How Ashkenazi Origins Were Mis-modeled: Southern Italian Ancestry, Proxy Bias, and the Illusion of Levantine Intermediacy

This manuscript presents an independent population-genetic analysis of Ashkenazi Jewish origins using autosomal FST distances, principal component analysis, qpAdm admixture modeling, uniparental subclade distributions, and historical context. By directly including Southern Italian and central Mediterranean reference populations that were omitted or substituted in prior studies, the analysis shows that apparent Ashkenazi genetic intermediacy between Europe and the Levant is a methodological artifact of reference population design. Across multiple independent datasets and analytical frameworks, Ashkenazi Jews resolve within a Southern European–Mediterranean genetic continuum shaped by founder effects, endogamy, and later Eastern European admixture.