Many brothers in AEPi mention that the bond they feel with their fraternity brothers, can be almost as strong as the bond they have with their real family.

A recent article from the BBC News department, “‘Four mothers’ for Europe’s Jews” offers some evidence that many members of AEPi might be more closely related than they realized.

The study of Ashkenzi Jews revealed that “Almost half of Europe’s Jews are descended from just four women who lived 1,000 years ago.”

For the many Ashkenazi AEPi brothers across the country, the odds are good that some of us share these for women in common from our past. From the article:

The four women are thought to have lived in the Middle East about 1,000 years ago but they may not have lived anywhere near each other, according to the study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. However, they bequeathed genetic signatures to their descendents, which do not appear in non-Jews and are rare in Jews not of Ashkenazi origin.