The Jewish Chronicle, Feb. 16, 2024
“I found that people are not always who they say they are when we apply genetic criteria to them. But in the end, the identity that people claim for themselves is indeed who they are. If genetics helps someone to make or change an identity, so much the easier,” said Mr Wheelwright.”
A remote valley in southern Colorado may not be the first place one would go in search of a lost Jewish community. But a recent study published in the US Journal of Human Genetics suggests that San Luis is harbouring exactly such a secret.
“We found evidence that DNA segments are shared by Sephardic Jews and Spanish Americans from Colorado and New Mexico, suggesting shared ancestry,” said Dr Harry Ostrer, Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the director of the study.
Dr Ostrer’s team analysed two communities whose ancestry can be traced back to Spanish colonial times, one in the San Luis Valley, which stretches between southern Colorado and New Mexico, and one in the Loja Province of southern Ecuador. … [To read the full article, click here]
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