Connecting to the Great Rabbinic Families through y-dna a case Study of the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage-libre pdf
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- Introduction
- Background
- Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage
- Y-DNA Test Results
- Table 1. Paternal Lines of Descent from the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage Generation PAULL Line of Descent PAULEN Line of Descent
- Predictions of the Common Ancestor
- Table 2. Y-DNA Standard STR Values for Descendants of the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage
- R-M124 Haplogroup
- Conclusions
- Table 3. Probability of a Descendant of the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage Sharing a Common Ancestor With Other Known and Newly Identified Descendant
| AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 17
Connecting to the Great Rabbinic Families Through Y-DNA: A Case Study of the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage by Jeffrey Mark Paull or a number of reasons, including high rates of inter- marriage with other rabbinic families, adoption of fixed surnames well before governmental authorities required the majority of European Jewry to do so, and frequently well- documented lineages, rabbinic lineages hold a special place in Jewish genealogy. Researchers who find a rabbi in their family typically can trace much further back in time than can most European Jewish families. Often, however, con- temporary family members are unaware of their rabbinic ancestry. When a paper trail for a rabbinic genealogy exists back before the mass adoption of Jewish surnames, DNA testing can be useful both to confirm relationships and to help iden- tify other living members of the extended family, many of whom have different family surnames and do not know of the rabbinic relationship. Y-DNA testing of members of the Polonsky rabbinic family demonstrates this process. The present study focuses on a family of Jewish descent that immigrated to America from the Ukraine during the early part of the 20th century. It presents the genealogical and genetic data that characterizes the Polonsky rabbinical lineage by which its descendants may be identified. The Polonsky rabbinical lineage descends from a nexus of great Talmudic scholars, Jewish community leaders and rabbinic dynasties that formed the bedrock of Judaism throughout Europe and Russia.
Jewish genealogy. These challenges and difficulties are well known to Jewish genealogists: frequent expulsions and migrations, the dearth of civil and Jewish community rec- ords, the lack of Jewish surnames, and the widespread de- struction of the repositories of Jewish learning and culture, including synagogues, yeshivas and cemeteries. As a result, for many people of Ashkenazi Jewish de- scent, no genealogical records of their ancestors can be found beyond a certain point. Against this reality, however, are a limited number of great rabbinical families whose lines of descent were studied and preserved over the centu- ries. These families include some who rose to prominence through the great distinction of one or two individuals, and others who produced a succession of illustrious rabbinical scholars or community leaders. 1
ish literature for individuals who can establish descent from one or more of the great rabbinic families. Rabbinic sources can provide priceless information regarding their descent to Jews who might otherwise have no means of discovering who their ancestors were. Because of the endogamous nature of the Ashkenazi Jewish population, many, if not most Ashkenazi Jews de- scend from a prominent rabbi or rabbinical lineage, al- though they may not be aware of it. Endogamy among Ashkenazi Jews was internally mandated through religious and cultural tenets that endorsed marrying other Jews, and was often externally imposed through laws that prohibited marriage to non-Jews. 2
Culturally, the practice of shidduch, or arranging mar- riages between family members of equal yichus or distin- guished birth, was common among Ashkenazi Jews for centuries. To have yichus was to be descended from illus- trious ancestors who were famous rabbis or community leaders.
3 Many rabbinical dynasties made it a priority to ensure that their children married into other prominent and often closely related rabbinical lineages, resulting in fre- quent consanguineous marriage among cousins of these lineages, resulting in the creation of a highly endogamous population. 4
This high degree of interrelatedness is one reason why increasing numbers of Ashkenazi Jews are turning to ge- netic testing as a way of recovering part of their lost heri- tage by locating “DNA cousins” and identifying their com- mon ancestors. As they do, it is becoming increasingly clear that characterizing the unique DNA markers of the great Ashkenazi rabbis and rabbinical lineages will play a critical role in the ultimate success of such endeavors. Studies such as the “WIRTH” project 5 and the Wertheimer-Wertheim autosomal DNA study 6 have demonstrated the intrinsic value of and need for characterizing rabbinic DNA in an effort to bridge the gap between genetic data and the miss- ing paper trail for Ashkenazi Jews. Hence, studies such as this, which provide the genealogy of a renowned rabbinical lineage of Ashkenazi descent, combined with the genetic data that describe the unique DNA markers or characteristics of that lineage, have con- siderable value for both present and future Jewish genea- logical studies. Such studies provide the unique autosomal or Y-DNA markers—the generic fingerprint of a specific rabbinical lineage, the gold standard by which individual DNA test results can be compared to determine if a given individual may be a descendant of a particular rabbi or rab- binical lineage. Background The three million Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to America from Russia between 1881 and 1920 wanted to break with their past and make a new life for themselves F
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AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 19
and their families in America. 7 In making the transition, they broke with the past so completely that they left behind a large part of their rich cultural heritage. Particularly dur- ing the first several decades of the 20th century, Russian- Jewish immigrants were intent on assimilating into Ameri- can culture. They abandoned many of their religious cus- toms and traditions and rarely spoke with their American- born children of the world that they left behind. As a result, much of their oral history was lost, and with it, their ances- tral and rabbinic links to the past. 8
Such was the case for the Polonsky family. Menakhem Nahum Polonsky, with his wife and four of their children, left Cherkasy, Russia, and settled in Brooklyn, New York, in 1914. Upon his arrival, Menakhem Nahum Americanized his name to Nathan Polonsky and reunited with his other four children who had previously immigrated to the U.S. Among their descendants, little was known about their life before America. Other than whisperings of the family being somehow descended from one of the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Jewry, there was no fam- ily tree or paper trail to document their ancestors. That is where things stood for nearly 80 years until the author found a photograph of his great-grandfather Na- than’s gravestone and had the Hebrew inscription trans- lated. The inscription revealed that Nathan Polonsky was the descendant of two of the most influential early leaders of the Hasidic movement—the Shpoler Zeida (grandfather of Shpola) (1725–1811), and Rabbi Pinchas Shapira of Ko- retz (1726–1791). Fascinated by this finding, he embarked on a compre- hensive genealogical research project to uncover the ancient lineage of the Polonsky family. This research culminated in the publication of A Noble Heritage: The History and Leg-
the story of how the Polonsky family’s lost heritage, em- bracing many of Europe’s most eminent and influential rabbis, dating back to the great 11th-century scholar and biblical commentator Rashi, was rediscovered. 9 While re- searching and writing A Noble Heritage, the author also initiated a number of genealogical research projects that involved studying the autosomal and Y-DNA characteris- tics of descendants of several family ancestral lines, includ- ing the Gelles-Polonsky, 10 Wertheimer-Wertheim 11 and
Zeida 12 rabbinical lineages. Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage The Polonsky rabbinical lineage is a particularly interest- ing and relevant lineage from a genealogical research standpoint, due, in part, to its many marriage connections to other notable rabbinical lineages and dynasties throughout Europe and Russia, a brief summary of which is presented here.
The scholarly Kalonymos family, believed by some to be of Davidic descent, 13 left Babylonia about the 8th century, settled in Italy, and then moved to the Rhineland and France in the 9th and 10th centuries. From this family emerged the great Biblical and Talmudic commentator Rashi (1040–1105). 14 Rashi’s family and disciples estab- lished centers of learning in many towns in Western Europe and later, in the 14th century, in Eastern Europe. Thus a vast interrelated dynasty of rabbinic families spread across Europe, establishing a framework for future genealogical research. 15
Notable among this interrelated dynasty of rabbinic families is the Shapiro rabbinical lineage, which traces its descent from Rashi through the Treves rabbinical lineage, and which produced a long line of distinguished rabbis over the centuries. The Polonsky rabbinical lineage was formed when the descendant of a distinguished Galician line of rabbis from Brody married into the Shapiro rabbinical line- age in the late 18th century. 16
Polonsky (1761–1811). Shmuel was the grandson of Rabbi Menakhem Mendel Levush. 17 Menakhem married the daughter of Rabbi S. Gellis and adopted his father-in-law’s surname to become Moses Gellis. 18 How Shmuel acquired the Polonsky surname is unclear but it may be through his connection with the Polonne community 19 while he was serving as the rabbi of the nearby town of Koniow. Shmuel Polonsky married Sarah Rachel Sheindel Shapira, the daughter of the eminent Rabbi Pinchas Shapira of Koretz. 20 Their marriage produced a distinguished line of rabbis in Kiev gubernia. Shmuel’s position as chief rabbi and head of the rabbinical court of Ekaterinopol was passed down through the Polonsky family from father-to-son for five generations, spanning over a century, from 1793 to 1900. Following the practice of shidduch, each of the descen- dants in the Polonsky rabbinical lineage married women of impressive yichus who linked Polonsky descendants to many of Europe’s esteemed rabbinical lineages, including Kalonymos, Treves, Shapiro, Luria, Katzenellenbogen, Wahl, Yaffe, Twersky, Wertheim, Gellis/Levush and Zeida. The family was connected through marriage to still other distinguished rabbinical families, including the Halperin lineage of Brezhany and Zvenigorodka, the Hager Hasidic dynasty of Vishnitz and the Friedman lineage of Ruzhin and Czortkow. This vast, highly interrelated network of distinguished rabbinical families, for which there is both extensive genea- logical documentation and genetic testing data, makes the Polonsky rabbinical lineage a model lineage for genealogi- cal research purposes. The many rabbinical connections of the Polonsky lineage are summarized in Figure 1. More comprehensive and detailed family trees and descendant charts may be found in both A Noble Heritage and the au- thor’s website. 21
Due to the endogamous nature of the Ashkenazi Jewish population, increasing numbers of Ashkenazi Jews may be able to establish descent from one or more of these distin- guished rabbinical families on the basis of their DNA match to the unique DNA markers which characterize a particular
20 AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 rabbinical lineage.
In this regard, to say that “all Ashkenazi Jews are re- lated” or that “all Ashkenazi Jews descend from Rashi” is not as much of an overstatement to the extent that one might think. 22 According to Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA, any Ashkenazi Jew who takes the Family Finder autosomal DNA test will match more than 80 per- cent of the other Ashkenazi Jews in the database. 23 In one recent DNA study of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish communities from around the world, the authors concluded: “The shared genetic elements suggest that members of any Jewish community are related to one another as closely as are 4th or 5th cousins in a large population.” 24,
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Y-DNA Test Results In an effort to characterize Y-DNA allele patterns for the Polonsky rabbinical lineage, the author sponsored Y-DNA tests at the 67-marker level for his sons, Justin Matthew Paull and Joshua Michael Paull, and for his first cousin once removed, Dr. Arnold David Paulen. These descen- dants of Nathan Polonsky have a well-documented descent from Rabbi Shmuel Polonsky and the Polonsky rabbinical lineage.
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The descent of Rabbi Shmuel Polonsky, son of Rabbi Mordecai, son of Rabbi Moses Gellis of Brody, is also well- documented. 27,
29,
30
The genealogical research of Edward Gelles indicated that he, too, was descended from Moses Gellis, and possibly his son Mordecai. 31,
32 Aware of their common ancestral connections, the author invited Dr. Gelles to compare Y-chromosome DNA results. The pater- nal lines of descent for all five descendants of the Polonsky rabbinical lineage are presented in Table 1. The Y-DNA tests were conducted by Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) of Houston, Texas. The results showed an exact Y-DNA match between the author and his sons on 67 of 67 Y-DNA markers. There was also an exact Y-DNA 67- Table 1. Paternal Lines of Descent from the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage Generation PAULL Line of Descent PAULEN Line of Descent GELLES Line of Descent Common Ances- tor Rabbi Moses GELLIS (Menakhem Mendel LEVUSH), b. circa 1711 Son Rabbi Mordecai b. circa 1736, Brody, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) Grandsons Rabbi Shmuel POLONSKY b. 1761, possibly Brody, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) Rabbi Moses GELLIS b. circa 1763, Brody, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) Great-Grandsons Rabbi Aharon POLONSKY b. 1780, Katerynopil, Ukraine Rabbi David Yitzchak GELLIS b. circa 1785, Brody, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) 2nd-Great- Grandsons Rabbi Eliyahu Pinchas POLONSKY b. 1803, Katerynopil, Ukraine Rabbi Nahum Uri GELLES b. 1852, Narayow, Poland 3rd-Great- Grandsons Shmeril POLONSKY b. circa 1821, Katerynopil, Ukraine David GELLES b. 1883, Austria- Hungary 4th-Great- Grandsons Aharon David POLONSKY b. 1838, Katerynopil, Ukraine Edward GELLES b. 1927, Vienna, Aus- tria
5th-Great- Grandsons Nathan (Menakhem Nahum) POLONSKY b. circa 1863, Shpola, Ukraine
6th-Great- Grandsons Louis Isadore PAULL (Levi Yitzhak POLONSKY) b. 1883, Pereyaslav, Ukraine Leon POLONSKY b. 1888, Shpola, Ukraine
7th-Great- Grandsons Melvin Robert PAULL b. 1921, Snowshoe, PA Arnold David PAULEN (POLONSKY) b. 1921, Brooklyn, NY
8th-Great- Grandsons Jeffrey Mark PAULL b. 1951, Pittsburgh, PA
9th-Great- Grandsons Justin Matthew PAULL b. 1990, Baltimore, MD Joshua Michael PAULL b. 1994, Walnut Creek, CA
AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 21
marker match between the author and his cousin, Arnold David Paulen (Table 2). These results were not surprising since the common paternal ancestor for all four closely- related Polonsky descendants, Nathan Polonsky, was re- cent—between two and four generations. Y-DNA test results for Edward Gelles closely matched those of the four Polonsky descendants. The results showed a near-exact match of 36 of 37 Y-DNA markers, and 65 of 67 Y-DNA markers between Gelles and the four Polonsky descendants. The Y-DNA tests also identified all five de- scendants as belonging to the R-M124 haplogroup, which is relatively rare among Ashkenzai Jewish populations. 33
The author, his sons and his first cousin once removed were all exact Y-DNA matches at the 67-marker level. This identical 67-marker Y-DNA match among the four Polon- sky descendants, together with their documented proof of descent from the Polonsky rabbinical lineage, provides a high degree of confidence that the Y-DNA allele pattern presented in Table 2 accurately represents the Polonsky rabbinical lineage. The near-exact match on 65 of 67 Y-DNA markers be- tween Edward Gelles and the four Polonsky descendants provides important validation of these results. FTDNA’s Y- DNA time predictor (TiP) report 34 dictates that the prob- ability of a shared common ancestor between Dr. Gelles and the Polonsky descendants within eight to twelve gen- erations as between 84.77 and 96.82 percent (Table 3). As shown in Table 1, the most recent common ancestor for Edward Gelles and the Polonsky descendants, Rabbi Mordecai, lived between five and ten generations ago in the two respective lineages. Hence the Y-DNA evidence cor- roborates the conclusions drawn from the genealogical evi- dence—that Edward Gelles and the four Polonsky descen- dants share a common ancestor who was born in the early 1700s. This was nearly a century before hereditary sur- names became mandatory for Ashkenazi Jews living in the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement. 35
Predictions of the Common Ancestor The data presented in Table 3 shows how Y-DNA testing can be used to corroborate known and suspected relation- ships, in addition to discovering new ones. According to FTDNA’s Y-DNA time predictor (TiP) program, the author and his sons were estimated to have an approximately 90 percent chance of sharing a common ancestor within four generations. The same probabilities were estimated for the author sharing a common ancestor with his first cousin once removed. In each case, the program’s predictions were ac- curate, although a bit conservative; the actual probability of sharing a common ancestor with these close relatives was somewhat higher (100 percent as opposed to 90 percent), and the number of generations somewhat lower (1 to 3 gen- erations as opposed to 4). Edward Gelles is the author’s fourth cousin, four times removed, which means that our common ancestor lived five generations ago in the Gelles lineage, and nine generations
22 AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 ago in the Polonsky lineage (Table 1). FTDNA’s Y-DNA TiP program predicted between an 84.77 percent and 96.82 per- cent probability of a shared common ancestor who lived between 8 and 12 generations ago, which accurately pre- dicted our known relationship (100 percent probability of a shared common ancestor living between 5 and 9 genera- tions ago). In addition to these five known relationships, Table 3 presents data for six new and previously unknown potential relationships based upon the closeness of their Y-DNA match to known Polonsky descendants. R. Effert and D. Nabutovsky match the four Polonsky descendants on 64 of 67 Y-DNA markers, and B. Brofsky matches them on 63 of 67 markers. FTDNA’s Y-DNA TiP algorithm predicts that all three of these men have between an 84.97 percent and 96.89 percent probability of a shared common ancestor in the Polonsky lineage who lived between 8 and 12 genera- tions ago. This indicates that their shared common ancestor, like that of Edward Gelles, preceded Rabbi Shmuel Polon- sky by at least one generation. Similarly, J. Shaffer, K. Gankin and M. Trager match the four Polonsky descendants on 63 of 67 Y-DNA markers, and the TiP program predicts that these three men have between an 80.96 percent and 98.31 percent probability of a shared common ancestor in the Polonsky lineage who lived between 12 and 16 generations ago, thereby indicating that their shared common ancestor preceded Rabbi Shmuel Polonsky by several generations. The fact that all of these men have different surnames but likely descend from the same paternal lineage illustrates the dilemma that confronts many, if not most, Ashkenazi Jews—that their common ancestor often predates the era in which Jewish surnames came into use. Several generations later, the descendants of those common ancestors adopted surnames based upon the places they lived, occupations they had, people they married, neighbors who “adopted” them to avoid military service or the whims of the local authorities. This makes tracing Jewish lineage difficult us- ing traditional genealogical methods and emphasizes the value of Y-DNA and other genetic tests as an essential component of Jewish genealogy.
DNA markers or short-tandem repeat (STR) values in com- mon, another Y-DNA characteristic that all descendants of the Polonsky rabbinical lineage share is that they all belong to the relatively rare R-M124 haplogroup. 36 The R-M124 haplogroup is practically unknown in Europe except among a small cluster of Jews, and its origin remains a mystery. Two confirmed Ashkenazi clusters of R-M124 indi- viduals may reflect an ancient Babylonian (Iraqi), Persian (Iranian) or Central Asian origin. The largest cluster is referred to as “Eastern Europe” or “Jewish A,” tentatively identified by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) F1092, F1159, F1758 and F3604. The second smaller cluster is referred to as “Jewish Heritage-Rumania” or “Jewish B,” tentatively identified by SNP L288. 37
appearance of these clusters among Ashkenazi Jews in modern-day Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine, including conversions to Judaism by Assyrians, 38 the importation of Jewish sages and teachers from Babylonia at the behest of the Khazars, 39,40,41 the migration of Jewish Exilarchs from Babylonia to France, 42 and Jewish expulsions from Babylo- nia and Persia. 43
In addition, some Jewish R-M124 individuals in the FTDNA database have no known Eastern European Ash- kenazi ancestry. Rather, they are believed to be Mizrachi Jews, with paternal lineages dating back several hundred years to Persia (Iran). The existence of Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jews with similar genetics supports a shared Asian origin, perhaps in Babylonia. Research projects to investigate specific R-M124 SNP markers that may be unique to Ashkenazi Jews are ongoing, and will help further elucidate the origins of the Jewish R-M124 hap- logroup. 44
Conclusions This study demonstrates that, even in the complete ab- sence of a paper trail, it is possible to connect to a rabbini- cal lineage purely on the basis of Y-chromosome DNA data, and six new probable descendants of the Polonsky Table 3. Probability of a Descendant of the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage Sharing a Common Ancestor With Other Known and Newly Identified Descendant AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 23
rabbinical lineage were identified in this manner. The widespread destruction of Jewish genealogical rec- ords and cemeteries, combined with the rare usage of Jew- ish surnames prior to the early 19th century, have always represented major obstacles in conducting Jewish genea- logical research. Helping to fill this void have been the ge- nealogies of the great rabbinical families. These genealo- gies documented and preserved over the centuries represent a precious gift that has been handed down through the gen- erations. They provide the contemporary Jewish community with a way to connect to our ancestors and to our Jewish heritage. The author hopes that this study of the Polonsky rabbini- cal lineage will be among the first of many subsequent stud- ies that will provide the essential information necessary to fully characterize both the genealogical and genetic profiles of the great rabbinical families. Such studies will lay a foundation for uniting these two sources of information and for meeting the needs of Ashkenazi Jews all over the world who seek their ancestral origins. Notes 1. Edward Gelles: An Ancient Lineage—European Roots of a Jewish Family. Vallentine Mitchell, London, 2006, p. 4–10. 2. H. Markel: “Di Goldine Medina (The Golden Land): His- torical Perspectives of Eugenics and the East European (Ashke- nazi) Jewish American Community, 1880–1925.” Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine (7) 1:49–64 (1997). 3. Alan Unterman: Dictionary of Jewish Lore & Legend. Thames and Hudson, London, 1991. 4. Neil Rosenstein: “Ashkenazic Rabbinic Families.” AVO- TAYNU: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Fall 1987. www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/journal/ ashkenazic.htm. 5. Herbert Huebscher and Elise Friedman: “DNA and Jewish Genealogy Join Forces.” AVOTAYNU, Volume XXIII, Number 2, Summer 2007. 6. Jeffrey Mark Paull and Janet Billstein Akaha: “ Using Auto- somal DNA Analysis to Connect Rabbinical Lineages: A Case Study of the Wertheimer and Wertheim Dynasties.” AVOTAYNU: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Volume XXVIII, Number 4, Winter 2012. 7. Allan Levine: Scattered Among the Peoples: The Jewish
Publishers Inc., New York, NY, 2004, p. 261. 8. Jeffrey Mark Paull: A Noble Heritage: The History and Leg-
lishing, West Conshohocken, PA, 2013, p. 534–540. 9. Ibid. 10. Edward Gelles and Jeffrey Mark Paull: “DNA Tests in the Search for Common Ancestors: Genes and Genealogy of the Gelles and Polonsky Families.” The Galitzianer, Vol. 18. No. 1, November 2010, p. 18–19. 11. Jeffrey Mark Paull and Janet Billstein Akaha, op.cit. “ Us- ing Autosomal DNA Analysis to Connect Rabbinical Lineages: A Case Study of the Wertheimer and Wertheim Dynasties.” AVO- TAYNU: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Volume XXVIII, Number 4, Winter 2012. 12. Jeffrey Mark Paull and Jeffrey Briskman: “Y-DNA Mark- ers in the Shpoler Zeida and his Descendants in The Shpoler Zeida: The Life, Legends, and Descendants of the Grandfather of Shpola” (in preparation). 13. Andres J. Bonet: “The Bonet-Kalonymus-Shem Tovs: Di- rect Descendants of King David and Princes of Septimania.” Sharsheret Hadorot, Volume 17, No. 2, June 2003. 14. Neil Rosenstein: The Lurie Legacy: The House of Davidic Royal Descent. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, NJ, 2004. On the first page of the book, Dr. Rosenstein presents a family tree depicting Rashi’s descent from King David through his father’s descent from Jochanan ha-Sandlar and Hillel the Elder. Rashi’s father was Rabbi Yitzhak Tzarfati; his mother was Miriam Kalonymos. Hence, Rashi may have been descended from King David through both his mother’s and his father’s lineage. 15 Rabbi Shmuel Gorr: Torah and Genealogy, cited in Davidic Dynasty: www.davidicdynasty.org/Torah.php. 16. Edward Gelles: op. cit., p. 5–16. 17. Ibid, p. 201–203. Gelles cites the surviving Brody rabbini- cal court (beth din) records dating from 1808–1817, to show that the names of Levush and Gellis were used interchangeably by Rabbi Menakhem Levush and the members of his family. Gelles concludes that Rabbi Menakhem Levush and Rabbi Moses Gellis were one and the same person. (Note: the Gelles surname was originally spelled Gellis). 18. In a recent correspondence, Gelles states “As for our ances- tor Moses Gelles-Levush I am suggesting that his Levush name was indicative of direct descent from (Rabbi) Mordecai Jaffe of Prague.” Edward Gelles: “Yaffe - Levush - Gelles Connection.” E- mail correspondence with Jeffrey Mark Paull, August 24, 2013. 19. Alexander Beider, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from
2008.
20. Yitzhak Alfassi: Encyclopedia le-Chassidut. Jerusalen: Mossad Harav Kook, 1980, p. 768–769. 21. Jeffrey Mark Paull: A Noble Heritage: The History and
Publishing, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvainia: Infinity, 2013. www.ANobleHeritage.com. 22. JewishGen: The Rashi Descent. www.jewishgen.org/ rab- binic/infofiles/rashi.htm. 23. Jeffrey Mark Paull, Jeffrey Briskman, and Gaye Tan- nenbaum: “Differences in Autosomal DNA Characteristics be- tween Jewish and non-Jewish Populations” (in preparation). 24. Nicholas Wade: “Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity.”
06/10/science/10jews.html?_r=1&. 25. Gil Atzmon, L. Hao, I. Pe’er, C. Valez, A. Pearlman, H. Ostrer, et al.: “Abraham’s Children in the Genome Era: Major Jewish Diaspora Populations Comprise Distinct Genetic Clusters with Shared Middle Eastern Ancestry.” The American Journal of Human Genetics, 86, 850–859, June 11, 2010. 26. Jeffrey Mark Paull, op.cit. 27. Levi Halevi Grossman: Shem ve-She’arit (Name and Rem- nant). Tel Aviv: Betzalel , 1943, p. 92–93. 28. Matityahu Yehezkel Gutman: Rabi Pinḥas mi-Ḳorits. Jeru- salem: Be-siyua Mossad Harav Kook, 1950. 29. Yitzhak Alfassi: Encyclopedia le-Chassidut. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, Israel, 1980, p. 768–769. 30. Neil Rosenstein: The Unbroken Chain, Biographical
31. Edward Gelles: op. cit., p. 201–207. 32. Edward Gelles and Jeffrey Mark Paull: op. cit., According to Gelles, whether the younger Rabbi Moses Gellis from whom he (Edward Gelles) descends was a brother or a cousin of Rabbi
24 AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013 Shmuel Polonsky is open to question. 33. Bennett Greenspan: Haplogroups—What They Are and What They Mean for Jews. International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference, Boston, MA, August 6, 2013. Greenspan indicated that only about one percent of the Jews in Family Tree DNA’s Y-DNA database belong to the R- M124 haplogroup. Nearly all of the Jews in FTDNA’s database are of Ashkenazi descent. 34. FTDNA’s time-predictor (TiP) is a program that predicts the time to the most recent common ancestor for two men based on their Y-Chromosome STR matching and STR mutation rates. FTDNA’s TiP program uses specific mutation rates that have been proven to differ across STR markers. This improves the power and precision of estimates of time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA). www.familytreedna.com/faq/answers.aspx?id= 51#2124. 35. Laws mandating the adoption of fixed Jewish surnames were enacted in the Russian Empire in 1804 by Czar Alexander I and in 1835 by Czar Nicholas I: Imperial Statute Concerning the Organization of Jews, Article 32, December 9, 1804, and Article 16, May 31, 1835. 36. Bennett Greenspan: op. cit. 38. Jewish Encyclopedia: “Adiabene.” www.jewishen- cyclopedia.com/articles/801-adiabene. 39. Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman: DNA & Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews. Jerusalem: Devora, 2004, p. 69–70. 40. Nathan Ausubel: Pictoral History of the Jewish People: from Bible Times to our Own Day throughout the World. 20th ed. Crown, 1968. 41. James Stuart Olson: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the
1994, p. 311. 42. Jewish Encyclopedia: “Machir.” www.jewishencyclopedia. om/articles/10243-machir. 43. Jewish Encyclopedia: “Sa'd Al-Daulah.” www.jew- ishencyclopedia.com/articles/12987-sa-d-al-daulah. 44. Family Tree DNA: “R2-M124-WTY (Walk Through the Y) Project.” www.familytreedna.com/public/R2-M124-WTY.
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