Many Spaniards found to have Jewish or Muslim ancestory

Study shows that one in three have traces of Jews or Moors forced to convert or leave Spain in 15th and 16th centuries


They may have expelled them centuries ago, but a large number of Spaniards still conserve the imprint of their country's Jews and Muslims in their genes, scientists have discovered.

Almost one in three Spaniards carry traces of the Jews who were told to leave or convert to Christianity at the end of the 15th century or the Muslim Moors who followed them into exile a century later.

The study by scientists from European universities found that despite the attempts at ethnic cleansing, one in 10 Spanish men bore evidence of north African, and presumably Moorish, forebears in their DNA.

That number almost doubled when they tested for DNA traces that pointed to a Sephardi ancestor. The Sephardis were Jews with family origins in the Iberian Penisula.

"These proportions attest to a high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced), driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance," the scientists explain in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Spain's Jews were thrown out in 1492 on the orders of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, who gave them the option of staying and converting to Christianity.

The genetic study appears to show that many chose the second option. Those who converted were subjected to close scrutiny by the Spanish Inquisition, which spent much of its time trying to root out secret Jews.

One secret community has survived until today in the Portuguese town of Belmonte. Portugal, which was included in the pan-Iberian study, expelled its Jews shortly after Spain.

The study pointed to a smaller number of Spanish Muslims who converted and remained behind after they were told to leave in 1609.

"An unexpected result was that we found more north African influence in the west then in the east of the peninsula," said Elena Bosch, of Spain's Pompeu Fabra university.

That meant the Moorish influence survived more strongly in the first areas to be reconquered by Christians during the seven centuries in which Spain was divided between Christian and Muslim kingdoms.

It pointed to more conversion and cross-marriage amongst those Muslims, known as moriscos, who lived in Christian kingdoms.

The researchers suggested it reflected the enforced movement of Muslims from the south-eastern region of Granada when this, the last Moorish kingdom, was conquered in 1492.

Researchers said their study was an attempt to apply genetic analysis to a relatively recent period of history. Most scientific studies of the genetic origins of populations have looked back towards prehistory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/05/spain-jewish-muslim-genes

Guess where all people that were kicked out of Spain landed.

Yummnukk:

Are you sure you're not referring to Jewish blood at Dominican Today?

If that's what you meant, I think you're right! I believe the Harel family is from Israel!!!
On a serious tip, though; Los Marranos (as the Catholics of Spain maliciously called them) had to leave Ibreia or they could be imprisoned for life, or hang until dead.

They had two choices: Convert to Catholicism or leave the country.... Spanish Inquisition.

Coming to think about it; Have you heard the rumors that Christoforo Colombo was a Jew?

FYI: Many of the Spanish last names such as Perez, Henriquez, Guzman, for example are Jewish.

Some of my dearest friends are Jewish.

So did I; I had a Jewish Mom.
If she wasn't one she sure treated me like she was!
You're gonna catch a cold...Wear your hat!

Watch out for cars!
Don't stay out too late!
Don't you love me no more?
When are you gonna get married to a nice girl?


Love you mom! RIP.

Lopez, anything with the Z at the end thats why the Portuegueze have a Lopes...

anyway, we are here now. As long as your attractive and don't have regressive genes you'll be ok .

There are documented Berber/morisco elements in 14th C. Santo Domingo, who were necessary craftsmen and builders (alarifes) brought from Spain who as we know sure loved to build fortifications and monumental churches. There were enough they had a section in the city, and that multiple times authorities tried to ban further importation of this group lest it et out of hand. We may only be talking a couple thousand all told, but the 'official' population in these time periods was <10,000 so it is safe to guess they left a notable genetic mark. As with the case of the Taíno genetic influence we can search for cultural legacies left alongside the genetic contribution. There is a good essay by Jose Buscaglia-Salgado in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Undoing-Empire-Nation-Mulatto-Caribbean/dp/0816635749/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235713353&sr=8-1

which discusses the cultural marks left by these groups (forced converts/camouflaged semitics & north africans) that resonate in our own history. Beyond the stuff most often noticed, like effects on architecture, there is linkage on the cultural level. In the essay the professor argues that these people carved a space of 'proto-mulataje' in the Spanish culture, a niche Dominicans would obviously continue carving and filling up as the colonial transaction got underway when they began bringing Africans. Interesting stuff

Arsenio, many scholars assert that Columbus was a Jew . Just one excerpt from a historian

Columbus employed peculiar dates and phrases unique to the Hebrew people. Instead of referring to the "destruction" or "fall of Jerusalem," he used the phrase "the destruction of the second house." He also employed the Hebrew reckoning of 68 a.d. instead of 70 a.d. A marginal note dated 1481 is immediately given its Hebrew equivalent of 5241, etc.

He boasted that he was related to King David, some of his letters were described as written in an "unknown script" (Hebrew?), and he is said to have used a unique triangular signature similar to inscriptions found on gravestones of ancient Jewish cemeteries in Spain and Southern France.

The Jewish immigrants that were escaping from nazi Germany were an important contribution to the Sosua-Puerto Plata business community raising cattle and selling milk by-products such as butter and cheeses, that are still sold in the supermarkets under the "Sosua Brand".
Thousands of refugees were given plots of lands by Trujillo to dedicate themselves to agriculture,
the majority migrated later to the USA, specially Florida, although a presence still remains in Sosua.
I was also told by eyewitnesses that the nazi's did send with the refugees one or two loyal nazi supervisors to keep an eye on them and live with them.
It is also rumored that Porfirio Rubirosa as a diplomat in Hitler's Germany charged the Jewish immigrants various amounts to issue them the Dominican visas, and he made a small fortune with this "service".