results into question. Donelle, et al. 2005 and Mozersky 2012 analyze the production of Jews as a population at risk for breast cancer. Folklorist Judith Neulander brings a different perspective to the discussion of Jewish links to breast cancer in Neulander 2006; she argues that using disease as a Jewish ethnic marker amounts to a “folk taxonomy,” or an unverifiable motif that lends itself both to self-verification and the amplification of existing prejudice. For a journalistic account of links between cancer genetics and Jewishness, and crypto-Jewish identity, see Wheelwright 2012. See also Wailoo and Pemberton 2006 (cited under Jews and Genetic Disease Screening), which uses Tay-Sachs as one of the main case studies for the production of race via disease categories, and Kahn 2000 (cited under Reproductive Technologies and Kinship), which examines the politics of race in assisted conception in Israel.
  823.  
  824. Donelle, L., L. Hoffman-Goetz, and J. N. Clarke. “Ethnicity, Genetics, and Breast Cancer: Media Portrayal of Disease Identities.” Ethnicity and Health 10.3 (August 2005): 185–197.
  825.  
  826. DOI: 10.1080/13557850500120751Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  827.  
  828. The authors compare Jewish media and general media and find that Jewish media emphasizes the genetic component of breast cancer risk, whereas general media emphasizes nongenetic factors. They argue that Jewish media represents all Jewish women as potentially at risk for breast cancer.
  829.  
  830. Find this resource:
  831.  
  832. Epstein, Steven. Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
  833.  
  834. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226213118.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  835.  
  836. Epstein examines a shift away from assumptions that results generated from white male participants in medical research could be generalizable to all people. He shows that scholars and activists critiqued this assumption by arguing that it excluded woman and people of color and therefore could not account for potential racial and gendered differences in how people respond to various treatments; these critiques led to the explicit inclusion of women and people of color in clinical trials. He argues that this kind of representation of difference in medical research fails to address the sociopolitical causes of racial health disparities.
  837.  
  838. Find this resource:
  839.  
  840. Fullwiley, Duana. “The Biologistical Construction of Race: ‘Admixture’ Technology and the New Genetic Medicine.” Social Studies of Science 38.5 (October 2008): 695–735.
  841.  
  842. DOI: 10.1177/0306312708090796Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  843.  
  844. This is essential reading for understanding what geneticists mean by “population” and “admixture,” as well as for a critical analysis of how geneticists’ social contexts and commitments shape research and public understandings of the connections between race and genetics in the contexts of medicine and ancestry.
  845.  
  846. Find this resource:
  847.  
  848. Gilman, Sander. “Alcohol and the Jews (Again), Race and Medicine (Again): On Race and Medicine in Historical Perspective.” Special Issue: Race and Contemporary Medicine: Biological Facts and Fictions. Edited by Sander Gilman. Patterns of Prejudice 40.4–5 (November 2006): 335–352.
  849.  
  850. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  851.  
  852. Gilman argues that current work in genetics investigating links between racial groups and genetic features reiterates ideas drawn from 19th-century race science, which ultimately undermines the potentially positive effects of medical genetics research. His example is a study about Jews and alcohol.
  853.  
  854. Find this resource:
  855.  
  856. Montoya, Michael J. Making the Mexican Diabetic: Race, Science, and the Genetics of Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
  857.  
  858. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520267305.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  859.  
  860. This ethnography considers the making of racialized medicine through genetic research—in this case, diabetes. This will be especially useful for those wanting a more in-depth analysis of the workings of medical genetics research and the relationship among ethnic and racial identities, health disparities, and medical genetics.
  861.  
  862. Find this resource:
  863.  
  864. Mozersky, Jessica. Risky Genes: Genetics, Breast Cancer, and Jewish Identity. New York: Routledge, 2012.
  865.  
  866. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  867.  
  868. This is an empirically grounded analysis of how studies that link breast cancer genes to Jews influence Jewish women’s identities and their decisions about testing and treatment. The author also presents an excellent overview of the medical genetics literature as it relates to Jews and Jewishness, race, and identity.
  869.  
  870. Find this resource:
  871.  
  872. Neulander, Judith S. “Folk Taxonomy, Prejudice and the Human Genome: Using Disease as a Jewish Ethnic Marker.” Patterns of Prejudice 40.4–5 (November 2006): 381–398.
  873.  
  874. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  875.  
  876. Neulander provides a folkloric analysis of a much-circulated story about a woman’s mother whose Jewish identity becomes validated by an unnamed rabbi in Colorado after she is diagnosed with a Jewish genetic disease. She argues that “Jewish diseases” facilitate existing racisms.
  877.  
  878. Find this resource:
  879.  
  880. Wheelwright, Jeff. The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA. New York: Norton, 2012.
  881.  
  882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  883.  
  884. This book lacks critical analysis and precision, but it does provide some narrative history of Jewish genetic screening, crypto-Jewish identity, the application of medical genetics to the study of Jewish genetic history, and the research stakes of geneticist Harry Ostrer and others.
  885.  
  886. Find this resource:
  887.  
  888. Jews and Genetic Disease Screening
  889. Scholars from varied perspectives have written about Jewish participation in genetic screening programs. A number of publications focus on specific screening programs. See Kaback 2000 and Steiner-Grossman and David 1993 for accounts of Tay-Sachs screening programs; Metcalfe, et al. 2009, Mozersky and Joseph 2010, and Rothenberg 1997, for breast cancer screening programs that are specifically aimed at Jews. Cowan 2008 advocates for targeted genetic screening, against those who view such programs as reminiscent of eugenics (see Race and Genetics: Eugenics Histories). Prainsack and Siegal 2006 argues that genetic screening must be understood not just as a medical issue, but also as an instance of the convergence of medicine, society, and politics—an approach they share with Mozersky and Joseph 2010.
  890.  
  891. Cowan, R. S. Heredity and Hope: The Case for Genetic Screening. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
  892.  
  893. DOI: 10.4159/9780674029927Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  894.  
  895. Cowan, a historian of technology and medicine, argues that prenatal genetic testing and diagnosis is beneficial and should not be conflated with the history of eugenics, which, she argues, shares no similarity in practice.
  896.  
  897. Find this resource:
  898.  
  899. Kaback, M. M. “Population-based Genetic Screening for Reproductive Counseling: The Tay-Sachs Disease Model.” European Journal of Pediatrics 159.3 (December 2000): S192–S195.
  900.  
  901. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  902.  
  903. This article describes the history and successes of Tay-Sachs screening programs, explores potential issues that can arise in genetic screening programs, and suggests Tay-Sachs as a model for culturally sensitive approaches to genetic counseling.
  904.  
  905. Find this resource:
  906.  
  907. Metcalfe, K., A. Poll, R. Royer, et al. “Screening for Founder Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 in Unselected Jewish Women.” Journal of Clinical Oncology 28 (December 2009): 387–391.
  908.  
  909. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2009.25.0712Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  910.  
  911. This study tested Jewish women in Ontario who did not know their BRCA status. The authors found that some women who did have BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations would not have been eligible for screening under current Canadian guidelines that stipulate a family history of breast cancer must exist.
  912.  
  913. Find this resource:
  914.  
  915. Mozersky, Jessica, and Galen Joseph. “Case Studies in the Co-production of Populations and Genetics: The Making of ‘At-Risk’ Populations in BRCA Genetics.” BioSocieties 5.4 (December 2010): 415–439.
  916.  
  917. DOI: 10.1057/biosoc.2010.27Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  918.  
  919. This article examines a case study of Jews in the United Kingdom who have been grouped into a population considered “at risk” for breast cancer based on higher-than-average prevalence of BRCA mutations.
  920.  
  921. Find this resource:
  922.  
  923. Prainsack, Barbara, and Gil Siegal. “The Rise of Genetic Couplehood? A Comparative View of Premarital Genetic Testing.” BioSocieties 1.1 (March 2006): 17–36.
  924.  
  925. DOI: 10.1017/S1745855205050106Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  926.  
  927. This article demonstrates how social and religious values inform the way in which information is relayed to participants in genetic screening, and with what outcomes. They argue that Dor Yeshorim, the Orthodox Jewish genetic screening program that identifies genetic compatibility rather than carrier status, has given rise to a new concept—genetic couplehood.
  928.  
  929. Find this resource:
  930.  
  931. Rothenberg, Karen H. “Breast Cancer, the Genetic ‘Quick Fix,’ and the Jewish Community.” Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine 7 (Winter 1997): 97–124.
  932.  
  933. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  934.  
  935. This is one of several essays in the Winter 1997 issue of Health Matrix that addresses the implications of findings about BRCA mutations for Jewish communities. This article warns against the rush to screen Jews and argues that the rhetoric of a promise of a genetic “quick fix” obscures the larger questions about what to do with the information that might be obtained.
  936.  
  937. Find this resource:
  938.  
  939. Steiner-Grossman, P., and K. L. David. “Involvement of Rabbis in Counseling and Referral for Genetic Conditions: Results of a Survey.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 53.6 (December 1993): 1359–1365.
  940.  
  941. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  942.  
  943. This article presents the results of a survey given to reform, conservative, and orthodox rabbis in New York. Rabbis were asked if they counsel their congregants about genetics and under what circumstances. The survey found that many do, but also that most did not feel prepared for this task.
  944.  
  945. Find this resource:
  946.  
  947. Wailoo, Keith, and Stephen Pemberton. The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine: Ethnicity and Innovation in Tay Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis, and Sickle Cell Disease. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
  948.  
  949. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  950.  
  951. This historical account of the convergence of genetic medicine and race and ethnicity includes an analysis of Dor Yeshorim, the program that screens prospective couples in Orthodox Jewish communities prior to marriage to determine whether a prospective marriage is genetically sound. The authors argue that this program was successful because it was initiated and carried out by Ashkenazi Jews for their own communities and that patients and communities—not scientists or governments—should take the lead in decision making regarding ethnically associated genetic conditions. This text is especially useful for those who wish to situate Jewish medical genetics alongside other case studies in which genetic medicine, race, and ethnicity converge.
  952.  
  953. Find this resource:
  954.  
  955. Reproductive Technologies and Kinship
  956. Another strand of research related to medical genetics considers Jewish reproductive technologies as part of a larger literature on kinship that has become reinvigorated in anthropology in the wake of the popularization of genetics. See Franklin and McKinnon 2001 for an influential collection of essays in this field, Carsten 2011 for a thorough review essay, and Franklin 2013 for an example of more recent work that has emerged from this literature. Rapp 2000 is a foundational text in this anthropological literature that also explicitly considers the subjectivities of Jewish women alongside others of varied racial and religious backgrounds as they make decisions about whether to proceed with amniocentesis and, for those who do, whether to proceed with pregnancies based on test results. Kahn 2000 is exemplary as an ethnographic study of new reproductive technologies in Israel and their implications for definitions of Jewishness, including legal and rabbinic definitions. Hashiloni-Dolev 2006 analyzes how reproductive genetics has produced a specifically Israeli-Jewish concept of life, and Prainsack and Siegal 2006 argues that Jewish genetic screening has produced genetic couplehood as a new way of imagining genetics.
  957.  
  958. Carsten, Janet. “Substance and Relationality: Blood in Contexts.” Annual Review of Anthropology 40.1 (2011): 19–35.
  959.  
  960. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.105000Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  961.  
  962. This review essay examines recent literature on blood and kinship. The article draws on organ donation and reproductive technologies in order to theorize ideas of immutability, mutability, and transferability in kinship relations. This is excellent background reading for a better understanding of reproductive technologies and genetics.
  963.  
  964. Find this resource:
  965.  
  966. Franklin, Sarah. Biological Relatives: IVF, Stem Cells, and the Future of Kinship. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
  967.  
  968. DOI: 10.1215/9780822378259Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  969.  
  970. This anthropological exploration of the history of in vitro fertilization (IVF) emphasizes how it shifted from an experimental possibility to a normalized reproductive option. Although not explicitly about Jewish reproductive genetics, it presents some of the most up-to-date work in the areas of reproductive technologies and the anthropology of kinship.
  971.  
  972. Find this resource:
  973.  
  974. Franklin, Sarah, and Susan McKinnon, eds. Relative Values: Reconfiguring Kinship Studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001.
  975.  
  976. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  977.  
  978. This collection of essays introduces the re-emergence of kinship as an object of study in contemporary anthropology. It includes selections that analyze blood, biology, and genetics in relation to how kinship is being enacted and reimagined. Most essays do not explicitly engage Jewish kinship, although the one by Carol Delaney (pp. 445–467) situates kinship studies in relation to Abrahamic patriarchal kinship.
  979.  
  980. Find this resource:
  981.  
  982. Hashiloni-Dolev, Yael. “Between Mothers, Fetuses, and Society: Reproductive Genetics in the Israeli-Jewish Context.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues 12.1 (Fall 2006): 129–150.
  983.  
  984. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  985.  
  986. This essay rejects the idea that reproductive technologies and genetic screening are accepted and supported in Israel because of ideas about the desirability of an ideal of bodily perfection. Hashiloni-Dolev instead investigates what she argues is a culturally specific Israeli-Jewish concept of life.
  987.  
  988. Find this resource:
  989.  
  990. Kahn, Susan Martha. Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
  991.  
  992. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  993.  
  994. Kahn ethnographically examines assisted conception in Israel, emphasizing religious and secular legal contexts and race politics. She notes emerging distinctions about biological Jewishness in which the Jewishness of the birth mother determines the Jewishness of a child, not the Jewishness of sperm or egg donors.
  995.  
  996. Find this resource:
  997.  
  998. Prainsack, Barbara, and Gil Siegal. “The Rise of Genetic Couplehood? A Comparative View of Premarital Genetic Testing.” BioSocieties 1.1 (March 2006): 17–36.
  999.  
  1000. DOI: 10.1017/S1745855205050106Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1001.  
  1002. This article examines how the Orthodox Jewish genetic screening program, Dor Yeshorim, has given rise to a new way of imagining genetics. They identify this as genetic couplehood, or the concept of genetically compatible couples.
  1003.  
  1004. Find this resource:
  1005.  
  1006. Rapp, Rayna. Testing Women, Testing the Fetus. New York: Routledge, 2000.
  1007.  
  1008. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1009.  
  1010. This ethnographic analysis of amniocentesis considers women’s decisions about their reproductive lives and disability rights activism that seeks better resources for people living with the kinds of diseases that amniocentesis can detect and prevent. Rapp accounts for racial, religious, and class dynamics; Jewish women are featured throughout the book.
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