The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews - by Kevin Alan Brook (Paperback)

About the Book

This comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the genetic origins of Ashkenazic Jews focuses on their 129 maternal haplogroups and their connections to the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and East Asia. It definitively shows that all Ashkenazim descend both from the ancient Israelites and from converts to Judaism.

Book Synopsis

This comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the genetic origins of Ashkenazic Jews focuses on their 129 maternal haplogroups and their connections to the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and East Asia. It definitively shows that all Ashkenazim descend both from the ancient Israelites and from converts to Judaism.

Review Quotes

"Kevin Alan Brook has been studying Jewish history and genetics since at least 2003. In this encyclopedic reference of Ashkenazi Jewish mitochondrial haplogroups, he introduces the reader to their geographic and ethnic origin(s). ... This book would be a fine addition for anyone studying Ashkenazic maternal lines."

- Lana Leggett-Kealey, National Genealogical Society Quarterly

"The book The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews conveys to the citizen-scientist an encyclopedic reference combining a comprehensive wealth of DNA sequence signatures collated from seminal scientific publications and genealogy databases to trace shared maternal ancestral lineages of contemporary Ashkenazic Jews. A major attraction is the way in which Kevin Alan Brook couples the lineage moniker with carefully investigated community historical information. This allows the interested reader to fit his/her affiliation within the relevant demographic tapestry. The numerous upheavals that characterized the origins and history of Ashkenazic Jews are related to the catalogued DNA sequence patterns. Recent scientific reports of genomic DNA sequence data, including mitochondrial DNA from remains at a medieval Jewish burial site, add further credence to the patterns elucidated in Kevin Alan Brook's tour de force."

- Karl Skorecki, Professor and Dean of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University

About the Author

Kevin Alan Brook led the study "The Genetics of Crimean Karaites" in the Summer 2014 issue of Karadeniz Araştırmaları and worked as a genetic genealogy researcher specializing in Sephardic Jewish DNA. He is also the author of the book The Jews of Khazaria and many other works on Jewish history.