What groups are genetically closest to Jews?
9 Answers
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- Anonymous1 year ago
Jewish isn't a genetic group. Semitic includes all middle easterners. Of course not all Jews are Semitic either, since it's a religion.
- Anonymous1 year ago
Jews are closest to southern Europeans, such as the Greeks, southern Italians, and to Arabs. Nevertheless, some Jews do have closest relatives in western Europe (e.g. France, Spain and Britain) and in the horn of Africa (Ethiopia for example). Jews are a group that is defined by religion, not by place of origin. Humans do migrate for as long as we have existed as a species. All non-Africans evolved from Africans who migrated out of Africa 60,000 years ago, and Europeans evolved from Africans who settled in Central Asia for about 20,000 years, and then migrated to Europe 40,000 years ago. People in the Middle East evolved from European ancestors who migraed out of Europe about 24,000 years ago, and many then migrated back to Europe after the invention of agriculture after the end of the last ice age 13,000 years ago. There are even more recent migrations than that of course both into Europe and out of it.