clans in the news: india, israel, etc.

first of all — how come no one ever told me that the indian (as in call centers) diamond industry was run in large part by ca. 2500 jainist families? a lot of them from palanpur (see also here). from time magazine:

“The Surat diamond trade was built by a dynamic and enterprising religious community – the Palanpuri Jains, followers of an ancient religion that emphasizes nonviolence and vegetarianism. Jains account for 0.4% of India’s population. The Palanpuris, who hail from the town of Palanpur in the Indian state of Gujarat, form a close-knit community that thrives in the atmosphere of secrecy and informality that envelops the diamond trade – there are often no written contracts, many transactions occur in cash, and stones worth millions of dollars are transported with virtually no security. ‘It’s an industry built on trust,’ says Biju Patnaik, a Bombay-based diamond-industry expert at Dutch bank ABN AMRO. The Palanpuris have also ventured over-seas, setting up small family-run polishing centers in Antwerp and Tel Aviv, and slowly elbowing into the U.S. as diamond sellers. In Manhattan’s midtown diamond district, Palanpuri businessmen sitting beneath portraits of their saint, Mahavira, now run shops side by side with black-coated Hasidim from Brooklyn.”

yeah, it’s an industry built on trust all right … in family members! fellow inbred members prolly (there are some hints that cousin marriage is a-okay amongst the jains — and we know that uncle-niece marriage is allowed with that other diamond-trading group — the hasidim).

see also Jews Surrender Gem Trade to Indians and Jainism in Belgium
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i suppose that, like me, you’re all closely following the story of the unfortunate mr. urooj khan who lived in chicago and who, the day after collecting his $1 million lotto winnings ($425,000 after taxes), DIED from CYANIDE poisoning!

the question is, whodunit?:

- his wife/cousin who cooked his last meal (kofta curry) which she may or may not have eaten with him (reports differ)?
- his father-in-law/uncle who lived with mr. khan and who owes $124,000 in back taxes?
- his brother-in-law/possible cousin (married to mr. khan’s sister) with whom mr. khan’s daughter by his first wife is now living and who is suing khan’s wife/estate for the daughter’s share of the lottery winnings (or so he says)?
- his brother who called the police to say that mr. khan’s death was suspicious and that they should exhume his body to check for any funny business (which they are gonna do)?
- someone else entirely?

if this were back in the old country, clearly there would be a clan war a-brewin’!

see also: Brother of $1m lottery winner cyanide victim revealed to be relative who tipped off police about his ‘unnatural death’ and Poisoned Lottery Winner Urooj Khan’s Family Knew Something Wasn’t Right, Nephew Says
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meanwhile, in israel:

1 dead, 6 apartments burned in J’lem clash of clans

these are arab, not jewish, clans…

“22-year-old man dies in hospital after being stabbed in a conflict between two family clans; six apartments, cars burned in fire.

A clash between two family clans (hamulot) in the northeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina left one man dead and led to a massive fire that burned six apartments on Tuesday….

“The warring Arab families threw rocks at police officers who tried to respond at the scene, though they did not injure anyone else, according to Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby….”

very helpful. =/
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and, although not really a clan per se, here’s an extended family for you … one set of identical twins married to another set of identical twins, and both couples have some kids …

… shouldn’t all those kids — all those cousins — be related to each other as though they were all siblings? they should, shouldn’t they? amirite?

previously: clans in the news: deutschland

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sports i can understand

now here’s some sports rivaly i can actually understand (via pat buchanan @vdare):

“In Israel, a Soccer Game Reflects a Divide“

“If Bnei Sakhnin, the only Arab-Israeli team in Israel’s first division, loses today, the club will drop to the second division, an ignominious distinction, the equivalent of going from the major to minor leagues in baseball.

“And the team that Sakhnin has to beat to survive is the one they hate the most, Beitar Jerusalem, which has been associated with right-wing politics in Israel for decades and may be the only first-division club never to have an Arab player on its roster….

“‘It’s just a game,’ I say [to one of the arab fans], trying to calm things down.

“‘For you, maybe,’ Ali responds, ‘because you’re a Jew. But for us, soccer is the only place we’re equal in this stinking country. If Sakhnin gets thrown out of first division, then they’ll be taking that away from us, too.’

“Beitar’s jerseys say ‘Stop Racism,’ but everyone knows that the slogan is there only because the team is trying to lighten the penalty imposed by the Israel Soccer Association for the constant anti-Arab chanting of Beitar’s hardcore fans, called ‘La Familia.’ (‘Muhammad is a homosexual’ is a favorite cheer.) The bad blood between the two teams has caused many of their matches to end in rock-­throwing brawls….”

of course!

previously: ‘sup with the canucks?!

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jewish inbreeding

an israeli water engineer writes: “Consanguineous marriage is almost unknown among Israeli Jews but prevalent among Palestinians.”

that’s probably pretty correct re. ashkenazi israeli jews, but i’m not so sure about other jews in israel.

i couldn’t find any recent data, but consang.net has the data from two studies on inbreeding amongst israeli jews, one from the mid-50s and one from the late-60s.

in the mid-50s, 1.4% of ashkenazis were married to either a first-cousin or were part of an uncle-niece marriage. on the other hand, 8.8% of sephardi jews were married to a first-cousin or were in an uncle-niece marriage.

then, in the late-60s, a study done in Petah Tiqwa found that 1.3% of ashkenazis were in a consanguineous marriage, while 14.3% of non-ashkenazi jews were in a consanguineous marriage.

unfortunately, no idea what the israeli rates for more recent years might be.

a study published in 1991 (also on consang.net) found that jews living in iran had a whopping 25.4% consanguinity rate. they’ve got first- and second-cousin plus uncle-niece marriages. so, look out israelis if you’ve got a lot of immigration from iran!

of course, jews have long been very endogamous. a study published last year looking at the genetics of different jewish populations found that:

“Individuals within each Jewish group had high levels of IBD [identical by descent], roughly equivalent to that of fourth or fifth cousins.”

so, ashkenazis are all related to each other like they are fourth or fifth cousins, iranian jews are all related to each other like they are fourth or fifth cousins, italian jews are all related to each other like they are fourth or fifth cousins, and so on. (comparable to icelanders.)

i would also guess that orthodox jews who observe all those tzniut laws are more inbred than other jewish groups. my favorite, the sheitel, is obviously a direct parallel to the muslim hijab, a practice which exists because of inbreeding. those jews, like so many muslims, must also be practicing some form of patrilineal marriage like fbd marriage.

an israeli water engineer also writes: “Consanguinity certainly increases defectous individuals but provides social stability and a sense of security.”

yes. one study from iceland showed that the sweet spot** re. cousin-marriage and fertility is third cousins, i.e. marry your third cousin to have the most offspring.

similarly, i think there must be a sweet spot re. cousin-marriage| inbreeding and having a functional society which operates in its members best interests. inbreed too much and you get clans and tribes (not to mention lots o’ genetic diseases) which make a society dysfuntional and divided; outbreed too much and you get too much individualism, another sort of dysfunctionality where each guy is out for himself.

**NO pun intended! (~_^)

update: i meant (and then forgot) to mention the most famous cousin-marrying jew of all — a. einstein. his second wife was elsa löwenthal (née einstein). that “née einstein” gives ya a clue right there. elsa was albert’s maternal first cousin AND paternal second cousin. but, they had no kids, so it really doesn’t count.

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