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Presenter: Nika Hazini Missaghi, Schelly Talalay Dardashti

An isolated community for over 2,700 years, the Jews of Iran are an interesting case study in endogamy. While other groups have not practiced open endogamy for a century or more, the Persian Jewish community's preferred form of marriage, until the 1978 Revolution, was first cousins, along with uncle-niece marriages, and other rather close relationships. Small influxes of Iberian Sephardim, Russian Ashkenazim and Polish "Teheran Children" are also recorded, along with historical events of Georgians brought to Iran, mass conversions to Islam, Bahai conversions, and more. The recently-established (December 2016) Jewish Persian DNA Project has already shown some interesting connections.