Customer Reviews

When Scotland Was Jewish: DNA Evidence, Archeology, Analysis of Migrations, and Public and Family Records Show Twelfth Century Semitic Roots

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The DNA evidence in this work only includes DNA-Y 12 markers. Everyone in the business knows that the 12 marker is ONLY used to disprove relationships. It takes 37 markers in a Y-DNA test to prove a relationship!

This volume will enrage some, puzzle others, and hopefully open some new avenues for thought and inquiry.

The authors make a decent case, via biography, naming conventions, history, genealogy, iconography, linguistics, and, to a lesser extent, DNA for many of those historically in very high places in Scotland having come from Jewish roots -- and, to some extent, having preserved them despite abundant reasons to abandon them. I don't think that they prove the case implicit in their ambitious title; indeed I doubt the authors would actually argue that they had done so, probably feeling that if they have opened the question for discussion they have done their work well. I think they have done that, and good for them!

I do have a few quibbles:

1. While I understand it's now stylistically correct to have the footnotes at the end of the book, this is an example where the book would have been greatly improved by having the footnotes on the pages they reference. Too many times a reference in the text was not clear to me when I was reading the text, but when I subsequently read the footnotes I had an "aha!" moment. I wonder how much more I would have gotten out of my reading if I had had the aha! moment when reading the text. The footnotes, by the way, are excellent.
2. I had recently read Abba Rubin's excellent "Images in Transition: The English Jew in English Literature, 1660 - 1830" and noted that the authors could have supported their case with Rubin's book. It belongs in the bibliography at any rate.
3. It's perfectly human when writing family history (this book is to some extent a family history) to choose one's examples from one's own history. Thus, it was no surprise that the authors did so here. However, I wish they had elected to expand their Jewish DNA argument to include some of the J1 and J2 haplotypes found in Scotland. While the R1bs they use may have been Jewish at some point, virtually all the J1s and J2s (which include the Cohanic Modal Haplotype) can be traced to the Middle East with little or no ambiguity -- unlike the R1bs. Another reviewer has noted that 12 markers is also pretty limited to draw firm conclusions from (that's true), and the authors are apologetic about their sample size and obvious selection biases (again true), but I'm willing to give them a bye on this given their 2006 copyright date. For the time, it was pretty good data. No doubt better data is available today.

Since I mentioned family history, I'll add that the book was personally useful to me since I was surprised a year or so ago to find that I have a J1 haplotype, and with the surname of Brown and a very elusive family tree prior to 1800, and that most of my closest DNA matches are with men surnamed Graham. Well, I may not have found the specific non-marital event that produced my line, but I feel much closer to knowing the geography in which it occurred thanks to this book -- and the clear association between the two families it describes.

This book belongs to the genre, "The Jews did everything!" That said, it's an interesting review of Scottish history, beginning around the departure of the Romans from Britain in the 5th Century C.E. and going to the Reformation and beyond. Disclaimer: I'm a Jewish bagpiper, and ever since reading this book I've been teasing my Scottish bandmates.
The authors are honest in distinguishing known facts from speculation, but they are not reticent about advancing their arguments that traditionally Scottish things, ranging from the Presbyterian Church to the bagpipe, might have had Jewish roots. If you demand certainty you won't enjoy this book. If you are ticked by the idea that the mysterious St. Machar--who has a church dedicated to him in Aberdeen, but about whom virtually nothing definite is known--has a Jewish name, the same as the character in Sholem Aleichem/Fiddler on the Roof, then you will find it pretty interesting.
The first of the two central ideas of the book is that Scottish culture, beginning in the Dark Ages, was much more advanced, complex and independent than most histories, written from an English point of view, would make it seem. (Anytime you conquer a people, it's routine to try to make them seem stupid and barbaric.) The second is that a large number of Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution in southern Europe ended up in Scotland, and that these people, though outwardly Christian, nevertheless continued many Jewish traditions which have left permanent traces in the nation. Though difficult to prove beyond any doubt, these ideas are both pretty interesting.
I'm not conversant with the subtleties of DNA tracing, and so can't comment on that part of argument. The style of the book is very readable. The cost is an obstacle. I found a half-price copy through Amazon.

As a native Scot whose family goes back as far as we can trace only in Scotland on my Father's side (and that's a long way) AND as a Jew (On my Irish Mother's side), I thought this would be a very interesting read.

I was saddened to find many scientific errors, ill conclusions and general pseudo-science.
It comes across as a book very hopeful of being able to prove arguments where there is little to no proof to be had.

Scotland has a wonderful Jewish history that I am incredibly proud of, but I feel like this book ignored what was true and should be celebrated in favour of fanciful ideas.

After doing all the Y-dna, Mtdna and autosomal dna from Family Tree DNA I feel obliged to complement the author of this book.
Seems there is a little Scottish Cluster that takes in a small percentage of many surnames in Scotland and that originates with a Jewish priest about 60 generations ago. 30 years to a generation is 1800 years ago is 150 AD or even at the time of Christ.
A match with a Polish person as fourth cousin, when there are no Polish people in my family tree aroused suspicions. Seems my R1b1a2a1a1a4 has even Cohen matches.
This polish person has a surname I match on my Y-dna 30 generations ago that was Cohen levite in 1820. Other like Family Finder matches confirm this suspicion. There are many matches to Jewish surnames in my Y-dna. Even others have had the same experience with their Family Finder results. People with Scottish ancestry matching Jewish people in Romania! Jewish DNA is passed on in clumps because of intensive intermarriage over thousands of years. Thus the match to fourth cousin when this is probably more than 30th cousin. I always had an unction of distant Jewish ancestry.

Even mtdna results showed Scottish Jewish roots with I3 and H1e.

The R1b1 Jewish attention in this book is well deserved.

Andrew

Not for the casual, light reader. Caldwelll-Hirshman and Yates back up their theories of Scotland's non-celtic history, with thorough, tireless research; and their DNA results of America's Melungeon people leaves convincing proof as to the Melungeons origins.
Except for the clinical DNA reports, this non-fiction is written in a concise, logical manner that allows the non-science, lay person to adequately follow and understand the book's wealth of information.

I requested this book for my birthday present. I have been very pleased with the books I have read written by Elizabeth Hirschman. I am not disapointed with this book. It has very detailed information. (I descend from the McArthurs,Campbells,Stuarts,Farquarsons, Mitches,Watsons, and a long line of High Stewards of Scotland. I also have some Jewish family lines (Brocks, Wideman). My Fridman family was always accused of being Jewish, but DNA testing has proven a Viking,Anglo-Saxson line (unless the I1a Haplogroup, some time in the future, is found to be Hebrew). This book is a very good source of information for the home library. Thank you Elizabeth and Donald.

Janine Lockwood

This book is a complete fabrication. Anyone with genuine Scottish ancestry would be appalled at the stupidity of the supposed genealogical and historical research. The DNA evidence is not evidence. It is a group of people with no clear understanding of who they are grasping at ideas and trying to make actual DNA proof fit their desired history and not the actual known history of Scotland or the borderlands. I question if these people even have any connection at all to either Scotland or Judaism.

The fact is that Haplogroup R1b1 is found at a high frequency in Western Europe. Most men from Spain, France and the United Kingdom have this DNA and there is no connection to Judaism. If you are from Scotland and you have a twelve marker DNA test indicate that your Haplotype is R1b1 it is highly unlikely your ancestor came from the Middle East. R1b1 does not indicate Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Other nonsense in this book includes claiming that one Jewish man is the ancestor to several royal lineages simply because they all have the same 12 markers. 77% of Scotland has the same 12 markers. It is stupidity and desperation to a degree that most genealogists and geneticists should ignore or, as I am doing, speak out against it.

Even a quick google search would disprove these claims. There were no Jews in England prior to 1066. It was an inhospitable place. William the Conqueror allowed Jews to travel to the Kingdom after 1066. They garnered so much hatred that they were expelled in 1292 by King Edward I. At the most there 16,000 Jews who lived in England and that is an extremely high estimate. Most Jewish men were executed in their homes after the order of expulsion and 300 more were tried and executed at the Tower of London. The rest of the Jewish population were ordered to leave and many died or were murdered on their way out. They were very unpopular due to their notable financial fraud and scams and the accusations of ritual murder including the nephew of Godwin Stuart. The Jews that survived settled along the Rhine and have zero connection to the Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal.

There were no Jews that escaped to the borderlands of Scotland or Wales. The Jews living in England at that time were well known and usually were forced to live near the nobility for protection. There is zero DNA evidence of a Jewish presence in either Scotland or Wales. This area was not a place to hide and a Jewish person would have been found out. There was no intermarriage between the Jews and the local population either. Not one marriage between an English Jew or an English man or woman with known Jewish ancestry and a non-Jewish native English person was ever recorded prior to the Jewish expulsion.

My Grandfather descends from early settlers who traveled through the Southern United States with Daniel Boone and may have a Jewish connection. There is evidence that Daniel Boone was not Jewish but my grandfather's DNA tested within the J1 Haplotype and this would indicate Middle Eastern ancestry. There may be truth to Melungeons having a Jewish or Muslim connection but it has nothing to do with Jewish ancestors in Scotland because they didn't exist.

The DNA evidence that the book presents should not be taken into consideration at all. Haplogroup R1a is not a Jewish Haplogroup. In fact most geneticists think that this DNA may be from Eastern European or possibly Khazar ancestors if it is found in a man with Jewish ancestry. R1b is very common among European men. There are DNA results that fall into Haplogroups that reach a higher frequency in the Middle East and yet these writers seem to ignore that evidence. Instead they focus on royalty, nobility and wealthy people who have DNA that is not of a Middle Eastern origin. They seem to go back and forth between claiming someone is Sephardic Jewish or Ashkenazi Jewish. It is poorly written and makes very weak connections to possible Jewish ancestry of certain people.

Why do these researchers ignore the possible connections between Haplogroup E and Haplogroup J? It is because they have an agenda to lie about certain people. Since these people do not have Middle Eastern ancestry, these researchers, decided they were going to twist and lie about the DNA evidence they do have so they can present the story they want. It is a good example of how people will lie and will find a way to get the results they want. Even if it is an obvious lie. These people didn't get the answers they wanted so they decided to make it up. Disregard any thing this book puts forth as fact. There are no facts in the book When Scotland was Jewish.

If you want to read some history of Europe or some history of Jews in Europe, you can find better books at better prices. If you want to read about the history of Jews in Scotland, this is definitely not the right book. It is so full of could be, like, and maybe, but very little facts. I will give just a couple of ridiculous statements. "He had a hat, beard and large nose and therefore he must have been of Jewish decent." How many people, back when these portraits were done, did not have hats and beards? "They had Hebrew names. Like David, Adam, Jacob, etc." Come on. How many millions of Christians give their children biblical names. This book is a waste of money.