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Important Note: It was noted in the article that: “Unlike many other lost-tribe adventurers, Mr. Parfitt doesn’t have a political or religious agenda. He isn’t out to populate Israel with clansmen of obscure Jewish sects. Nor does Mr. Parfitt rely on cultural evidence of shared traditions and rituals between these sects and Western Jewry. He also wants biological evidence. ‘DNA is a tool of Jewish history,’ he says |
Lost Tribes - DNA Link
The May 11, 1998 edition of the Wall Street Journal contained an article about a special DNA test that can determine Jewish ancestry.
”Jewish tradition states that the Cohanim are the members of the Jewish priest class who are descended patrilineally from the first high priest, Aaron, who was Moses’s brother. Today, the names Cohn, Cone, Kahn and Kann indicate that people carrying one or the other of those names are descended from Aaron. Parfitt and Bradman looked for genetic traits that are shared by Cohanim in the West:
“The technique examines the Y-chromosome, a long strand of DNA that contains the genetic formula for maleness. The Y-chromosome is passed only from father to son and is unique in that most of the strand doesn’t exchange DNA with a partner chromosome. Like an unshuffled deck of cards, the Y-chromosome remains unchanged for thousands of years, except for tiny genetic variations, or mutations. What most Cohanim have in common is that their DNA is stacked in the same order. Messrs. Parfitt and Bradman have confirmed that there is a genetic link between Lemba tribesmen in southern Africa, Jews from Yemen, and now the Bene Israel. The finding, says Mr. Parfitt, validates Islamic sources about the Jews’ path into Africa and could revise the history of ancient Jewish commerce across the Indian Ocean.”
Though this test was performed on the Bene Israel Jews of Alibag India, it is clear that the general Indian traditions regarding the presence of Jews throughout India in ancient times, including Kashmir, are based in truth.
Introduction | Chart | Kashmir - The Promised Land | DNA Link
| Tudor Parfitt and Niel Bradman of the Center for Genetic Anthropology in London conducted this test. The reader may wish to secure a copy of the entire article. |
