A new video surfaced on the social media. It is called The DNA Journey. It shows a variety of people expressing tremendous surprise to discover that they are not purely who they thought they were. Their DNA tests shows that their family trees are not purely British, or purely Kurdish or purely African.
It would not surprise any Ashkenazi Jew to discover that he or she is not purely of Middle Eastern origin. We all know that there were intermarriages throughout history, and converts to join our people and bring foreign DNA into the mix. Beginning, perhaps, with Ruth.
What this video should accomplish for us is stop all those who are trying to prove that we Ashkenazi Jews are not indigenous to Israel because we have mixed blood. Even the “blood quantum” rule for defining someone as belonging to a given tribe does not require 100% purity or even 50%.
Ashkenazi Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel as much as those Jews who never left the land and those who dispersed within the Middle East and North Africa. We are indigenous because of the sacred ties we have maintained with Israel and the fact that our point of reference has always been Jerusalem. DNA has nothing to do with that.
