The association between alcohol dehydrogenase 1B (ADH1B) and alcohol phenotypes (e.g., alcohol dependence [AD] and abuse) has been studied extensively (Li et al., 2011). The most consistent results come from East Asian populations, with fewer positive findings in Europeans (Li et al., 2011; Toth et al., 2011; Bierut et al., 2012). One explanation for differences by population is varying prevalence of the most protective ADH1B allele (in single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] rs1229984, referred to as ADH1B*2), which is common in East Asians (>60%; Eng et al., 2007; Li et al., 2007), but rare in those with Western and Central European origin (<5%; Hurley and Edenberg, 2012). Most Jewish populations are generally of European origin, but have higher prevalence of ADH1B*2 than other European populations (20-21% (Neumark et al., 1998; Hasin et al., 2002b)). Therefore, the Israeli Jewish population represents a potentially better powered non-Asian population in which to further study this association. Furthermore, rs1229984 is the most widely studied ADH1B SNP in European populations, but two additional functional SNPs (rs1159918, rs1229982), found in the proximal promoter region, were associated with
