Why do the european jews look like europeans?

[buritobr]

Research on ancient skeletons in Palestine suggests that jews who lived there in the time of Jesus Christ were similar to Arabs: olive skin, dark and curly hair, dark eyes. Probably, Jesus Christ didn't look like a German heavy metal singer, as he is portrayed in renaissance paintings.
Some years after, the jewish rebellion against the Romans was defeated and they had to flee from Jerusalem. Many jews went to Europe.
And then, many centuries after...
There was a big jewish population in Europe in 1932. Many of them looked like average europeans: very white skin, blond or light brown straight hair, blue eyes.
Weren't these jews descendants of the jews who lived in Judea in the time of Jesus Christ?

[AtorBoltox]

I can't see anything good coming out of this thread

[Aurelius]

https://razib.substack.com/p/ashkenazi-jewish-genetics-a-match

[Statilius the Epicurean]

https://razib.substack.com/p/ashkenazi-jewish-genetics-a-match

I remember reading this before, the evidence is that Ashkenazim are ~50% ancestral Middle Eastern and ~50% medieval European.

[The Mikado]

I can't see anything good coming out of this thread

Things only get bad the second someone mentions the Khazars.

...

Which I just did so this thread is ruined.

[ꙮ]

https://razib.substack.com/p/ashkenazi-jewish-genetics-a-match

I remember reading this before, the evidence is that Ashkenazim are ~50% ancestral Middle Eastern and ~50% medieval European.

Wait, what? The Ashkenazi population is descended from an original group of 300 people? That's crazy considering they make up like 75% of the Jewish population now. That's an incredible amount of growth over the years, especially relative to other Jewish populations.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Wait, what? The Ashkenazi population is descended from an original group of 300 people? That's crazy considering they currently make up like 75% of the Jewish population now. That's an incredible amount of growth over the years, especially relative to other Jewish populations.

Yeah it's what stuck out to me as well. Apparently Christians reacted to the Black Death by almost exterminating European Jewry north of the Alps. But I'm not sure the population growth after, while very impressive, is that exceptional if we think about other high fertility religious minorities in the modern age like the Amish or Mormons.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Wait, what? The Ashkenazi population is descended from an original group of 300 people? That's crazy considering they currently make up like 75% of the Jewish population now. That's an incredible amount of growth over the years, especially relative to other Jewish populations.

Yeah it's what stuck out to me as well. Apparently Christians reacted to the Black Death by almost exterminating European Jewry north of the Alps.

The Black Death was among the worst periods of time for European Jewry. People at the time weren't too different from people now in a lot of ways. And in the face of such mass death and devastation, they wanted scapegoats. Compounded with a lack of the modern understanding of science, it was easy for an already-stigmatized minority to get the blame.
It is little wonder so many fled the vile treatment they got and ended up in Poland.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Why would a group that lived in Europe for thousands of years eventually begin to look more European...

Can't answer that one.

[Helsinkian]

Wait, what? The Ashkenazi population is descended from an original group of 300 people? That's crazy considering they currently make up like 75% of the Jewish population now. That's an incredible amount of growth over the years, especially relative to other Jewish populations.

Yeah it's what stuck out to me as well. Apparently Christians reacted to the Black Death by almost exterminating European Jewry north of the Alps. But I'm not sure the population growth after, while very impressive, is that exceptional if we think about other high fertility religious minorities in the modern age like the Amish or Mormons.

1250 was a hundred years before the Black Death.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Wait, what? The Ashkenazi population is descended from an original group of 300 people? That's crazy considering they currently make up like 75% of the Jewish population now. That's an incredible amount of growth over the years, especially relative to other Jewish populations.

Yeah it's what stuck out to me as well. Apparently Christians reacted to the Black Death by almost exterminating European Jewry north of the Alps. But I'm not sure the population growth after, while very impressive, is that exceptional if we think about other high fertility religious minorities in the modern age like the Amish or Mormons.

1250 was a hundred years before the Black Death.

The genetic history isn't that precise, because we can count back x number of generations but we don't know exactly how long those generations were. So it's ~1250 give or take a couple of centuries. And the major population bottleneck for European Jews during that period (and when they migrated to Poland) is obvious in the historical accounts.

[Georg Ebner]

I can't see anything good coming out of this thread

Things only get bad the second someone mentions the Khazars.

...

Which I just did so this thread is ruined.

Exactly.
~15 years ago i knew very little about their genetical imPact and pleased for help a biologist, who sent me not less than 34 scientific articles with totally diverging results, after which i knew nothing...

[Georg Ebner]

https://razib.substack.com/p/ashkenazi-jewish-genetics-a-match

After experiencing also in the Chasars-question, how premature the outComes of genetics are, i am not sure, this question is really finally solved.
Sure i am, that the Jews were 1096 generally protected by catholic church & crown clearly - calling chiliastic & communistic cohorts crusaders is misleading.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Having spent some time in Prague recently (and visiting a couple of synagogues there) I found it fascinating that Czech Jews were essentially German immigrants.... well, German-speaking Jewish immigrants from the Rhineland, to be precise.