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@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