Israelites

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Jews and Judaism
Star of David Menorah
Who is a Jew? · Etymology · Culture
A reconstructed Israelite house, Monarchy period, 10th-7th BCE. Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel.

The term "Israelites" (or the Twelve Tribes or Children of Israel) means both a people, the descendants of the patriarch Jacob/Israel, and those who worship the God of the people Israel, regardless of ethnic origin.[1] In the biblical history an Israelite can be: (a) a descendant of the patriarch Jacob; (b) a member of the holy and inclusive community of those who follow the God of Israel, keeping the laws divinely revealed to the prophet Moses, without any ethnic identification; (c) a member of the holy and exclusive community of Israel defined by ethnic and religious purity. In modern Judaism an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish faith, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohenim and Levites.

The word "Israelite" derives from the name "Israel", (Hebrew: ישראל - Standard: Yisraʾel; Tiberian: Yiśrāʾēl), a combination of the Hebrew yisra, to prevail over, and el, the divine.[2][3]

Hebrews, Israelites were first referred to as Jews in the Bible, Kings 2.[4][5] What is certain is, that all Hebrews, Israelites were later on renamed Jews, at least as early as the ancient biblical Book of Esther.[6] It replaced the title children of Israel.[7]

Contents

Terminology

See also: Hebrews and Who is a Jew?
Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel. From a synagogue wall in Jerusalem.

"Israelite" is the English word that refers to B'nei Yisrael, ("Children of Israel"). Israel was the name given to the biblical patriarch Jacob after wrestling with an angel on the shores of the Jabbok, prior to a meeting with his brother Esau. Jacob had an intense rivalry with Esau, and this confrontation with the angel bears special significance in the story of the Israelites.[2][3]

In modern Hebrew, B'nei Yisrael ("Children of Israel") can denote the Jewish people at any time in history; it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna (but probably used before that period) the term Yisrael ("an Israel") acquired an additional narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites and Aaronite priests (kohanim). In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, regardless of religion or ethnicity (English "Israeli").

The term Jew is used in English (though not necessarily by a Jew for self-identification) to refer to an individual of the Jewish faith, regardless of the historical period. Another term sometimes used to refer to Jews is Hebrews, a term found in the Bible but of uncertain meaning. It continues to be used at times to refer to Jews or things associated with them, such as "Hebrew Bible" and "Hebrew language". These three names, "Israelites", "Hebrews", and "Jews", are historically related and often used in modern English as synonyms although there are substantial differences in meaning when applied to earlier periods of history.

The origins of the Israelites

The archaeological record indicates that Israel and Judah emerged in the Early Iron Age from the Canaanite city-state culture of the Late Bronze Age, at the same time and in the same circumstances as the neighbouring states of Edom, Moab, Aram, and the Philistinian and Phoenician city-states.[8] Throughout this formative period, (1200-1000 BCE), the highlands lack any sign of centralised authority; religiously, they lack any sign of temples, shrines, or centralised worship in general (although cult-objects associated with the Canaanite god El have been found); the pottery remains strongly in the local Late Bronze tradition; and the alphabet is early-Canaanite. Almost the sole marker distinguishing "Israelite" villages from Canaanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether this can be taken as an ethnic marker remains a matter of dispute.[9] The population of the central highlands during this same period was extremely sparse at the beginning, with some 25 villages and a population of about 12,000; by 1000 BCE the number of villages had increased to 300 and the population to 55,000.[10]

By c.850 BCE inscriptions such as the Tel Dan stele and the Mesha stele indicate that a regionally important kingdom called by its neighbours the House of Omri, after the ruling dynasty, and sometimes Samaria, after its capital, had emerged in the territory of the central highlands; there is no record of what this kingdom's own name for itself might have been, although in one Assyrian record the king is called "Ahab the Israelite." Records relating to Israel, in the sense of this northern kingdom, continue down to its destruction by the Assyrians towards the end of the 8th century.

The earliest probable mention of the southern kingdom is on the Tel Dan stele (c.850 BCE), where the House of David is mentioned alongside the House of Omri, together with the mention of the death of a king whose reconstructed name can be equated with the name of a king mentioned in the bible. There is no further archaeological evidence until Babylonian records refer to it (as Yehud, the Aramaic equivalent of Judah) at the very end of the 7th century. The archaeological record also indicates that Jerusalem, from being no more than a small village, underwent a period of sudden an substantial growth in the period immediately following the destruction of Israel, c.722 BCE.

The earliest mention of the name Israel comes at the very end of the Late Bronze Age, in an Egyptian inscription of about 1207 BCE.[11] This Israel is identified as a people, and it is highly probable that they were located in the northern part of the central highlands, geographically part of what would later be the biblical Israel.[12] But the archaeological evidence contains no evidence of the ethnic make-up of the two states of Israel and Judah, and is no mention of anything like the biblical "Children of Israel," nor does the designation "Israelites" appear in the record.[13] The archaeology does indicate that Judah's chief god was Yahweh from the 7th century BCE down to the fall of the state, but this cannot be taken as indicating ethnicity - it was the common practice of the time and region for each state to have its own chief god. Such differentiation of gods may be a source of ethnic differentiation, but it is impossible on the current evidence to tell whether this had occurred in the first half of the first millennium BCE.[13] In any case, the god Yahweh at this time had characteristics lacking from the biblical Yahweh, notably the presence of a consort-goddess.[13] Evidence from Israel is more complicated, but does not support the biblical picture of Israelite religion.[13] Nevertheless, while the archaeological evidence does not support the existence of a specific Israelite ethnicity separate from those of neighbouring kingdoms, it is too meagre and too scattered to be called conclusive.[13]

Biblical Israel

1695 Eretz Israel map in Amsterdam Haggada by Abraham Bar-Jacob.jpg
Tribes of Israel
The Tribes
  • Reuben
  • Simeon
  • Levi
  • Judah
  • Dan
  • Naphtali
  • Gad
  • Asher
  • Issachar
  • Zebulun
  • Joseph
    • Manasseh
    • Ephraim
  • Benjamin
Related topics
Map of the twelve tribes of Israel
Pentateuch

The Hebrew Bible traces the Israelites to the patriarch Jacob, renamed Israel after a mysterious incident in which he wrestles all night with a supernatural being. Jacob's twelve sons (in order), Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, become the ancestors of twelve tribes, with the exception of Joseph, whose two sons Mannasseh and Ephraim become tribal eponyms.

Jacob and his sons are forced by famine to go down into Egypt. When they arrive they and their families are 70 in number, but within four generations they have increased to 600,000 men of fighting age, and the Pharaoh of Egypt, alarmed, first orders the death of all male Hebrew children, and then enslaves them. The God of Israel reveals his name to Moses, a Hebrew of the line of Levi; Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage and into the desert, where God gives them their laws and the Israelites agree to become his people. Nevertheless the Israelites lack complete faith in God, and the generation which left Egypt is not permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Former Prophets

Following the death of the generation of Moses a new generation, led by Joshua, enters Canaan and takes possession of the land in accordance with the curse placed upon Canaan by Noah. Yet even now the Israelites lack strength in God in the face of the peoples of the land, and periods of weakness and backsliding alternate with periods of resilience under a succession of Judges. Eventually the Israelites ask for a king, and God gives them David, the youngest (divinely favoured) son of the eldest son of Judah. Under David the Israelites establish the kingdom of God, and under David's son Solomon they build the Temple where God takes his earthly dwelling among them. Yet Solomon sins by allowing his foreign wives to worship their own gods, and so on his death the kingdom is divided in two.

The kings of the northern kingdom of Israel are uniformly bad, permitting the worship of other gods and failing to enforce the worship of God alone, and so God eventually allows them to be conquered and dispersed among the peoples of the earth; in their place strangers settle the northern land. In Judah some kings are good and enforce the worship of God alone, but many are bad and permit other gods, even in the Temple itself, and at length God allows the Judah to fall to her enemies, the people taken into captivity in Babylon, the land left empty and desolate, and the Temple itself destroyed.

Ezra-Nehemiah-Chronicles

Yet despite these events God does not forget his people, but sends Cyrus, king of Persia as his messiah to deliver them from bondage. The Israelites are allowed to return to Judah and Benjamin, the Temple is rebuilt, the priestly orders restored, and the service of sacrifice resumed. Through the offices of the sage Ezra Israel is constituted as a holy community, holding itself apart from all other peoples, bound by the Law.

Hasmonean conversions

After the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה Yehuda) remained a province of the Persian empire. This continued into the following Hellenistic period, when Yehud was a province sometimes of Ptolemaic Egypt and sometimes of Seleucid Syria, but in the early part of the 2nd century BCE a revolt against the Seleucids led to the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans adopted a deliberate policy of imitating and reconstituting the Davidic kingdom, and as part of this forcibly converted to Judaism their neighbours in the Land of Israel. The new Israelites included Nabatean groups such as the Zabadeans and Itureans, the peoples of the former Philistine cities, the people of Galilee, and the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites.

"Israelites" in modern Judaism

In the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (ie., around the time of Christ), and despite the exclusivism championed by the Book of Ezra, (contradicted by other biblical books from the same time, such as Ruth), Judaism became a proselytising religion. As proselytised (and conquered) groups were assimilated into the Israelite lineage the old tribal divisions fell into disuse, and the major divisions within Judaism thus became:

This threefold division of the Jewish people persists to this day. To avoid confusion with the broader use of the term Israelite or the modern term Israeli, a member of the Israelite, as opposed to Levite or Aaronite, lineage is usually referred to as a Yisrael (an Israel) and not a Yisraeli (which could mean Israelite in the broader sense or in modern Hebrew, an Israeli).

Modern groups descendant from the Israelites

Jews

Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‎, Yehudim), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation. Converts to Judaism, whose numbers have been historically very small, whose status as Jews within the Jewish nation is equal to those born into it; and, although few in number, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia. There are distinct ethnic divisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, and subsequent independent evolutions. According to the Books of Chronicles chapter 9 line 2, the Jews who took part in The Return to Zion (whom modern Jews are originated from) are stated to be from the Tribe of Judah (alongside the Tribe of Simeon that were absorbed into it), the Tribe of Benjamin, the Tribe of Levi (Levites and Priests) and also from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (which some biblical scholars consider to be a referring name describing the remaining population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel from all ten tribes who were not exiled during the famous Ten tribes exile; they had stayed to live in their homes and later joined the Israelites of the Kingdom of Judah at the time of King Hezekiah, and formed the Jews of the Babylonian Exile era).

Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenaz is the Hebrew word for "Germany". There are several populations which have lived in Germany at some point in the past 1,000 years and fall under the umbrella term for the group. Some Ashkenazim are the descendants of Jews who migrated into northern France and Germany around 800-1000 CE, and were later expelled into Eastern Europe. Many Ashkenazic Jews are also Sephardic in origin (see below) as a result of diaspora from the Spanish Inquisition. In this sense "Ashkenazi" refers to religious practice, which was appropriated over time, and not a strict ethno-geographic division.

Sephardic Jews

Sephardim are Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain or Portugal, where they lived for possibly as much as two millennia before being expelled in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs (see Alhambra decree); they subsequently migrated to North Africa Maghreb and Ottoman Empire (both at the time considered safe havens for Jews). In the Ottoman Empire the Sephardim mostly settled in the European portion of the Empire, and mainly in the major cities such as: Constantinople, Thessaloniki and Bursa. Thessaloniki, which today is to be found in modern-day Greece, had a large and flourishing Sephardic community as was the community of Maltese Jews in Malta. Others settled in Italy, the Netherlands and Latin America. A large population of Sephardic refugees who fled via the Netherlands as Morranos eventually settled in Hamburg and Altona Germany in the early 16th century, eventually appropriating Ashkenazic Jewish rituals into their religious practice (see above). One famous figure from the Sephardic Ashkenazic population is Glückel of Hameln. Others among those who settled in the Netherlands, were some who would again relocate to the United States, establishing the country's first organized community of Jews and erecting the United States' first synagogue. Other Sephardim remained in Spain and Portugal as anusim (forced converts to Catholicism), which would also be the fate for those who had migrated to Spanish and Portuguese ruled Latin America.

Mizrachi Jews

Mizrahim are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The term Mizrahi is used in Israel in the language of politics, media and some social scientists for Jews from the Arab world and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. This includes Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews, Lebanese Jews, Maghreb Jews , Yemenite Jews, Persian Jews, Afghan Jews, Bukharian Jews, Kurdish Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews and Ethiopian Jews.

Yemenite Jews

Temanim are Jews living in Yemen whose geographic and social isolation from the rest of the Jewish community allowed them to develop a liturgy and set of practices that are significantly distinct from those of other Oriental Jewish groups; they themselves comprise three distinctly different groups, though the distinction is one of religious law and liturgy rather than of ethnicity.

Karaite Jews

Karaim are Jews living mostly in Egypt, Iraq, Crimea and Israel. They are distinguished by the form of Judaism they observe. Rabbinic Jews of varying ethnicities have affiliated with the Karaite community throughout the millennia. As such, Karaite Jews are less a Jewish ethnic division, than they are members of a particular branch of Judaism. Karaite Judaism recognizes the Tanakh as the single religious authority of the Jewish people. Linguistic principles and contextual exegesis are used in arriving at the correct meaning of the Torah. Karaite Jews strive to adhere to the plain or most obvious understanding of the text when interpreting the Tanakh. By contrast, Rabbinical Judaism regards an Oral Law (codified and recorded in the Mishnah and Talmuds) as being equally binding on Jews, and mandated by God. In Rabbinical Judaism, the Oral Law forms the basis of religion, morality, and Jewish life. Karaite Jews rely on the use of sound reasoning and the application of linguistic tools to determine the correct meaning of the Tanakh; while Rabbinical Judaism looks toward the Oral law codified in the Talmud, to provide the Jewish community with an accurate understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

There are approximately 50,000 adherents of Karaite Judaism, most of whom live in Israel, but exact numbers are not known, as most Karaites have not participated in any religious censuses. The differences between Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism go back more than a thousand years. Rabbinical Judaism originates from the Pharisees of the Second Temple period. Karaite Judaism may have its origins in the Sadducees of the same era. Unlike the Sadducees who recognized only the Torah as binding, Karaite Jews hold the entire Hebrew Bible to be a religious authority. As such, the vast majority of Karaites believe in the resurrection of the dead.[14] Karaite Jews are widely regarded as being halachically Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate. Similarly, members of the rabbinic community are considered to be Jews by the Moetzet Hakhamim, if they are patrilineally Jewish.

Anusim

During the Jewish diaspora, Jews who lived in Christian Europe were usually attacked by the local population and were portrayted by many Anti-semites motives, many of them were forced to convert to Christianity by the local population or by the religious leadership, and were called by Jews: "Anusim" ('forced-ones'), they continued practicing Judaism in secret, while living outside as ordinary Christians. The most known case of "Anusim" was the one of the Jews of Spain and Jews of Portugal (although "Anusim" were also in other European countries). On the Muslim countries, many Jews were forced to convert to Islam by force over the years since the rise of the Islamic religion, and the most known case of those convertion was the case of Mashhad Jews, that lived as ordinary Muslims in Persia but kept practicing Judaism, and eventually made an Aliyah and returned being Jewish in Israel. Many Anusim's descendants left Judaism over the years. On December 2008, genetic test showed that 19.8% of the Iberian Peninsula are originated from the Anusim.[15]

Samaritans

The Samaritans, who were once a comparatively large group but are now a very small ethnic and religious group of not more than about 700 people[16] who live in Israel and the West Bank, regard themselves as descendants of the tribes of Ephraim (named by them as Aphrime) and Manasseh (named by them as Manatch). Samaritans adhere to a version of the Torah, known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, which differs in some respects from the Masoretic text, sometimes in important ways, and less so from the Septuagint.

Samaritans do not regard the Tanakh as an accurate or truthful history, and regard only Moses as a prophet. They have their own version of Hebrew and their own script for writing Hebrew, which, is descended directly from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, unlike the Jewish script for writing Hebrew which is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet the Jews adopted during their captivity in Babylonia.

The Samaritans consider themselves Bnei Yisrael ("Children of Israel" or "Israelites"), but do not regard themselves to be Yehudim (Jews). They view this term "Jews" as a designation for followers of Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by the exiled Israelite returnees which is not the true religion of the ancient Israelites, which according to them, Samaritanism is.

Judaism regards the Samaritans as descendants of the northern tribesmen whom the Assyrians settled in the territory they conquered from the kingdom of Israel. Since one of those tribes was the Cutheans, this is the name used for the Samaritans in the Talmud. Both the Bible and external sources such as Josephus record intermarriage between Jews and Samaritans in the Hellenistic period.

Modern DNA evidence has proven both most of the world's Jews and the Samaritans have a common ancestral lineage to the Israelites, largely on the paternal lines in both cases. Maternally, both Jews and Samaritans have very low rates of intermarriage with local host (for Jews, local populations in their host diaspora regions)[17] or alien (for Samaritans, foreigners resettled in their midst in attempts by ruling foreign elites to obliterate national identities) populations.[18] Both populations' DNA results indicates that both groups had a high percentage of marriage inside their own community than perform an interfaith marriage.

Other groups identifying as descendants of Israelites

Beta Israel

The Beta Israel, otherwise known as the Falasha, is a group from Ethiopia, most of whom now live in Israel. Though they are reputed by many scholars and themselves to be descended from the Tribe of Dan, most genetic evidence shows the group to be more likely converts of local Ethiopian origin. They have a long history of practicing such Jewish traditions as kashrut, Shabbat and Passover. For this reason, their Jewishness was accepted by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Israeli government in 1975. They emigrated to Israel en masse during the 1980s and 1990s, as Jews, under the Law of Return. Some who claim to be Beta Israel still live in Ethiopia.

Bnei Menashe

The Bnei Menashe is a group of people in India who claim to be descendants of the half-tribe of Manasseh. A DNA study claiming evidence that the group had Middle Eastern descendency met with criticism of its methodology. Hillel Halkin speculates based on the available evidence that the overwhelming majority of the Bneu Menashe are not descended from the Levant, but that small numbers of them probably are. As of 2005, members who have studied Hebrew, observe the Sabbath, and adhere to other Jewish laws, received the support of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel in arranging formal conversion to Judaism. Some have converted and emigrated to Israel under the Law of Return.

Bnei Efraim

The group called Bene Ephraim of southern India claim descent from the Tribe of Ephraim.

The Lemba

The Lemba group has an oral tradition which claims that they are descendants of Jewish people (with an emphasis on their male ancestors) who moved out of Jerusalem, traveled to Yemen and from there reached Africa. In 2002, DNA tests on their Y-Chromosome confirmed the tradition and found that 50% of the Lemba males have Middle Eastern origin, and the Buba Clan (which is referred to as a leading clan in the Lemba society) were found to have the Cohen Gene (CMH), which is found in members of the priest clan of modern day Jews as well. This may confirm their connection to the Jewish people. The Halakhic Jewish status of the Lemba is disputed and are not officially recognized by Israel as descended Jews.[19]

Black Hebrews

The Black Hebrew Israelites (also Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are an American movement, mostly of Black African ancestry, who believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrews adhere in varying degrees to the religious beliefs and practices of mainstream Judaism, but are generally not accepted as Jews by the greater Jewish community. Many Black Hebrews consider themselves, and not mainstream Jews, to be the only authentic descendants of the ancient Israelites. Many choose to self-identify as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than as Jews.[20][21][22][23]

They are not considered Jews in Israel. [24]

Rastafari

Some Rastas believe that the black races are the lost Israelites – literally or spiritually.[25] They interpret the Bible as implying that Haile Selassie was the returned Messiah, who would lead the world's peoples of African descent into a promised land of full emancipation and divine justice. There are some Rastafarians that believe they are Jews by descent through Ras Tafari, Ras Tafari being a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba via Menelik I. One Rastafari order named The Twelve Tribes of Israel, imposes a metaphysical astrology whereby Aries is Reuben, Aquarius is Joseph, etc. The Twelve Tribes of Israel differ from most Rastafari Mansions (sects) because they believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, while other Mansions claim that Haile Selassie I is the true God. With his famous early reggae song The Israelites, Desmond Dekker immortalised the Rastafari concept of themselves as the Lost Children of Israel. However, sometimes people native to Africa are identified with descendants of Ham, whereas the Old Testament of the Bible states that Abraham is descended from Shem.

Pashtun

Some Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan refers to theirself as the Bani Israel (Arabic term for Israelite) , House of Israel, or Beit Israel, they claim to be the patriarchal historical descendants of the "ten lost tribes" of the northern Kingdom of Israel which were taken into captivity by Assyria. Israel is planning to fund a genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns.[26]

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard (eds), Israelite, in "Mercer dictionary of the Bible", p.420
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Scherman, Rabbi Nosson (editor), The Chumash, The Artscroll Series, Mesorah Publications, LTD, 2006, pages 176-77
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kaplan, Aryeh, "Jewish Meditation", Schocken Books, New York, 1985, page 125
  4. ↑ http://biblos.com/2_kings/16-6.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.forward.com/articles/11238/
  6. ↑ The people and the faith of the Bible by André Chouraqui, Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1975, p. 43 [1]
  7. ↑ Settings of silver: an introduction to Judaism Stephen M. Wylen, Paulist Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8091-3960-X, p. 59
  8. ↑ Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Beth Alpert Nakhai, "A Landscape Comes to Life: The Iron Age I", Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 62-92
  9. ↑ Anne E. Killebrew, "Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity" (Society of Biblical Literature, 2005) p.176
  10. ↑ Paula McNutt, "Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel" pp.47-8
  11. ↑ Lawrence E. Stagger, Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient ISrael, in Michael D. Coogan (ed), "The Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford UP, 1998), p.91
  12. ↑ Niels Peter Lemche, "The Israelites in History and Tradition" (Westminster John Knox, 1998) pp.35-8
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 N.P. Lemche, "The Israelites in History and Tradition" (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998) p.62-64
  14. ↑ http://www.karaite-korner.org/karaite_faq.shtml
  15. ↑ http://www.cell.com/AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297(08)00592-2
  16. ↑ as of 2006
  17. ↑ "Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of the Jewish Diaspora". New York Times. May 9 2000. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E0D71338F93AA35756C0A9669C8B63. 
  18. ↑ Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations From Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence VariationPDF (855 KB), Hum Mutat 24:248–260, 2004.
  19. ↑ http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/african-lemba-tribe
  20. ↑ Ben-Jochannan, Yosef A. A. (1993) [1983]. We, the Black Jews: Witness to the "White Jewish Race" Myth. Baltimore: Black Classic Press. ISBN 0933121407. p. 306.
  21. ↑ Ben Levy, Sholomo. "The Black Jewish or Hebrew Israelite Community". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/blackjews.html. Retrieved 2007-12-15. 
  22. ↑ Johannes P. Schade, ed (2006). "Black Hebrews". Encyclopedia of World Religions. Franklin Park, N.J.: Foreign Media Group. ISBN 1601360002. 
  23. ↑ Bahrampour, Tara (June 26, 2000). "They're Jewish, With a Gospel Accent". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080403082701/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E3DD1230F935A15755C0A9669C8B63. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 
  24. ↑ "Black Hebrews". JVL. 29, Jul 2004. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/Black_Hebrews.html. Retrieved 2010-08-29. 
  25. ↑ Article Twelve Tribes on website Words of Wisdom
  26. ↑ "Link between Israel's lost tribes and Pashtuns of Af-Pak to be genetically analyzed". Newkerala.com. http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-36199.html. Retrieved 2010-04-17. 

External links

The Biblical and Historical Israelites
Children of Israel / Twelve Tribes of Israel · Ten Lost Tribes
Tanakh · Bible · Hebrew Bible · Old Testament · The Bible and history
Major articles in Jewish history

Timeline · Early history · The 12 Tribes of Israel · Schisms · Israel · Judah · Ten Lost Tribes · Babylonian exile · Hasmoneans and Greece · Sanhedrin · Jewish–Roman wars · Pharisees · Diaspora · Middle Ages · Under Muslim rule · Enlightenment/Haskalah · Israel
See also: WP:Jewish history