Genetic Roots of the Ashkenazi Jews

«The new findings contradict previous assertions that Ashkenazi mitochondrial lineages originated in the Near East, or from mass conversions to Judaism in the Khazar kingdom, an empire in the north Caucasus region between Europe and Asia lasting from the 7th century to the 11th century whose leaders adopted Judaism. "We found that most of the maternal lineages don't trace to the north Caucasus, which would be a proxy for the Khazarians, or to the Near East, but most of them emanate from Europe," said coauthor Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in the U.K.»

Genetic Roots of the Ashkenazi Jews | The Scientist Magazine®
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37821/title/Genetic-Roots-of-the-Ashkenazi-Jews/

Kol Tuv,
RRW