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 Although
he was born in Havana, Cuba, Irving Wladawsky-Berger is of Eastern European origin.
That’s not a surprise for him.
“Both my parents came from Eastern Europe to Cuba, my father in the 1920's,
my mother in the 1930's,” said Irving. “All the family that was left
behind in Eastern Europe was killed during the Holocaust. I cannot trace my
parents’ family beyond their parents and brothers and sisters.”
Irving’s parents both came from small villages, his father from a town
called Drohiczyn, now in Eastern Poland, his mother from a town called Pruzhany,
now in Belarus.
Irving belongs to Haplogroup J, a Semitic group that flowed out of the Middle
East in two great migrations in the last 10,000 years. The first was the migration
of farmers from the Fertile Crescent, now Iraq, which brought agriculture to
Europe. The second, which took place about 70 AD, came just after the destruction
of the second temple in Jerusalem. Irving’s ancestors are believed to have
been part of the second migration. About 50 percent of Eastern European Jews
are members of Haplogroup J.
Although there were few surprises in the DNA results, they did have an effect
on Irving.
“The findings caused me to look into my heritage more, something I had
not done in a long time,” he said.
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