Jews, Links, and the Final Redemption

As far as genetics goes the Jews are Northern Semites. Our closest relatives are the Kurds, followed by the Turks and I think the Iraqis. This is true for Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Mizrachim. Check the Kulanu website under genetics. Linguistically, (Hebrew) we are closest to the Arabs. It should be noted that genetically the Pashtuns are closely related to the Kurds and hence to us. This is also why the Khazar conversion does not show up in the Jewish gene pool because as Turkic people they would be closely related to the Jews anyway.

As far as genetics goes the Jews are Northern Semites. Our closest relatives are the Kurds, followed by the Turks and I think the Iraqis.

I would like to offer my own explanation about the Judaic link of the Tutsi. There is a Midrash that says, that when the Jews left Egypt there was a group of Jews that refused to leave and stayed behind in Egypt. When we pray for the final redemption on major holidays, we pray for the return of those lost in Assyria and those cast out in Egypt. So we have a historical awareness of such a group. What if one group of Jews left and went on to Israel and another group stayed and later moved down to Africa? There is also a legend that the Tutsi are descendents of the guards of King Solomon’s mines. The following may sound strange, but it’s possible. I have friends in the Yemenite community and most of them are fine boned and short. However, there are also some that are very tall. Maybe there is a genetic connection between the tall Yemenites and the Tutsi?

Furthermore, maybe it’s a sign of the final redemption that all these groups are waking up and discovering their Jewish roots. The Jewish view of Messianic times is different than that of Christians. Most Jews view it as a historical process that until the end (the rising of the dead) will follow natural laws. There is also a legend among Sephardim that the Messiah will come from the direction of Yemen or North Africa. So he may be not be a blonde Knight in shining armor on a white horse, but a dark man riding a jeep. During the Gulf war one of the Chabad rabbis in Paris said that we are living in miraculous times but because we see it on TV and read it in the papers we are not aware of their miraculous nature. Maybe the Jewish awaking in Africa is miraculous.