An analysis of 12 Jewish populations and 20 non-Jewish populations living in four geographic areas was carried out by first discriminating between the non-Jewish populations of Central Europe, South Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East using four genetic markers (ABO, MN, Rh, Hp). This discrimination was quite successful when applied to the non-Jewish groups in predicting the geographic origin of a population. These discriminant functions were then used to classify the Jewish groups. A wide scatter of the Jews was observed among clusters of non-Jews, probably due to drift. However, the centroid of the Jewish populations mapped in the Middle East cluster. Direct estimates of admixture with local populations and of effective Jewish population size Ne were made. The latter are in qualitative agreement with expectations from historical and geographical considerations
