First Moroccan in J2b-L283 Splits European Jewish J2b-Y33795!

For several years, the core structure of J2b-Y33795 didn't change much.

It had two child lines:

    • prolific and younger J-Y37840 at 700 ybp TMRCA

    • older J-Y37838 at 1300 ybp TMRCA that only sired two surviving lines

A sample from Morocco has now changed this structure, by being found negative for two SNPs previously at the J2b-Y33795 level, FT64909 and Y33799.

I happened to check the tree just now and noticed that this change happened today! So you are probably hearing it first from me.

https://www.yfull.com/live/tree/J-Y33795/

This Moroccan sample is confirmed as being Jewish and the upgrade was facilitated by the Iberian Ashkenaz project on FTDNA

Of the three European Jewish (North African and Indian samples notwithstanding) lines of J2b-L283, this is the one that has men with surname Cohen who maintain an oral tradition of descending from Kohanim, Hebrew for "priests", on the male line.

The men of this line who preserve a form of the surname to this day are a testament to the genetic male line continuity of the tradition for 1700 years...

Yet, this line, as all J2b-L283, ultimately descends from someone descending from the Yamnaya who made their way to Central Europe and the western Balkans in the Bronze Age. At some later time, in this particular line, an "indigenous" (everything is relative and it's good to keep this in mind) European non-Jew either became a Jewish Kohen priest himself or sired a son to a Jewish woman who was able to raise the son as a Kohen. Maybe there are some other possible trajectories but these seem the simplest to me.

Edit: Dolev Revivo of the Iberian Ashkenaz project on FTDNA mentions that the Jewish Moroccan sample at the root of this subclade has no Cohen tradition himself.

I appreciate that this realization may come as a surprise or a shock to the men in this and other Jewish J2b-L283 lines. However I hope that they take comfort in their continued acceptance as both fully-fledged members of their original ethno-religious community/ies and that of the enigmatic J2b-L283 diaspora to which they also belong.

In genetic genealogy the truth of how we are all connected, how we became the kaleidoscope of J2b-L283 diaspora geographically and culturally is truly fascinating and awe-inspiring!

These posts are the opinion of Hunter Provyn, a haplogroup researcher in J-M241 and J-M102.

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