Y-chromosomal Aaron - J2 Kohanim Haplotype Tree

J2 Kohanim Haplotype Tree

Dr. Karl Skorecki, the founder of CMH, reported during a Conference for Kohanim in Jerusalem 2007, that he and his research team have discovered not one but two Cohen Modal Haplotypes, which he called J1 and J2. “Pinchas the zealot mentioned in the Bible may be the origin of J2” said Skorecki. According to the observed mutations rates, certain J2 haplotypes found on FTDNA database projects share a common ancestor who lived 3100+/-200 years bp, as Skorecki revealed to the public. Below we can see the J2 Cohanim haplotype tree formed by 21 different traditional surnames related to Cohanim lineages in both Ashkenazi and Sephardic respective communities. – This is how Joseph Felsenstein`s scientific genetic computer software placed them, considering their haplotypes. Only one different Cohanim surname was used in this case to represent the closest haplotype found in each family that can best stand for the exclusive cluster below formed by these 21 haplotypes.

The left branch is the Sephardim branch. All J2 Kohanim families listed have a surname and tradition directly related to Sephardic Kohanim, as Askenazi Kohanim also carry in their respective communities. In this case illustrated above with table and graphic, Joseph Felsenstein`s methods for making coalescence statistically independent comparisons using 21 familiar markers haplotypes shows a well shaped, defined, and geographically distributed Kohanim Tree. Despite two thousand years since the destruction of the Second Temple, and the spread of the Jewish population into the Diaspora, the deadly Crusades, Kohanim families managed to survive the persecutions and kept their lineages intact, imprinted in their Y Chromosomes as a unique and common signature. This signature, distinctly reflecting the Kohanim ancestral haplotype, visibly identifies today and recognizes these 21 Jewish priest families, directly related to one common Kohanim ancestor who by some estimates lived 2400 ± 300 years ago. This is because both Askenazi and Sephardic Kohanim for thousands of years preserved their genealogical lineages since the Temple period. Of course they did not think in terms of their DNA, however, they have faithfully followed priestly Jewish tradition until present day. As a result this is exactly what the haplotype tree shows. Families with haplotypes sit on the tree next to each other on flat branches live (or lived) in close territories and more likely share a recent common ancestor, as the tree shows. The Kohanim Tree places the correspondent families in the branches based on respective mutations. DNA results confirmed, by positioning the families in their respective places of origin, that the geographical location is correctly connected in genetics according to the Jewish tradition and records found in each one of these 21 different Kohanim families. It formed two branches, Askenazi and Sephardic. The Sephardic Kohanim is the older lineage compared to Ashkenazi, though both of them are derived from the same common ancestor. The Shapiro family from Marrocos presented the oldest signature among all, passing from the Sephardi branch in Spain, Portugal, and Netherlands and from there moving to Northern East Europe to Central and reaching Southern East Europe. As the history and records tells, correctly confirmed by DNA, Kohanim fled the Romans after the destruction of the Temple and went to Marrocos, Spain/Portugal, to England, France, and Germany. In the 14th century many fled to Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia.