DNA shows Jewish roots, boosts Zionist narrative

When Noah Slepkov started using online genealogical tools to build a family tree, little did he know that his personal exploration might have significant implications for all of the Jewish people—including those not even aware of their Jewish roots.

But when Slepkov heard from a colleague about 23andMe — a genetic kit that performs a DNA test on saliva to learn what percent of a person’s DNA comes from different global populations, and then provides contacts of potential relatives — he was hooked.

The ensuing report he authored, titled “Crowd Sourced Genealogy and Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing: Implications for the Jewish People,” recommended that the Israeli government, Jewish communities, and Jewish organizations provide information and points of connection for individuals who have discovered some Jewish ancestry through direct-to-consumer DNA testing.

One expert Slepkov consulted with was Bennett Greenspan, owner of Family Tree DNA, who explained that if one extrapolates from the number of Jews estimated by the historian Josephus to be alive in the first century A.D., then “you would expect to have more Jews than there are today,” says Slepkov.

“It made me realize how many people out there actually have Jewish ancestors,” he says. “If you think about it exponentially, you can have one ancestor who is Jewish, and he could have hundreds of thousands of descendants.”

Slepkov also conducted a personal DNA test, and the results were typical of what such research suggests. He cites a paper by Doron Behar, in the scientific journal Nature, that shows how the female lineage of Ashkenazi Jews is European, dating back 30,000 years, whereas the male lineage is from the Middle East and more recent.

“It suggests that men left the Middle East and married non-Jewish wives and converted them, and their descendants all became Jews,” says Slepkov, noting that his own test matches Behar’s data, which is included in the Family Tree DNA database.

Slepkov says this DNA testing “has huge geopolitical consequences.”

“Doron Behar wrote in his article that DNA tests confirm the Zionist narrative of Jews once living in the historic land of Israel and going through an exile,” he says. A graph included in Behar’s article shows where different Jewish communities fit genealogically within the global population. The graph also includes the Palestinians, who have more African ancestry in their genetic data than do Ashkenazi Jews.

“One of the narratives you hear [among those trying to delegitimize Israe] is that Jewish people have no business being in the Middle East, and that they are European and should go back to Europe,” Slepkov says. “With the exception of one scholar who has tried to suggest that Jews are really descendants of the Khazars, most scientists would agree that there is in fact evidence within the genome of the Jewish people that different Jews from around the world do come from the Middle East.”

These findings give Slepkov some ammunition in conversations with left-wing Jews who may reject Zionism and are surprised about why he made aliyah. The Canadian-born Slepkov tells them, “One of the reasons I made aliyah is because I believe I am actually from this area, and I do feel like I’m returning home.” Now, in response the typical reaction he gets to that assertion—“You don’t believe that!”—Slepkov can inform the skeptics about the results of his DNA test.

Slepkov ended up contacting three relatives as a result of his genetic test results. One was a second cousin of his father that he came across while working on the family tree.

In instances where the genetic tests showed very close relationships, Slepkov sent emails to the contacts he discovered, but sometimes he never heard back. “It could mean they are not interested, or they know for a fact that they are not related and don’t want to respond,” he says.

Slepkov was raised in a small town in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Canada. Growing up in a small Jewish community had a profound effect on him.

“Judaism has always been a huge part of who I am and my identity,” he says. “Being one of three Jews in your cohort really defines who you are, in my opinion.”

After a Conservative upbringing, Camp Ramah, Jewish studies at Toronto’s York University, and Israel advocacy work, Slepkov was primed for aliyah in part to ensure Jewish continuity for his familial line.

Slepkov met his current boss — Jewish People Policy Institute senior fellow and former MK Einat Wilf (Labor)—while he was doing Israel advocacy work at the University of Western Ontario. After making aliyah, he became Wilf’s assistant in the Knesset, and after she left the Israeli legislature he moved with her to JPPI.

From his own experience with DNA tests, Slepkov has learned to be more open to emails from strangers who tell you they might be your relative.