Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People

Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People
by Jon Entine

Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jon Entine
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-10-24
ISBN: 0446580635
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Book Reviews of Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People

Book Review: A Peculiar People, The Sweep Of History, and DNA
Summary: 4 Stars

The author brings genetic research to bear on the history and identity of the Jewish people, their epic migrations and struggles, and their relationship to other populations. He has done a prodigious amount of research and has managed to present arcane scientific concepts in a way that is understandable. Among the fascinating ideas I learned from the book: Jews who claim descent from the priestly line (Cohanim), often with variants of the surname Cohen, have a high incidence of a specific genetic marker on the Y-chromosome, passed down from father to son.

There is more to this book than genetics. The migration of peoples, religious history, the Spanish inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain, the crypto-Jews emerging from centuries of obscurity in places like the American southwest, the tortured history of the concept of "race" and the political difficulties of studying population genetics, s survey of "Jewish" diseases, and appendixes on human migration and the major genetic strains of our species. Not to mention the ten lost tribes and the questionable story of the conversion of Khazaria.

Author Jon Entine writes well, and the reader is swept along in the torrent of information and theory. This is a hard-to-put-down book. If it has any flaw, it may be that the author tries to cover too much, that he mixes scientific findings with speculation, political ruminations, questions of faith, and Israeli-Palestinian issues. I wish he had delved a bit deeper into fewer areas. Still, I enjoyed Abraham's Children and I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Summary of Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People

Could our sense of who we are really turn on a sliver of DNA? In our multiethnic world, questions of individual identity are becoming increasingly unclear. Now in ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN bestselling author Jon Entine vividly brings to life the profound human implications of the Age of Genetics while illuminating one of today's most controversial topics: the connection between genetics and who we are, and specifically the question "Who is a Jew?"

Entine weaves a fascinating narrative, using breakthroughs in genetic genealogy to reconstruct the Jewish biblical tradition of the chosen people and the hereditary Israelite priestly caste of Cohanim. Synagogues in the mountains of India and China and Catholic churches with a Jewish identity in New Mexico and Colorado provide different patterns of connection within the tangled history of the Jewish diaspora. Legendary accounts of the Hebrew lineage of Ethiopian tribesmen, the building of Africa's Great Zimbabwe fortress, and even the so-called Lost Tribes are reexamined in light of advanced DNA technology. Entine also reveals the shared ancestry of Israelites and Christians.

As people from across the world discover their Israelite roots, their riveting stories unveil exciting new approaches to defining one's identity. Not least, Entine addresses possible connections between DNA and Jewish intelligence and the controversial notion that Jews are a "race apart." ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN is a compelling reinterpretation of biblical history and a challenging and exciting illustration of the promise and power of genetic research.

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