Jacob’s Legacy

Who are the Jews? Where did they come from? What is the connection between an ancient Jewish priest in Jerusalem and today’s Israeli sunbather on the beaches of Tel Aviv? The author of Jacob's Legacy, David Goldstein has been commended for his gift for translating complex scientific concepts into language understandable to all. He discusses with Vivienne Parry how the study of genetics has not only changed the study of Jewish history, it has altered notions of Jewish identity and even our understanding of what makes a people a people.

David Goldstein is Professor of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology and Director of the IGSP's Center for Population Genomics & Pharmacogenetics. Dr. Goldstein received his PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in 1994, and from 1999 to 2005 was Wolfson Professor of Genetics at University College London. He is the author of over 70 scholarly publications in the areas of population and medical genetics. Goldstein's principal interests include human genetic diversity, the genetics of neurological disease, and pharmacogenetics. He is on the editorial boards of Current Biology, Annals of Human Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolution, and Human Genomics. He is the recipient of one of the first seven nationally awarded Royal Society / Wolfson research merit awards in the UK for his work in human population genetics.