Comments on: Introducing Jon Entine, Anthropology.net’s new guest blogger

By: Judy

Judy — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:06:33 +0000

This is exactly what I am looking for ! I am looking for as much proof of the amish mennonite connection to Jews.Can any one help me?

By: Melissa Hartman

Melissa Hartman — Wed, 18 May 2011 03:08:08 +0000

I have been looking for the past few years for a mention of this very thing. My maternal grandmother had a mother who was born to Mennonite parents in Nebraska. Her Mennonite mother didn’t join the Mennonite Church until she had been married to her Mennonite husband for about 8 years. This 2nd great grandmother of mine was born in the Ukraine as were her parents and their parents. I haven’t been able to confirm that they were Mennonites living in the Ukraine; just that they lived along the Volga River. Also my great grandmother whose parents were Mennonites was never baptized as a Mennonite. She as far as I know had no religion until she married my German great grandfather who was a Lutheran. She was confirmed as a Lutheran after she married him. Fast forward ahead to 1996 and my great uncle (my grandmother’s brother) passes away. His son found hidden under his bed, a box that had been wrapped in multiple layers of heavy tape a big shoe box. After cutting through the tape, he opened and found a menorah, prayer shawl, and the band worn on the arm that holds the prayer book. I don’t know why but my great grandmother’s name was written in the prayer book. None of us had any knowledge of these things before and we are not sure why he was in possession of them. Was Judaism secretly passed to my great grandmother from her mother from Russia? I probably will never know for sure. However I do also plan to have my mtdna tested to see what haplogroup my maternal line belongs to. On a side note, my mother’s father’s surname has been shown to test as being of the E1b1b1c1a haplotype which is well known to be of both Ashkenazim and Sephardim. I have to have my uncle tested to confirm that we are of that line as well. It goes back to England.

By: Brooke F.

Brooke F. — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:30:49 +0000

Your analysis is fascinating! Where can I find more information about this? Where did you get all of your detailed information? Is there genetic testing to prove this?

By: Brooke F.

Brooke F. — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:49:15 +0000

I have started suspecting that I have Jewish lineage also. However, my great-grandfather was from Amish/Mennonite background. Then it struck me – - could there have been a connection between Jews and Amish? I couldn’t believe what I found when I started digging around on Google. I am currently researching this and plan to get genetic testing done once I can afford it.

By: Trena Pelsy Garrison

Trena Pelsy Garrison — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:56:36 +0000

Thank you, Loren! I don’t know where I’m going with all these “hunches”. I should really go the DNA route, as you have!

Best regards….

By: Loren Capsopoulos

Loren Capsopoulos — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:53:16 +0000

I am relieved to discover that I am not the only person interested in the connection between Jews and Mennonites. I have been told all of my life that I am Jewish, but was unable to make any connection until recently. Nearly all of my mother’s people were Mennonite immigrants. My DNA mutations revealed that, of the 4 mutations, 3 were always present in over half of the Jews and Mennonites tested. One of these is a common mutation, but the other 3 are not. Examining the migration patterns, social isolation, history of persecutions, I too believe that Mennonites have Jewish heritage (maybe not all, but quite a bit).

By: Trena Pelsy Garrison

Trena Pelsy Garrison — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:12:29 +0000

Thanks to you and all the others about confirming what I have long suspected–an Amish/Jewish link. I look at old pictures of relatives and I clearly see it! I recently asked a distant cousin (in her 90s and very intelligent) about it, and she said, “Oh, that was a long time ago. Who knows?” She recently died at 101! I think she knew…..! All relatives appear to have come from Switzerland as early as 1730, especially Zurich. Last name are Frey/Frei and Pelsy/Belsley/Belsy/Baltzli — if anyone is interested in replying.

By: P. Yoder

P. Yoder — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:25:43 +0000

Ingrid:

My family is Ashkenazi and we have a mennonite name. The jews in parts of Russia, such as the Ukraine, experience horrible persecution in the form of pogroms and harsh military service. The occasional sought refuge in the mennonite colonies, as the Russians would not persue them there. I speculate this is how my family came to have a mennonite name, and your family came to have Ashkenazi heritage.

On another note. If your Ashkenazi heritage is from your mother’s side, and her mothers, and so on, in other words, if it was an Ashkenazi woman who contributed the DNA, you could very well be a jew by orthodox standards.

By: D. Kornels

D. Kornels — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:21:27 +0000

In response to Ingrid Briles question regarding how Mennonite and Amish people may have Ashkenazi DNA is quite simple. A significant number Jews believed in Jesus, ( historians say about 1/3 of Israel)they left Judea before the siege of Jerusalem. They remained endogamous, they kept many Jewish traditions, they believed in Jesus as Messiah and did not convert or assimiliate into gentile Christianity/Catholicism. Many of them fled to the Italian Alps around the 4th century where they lived quietly until around the Reformation times when persecution faced them again and drove them out. They believed they were the “Woman in the Wilderness” found in the book of Revelations. Those that fled into Holland were later called Mennonites after a prominent leader Menno Simmons, other that went into Switzerland were called Amish after Joseph Amman and those that went into Austria were called Hutterites after a famous leader and martyr Jacob Hutter. Martin Luther despised them more than rabbinical Jews because he said they lived like Jews, keeping the Sabbath, dietary laws, Jewish holidays, circumcision but claimed “Christ” . He wanted them dead. The Jews despised them also because of their messianic beliefs. Persecution drove them to drop many of the Jewish traditions and to deny their heritage in attempts to live peaceable lives. Still, take a look at their culture and you will notice many similarities between them and the ultra orthodox, be it in dress, family values, male/female roles, etc. Although one can leave the community, no one can join a Hutterite, Amish or Old Order Mennonite community, one must be born into it. It is more than a religion but a ethnic group with a long standing history of persecution. The germanic dialects spoken by these groups has more in common with Yiddish than modern day German, their dialects are based on medieval German proving these communities have been intact for a long time, they did not suddenly come together in the 16th century as modern day Anabaptist history states, linguistics proves otherwise. In some ways, the Amish/Mennonite/Hutterites are like the Crypto Jews that had to hide their true identity due to the Spanish Inquisitions. I have no doubt there were also rabbinical Jews that joined the Mennonite communities as I have seen several surnames among the Mennonites that denote lineage from a family of rabbis or from cohanim. Interestingly, their migration patterns through Europe are also identical as they sought religious freedom which would come and go as easily as it came.

By: Ingrid Briles

Ingrid Briles — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:51:50 +0000

This is for Jon Entine. I recently had my mtdna done, as did my uncle (my mother’s brother) have Ydna testing done. My uncle is predominently Scotch/Irish, German, Swiss and Russian. Mine is predominently Swiss, German, Russian, and Irish. Both of us were very surprised to find out that there are a large Ashkenazi group for each of us as well. My mom’s side of the family is almost entirely Amish and Mennonite, who were also hidden and persecuted throughout Europe. Like Jewish people, the Amish and Mennonite were also pretty closed societies. My uncle (from his dad), is primarily Lutheran. I know those are religions not races, but I am wondering how the Jewish component moved into the DNA. As a Christian, I really like the idea that we have Jewish DNA because Christ was a Jew. Anyhow, any theories how Amish and Mennonite people would end up with Ashkenazi DNA? We know that we were documented in Poland in 1485 and in Switzerland in 1515. Thank you for any help.