What ethnicity are Ashkenazi Jews closest to genetically?

Question

Though Judaism is only a religion, Ashkenazi (European) Jews have been shown to be a homogeneous group,

BUT:

The studies, theories, and opinions will just take you in circles!

Though all Ashkenazi Jews will differ genetically either largely or slightly- on the whole,

1. Are they truly close to their Israelite ancestors?

2. Are they closer to their European host nations?

3. Is there some truth to the Khazar theory, that perhaps Ashkenazi Jews have slight to significant Turkish/Khazar admixture or conversions?

4. All of the above? Are they a Slavic/Israelite/Near-Eastern hybrid mix of all these peoples?

Answer 1

I have found this link from Wikipedia interesting. Another poster had it in his answer to a question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi

You are asking questions that probably isn't easy to answer  and many people will have different views.  

I know Orthodox and Conservative Judaism defines a Jew by the mother.  They state they get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father.  If they don't have a Jewish father, they belong to the tribe of the nearest male relative on their mother's side of the family.  Whereas if they don't have a Jewish mother, they aren't considered Jewish.

Reform Judaism views it differently.

I had a Jewish grandfather. Two conversions by my grandfather's mother and grandmother made him Jewish.  My gggrandparents and my ggrandfather came from Prussian Poland.

I have always said I wouldn't be considered a Jew by any branch of Judaism.  My maternal grandmother was 100% American colonial and she broke the female line, but I would fail the n**i Aryan test.  Recently I had a Mitochondrial DNA test done and found out I am in Haplogroup K1 which 32% of Ashkenazi Jews are in.  Of course, many people around the Alps are also in that Haplogroup.  One of my aunts and a photo of my mother when she was a baby shows the somewhat Tartar eye which is common in Eastern Europe.  I always attributed that to my grandfather's people. Then I was looking at a photo of my grandmother's sister and I saw something I never noticed before.

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh97/...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_...

I would imagine among many Jews, Ashkenazi and Sephardic,  are the DNA of the original Hebrew people but they have blended in with a lot of other people. Many people with the DNA of the original Hebrew people are not considered Jewish. Many people would be considered Jewish by the traditional definition and probably don't know it.  This is true of all peoples. As people go back they discover new things and most can only go back so far as you can only locate documentation that goes back so far.

Answer 2

Yes, to Hybrid Vigor!

Answer 3

Genetically they don't seem to have intermarried with other European that much, so they are probably genetically closer to Jews in the middle East than Europeans.

Answer 4

All Jews, whether Ashkenazi or Sephardic or Mizrahi, have roots in what is today called the Middle East. Despite their European, white features, their true origins lie in the Middle East.