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Ashkenazi Jews

Left: Right-wing media personality Yinon Magal attends a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on May 9, 2025. Right: Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party and a former IDF chief of staff, speaks during an election campaign rally in Nordiya, August 31, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, Gili Yaari/Flash90)
October 18, 2026, 2:40 am
Pro-Netanyahu pundit calls Sephardic Eisenkot a ‘monkey;’ critics decry it as a racist slur
Yashar party likens remark to infamous 1981 ‘chah’chahim’ speech that insulted Likud voters; Yinon Magal says he used the term to mean a puppet controlled by others, not as racist jab
By ToI Staff
Marion and David Weiss with their son Eugene. (Courtesy)
September 19, 2026, 7:50 am
Jewish geneticist finds mutation behind sudden deaths that haunted her family for decades
In ‘The Dressmaker’s Mirror,’ Susan Weiss Liebman recounts how supposed freak accidents hid an inherited heart condition – and the implications for Ashkenazi Jews and genetic testing
By Lianne Kolirin
Dried up fishponds in Emek Maayanot, April 2026 (Courtesy)
April 19, 2026, 4:38 pm
Green in the valley: Israel’s abandoned fishponds are turning into a solar goldmine
In a pathbreaking deal, a project in northern Israel will generate clean energy, restore natural habitats, and share profits between local kibbutzim and the city of Beit She’an
By Aviv Lavie
Illustrative: Issa Kassissieh, 47, who has dressed up as Santa Claus for 18 years, waves to the people during his annual tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, December 18, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)
December 23, 2025, 8:30 pm
How the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Europe had themselves a merry little Nittel Nacht
A new book explores how, contrary to popular belief, Christmas was a festive time for Jewish men, who took time off from Torah study to play cards and games
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Portrait of a pregnant woman. (Yossi Zamir/Flash 90)
November 28, 2025, 12:52 pm
Health Ministry said to flag error in genetic test kit detecting rare mutation, reread results
Haaretz report concerns MECR mutation, part of Israel’s expanded screening panel; can lead to problems with movement, speech, vision; rare disease more common among Ashkenazi Jews
By Diana Bletter
Ultra Orthodox girls at their seminary in Jerusalem, on September 2, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
July 8, 2025, 4:47 pm
Prominent Haredi school to operate separate program for Sephardi girls – report
Development follows years of discrimination against students of Middle Eastern origin in ultra-Orthodox educational frameworks and vain attempts to crack down on it
By Rossella Tercatin
Dr. Sharon Bratman-Morag of Rambam Medical Center discovers the TBCB gene mutation that causes a type of Autism Syndrome Disorder. (Rambam Medical Center)
December 3, 2024, 6:30 pm
Israeli researchers discover gene mutation in Ashkenazi Jews that can cause autism
One in 80 Ashkenazi Jews carry the TBCB gene; Israelis can now test for it as part of the Health Ministry national healthcare basket
By Diana Bletter
A sign is posted in front of the 23andMe headquarters on February 1, 2024, in Sunnyvale, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)
September 18, 2024, 6:42 am
23andMe agrees to $30m settlement over data breach targeting Jewish and Chinese users
Genetic testing company settles with plaintiffs over breach that was revealed when hacker published link to database labeled ‘ashkenazi DNA Data of Celebrities’
By Jackie Hajdenberg
Howard Teich, the founding chair of the Manhattan Jewish Historical Initiative, speaks at a monument in The Battery that marks the Jewish arrival in New York in September 1654, New York, September 13, 2023. (Julia Gergely via JTA)
September 12, 2024, 9:51 pm
NYC Council to vote on recognizing anniversary of first Jewish arrivals in city
Bill aims to mark little-known Landing Day, marking date of 1654 arrival of first Jews in then-New Amsterdam, and ‘celebrate the continuing importance of the Jewish community’
By julia GERGELY
Dr. Or Kakhlon in his Jerusalem laboratory. (Courtesy)
March 17, 2024, 3:05 pm
Israeli scientists harness molecule to treat rare disease common in Ashkenazim
Research team isolates GHF-201 to fight APBD, a nervous system disorder mostly found in Jews of Eastern European descent, as patients eagerly await the green light for treatment
By Diana Bletter
23andMe headquarters in Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, California, July 26, 2020. (Michael Vi/Shutterstock.com)
January 31, 2024, 6:01 pm
23andMe faces lawsuit as hackers sell information on users with Jewish heritage
DNA testing company 23andMe blames users’ recycled passwords for data breach that affected 6.9 million accounts; August lawsuit indicates other companies may be implicated
By Ariella Oldfield
Louise Levy was born in 1910 and grew up in Cleveland and New York City; Levy often ascribed her longevity to a daily glass of red wine and a low-cholesterol diet. (Photos courtesy Levy family, via Fox Funeral Home, via JTA)
July 29, 2023, 5:57 am
Louise Levy, ‘supercentenarian’ subject of Jewish longevity study, dies at 112
Levy was the oldest living resident of New York State and one of hundreds of Jews 95 and older recruited in 1998 for a genetic study of long-living Ashkenazi Jews
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Oved Hugi, who was fired as an adviser to Energy Minister Israel Katz over incendiary social media posts, takes part in a Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting in Jerusalem on June 26, 2023. (Screenshot: Twitter; Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
June 26, 2023, 3:00 pm
Likud minister fires aide who praised Hitler, wished death on judicial officials
Israel Katz says wasn’t aware of Oved Hugi’s social media posts, which said Nazis should’ve killed those behind Netanyahu trial; ousted adviser still attends Knesset panel meeting
By Michael Bachner
Dr. Lalita Ramakrishnan, seen here with tanks of zebrafish, is a professor of microbiology at Cambridge University focused on tuberculosis. (Courtesy of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology)
May 6, 2023, 3:22 pm
Study: Gaucher disease, common among Ashkenazi Jews, protects against tuberculosis
Cambridge University team discovers that specific cellular-level lipids that accumulate in the genetic disease attack and kill deadly TB bacterium, hope to develop new treatment
By Renee Ghert-Zand
The Jewish cemetery in Worms, Germany, January 25, 2023. (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images via JTA)
February 4, 2023, 2:40 pm
Germany celebrates UNESCO listing for birthplaces of Yiddish, Ashkenazi culture
Sites recognized include the oldest known in-situ Jewish burial ground in Europe; German president: Jewish history in Germany, both good and bad, goes far beyond Holocaust
By David I. Klein
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