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.
Introduction
Major challenges and difficulties abound in the study of
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
A wealth of genealogical information exists in the Jew-
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
18
AVOTAYNU Volume XXIX, Number 3, Fall 2013
Fig
u
re
1
. The
ma
ny r
abbi
ni
ca
l co
nn
ect
io
ns
of
th
e
Pol
ons
ky
li
nea
ge
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-
acy of the Polonsky and Paull Family in America. It tells
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
The progenitor of the Polonsky line was Rabbi Shmuel
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,
25
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.
26
The descent of Rabbi Shmuel Polonsky, son of Rabbi
Mordecai, son of Rabbi Moses Gellis of Brody, is also well-
documented.
27,
28,
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
Discussion
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
Table 2. Y-DNA Standard STR Values for Descendants of the Polonsky Rabbinical Lineage
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.
R-M124 Haplogroup
In addition to having a high percentage of standard Y-
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
Several possible explanations have been proposed for the
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
Diaspora in Twelve Portraits. The Overlook Press. Peter Mayer
Publishers Inc., New York, NY, 2004, p. 261.
8. Jeffrey Mark Paull: A Noble Heritage: The History and Leg-
acy of the Polonsky and Paull Family in America. Infinity Pub-
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
the Russian Empire, rev.ed. Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu ,
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
Legacy of the Polonsky and Paull Family in America. Infinity
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.”
The New York Times, June 9, 2010. www.nytimes. com/2010/
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
Sketches and Genealogy of Illustrious Jewish Families from the
15th– 20th Centuries, rev. ed. New York: CIS, 1990, p. 291.
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
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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
Russian and Soviet Empires. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood,
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.
Jeffrey Mark Paull holds a doctorate in public health (1997)
from Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the San
Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society and is an
author and writer with a keen interest in Jewish history and
genealogy. Paull is the author of the recently published book,
A Noble Heritage: The History and Legacy of the Polonsky
and Paull Family in America (2013), and currently is re-
searching and writing his next book: The Shpoler Zeida: The
Life, Legends, and Descendants of the Grandfather of Shpola.
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