Has there been a concerted effort to do DNA testing on Karaite Jews?
Are there results available?

Thanks
Dennis Gelpe
dgelpe@yahoo.com

[Moderator's Note: Karaism branched out of Judaism in the 8th Century,
challenging the validity of the halachic interpretations contained in
the Talmud (Rabbinic Judaism). Even though the groups have intermingled
with each other throughout history, intermarriage is forbidden by both.
There are approx. 30,000 Karaites today.]

On 2007.10.29, Dennis Gelpe <dgelpe@yahoo.com> asked:

Has there been a concerted effort to do DNA testing on Karaite
Jews? Are there results available?

Contact Bennett Greenspan at familytreedna.com to find out about
their databases. The Katz group has found connections which are
new and old and entirely unpredictable in terms of geography,
ethnicity or religion. In short, "just do it."

Henry Kaplan
<henry@kaplanandkaplan.com>
--

MODERATOR'S NOTE: We contacted Bennett Greenspan regarding the
above and he responded as follows:

There hasn't been a large scale effort to test Karaites, but Kevin
Brook < http://www.khazaria.com > has conducted the largest scale
testing on Karaites and those people are in our database and in a
special project of Kevin Brook's. I don't know if he'll share data
on this since it was a research project of his and he paid for the
test takers personally.

In regards to General Jewish DNA testing we have an extensive Jewish
database of Ashkenazim and now nearly everyone who test gets >from 1
to 20 matches on our basic 12 marker Y DNA test. I concur with Dr.
Kaplan that everyone who hasn't tested needs to poke his post in the
sand and stake out his genetic space. Certainly others will follow.

The FTDNA database only lacks a large scale Sephardic and Mizrahi
component but we are gaining in that area as it's a prime company
focus as we work with the leading academics (Drs. Hammer and Behar)
to try to support their search and research efforts.

Best Regards

Bennett Greenspan
President
www.familytreedna.com
"History Unearthed Daily"

My East European Karaite DNA study's results have been published in a peer-reviewed journal:

"The Genetics of Crimean Karaites" by Kevin Alan Brook
in Karadeniz Araştırmaları (Journal of Black Sea Studies), No. 42 (Summer 2014): pages 69-84
http://www.karam.org.tr/DergiPdfDetay.aspx?ID=859

I also presented a summary of these results on pages 213-215 of my peer-reviewed book "The Jews of Khazaria, Third Edition" (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2018).

Kevin Alan Brook