On Tuesday, Judy Maltz reported in Haaretz that the Israeli Rabbinate, which controls conversion, marriage and divorce in Israel, is using DNA testing to verify a person’s Jewishness. Since a person who isn’t Jewish can’t marry a Jew in Israel, which has no civil marriage, the rabbinate is using the DNA test to deny people…
Crypto-Jews. Secret Jews. Conversos. Marranos. B’nai Anusim. These are the terms used for Jews, mainly of Spanish descent, who were forced to convert to Catholicism or die during the period of Spain’s Inquisition. While many Sephardic Jews did convert, some continued to practice their Judaism in secret. Now, this 500-year history of hidden Jewish lineage…
DNA is not identity. We aren’t our genetic markers. That’s the message Native American writers and activists have been trying to convey to Massachusetts Senator and likely 2020 presidential contender Elizabeth Warren. But it’s a message Jewish people at this moment could stand to hear as well. Elizabeth Warren, a white woman, has in the…
Companies will do anything to get your most personal, private information. Even (checks notes)… seizing your DNA sequencing pattern in exchange for a playlist of world music. The music streaming service Spotify and the genetic testing service Ancestry.com have teamed up to offer consumers a whenever-in-a-lifetime opportunity: If you pay to have your genes tested,…
Stephen Colbert really tore Paul Ryan a new one this weekend. Responding to last week’s revelation that Catholic Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has roughly 3 percent Ashkenazi-Jewish ancestry, Colbert asked the question weighing on so many of our hearts: “Haven’t the Jewish people suffered enough?” He went on to point out that if…
Paul Ryan is a hypocrite who has devoted his career to disenfranchising poor, non-white citizens to curry favor with the rich. His life’s work has been making existence harder for most Americans. And we’ll be damned if he gets to claim he’s Jewish. Guess I need to start saying “L’Chaim” now, too! pic.twitter.com/JV8tVPeBto — Paul…
Alice Collins Plebuch, raised in a proud Irish Catholic family, sent away for a “just-for-fun DNA test” — but the results changed her life. She found out that somewhere in her family, she had Jewish roots. Plebuch told the Washington Post about her surprising journey of self-discovery in a recent story. Plebuch, now 69, was…
A program to test the Igbo of Nigeria for genetic links to Jews has heightened tensions between international groups representing mainstream Jews and Messianic Jews. In February, Jewish Voice Ministries International organized a test to compare genetic samples from some 100 members of the Igbo group, who claim ancestral connections to the biblical Israelites, against…
