Hungary has highest number of Jewish descendants after Israel

According to a study processing the DNA of nearly two million people from a hundred countries, Hungary has the highest percentage of Jewish descendants after Israel, reported ynet – an Israeli newspaper’s website – on Tuesday.

According to MTI’s report, the survey of MyHeritage – a genetics-based family tree research organisation – states that after Israel Hungary has the highest number of Jewish descendants compared to the population, more than in the United States. The results surprised even the researchers. MyHeritage did the research together with Daniel Sztacki, statistician and demographic expert of The Jewish People Policy Institute, director of the department studying the demography of the Ashkenazi Jews, wrote Index.

Researchers found an at least 25% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry among 7.6% of the 4981 Hungarians who sent in DNA to be tested, which means they had at least one Ashkenazi Jewish grandparent. This is a significantly higher rate than in the US (3.5%) or in Canada (3.0%).

The results of the study and earlier estimates show a considerable difference, which means that there are a lot of people in Hungary who know nothing about their Jewish roots, or whose Jewish ancestry was consciously hidden from them by their parents and grandparents because of the traumatic memories of the Holocaust and the fear of antisemitism.