Tragedy Strikes in France

כ״ה באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 28
Alder 2

Four Killed in Shooting at French Jewish School

"A teacher was gunned down along with his two children at a Jewish school in southern France Monday, while the director of the school saw his daughter shot and killed in front of him, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a somber appearance at the school. It is the third time in the past 10 days that a gunman on a motorcycle has fired on minorities in the southwest of France. French soldiers of north African origin were shot and killed on March 11 and March 15."

The Great Mother of us all weeps.

3/24/12 Update - Toulouse

Michael Berkowits’ Tiramisu

כ״ה באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 28
Alder 2

"It is my hope that through telling stories like Michael’s, we are reminded of how easily society can change in the face of evil– how even today, large scale human tragedies are happening around the world. We must never forget our past, in order to ensure that a catastrophe of this magnitude never happens again." ~ May there be no more crusading burning times for any of us.

Michael Berkowits’ Tiramisu

Waves of the Sea

כ״ד באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 27
Alder 1

Alot of interesting synchronicites converge on this day.

FIRST, I dreamt last night (well, actually this morning) of the sea rising up on the coast where, in the dream, I was. The sea rose up as a mighty tidal wave roaring toward the land, wiping out everything in its path. Well, not everything exactly.

I was in a big building on the shore by the sea with a small group of people. To avoid the destruction of the building and to prevent floodwaters from entering the building and drowning all of us, I and another person, held a large sheet of white material across the open doorway (which had no door). We two held the white material across the doorway at very specific places which we intuited to be the only places where holding the sheet across the doorway could protect us. It didn't matter that the sheet flapped open in the air every other place where the sheet was not being held by us. Holding it as we did, where we did, kept the building standing intact and unbreached by the floodwaters of the tidal wave as it rolled in across the land and submerged the building under the sea. The tidal wave came over the land, submerging in the sea water my group's building and everything outside it. The wave rolled past and the sea retreated, but we knew another tidal wave was coming.

This time, we knew that covering the door was not the needed action to protect us. This time, I and the other person from the group stood at the glass window which faced the sea as we looked out of it. We turned our backs against the window, looking into the room of the building. We just knew the action to do to protect us from being drowned by the sea wave and to keep the building standing against the might of the wave rolling in. My child ran up to us as we stood with our backs against the window, waiting for the rising sea and its tidal wave to reach the land. I grabbed my child up in my arms and set the child down in front of me, turning also the child's back to the window in alignment with ours as we stood strong against the onslaught of the sea. Now there were at least 3 of us standing guard in opposition to the massive sea wave - myself, a man and a child. The wave came, covered over the building, and moved on as the sea again retreated from the land.

We went outside the building and saw all of the destruction, but our building still stood despite being being struck twice by tidal waves which had deeply covered and swept over it. We knew another wave was going to come, we worried another strike by the tidal wave might be more than the building could withstand despite our protective actions, and we wondered if we should try to run to the highlands to escape it or stay put in our building - we didn't know if we had time to make it to higher ground before the next tidal wave struck.

I am quickly losing memory of this part of the dream, but there was a building structure near me outside which I specifically observed and took note of in my line of sight, and I also remember that the prophet had said something once to me about two days (not directly about the building or the tidal wave, but in riddles), and while I can't remember the exact words, the prophet had spoken of these days in such way that I knew that the building would still be standing for at least two more days from that day (in the dream), as the prophet had spoken of the building's presence (in the prophecy) on a day two days into the future (and a day without tidal waves) from the day (in the dream). I knew that no matter how many waves hit our building, the building would withstand it, as it had at least two more days left of Presence in the world - the prophet had seen and spoken in note of our building when speaking of a day two days into the future. The waves would not last for two days into the future (I just knew this as a matter of fact), so we decided to stay in the building to ride out the rest of the waves until they subsided. I woke up.

SECOND, later this afternoon, my mom called me to watch an old black and white movie about to start on television which she thought I'd like. I got up from my computer and went to watch the sweet film - A Portrait of Jenny. Simply wow, on so many levels. It's a love story about an artist and a Fae woman - a woman (his timeless soul mate throughout all time) he never had the opportunity to meet in real (current) life because she had died from a TIDAL WAVE before they had met in his current life. Nevertheless, she found him. (I hadn't told my mom about my dream before the movie at all.)

THIRD, after watching the movie, I came back to my computer to write of these two synchronicities, but decided to check out the posts on some of the blogs I haunt before beginning with the task of writing my own blog post. Interestingly, one of them has written today, "the WAVES are great" in Australia down under.

My universe is today talking all about great waves. And one thing the universe is telling me is to not worry about any of the waves which may come, because I will still be standing after the waves are all long gone.



The full movie:

Final mtDNA Motherline Results - Top 16 Genetic Motherline Matches

כ״ב באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 24
Ash 27

This list shows the top 16 best mtDNA genetic matches for me in the world. These top matrilineal ancestral root matches cover a period time from within the last 300-400 generations since the last Ice Age to the present. In other words, in all the world, tracing the data from the last Ice Age to the present, the information shows (quoting from the results) "where in the world (I) have matches to (my) mtDNA. These matches indicate (my) maternal geographic ancestral roots." As indicated in the previous post, where it says that I have "0" "difference to (my) best matches", it means that all of my matrilineal genetic matches are EXACT matches to my own defining motherline genetic markers. Quoting, "a difference of "0" indicates that we have exact matches for your samples." So, the matches in this list are all exact matrilineal genetic matches to me (as far as matrilineal motherline defining genetic markers are concerned). The people on this list are my matrilineal genetic twins, so to speak.

Final mtDNA Motherline Results - U5b Haplogroup

כ״ב באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 24
Ash 27

Hey, hey, happy day! I received the final hardcopy report and final results of my mtDNA ancestral motherline genetic analysis today! Here is a redacted photo of the hardcopy result showing confirmation that my motherline genetic haplogroup is U5b (Clan Ursula - the most ancient motherline in all Europe). In all the world, tracing the data from the last Ice Age to the present, the information shows (quoting from the results) "where in the world (I) have matches to (my) mtDNA. These matches indicate (my) maternal geographic ancestral roots." When it says that I have "0" "difference to (my) best matches", it means that all of my genetic matches are EXACT matches to my defining genetic markers. Quoting, "a difference of "0" indicates that we have exact matches for your samples." How cool is that!

Hg U5 (Clan Ursula) Among Ashkenazi Jews From Middle East and Central Asia

י״א באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 13
Ash 16

A transcript of the document in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy 1:12-33, 2005, A MOSAIC OF PEOPLE: THE JEWISH STORY AND A REASSESSMENT OF THE DNA EVIDENCE isn't at all transcripted well, but this is basically what it says (about 7/8 way down the page) regarding Hg U5 (Clan Ursula) among Ashkenazi Jews originally from the Middle (Near) East and Central Asia:

... the distribution of U5 is more complex, given that (it) comprises 7% of Ashkenazi results, (revealing that) it (U5) occurs not only in European groups, but that (it is also) common only among Eastern Ashkenazim (from the) Middle East and Central Asia ...

This is consistent with the results of my autosomal STR Middle Eastern Panel, which indicate that my ancestors spent a long time in the Middle East (as well as in Northwestern Europe per my European Panel). My own mtDNA results, coupled with my STR regional panels, strongly suggest that I am an Ashkenazi Jew (given my closest genetic matches from my mtDNA results) originally from the Middle East whose ancestors have also spent significant time in Northwestern Europe and Scandinavia, acquiring an admixture of genes there as well.

The Magic of Genetics

י׳ באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 12
Ash 15

You know, I think that once a person begins to explore his or her own roots for real, digging deep into the evolutionary path of the human species, a transformation of emotion can easily occur as s/he begins to emotionally assimilate the beautiful truth that we are all indeed really one big interconnected family of creatures walking upon and sharing this lovely planet together.

Wow, that was one long sentence!

Remarkable Middle Eastern Genetic Matches - What It Means to U

י׳ באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 12
Ash 15

In follow-up to my earlier post on the Middle (Near) Eastern origin of Haplogroup U (Clan Ursula), this Hg's persistent continued historical presence in the Middle East (even following a large settlement of Clan Ursula in Scandinavia) is further evidenced by the presence of a remarkable amount of Middle Eastern matches in my autosomal STR Middle Eastern Panel results. I have both Jewish and Arabic matches in varying amounts according to location and subpopulations within those locations.

Given the fact that I've had American Ancestors in this country from before it was even the United States of America, and that some of my American ancestors fought in the American Revolution (and one ancestor even signed the Declaration of Independence), means that my American ancestors have been in this country for hundreds of years. One ancestral clan from Wales has been here since the mid-1600's. Yet, despite that, my Native American Panel came back with no genetic matches at all - all zeros. This lends support to the idea that Hg U must have had a long presence in the Middle East for me - someone of Clan Ursula - to have picked up such a large and diverse amount of both Middle Eastern Jewish and Arabic genetic matches, even though some of them have a low Tribe Score.

Middle Eastern Origin of Clan Ursula

י׳ באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 12
Ash 15

From these maps tracing the migrations of the mtDNA haplogroups (Hgs), we see that Hg U (represented by Clan Mother Ursula) originated and branched off from Hg N in the Middle (Near) East during the period 60,000-30,000 years ago (ya), one daughter¹ of Ursula going west into Europe and another daughter¹ of Ursula going south into Asia (and the subcontinent of India):



About 20,000ya, during the period of the Glacial Maximum with much of Europe covered by glacial ice, European Clan Ursula backmigrated into the Middle East from Europe:



Even as many members of Clan Ursula migrated to and resettled Scandinavia 13,000ya after the ice sheets retreated and Europe warmed, many members of Clan Ursula remained in the Middle East:



Even as Scandinavian Clan Ursula takes deep root in Northwestern Europe, still many members of Clan Ursula call the Middle East home 11,400ya:



Clan Ursula is still present in the Middle East 1000ya:



even until the present day:



It is debated among the scientific genetic community as to whether Clan Katrine (Hg K) originated in Europe or the Middle East, and the longstanding presence of Clan Ursula (from whom Clan Katrine descended) in both Europe and the Middle East makes the question even more debatable.

From these maps (source - Roots for Real), we can see that the simple thinking that Clan Ursula is simply European is simply erroneous.

¹ To qualify as a founding Clan Mother, the woman must have had at least two surviving daughters through whom to pass on her mitochondrial DNA. The mathematical reasoning behind this requirement is explained in detail in Bryan Sykes' book, The Seven Daughters of Eve.

Founding Ashkenazi mtDNA Haplogroups

י׳ באדר תשע"ב
Keowulf 12
Ash 15

Research released in 2006 by Doron Behar shows that 40% of Ashkenazic Jews descend in direct maternal line from one of four women. There remains debate and disagreement within the scientific genetic community as to whether or not the mtDNA haplogroups (Hgs) of these four women are of Middle Eastern or European origin.

The original Behar research paper concludes that the mtDNA Hgs associated with these four founding women to be: K1a1b1a, K1a9, K2a2a and N1b.

Of course, these four founding maternal Hgs don't include 60% of Ashkenazic Jews or any non-Ashkenazic Jews. The Behar paper defines "Ashkenazi" as referring "to Jews of mainly central and eastern European ancestry, in contrast to those of Iberian (Sephardic), Near Eastern, or North African origin." I'm not sure how Jews of additional Northwestern European heritage fit into this definition.

Although I carry at least one of the defining genetic markers of the K2 Hg subclade, I'm not sure how any of these research findings are directly relevant to me except to show that I'm likely not from that 40% of Ashkenazic Jewry covered by Behar's study.