[SNOWBALL]

[ QUOTE ]
Further recent studies of DNA (both mitochondrial and Y-chromosome) have verified that Jews do in fact constitute a distinct gene pool (well, there are some differences between the genetic profiles of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews). DNA studies have even verified that those families (like my own paternal family)that have maintained the traditional identity of Kohanim (high priests) through the millennia are in fact linked by distinctive patterns of DNA on the Y-chromosome. Of course, there have been converts and also Jewish women have been long subject to rape by hostile populations--and these factors have introduced various genes into the patterns of Jewish DNA. This can certainly be seen in the physical appearance of Jews. Not all of us look Levantine (Middle Eastern). I myself have extremely fair skin, gray eyes, and the smallest, straightest nose on the planet (no rhinoplasty needed). But essentially modern genetics has told the Jews that we are who we think we are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Link?