Is it possible that Ashkenazi Jews could have undergone genetic selection?

Question

It has been scientifically proven by geneticists that the large bulk of Ashkenazi Jewry is of Israelite lineage, with very little intermarriage with neighboring European communities.

I don't mean to generalize in any way, but it is often clear that very few Ashkenazi Jews have have the middle eastern features of palestinians, syrians, etc.

Is it at all possible that in several thousand years, the Ashkenazi gene pool could have evolved in terms of physical traits, due to change in climate and vegetation, etc, to look slightly more like their European neighbors?

Answer 1

Not only possible, it is probable.  Although many of the Askenazi test positive for the Cohanim gene (Y Chromosome dating back to 3000 yrs ago) it is obvious they mixed with selective europeans. The Ashkenazi are obviously a mixture of East European & Mid Eastern genes.  I suspect they bred with selective Europeans for several 1000s of Years, as they also have many European haplogroups in their gene pool.

Answer 2

YES...

Answer 3

In general Jews tend to resemble the resident population of whatever nation they're in.  Prior to the Holocaust a survey was done of Jews in Germany to show they were genetically inferior because they had a smaller proportion of Aryan's then rest of the German population - the results of the survey were suppressed when the results showed that more Jews were Aryan then the Germans.

The similarity is greater then can be excused through conversion, which in general has always been rather minuscule because Jews are forbidden to have missionaries.

It would seem reasonable that the genes for most phenotypes were extant in Jewish communities, even if not expressed, and became more prevalent due to their environment.  An interesting demonstration of this would be the appearance of Israeli specific features - considering modern Israelis are a medley of all the groups which immigrated to Israel over the last 2 millennia along with those that never left.