Yonatan Horan wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews#Specific_diseases
I suggest you look at that. In addition to that, I remember seeing some
research papers published on Ashkenazi Jews and will look for them if you
really see the need. Just to support the above point, my cousin who is an
Ashkenazi Jew has Familial Dysautonomy and my other cousin who is also an
Ashkenazi Jew has Crohn's Disease.
-Yonatan
On 2/9/07, Mets501 <mets501wiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>Jewish is not only a religion but also a race. Someone can be an atheist and
>>
>>
>>still Jewish. For example, I personally don't really believe in god but
I'm
>>
>>
>>still a Jew.
>>
>>Yonatan
>>
>>
>Judaism is not a race. There is nothing biologically which separates a
>Jew(ish person) from a non-Jew(ish person).
>It is OK to call it a culture, but not a race.
>--Mets501
>
I respectfully hold that treating Jews as a race is fraught with
problems. The epidemiological evidence cited may very well suggest
racial characteristics among the Ashykenazim, but that says nothing
about the Sephardim. To what extent do they share the same congenital
diseases? I would even suggest that Ashkenazim and Sephardim are
racially more different than Catholics and Protestants. The genetic
disease have most likely evolved as a byproduct of inbreeding over
multiple generations. The belief, as expressed in the article that you
cite, that a Jew does not cut ties with being a Jew by the simple
expedient of disclaiming being Jewish can have devastating political
ramifications when applied by those with a strong dislike of Jews.
Ec