This is an open letter to Noa Tishby because, as a passionate defender of Israel, she made a rather serious mistake about biology, and I tried to contact her about it via her publicist. I don’t know if she got my email, so I’m putting it below lest any Jews (or other people) be led to that we carry genes for inherited trauma. We almost certainly don’t!
Noa Tishby is an Israeli actress who moved to the U.S. and has largely given up acting to advocate for Israel, in which she’s done an exemplary job. She wrote, for example, a primer for the ignorant called Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, setting out the background of the conflict between Israel and, well, the rest of the world. I read it, and although I already knew much of the material, many people don’t, as evidenced by the widespread and often willful ignorance among “anti-Zionists.” See the first video below!
Noa’s also got chutzpah, as you can tell from this video. She is not easily fazed or discombobulated, even when faced with arrogant stupidity combined with hatred:
In other words, I’m a fan and admire her resolve.
Her error: In the article below, published in the Jewish magazine Sapir, Tishby describes how nerdy she was when young, and now her “uncoolness” persists in her constant defense of Israel, an unpopular stand in much of the world. While making this reasonable argument, though, Tishby also made a misguided claim about the “inherited” trauma of Jews. It’s a good article (click to read), but the epigenetics stuff bothered me.
Here’s the part that rankled:
What haunts us, even those of us who have lived through only the most recent pogrom, is the familiarity of even the oldest testimony. “We were awakened by a terrifying noise, we didn’t know what was happening . . . ” two millennia ago in Jerusalem. “We realized they’d broken into our neighbors’ house. . . . We heard them screaming until silence fell. We thought of escaping into the forest, but everyone who tried to escape found it was impossible” one millennium ago in Cologne. This history has shaped us: “Deep inside I know it,” each survivor says in unison as they stand together at the close of the video. The weight of our past is in our blood.
Perhaps literally. Recent studies suggest that these traumatic stories have become woven into our hereditary fabric through epigenetic change. Epigenetic changes are additions to our DNA that influence the way our genetic code is read by our bodies. Studies show that epigenetic change can occur from traumatic experience, and that these changes can be inherited. The idea is intuitive to us: It’s long been suggested that historical traumas can be psychologically passed down from generation to generation. Epigenetic fear is the biological manifestation of historical traumas alongside our genetic code. A review found that “there is now converging evidence supporting the idea that offspring are affected by parental trauma exposures occurring before their birth, and possibly even prior to their conception.” One study found that “in the absence of their own traumatic exposures, offspring of Holocaust survivors” were more likely to exhibit biological signs associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other studies have suggested that epigenetic changes can be passed down for many generations.
After the pogrom of October 7 and the global reactions to it, our epigenetic inheritance may have been activated in our veins. As the researcher behind the study of offspring of Holocaust survivors observed, “Epigenetic changes often serve to biologically prepare offspring for an environment similar to that of the parents.”
In this respect, Jews have a built-in mechanism that gives acts of barbarism against us a certain familiarity and triggers an almost automatic response. Though the threats have come from different neighbors — Romans, Germans, Baghdadis — across time and place, they have always been similar enough to inoculate us against being truly surprised.
Now if you know anything about epigenetics, a form of inheritance of acquired characteristics, you’ll know two things. First, in nearly all organisms the acquired trait gets passed on for only a single generation, as the modifications of DNA that cause the trait (in this case trauma), is wiped out as the DNA sheds its modifications when producing gametes for the next generation. Second, there is no evidence that I know of in mammals (including us) that even if a trauma causes something to be inherited by modifying our DNA, that “something” is not the trauma itself, but whatever developmental change happens to be wrought by environmental effects on the DNA. In the most famous widespread case of “inherited trauma”, the Dutch case of famine during the “hunger winter” of 1944, what was inherited wasn’t the trauma of not getting enough food, but a number of developmental aberrations that lasted only a single generation:
The Dutch Hunger Winter has proved unique in unexpected ways. Because it started and ended so abruptly, it has served as an unplanned experiment in human health. Pregnant women, it turns out, were uniquely vulnerable, and the children they gave birth to have been influenced by famine throughout their lives.
When they became adults, they ended up a few pounds heavier than average. In middle age, they had higher levels of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. They also experienced higher rates of such conditions as obesity, diabetes and schizophrenia.
By the time they reached old age, those risks had taken a measurable toll, according to the research of L.H. Lumey, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. In 2013, he and his colleagues reviewed death records of hundreds of thousands of Dutch people born in the mid-1940s.
They found that the people who had been in utero during the famine — known as the Dutch Hunger Winter cohort — died at a higher rate than people born before or afterward. “We found a 10 percent increase in mortality after 68 years,” said Dr. Lumey.
The change lasted only one generation; as far as I know, the grandchildren of survivors don’t show this syndrome. Thus, Ms. Tishby erred when implying that the trauma itself faced by Jews could presumably last for a long time, perhaps generations. If we are indeed traumatized by centuries of antisemitism, it’s certainly because the trauma comes from the environment (i.e., antisemites), and persists because antisemitism persists. Certainly I didn’t want a famous defender of Israel to popularize misguided biology.
So I sent the letter below a while back to Ms. Tishby. Since I couldn’t find a way to contact her directly, I sent it to her public relations person with a request that it be passed on to Tishby. So far I have no reply, and though I didn’t expect one from Tishby, I have no way to know if she ever got my correction. Ergo I’m publishing it here in hopes that she’ll see it and the “inherited trauma of antissemitism” business will stop. Yes, call me a Pecksniff. . .
Dear Ms. Tishby,
I’m writing just to urge you to be a bit cautious about the “epigenetic” aspect of Jewish trauma that you mentioned in your otherwise admirable Sapir article. I’m only writing because I’ve long admired your advocacy of Israel in the face of huge pushback, and don’t want you to fall into the errors of others who have mischaracterized epigenetics.
I am Jewish and also an evolutionary geneticist, and know a great deal about epigenetics: environmentally-induced changes in the DNA that usually occur by attaching a methyl group to various parts of DNA. It’s been known, as you said, that this can be inherited: rarely, the effects of parental trauma can cause inherited change in their offspring, though those changes don’t usually involve a child inheriting the trauma itself of their mothers.
What’s more important is that, because DNA changes are “reset” every generation when sperm or eggs are formed, epigenetic modifications usually disappear after one generation, so they can’t be inherited beyond parent—>offspring. Further, if they do occur (usually through trauma affecting a mother’s physiology or placenta), what is inherited via methylation is not the trauma itself, but various other effects. The famous “Dutch famine study” from the “hunger winter” during the war didn’t involve inheritance of trauma, but a degradation of the offspring’s health that led to various other diseases. In other words, trauma was not inherited, but caused other effects in the children of the traumatized. And that lasted but a single generation. There’s simply no evidence in humans that trauma itself can be coded into the genome and passed from parent to offspring.
You also mention that ” Other studies have suggested that epigenetic changes can be passed down for many generations.” But the study you cite involved roundworms, and had nothing to do with either humans or trauma (only one study, not “studies” was linked).
In short, there are no studies showing that parental trauma itself is inherited epigenetically. Instead, the effects of trauma on the physiology or development of offspring can be inherited. But they’re inherited, at most, for only one generation. Ergo, it’s a bit misleading to suggest that “the weight of the past is in our blood—literally.” That would be true only, and only in part, for the one generation of offspring of those experiencing the Holocaust. The rest of the Jews would be unaffected, so it wouldn’t be a general phenomenon. And it would last only for a single generation at most—and what would be inherited wouldn’t be trauma itself but whatever developmental aberrations devolved upon fetuses developing during their mother’s trauma.
It’s really not necessary to invoke dubious science in support of your cause, for we Jews have suffered environmental trauma generation after generation via antisemitism, and this is due to a continuing culture, not to genes. I myself have been traumatized by the resurgence of antisemitism after October 7, even though I’m at best a secular Jew. But none of my relatives were in the Holocaust, though they came from Eastern Europe. My own “trauma” comes from seeing the world buy into the big lies about Israel (genocide, apartheid, “disproportinal” killing of Gazans, etc.)
My suggestion, then, is to stay far away from epigenetics as you promulgate your message. And of course your message is vital and important. As I said, I greatly admire your courage in going out there and speaking the truth, and wanted to let you know that the “truth” about epigenetics isn’t very solid!
Best wishes,
Jerry Coyne
Emeritus professor of Ecology and Evolutino
The University of Chicago
I’ve done what I can, and we’ll see if Ms. Tishby continues to spread the fallacious notion of “trauma literally in our blood” (it would have to be in the white cells, since red blood cells lack nuclei!)
+1
I like that final point about the white v. red blood cells.
I have the strong impression that “generational trauma” is simply a proposed mechanism to justify special treatment and reparations, along the lines of Your Body Keeps the Score. There really is no evidence for any of it.
Agreed. I’ve seen otherwise-sensible people maintain that “intergenerational trauma” caused by their ancestors being slaves six generations ago is the explanation for why today’s black-American kids tend to do worse on maths exams than, say, Asian-American kids.
One way to achieve supreme victimhood is to downplay what happened to others. Thus it has become conventional to claim that US chattel slavery was the worst form of slavery ever, and the only one of its kind based on ethnicity. Many discussions of slavery in the ancient world now start with the claim that it was positively benign.
I consider all Americans after the Civil War to have been very fortunate (with possible exceptions among some Native Americans): war, famine, ethnic cleansing, genocide, tyrants and and extreme poverty happened to other people. Most places on earth were far less lucky.
Are you including among the fortunate post Civil War Americans, the 3500 black people who were tortured, mutilated, and lynched? I am sure many blacks in some southern counties felt terrorized for generations. Don’t forget Tulsa and Wilmington.
I’d still be better off than being Chinese, Russian, French, etc. No trench warfare killing millions, no mass starvation, no large-scale massacres as happened between many ethnic groups in Eastern Europe during the 20th century.
Exhaustive documentation gives a misleading impression of especially high ethnic violence in the US. You can find full-blown massacres during peacetime in the 20th century in countries like Japan, Poland, Turkey etc. but most of these countries simply care much less. The US does, and it is among the least racially prejudiced countries in the world (topped only by a few NW-European countries).
I agree with 99% of what you wrote, and I hope Ms. Tishby will take note and reply.
However, I would like to point out that aversion/avoidance (not trauma) was demonstrated to be epigenetically inherited all the way down to the fourth generation of progeny, through the gametes. See here: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00881-3 and previous work from the same lab referenced therein.
Note that I said “nearly all organisms,” not ALL organisms. The study you cite was in the same species Tishby cited: Caenorhabditis–a roundworm. Epigenetic modification in the popular literature is most often cited with reference to humans.
So don’t you agree with 100% of what I wrote? 🙂
I did notice you referred specifically to humans, and in another instance to mammals, and I am aware that the paper is in c. elegans.
I fully agree with the sentiment (and advice) that less than solid science should not be used as a rhetorical or almost populist tool. I also think that non-scientists in general should be careful in what they deduce or take away from scientific publications or media reporting a study secondhand.
Perhaps I’m being unfair because what I disagree with is something you did not explicitly state; I don’t think that all forms of inheritance known to us are strictly “Classic Darwinian”. To paraphrase, the paper I provided does show that learned traits can be inherited, a la Lamarck. There are several others, all of them in invertebrates. Epigenetics is relatively a young subfield and crazy complex from what I’ve heard. For instance, DNA methyation of different sites can either increase or decrease transcription depending on a host of co-factors. Yes, at the moment evidence in humans is lacking, but on the basis of homologous genes and similarity in signalling cascades I think it’s just matter of time until it’s found. Probably not for trauma, mind you, which is difficult to define to begin with. Some scientific fields tend to be conservative, and insisting that only classic inheritance takes place is only holding science back.
I’m happy to be corrected, genetics is not my field. In Neuroscience though, which is also a young field, we’re witnessing researchers treating theory X as true, despite no unequivocal evidence for it and some findings that just don’t sit right with it. Proponents of ditching the theory and moving on are not getting enough grants, attention or shiny publications because it would mean many scientists of the previous generation were wrong. For me, it’s a cautionary tale.
typo in “methylation”.
I do not think that we should be saying that based on studies in other organisms, that it is entirely possible that trauma in human beings could be inherited epigenetically. I think we should be saying that this claim should not be made at all since there is no evidence for it.
Nor did I claim that all inheritance is Classically Darwinian (I think you mean Mendelian). My point was simply that Tishby was distorting the science for the public, so I am not sure what you are saying beyond ‘well, it is POSSIBLE that human trauma might one day be found to be epigenetically inherited’, and people looking for such things should get more grants.
I have to run, so briefly:
As far as the public is concerned, Ms. Tishby included, no, there isn’t any evidence of inherited trauma in humans beyond one generation. I get it that this was the main point of your post.
However, for us Scientists, I think it will be unwise to rule it out without looking more into it given the suggestive evidence in invertebrates (and again, I think trauma is poorly defined, and I don’t like poorly defined concepts. I’m speaking of acquired traits more broadly). This is what I attempted to add to the conversation, just to keep it about the science too, because I think it’s a fascinating topic regardless of Noa Tishby. Apologies if my phrasing was awkward.
Well said.
Thank you for sending Noa Tishby this letter and for publishing it here. I don’t want her message of strength to be diluted by a mistake. She doesn’t need epigenetics to make the case. Many of us—me included—grew up with stories of the Holocaust or, if not the Holocaust, stories of our grandparents escaping pogroms in Czarist Russia and elsewhere. Jews pass this knowledge through the generations through their writings, teachings, and stories.
Noa Tishby is a treasure—a gift to the Jewish people, a tower of strength providing needed support to a people living in fear. I sincerely hope that your letter and our comments reach her and help her along in her journey.
I actually tweeted it to her @hoatishby on my X feed, and somebody had it removed! Maybe she doesn’t want to be criticized. .
I appreciated reading this because I saw an article in MSM in the last few months with the headline that science has shown that trauma is inherited. It is better to hear directly from a scientist correcting the misunderstandings that make their way into the public consciousness via reporters. Some science journalists are fantastic and do careful research and interviews, others others are not bothered by a superficial understanding. This was very helpful beyond its association with this specific application to Jews.
Well both my parents were Holocaust survivors, and in fact, Birkenau survivors, so the worst possible horrors. And though I am pretty weird I have no PTSD or inherited trauma. What I have is the conscious awareness of what happens to Jews, but that is culturally inherited as Jerry suggests.
If anything, trauma might be transmitted transgenerationally via small RNAs, not DNA methylation.
Not only this, but the evidence suggests that trauma in grandparental worms is associated with fat grandworms. That is, there may be a compensatory resilience mediated via learning passed from mum to kid and grandkid.
So far I have seen zero evidence in humans for any trans generational inheritance being due to DNA methylation.
And I’ve been looking since 2012. My dissertation was on DNA methylation.
There are studies about the effects of the Holocaust on survivors and their descendants. Like studies about the Dutch Hunger Winter, they find no impact on intelligence (g) in either group. The same is true about the descendents of victims of the Cultural Revolution, according to Cremieux Recueil. The Hunger Winter did however increase rates of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, and Holocaust survivors tended to have more psychological problems.
The Holocaust papers:
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-17510-001
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1023/A:1025706427300
Im not sure how your last sentence is relevant. Could you explain?
Not sure how this is unclear. If you read the paper (it’s free on SciHub), it focuses on post-traumatic stress among survivors. Given that its symptoms are often given vague terms like “anxiety”, I think it’s fair to call them psychological. After all, these are no physiological measures like blood pressure (which are also discussed in the paper) or diseases like epilepsy. This is also not irrelevant because the age of victims matters: In the case of Dutch children, one considers in-utero effects, but with the Holocaust survivors discussed here you have both infants and grown adults, who might be affected quite differently. Symptoms might also get worse in old age.
THANK YOU! Even on our side, “intergenerational trauma” is scientific nonsense.
It is a huuuuge woke myth.
Yours is great, as is one of the best essays on this from about 2 years ago from Razib Khan.
I’ll try and look it out. One of my all time favorites.
D.A.
NYC
Good post. Thanks
I remember reading a study that said the grandchildren of the Dutch Famine victims were impacted negatively, but not the children. It said the effects skipped a generation. I can’t find it, but found a couple of other studies that refer to grandchildren.
This one studied two generations after the Siege of Leningrad. It lists several related studies. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-37119-8
This was US Civil War victims https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629623000735.
There is a direct link from grandmother to grandchild as the ovum that creates the grandchild is formed in the embryo of the mother while she is in the grandmother’s womb. I wondered if that could trigger a different gene expression in the grandchild?
I’m no scientist so I could be way off base. I only started reading about epigenetics when I learned that a condition I have could have been because trauma triggered a change in gene expression when I was a toddler.