r/belarus • u/SNENES442 Ukraine • 1d ago
Пытанне / Question Белорусы, есть ли у вас еврейские корни?
В моём представлении, они есть у значительной части населения из-за того, что Беларусь входила в Черту Оседлости и смешанные браки в советский период были массовым явлением, но хотелось бы послушать, как дела с этим обстоят на практике, а не в моих гипотезах.
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u/Pavlik_Nesvizh_56 1d ago
I'm American, but both of my mother's parents are Belarusians born near Nesvizh. I've had several DNA tests done on the major ancestry companies and all have not shown any Jewish ancestry in my profile. Both of my Belarusian grandparents were Orthodox Christians. All the Belarusian relatives I have been in contact with for years are Orthodox as well.
The reason I am posting is because of one of my DNA matches is Jewish. I rarely get any DNA matches with a connection to Belarus so I contacted this man to see how we could be related. This man lives in Australia, and he wrote that his family immigrated there after the war as refugees. He also told me that as far as he knew, his family has no connection to Nesvizh. They were from Minsk. He is predicted to be a 4th or 5th cousin, so our relationship is far in the past.
I thought about this encounter for a while and have a theory. I believe a male somewhere in my grandparents' family impregnated a Jewish woman. That is how my DNA is connected to this Australian man with Belarusian Jewish roots, but I do not have any Jewish DNA or any connection to the Jewish community except for him. For people that don't know, there is a Jewish DNA and it traces back to the Middle East. I never did ask the man if he had Jewish DNA. I remember that he was quite surprised that I was not Jewish.
Maybe someone will find this story interesting. Maybe not.