Reply to PSA: Jews are a racial group

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Regardless of your level of comfort around there being a genetic subgroup called Ashkenazi Jewish, one exists. That's a matter of science. Expectant parents with Ashkenazi Jewish background need to take an Ashkenazi Jew panel (that's literally what it's called) to test for the presence of certain genes that carry diseases (like Tay Sachs).  
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The wiki (and geneticists generally) are using the term "genetic subgroup' differently than people here are.  They are taking self identifited Ashkenazi populations and noting frequencies of genetic patterns in them.    Which yes, includes high frequencies of certain diseases, high occurrend of the cohen modal haplotype, etc.

People here seem to be thinking there is a genetic marker for being an ashkenazic Jew. Note how many of the markers mentioned in the article charecterize only a minority of Ashkenazic Jews. For example, only about 3% of Ashkenazi Jews are Tay Sachs carriers.   BRCA1 is found in about 1% of Ashkenazi Jews, and BRCA 2 in less than 2%.   Only about half of Ashkenazi Cohanim have the J Cohen  Modal Haplotype.

IE if you took 50 Ashkenazi Jews, and 50 others (random Europeans, or middle easterners, or whatever) you could tell the groups apart pretty reliably. Not necessarily for any individual.  No genetic pattern is definitional of who is an Ashkenazi Jew, and I don't think any of the studies in the Wiki article suggests there is.

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