Abstract
To the Editor:— An epidemiological association between Armenians and some Jews in regard to familial Mediterranean fever as suggested by S. H. Mellinkoff, MD ( 197 : July 11, 1966, adv p 30) does not establish a common ancestry for Jews and Armenians. Furthermore, familial Mediterranean fever has been described in Lebanese and Syrian Arabs, 1 as well as in Maltese, Italians, Greeks, Northern French, and Dutch. 2 Thus, although this disease is genetically determined and probably indicative of a biochemical or metabolic defect, it is not limited to Jews and Armenians, nor for that matter to people living on the Mediterranean Sea. I am in agreement that Jewish dietary laws are primarily moral and ethical teachings attempting to identify the Jew as being separate from non-Jews. Most commentators on the Pentateuch that I am familiar with classify dietary laws as chukim (Hebrew word meaning unexplained laws). These are tenets given by
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