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Revived Jewish Communities in Recife, Brazil, and Glimpses of ‘Lost Tribe’ Jewish Communities in India and Myanmar

JBG

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Link to underlying article: Glimpses of ‘Lost Tribe’ Jewish Communities in India and Myanmar. Excerpt:

New York Times article said:
In 2017, while I was traveling through India, a friend from the northeastern state of Assam told me about the communities of Lost Tribe Jews in the neighboring state of Mizoram. Having grown up in a Jewish family without ever fully embracing the religion of my observant parents, I was intrigued and wanted to know more.....

Lost Tribe Jews, I soon learned, believe they are descended from the 10 tribes of Israel that were exiled from the ancient kingdom of Israel by Assyrians around the eighth century B.C. I decided to seek out members of the Lost Tribes and see if they would allow me to photograph their rituals and daily lives.


Over the last 30 years, thousands of members of the Lost Tribe communities in northeast India have relocated to Israel — partly because, in 2005, the Bnei Menashe were officially declared to have descended from the original tribe of Manasseh.

There are other Jewish communities that have interesting pasts as well. See Recife Journal; A Brazilian City Resurrects Its Buried Jewish Past. Excerpt:
New York Times said:
And right in the middle of the busiest block, one of the most unusual archaeological projects ever undertaken in Brazil is under way: the excavation and reconstruction of the first synagogue built in the New World.The synagogue, Kahal Zur Israel, or Rock of Israel, flourished in the mid-1600's when the Dutch briefly controlled this part of northeastern Brazil and the sugar and tobacco plantations that made it rich. With the return of the Portuguese, though, Recife's Jews made their way to Manhattan, where they founded New York City's Jewish community.....

Even today, when Dr. Kaufman lectures in the interior, ''I am often approached by people who tell me, 'I think I might be Jewish,' '' she said. ''When I ask them why, they produce a menorah or a tattered prayer book and tell me it was handed down to their grandparents by their grandparents before them, or they tell me of family customs that fit squarely within the Sephardic tradition.''
''The ability of elements of faith to persist for so long in such isolation is truly an amazing thing,'' she said.
I have always been fascinated by Jewish history. Obviously our history is full of migration, usually under chaotic conditions. The disposition of the "Ten Lost Tribes" that had earlier separated, as the Kingdom of Israel from the Kingdom of Judea after King Solomon z"l died was of course totally without discernible pattern. Literally no one knows what happened to them, though there are Jewish or proto-Jewish communities in various places in Africa, India, possibly the above-referenced Myanmar, etc. The Recife community has a very strong claim to legitimacy as Jewish since it erupted into view right after more hospitable local government came into power.

What are the readings, thoughts and experience of others?
 
Members of an African tribe are displaying a sacred object they believe to be the Ark of the Covenant in a Harare museum.

The item is a ngoma, a sacred drum made of wood. According to oral tradition, a ngoma was carried from Israel by the Lemba, a South African tribe who believe they are descendants of Jews from the Middle East. After it burst into flame and was destroyed, another ngoma - the one currently on display - was constructed from the ruins.

DNA research has traced the Lemba's origins to the Middle East. More remarkably, a genetic marker largely found only in Cohanim, descendants of the ancient Jewish priesthood, is present in the same proportions among the Lemba's own priests, known as the Buba.

The 80,000 Lemba people, who live in Zimbabwe and northern South Africa, have many customs in common with Jewish tradition, including male circumcision, refraining from eating pork, allowing the blood to drain from an animal before they eat it, wearing skullcaps and prayer shawls during rituals and adorning some tombstones with Stars of David.

But Alex Makotore of Harare, son of a late chief of the Lemba, says that the tribe does not claim to be Jewish. He accuses scholars of trying to impose a foreign identity on them.

"We don't want to look like people who are looking for an identity," he said. "We've got our own African identity, we are not looking for our roots.

"They call us black Jews, but it is them [the scientists] that call us that. If we are linked to the Jews, then fair and fine, but we cannot rightly say that it is only the Jews that [have those customs]."

He does say he is "excited" about a possible connection to the Old Testament, but says the Lemba are unconcerned that there is little connection with the local Jewish community.


Fascinating, but I doubt they have the Ark.
 
I should point out that Judea, i.e. "the Jews", were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. The ten tribes of Israel were not Jews. They were descendants of Jacob's ten other sons, brothers to Judah and Benjamin. Moses was not a Jew, for instance. He was a Levite--a son of Levi.

Many people confuse Israel and Judea because the modern-day nation state of Israel is largely Jewish. And indeed sephardic Jews are Israelites (grandsons of Jacob, also called 'Israel'), but not all Israelites are Jews. In fact, throughout much of Biblical history, the nation of Judea (Judah and Benjamin) and the nation of Israel (the ten tribes) were at war with each other.

The issue gets even more complicated in the fact that the people who are called Jews today are not all descended from Judah, i.e. what the Old Testament calls "Jews". A century before Christ appeared, Judah conquered many of the surrounding nations, and to prevent uprisings its leaders instituted a forced conversion of the conquered peoples to nominal Judaism--i.e. the core religious practices of the Torah. This turned Judaism from what was originally an ethnic delineation into a religious one, and the assimilated peoples brought with them a host of ideas from the ancient Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires (including the Talmud), which founds the basis for what is called "Judaism" today.

It's curious that peoples claiming to descend from Manasseh would identify as Jews, since Manasseh wasn't a Jew. He was a descendant of Joseph, Judah's brother. Hence, he was an Israelite (in the Biblical sense) but not a Jew. They may simply identify as Jews because their culture resembles modern-day Judaism more than any other culture.
 
I should point out that Judea, i.e. "the Jews", were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. The ten tribes of Israel were not Jews. They were descendants of Jacob's ten other sons, brothers to Judah and Benjamin. Moses was not a Jew, for instance. He was a Levite--a son of Levi.

Many people confuse Israel and Judea because the modern-day nation state of Israel is largely Jewish. And indeed sephardic Jews are Israelites (grandsons of Jacob, also called 'Israel'), but not all Israelites are Jews. In fact, throughout much of Biblical history, the nation of Judea (Judah and Benjamin) and the nation of Israel (the ten tribes) were at war with each other.

The issue gets even more complicated in the fact that the people who are called Jews today are not all descended from Judah, i.e. what the Old Testament calls "Jews". A century before Christ appeared, Judah conquered many of the surrounding nations, and to prevent uprisings its leaders instituted a forced conversion of the conquered peoples to nominal Judaism--i.e. the core religious practices of the Torah. This turned Judaism from what was originally an ethnic delineation into a religious one, and the assimilated peoples brought with them a host of ideas from the ancient Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires (including the Talmud), which founds the basis for what is called "Judaism" today.

It's curious that peoples claiming to descend from Manasseh would identify as Jews, since Manasseh wasn't a Jew. He was a descendant of Joseph, Judah's brother. Hence, he was an Israelite (in the Biblical sense) but not a Jew. They may simply identify as Jews because their culture resembles modern-day Judaism more than any other culture.
Hebrew is a race, Judaism is a religion.
 
Hebrew is a race, Judaism is a religion.
That's the modern convention. But people need to understand the distinction between Jews, Israelites, Levites, Hebrews (i.e. sons of Heber), etc. to understand Biblical history.

This tribe claiming to descend from Manasseh is clearly identifying on the basis of ethnic heritage.
 
I do find a good lost tribe history interesting.
 
I should point out that Judea, i.e. "the Jews", were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. The ten tribes of Israel were not Jews. They were descendants of Jacob's ten other sons, brothers to Judah and Benjamin. Moses was not a Jew, for instance. He was a Levite--a son of Levi.

Levites came from the tribe of Levi (Jacob's son). It's one of the Tribes of Israel.
They are all from Jacob - a Jew!



The Tribes of Israel are the traditional divisions of the ancient Jewish people. Biblical tradition holds that the twelve tribes of Israel are descended from the sons and grandsons of the Jewish forefather Jacob and are called “Israel” from Jacob’s name given to him by God.

The twelve tribes are as follows: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh.

The story of the twelve tribes begins when Jacob and his family went down to Egypt as “70 souls” In Egypt “the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly,” and there they became the “Israelite people.” Following the death of Joseph - one of Jacob’s sons who had become viceroy of Egypt Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites by placing upon them burdensome labor.



Jacob was the third and final of the Jewish Patriarch.


The Jewish Sages call Jacob the "favorite" of the Patriarchs.1 After Jacob successfully fought off an angel, G‑d named him Israel (Yisrael in Hebrew)—the name that the entire Jewish people became known by as “Bnei Yisrael,” the Nation of Israel.



Moses, being an Israelite, was a Jew!

 
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Moses, being an Israelite, was a Jew!
I suppose contemporary scholars can define "Jew" however they want, but if we're speaking about the Bible--and specifically the Old Testament--the words translated "Judah" and "Jew" refer specifically and exclusively to the descendants of Judah, the son of Jacob. Jacob himself was not a Jew. He was an Abrahamite (a grandson of Abraham) and a Hebrew (a descendant of Heber [or 'Eber'])

The terms "Israel", "House of Israel", etc. could in some contexts refer to Judah, Benjamin in addition to the other ten tribes descending from Jacob, but in most places refers exclusively to the 10 tribes that split into a separate nation following the rebellion after Solomon's death.
 
Who is "the lost tribe"?
 
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