Previous studies showed that factor XI (FXI) deficiency commonly observed in Ashkenazi Jews is caused by two similarly frequent mutations, type II (Glu117stop) and type III (Phe283Leu) with allele frequencies of 0.0217 and 0.0254, respectively. In Iraqi Jews, who represent the ancient gene pool of Jews, only the type II mutation was observed with an allele frequency of 0.0167. In this study we ...

Dutch neuroscientist Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers is famous for pioneering neuroembryological work and for establishing the Amsterdam Central Institute for Brain Research. Less well known is his anthropological work, which ultimately played a role in saving Dutch Jews from deportation to their deaths during the Holocaust. Ariëns Kappers extensively campaigned against anti-Semitism and Nazi per...

BACKGROUND An association between Jewish ethnicity and pancreatic cancer risk was suggested by analyses comparing pancreatic cancer mortality rates between Jews and non-Jews in New York in the 1950s. These analyses lacked information on potential confounding factors and the association between Jewish ethnicity and pancreatic cancer has not been examined in any contemporary U.S. population or in...

Reproductive technology offers a bewildering number of options for infertile men and women to have children, including ovary and testis freezing, transplantation, in vitro fertilization (IVF), donor sperm, donor eggs, stem cells, gestational surrogacy, genetic diagnosis of embryos, and, of course, birth control. These technologies cut to the very core of personal and religious belief systems. T...

Shpilberg et al’ suggest that the occurrence of type I1 mutation in the factor XI gene in both Ashkenazi and Iraqi Jews attests to its presence in Jews already 2,500 years ago. They ignore the fact that both type I1 and type III mutations, which are common in Ashkenazi Jews, are also common in northwest England.2 A Pst+ polymorphism in the HEXA gene was also found in both Ashkenazi and Scots-Ir...

BACKGROUND Following research demonstrating an increased risk for meningiomas in the Jewish population of Shiraz (Iran) we conducted a cohort analysis of meningiomas among Jews originating in Iran and residing in Israel. MATERIALS AND METHODS We use the population-based registry data of the Israeli National Cancer Registry (INCR) for the main analysis. All benign meningioma cases diagnosed in...

TIIECOURSE OF fertility change in Palestine and Israel over the second half of the twentieth century might seem of negligible interest for the history of the demographic transition, since their combined 8.9 million inhabitants represent only one-sixth of one percent of the world population. Yet the exceptional political history of these populations, in which demography played a major role for b...

BACKGROUND Anthropological studies based on highly polymorphic HLA genes provide useful information for bone marrow donor registry, forensic medicine, disease association studies, as well as designing peptide vaccines against tumors, and infectious or autoimmune diseases. OBJECTIVE This study was designed to investigate the genetic relationship of Iranian Arabs and Jews using HLA-class II gen...

a total of 8641 married couples were investigated from 28 iranian populations for consanguineous marriages and coefficient of inbreeding. the results showed considerable differences in the rate and kind of consanguineous matings among the various urban, rural, tribal, and religious populations studied. the observed frequencies of the consanguineous matings in the populations of iran are higher ...

The degree to which Jews are or are not integrated into non-Jewish societies and the consequences of this integration or the lack of it has been debated at least since the emancipation of Jews in the 18 th century. As a contribution to this discussion, the present paper examines the social integration of young adult Jews into American society. Findings are based on social network analysis of da...