The Lost Tribes of Israel

Who Are They and Where Are They Today?

An Unexpected Visitor

Towards the end of the 9th Century the Jewish community of Kairouan, Tunisia, hosted an unexpected visitor. His story was worthy of a Hollywood movie, his claims sent shockwaves throughout the Jewish world, and his impact would be felt for more than a thousand years after. Eldad HaDani claimed to be from the biblical Tribe of Dan and his story begins with him leaving his land from ‘beyond the rivers of Kush (Ethiopia)’[1]. Eldad travelled with a companion from the Tribe of Asher and after being shipwrecked, they washed ashore only to be taken captive by a tribe of cannibals who ate his companion and imprisoned Eldad to ‘fatten him up’. This cannibalistic tribe were then vanquished by fire worshippers who took Eldad as their slave for four years, before ransoming him to a merchant from the Tribe of Issachar for 32 pieces of gold.

Eldad goes on to describe the location of all of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and they are spread far and wide. The tribe of Issachar lives in the mountains and sea coast of Persia, Zevulun are situated in the land from Armenia to the Euphrates, Reuben are behind the mountains of Paran, Ephraim and half of the tribe of Menashe are in the southern mountains of Arabia, and Shimon and the other half of Menashe are in the land of the Babylonians. His own tribe, that of Dan, settled in the land of Havila (Kush) shortly after the separation of the two Kingdoms of Israel and were later joined by the tribes of Naftali, Gad and Asher.

Needless to say, his fantastic story left the humble Jews of Kairouan puzzled and curious as to the authenticity of his tale. He claimed to speak only Hebrew and that his tribe were in possession of an Oral Tradition, or Talmud. Contrary to the Talmud we possess today, which states the opinions of hundreds of sages, his Talmud began every law in the exact same manner, “So we were taught from the mouth of Joshua, the son of Nun, who heard it from Moses our Teacher, who heard it from the mouth of God”. They tested him on various matters of Jewish law and found some differences from their accepted practice, prompting them to seek council from the leading Jewish authority of the time, Rabbi Tzemach Gaon, the head of the Academy of Sura (Babylon) to determine whether Eldad was a trickster or a genuine lost brother.

The response of Rabbi Tzemach was clear and had many ramifications for lost tribe seekers in the centuries to come. He said that indeed Eldad was correct and had heard of his accounts, and we are to forgive him if parts of his story sound too fantastical to be true, but it is likely down to the weariness of his travels and the difficulties he encountered along the way. As for the differences in Halacha, of Jewish law, that can be put down to the fact that the Tribe of Dan left the land of Israel prior to the Assyrian conquest and the establishment of the Babylonian Talmud and many of their practices will look resemble the Biblical practices of their time, when they split from the main body of the Jewish people.

A Divided Kingdom

How do there exist Lost Tribes of Israel in the first place? After the ancient Israelites entered into the Land of Canaan, they conquered the land and divided it up in to 12 portions, one for every tribe. The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Menashe chose to settle outside of the Land of Israel in the Transjordan area. The people established a judicial system whereby they were ruled by Judges, before eventually requesting to be ruled by a king. The first king of Israel was Saul, followed by David, then by his son Solomon. Those three kings oversaw a unified (if not somewhat disjointed) rulership but after their reign, it all went downhill.

King Solomon oversaw the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, which came at a heavy monetary cost to the nation. No expenses were spared in building the House of God, with raw materials being shipped in from every corner of the known world. The taxes he levied on his nation were very high and it seems, for the most part, the people were happy to contribute to the spiritual building project. When the building was complete and King Solomon died, his son Rechavam – rejecting the advice of the elder wisemen in favour of the young advisors – decided to keep the high taxes, ignoring the outrage of the people. It was this economic policy which caused a deep divide among the people and trouble soon followed.

A man by the name of Yeravam ben Nevat, who had served under King Solomon but began to have aspirations to overthrow him – which were discovered – and he fled to Egypt under the protection of the Pharaoh. After King Solomon’s death, Yeravam returned to the holy land and had an encounter with the prophet Achiya HaShiloni, who prophesied that the kingdom will be split in two. Ten tribes will be given to Yeravam to form a new ‘Kingdom of Israel’ in the north of the country, and the remaining two tribes of Yehuda and Binyamin will become the ‘Kingdom of Judah’ in the south. Coming close to an all-out civil war, the nation divided and never recovered.

They existed as two independent states for around 200 years before the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom, deporting the ten tribes and assimilating them into their empire. The Assyrian conquest took a number of years and there were at least three separate deportations that took place, but alas the fate of these ten tribes was sealed and they became lost to antiquity. As for the Kingdom of Judah, they held off the pressure of the Assyrians until a new superpower of Babylon came and swept them away. The Temple was destroyed and the people of Judea were exiled into the Babylonian empire. The Jewish people we know today are descendants of the Kingdom of Judah[2], meaning they belong to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, as well as some from the tribe of Levi who did not have their own portion of the land, rather were scattered in cities throughout both kingdoms.

A Journey Eastwards

So what happened to the ten tribes exiled into the Assyrian empire? The Bible, in three places, tells us the locations that the tribes were taken[3]. “And the king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor [and] the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media” (II Kings 18:11). Another verse in I Chronicles 5:26 excludes the towns of Media and adds a different place called Hara. The exact locations of these cities or towns is up for debate, but one thing is certain, they existed within the Assyrian Empire, most likely to the east of the land of Israel. We even have evidence from The Talmud[4], which notes a discussion among the Rabbis of Babylon about the location of these tribes, suggesting their whereabouts were known around a thousand years after their deportation.

With ruling empires changing hands from Assyrians to Babylonians to Persian, the opportunity for these tribes to move became a reality. Although many are likely to have stayed such as the elderly and infirm, others began the journey that saw them cover a huge amount of ground. Each place they mapped out along the way was noted and word sent back to those left behind of where they had ventured. Every now and then they would settle there and form a community which served as base for those travelling behind them to stop and settle before continuing the journey eastward.

Their first base was Afghanistan, directly east of Israel, where according to some, four of the tribes of Israel established an independent state. This was likely in the region of the Hindu-Kush mountains and the surrounding area[5]. According to Dr Shachan they wanted to reach Japan, and calculated two distinct routes of travel from Afghanistan. The shorter northern route would take them eastward from Afghanistan, by passing north of the Himalayas and traveling through the Pamir mountains via Chinese Turkestan and the Gobi Desert, toward the Korean Peninsula, which was a scheduled meeting point for later expeditions. The southern route would bypass the Himalayas on the south, via what is now Burma (Myanmar), toward the eastern coast of the continent and moving north towards the Korean Peninsula. This southern route was longer than the northern route but much easier to traverse.

Whether the tribes of Israel were as organised as Dr Shachan seems to suggest, or whether they were already somewhat assimilated is up for debate. The Assyrian policy of deportations was precisely to assimilate their captives and expand their empire. Many academics suggest that the tribes are lost because they simply no longer exist; only their legend lives on in the hearts of those who seek them.

Will the Lost Tribes Ever Return?

The question of the continued existence of the Lost Tribes stems from two places, one is a religious argument and the other is anthropological. The Books of the Prophets prophesize about the ultimate return of the lost tribes in the End of Days.

There is a disagreement amongst the sages of the Talmud as to whether the return of the tribes will indeed take place. The famous Rabbi Akiva is of the opinion that they will not return even during the Messianic Era, whereas Rabbi Eliezer suggests they will[6].

The opinion of Rabbi Akiva seems problematic, especially given the prophecies which state explicitly that the Lost Tribes will return.

The Prophet Ezekiel says, “And declare to them, ‘So says the Lord God: ‘Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land. And I will make them into one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be to them all as a king; and they shall no longer be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore.” (Ezekiel 37:21-22).

A number of commentators have come to reconcile Rabbi Akiva’s opinion with the words of the prophets, suggesting either that he was only referring to whether these tribes had a share in the world to come or that, indeed, some of the tribes had already returned and that their descendants would not return[7].

Aside from the religious belief that the tribes will return, there is anthropological reason to suggest why many groups across the globe have either been labelled candidates for being descended from the lost tribes or have self-identified as such. This is largely down to their uniquely Jewish practices and rituals, such as circumcision of male children at eight days from birth, ritual slaughter of animals, the ritual purification of women and levirate marriages – all of which are found in the most unlikely of places.

Could the Lost Tribes of Israel Be the Taliban?

The Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan have many of these practices, including lighting candles on Friday night. They also wear their beards and sidelocks long (like peyot) and wear long shawls that resemble the Jewish tallit. Many of their tribal names sound incredibly Jewish too, such as Rubeni (Reuben), Shinwari (Shimon), Efridi (Ephraim), Ashuri (Asher), Daftani (Naftali), Jajani (Gad), Yusuf-Zai (sons of Joseph), Lewani (Levi) and so on[8].

In 1978, researcher Shalva Weil went to Kashmir, Pakistan, with a delegation to look for these lost tribes. She met with Pashtun elders and inquired of their history. When one of them told her they were ‘Yusuf-Zai’, she asked ‘who was Yusuf’? He answered ‘ibn-Yakub’ (the son of Jacob). When she probed further as to who Yakub was, he replied ‘Israil’, we are ‘Bani-Israil’, we are the children of Israel[9]. In her article titled The Israelite Connections of the Taliban, Weil wrote, “Even today, many Pashtun agree that they are Israelites, even if they generally disassociate themselves with the modern State of Israel.”[10]

Where Are They?

Aside from the Biblical sources mentioned earlier, Rabbinic sources locate the tribes in three primary places: some were exiled to the Sambatyon River. Another group was exiled to a land beyond the Sambatyon River, the third group was swallowed in Rivlathah[11].

Perhaps the best-known legend connected to the lost tribes is that of the Sambatyon River. This mystical river, flowing with sand and stones, rages for six days of the week, resting only on the Sabbath, making it impossible to cross[12]. Tales of this incredible river have been told throughout history with its purported location placed in many parts of the world[13]. Placing the location of the lost tribes beyond this river has always kept them just beyond reach of those who seek them.

Tribe-Seekers

Jewish travellers of the past thousand years have noted their existence, both through direct contact and through hearsay. One of the most important of those was Benjamin of Tudela, who set out on his journey between 1165 and 1167 and returned home in 1173. He travelled from Tudela, in the north of Spain through Rome to Corfu across Greece to Constantinople, visiting the Archipelago, Rhodes and Cyrus on to Antioch. From Antioch, after a stay in Palestine, he proceeded to Damascus, Baghdad and Persia; across the Persian gulf, to India, Ceylon and perhaps China. He identified that in Nishapur, near the city of Meshed, Iran, there were four lost tribes living at the time[14] among other places too.

Another important figure showed up in Rome in 1524, demanding an audience with Pope Clement VII, identified himself as, “prince David son of King Solomon and brother of my older brother King Yosef, king of the tribes of Reuben and half of Menashe” or, in short, David Reuveni[15]. He claimed to be part of a mighty kingdom of Israelites located in the biblical city of Habor, often associated with Khaybar in Arabia. He brought a message that his Israelite kingdom offered a military and political alliance with the Christian world against the Muslim Arabs and Turks. He got his audience with the Pope, who wrote him a letter of recommendation, which he took to Portugal to meet with King John III, whom he met in November of 1525.

Reubeni himself claimed to have a kingdom of 300,000 Israelites under his dominion and the king of Portugal had agreed to supply him with arms. After a number of months, however, Reubeni was asked to leave Portugal by the king, who likely distrusted his motives[16]. Reubeni’s fate was tragic. Having created quite an impression amongst the crypto-Jews of Portugal[17], messianic hopes were stirred, prompting many of them to sell their homes and make their journey to the promised land, he was eventually imprisoned along with one of his ardent followers Shlomo Molcho. Molcho was later burned at the stake and Reubeni likely died in prison.

In the 17th Century another important figure by the name of Antonio Montezinos[18] appeared on the scene. He went to Amsterdam after a trip to the New World claiming to have discovered one of the Lost Tribes of Israel in the Quito Province of Ecuador. He gave his testimony to Rabbi Menashe Ben-Israel, who later published these findings in his important book Mikveh Israel (The Hope of Israel). Aside from being a rabbi, Ben-Israel was a notably influential person of his time. He was a diplomat, printer, and publisher; proficient in seven languages and his circle of friends included Rembrandt, who drew a portrait of him. His book played an important part in the readmission of the Jews to England, who were exiled in 1290. In 1655, he travelled to England to plead with Oliver Cromwell and, playing on the mood of messianic fervour in England at the time, argued that the Jews need to be “spread out to the ends of the earth” before the redemption could occur. He calculated England was indeed considered the ends of the earth and the last place Jews were still forbidden from settling in. It worked, and although he didn’t live to see it, the Jews were allowed to settle in England from 1664.

Not all tribe-seekers were Jews of course, and many of the theories that exist today are down to the writings of Christian missionaries who travelled the world to proselytise, many of whom were undercover tribe-seekers. Perhaps one of the most important such people was Joseph Wolff, a Jewish convert to Christianity who embarked on a number of expeditions to search for the lost tribes. Such was his dedication that one time, when he was enslaved in the Caucasus, he walked unclothed 900 kilometres through Central Asia looking for the tribes[19]. He also spent time in Yemen where he encountered lost tribes[20]. He was certain that the Bene Israel of Bombay were descendants of the tribes, and convinced that lost tribes lived in China too.

At the turn of the 20th Century there was an awakening of explorers in Jerusalem. Perhaps most notable, was Rabbi Shimon Tzvi Horrowitz, founding Rosh Yeshiva of the kabbalistic Sha’ar HaShamayim in Jerusalem. Rabbi Horrowitz’s expedition to the Far East included stops in India, Nepal and China, and was filled with amazing tales and encounters with people who had information on the tribes[21]. Upon his return to Jerusalem, he petitioned the community to set up ‘information centres’ about the lost tribes to collate as much human knowledge as possible as to their whereabouts, and to fund future expeditions.

Another such figure who followed in Rabbi Horrowtiz’s footsteps was Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, who travelled extensively to seek out our lost brothers. He identified the Shinlung tribe as the ‘Bnei Menashe’, children of the Tribe of Menashe, on account of their many Jewish practices and their historical ancestor ‘Manmasa’. Many Bnei Menashe have now completed a formal conversion to Judaism and returned to the Land of Israel.

Who Are the Ten Lost Tribes?

It is almost impossible to answer this question accurately as there have been hundreds of groups throughout the centuries who have been suggested as candidates. As one professor of history put it, “Political claims regarding the ten tribes status of various groups have been made since the early modern period, attaching themselves to real and imagined peoples from, literally, A-Z”[22].

Chronicling all of the groups would be a huge undertaking but to give a sense of just how far this goes, here are some of the more popular claims. From the Pashtun people of Afghanistan[23], the Bnei Menashe of Myanmar[24], to the Lemba in Zimbabwe and South Africa[25], to the Bene Israel of the western coast of India[26], to the Native Americans[27], the Beta Israel of Ethiopia[28], to the Igbo of Nigeria[29], to the Shinto of Japan[30], the Kyrgyz people[31], the Jews of Georgia and Bukhara[32]; even the British[33] people have been identified as lost tribes and adherents to what is known as Anglo Israelism still exist today.

Conclusion

Perhaps the best way to understand the fate and future of the Ten Lost Tribes is to look to the words of one great rabbis of the 16th Century, Rabbi Yehuda Loewe, more commonly known as the Maharal of Prague. He taught[34] that since God decreed that the exile of the tribes will not be overturned until the end of days, we could never discover their location by searching.

It seems they are not only lost to the Jewish people, but they are also lost to themselves, until the time comes when, as Isaiah proclaims, “And it shall come to pass on that day, that a great shofar shall be sounded, and those lost in the land of Assyria and those exiled in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the Lord on the holy mount in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13)

[1] This encounter with Eldad produced three important documents. The first is an epistle composed by Eldad telling of his adventures, Sefer Eldad. The second is a query about this man sent by the Jews of Kairouan to the highest legal authority of the time, it includes his response. The third is a study of certain rituals described by Eldad and written by the Kairouanis, which exists independently and was probably written at a later point. See Benite, The Ten Lost Tribes, A World History, page 86.

[2] Some suggest that prior to the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom, many people from the ten tribes fled south to their brethren in the Southern Kingdom and were mixed up among the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. See Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on the Ten Lost Tribes, Introduction 2.

[3] The inscriptions of the Assyrian King Sargon II also testify to the deportations of Israelites from Samaria and can be found in the British Museum.

[4] Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yevamot 16b-17a

[5] See Avigdor Shachan, In the Footsteps of the Ten Lost Tribes, page 45

[6] Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 110b

[7] See Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megillah 14b and Tractate Arakhin 33a, that the prophet Jeremiah went to return many of the lost tribes in his day

[8] Itzchak Ben-Zvi, the first President of Israel, dedicated a whole chapter to the Afghan tribe theory in his book, The Exiled and the Redeemed

[9] Video lecture titled, “R&B: Dr. Shalva Weil on ‘In Search of the Lost Ten Tribes’", presented at the Root and Branch Association lecture in the Orthodox Union Israel Center in Jerusalem in 2016.

[10] Shalva Weil, The Israelite Connections of the Taliban – By Shalva Weil for ISN Insights. Africa News Analysis

[11] Pesikta Rabbati 31

[12] Targum Yonatan, Exodus 34:10 is likely the earliest Jewish source for the Sambatyon, along with the story of Eldad HaDani. The name Sambatyon is based on the word Shabbat, given that the river rests on Shabbat.

[13] See Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 55b, where Rabbi Akiva has a discussion with Turnus Rufus, governor of the Roman Empire, about whether the Rabbi could prove Shabbat was indeed the day of rest. Rabbi Akiva brings a ‘proof’ from the River Sambatyon which flows for six days of the week and rests of the Sabbath. Although a location of the river is not given, we can infer it was likely in the Near East. Nachmanides on Deuteronomy 32:26 located the Sambatyon as the Gozan River mentioned elsewhere in the Bible as the location of the Assyrian deportation of the Northern Tribes of Israel, such as in II Kings 17:6. Pliny the Elder, in Naturalis Historia, located the river in Judea. Josephus in his Wars of the Jews writes it was in Antiochia. Rabbi Shimon Tzvi Horrowitz in his book Kol Mevasser has suggested it may be the Ganges river in India.

[14] Elkan Nathan Adler, Jewish Travelers in the Middle ages page 53

[15] Nathan Elkan Adler, Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages, page 251; see also Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, The Ten Lost Tribes, A World History, page 113.

[16] Aaron Zeev Aescoly, The Story of David Hareuveni: Based on the Oxford Manuscript, Bialik Institute: Jerusalem 1993 (Hebrew)

[17] Often referred to as marranos or anusim, these Jews were forced to convert to Christianity yet continued to practice Judaism in secret

[18] Also known as Aharon HaLevi

[19] Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, The Ten Lost Tribes, A World History, page 4

[20] He claims to have spent six days with the Rechabites, descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab, a group also part of the lost-tribe-seekers search, as well as people from the tribe of Dan. See Journal of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, pp. 389

[21] See Rabbi Horrowitz’s book Kol Mevaser (Hebrew)

[22] Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, The Ten Lost Tribes, A World History, pages 5-6

[23] Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, Shivtei Israel (or in English, The Tribes of Israel). See also Itzchak Ben-Zvi, The Exiled and the Redeemed. See also Shalva Weil’s article The Israelite Connections of the Taliban

[24] Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, Shivtei Israel, and see also Hillel Halkin, Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel

[25] Tudor Parfitt, Journey to the Vanished City

[26] Shirley Berry Isenberg, India’s Bene Israel

[27] Menashe Ben-Israel, Mikveh Israel (or in English, The Hope of Israel)

[28] Menachem Waldman, The Jews of Ethiopia The Beta Israel Community

[29] Tudor Parfitt, Black Jews in Africa and the Americas

[30] Ikuro Teshima, The Ancient Jewish Diaspora in Japan: The Tribe of Hada – Their Religious and Cultural Influence. See also Joseph Eidelberg, The Japanese and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. See also Tudor Parfitt, The Thirteenth Gate, chapter four

[31] Richard Hewitt, The Kyrgyz Epic of Manas

[32] Itzchak Ben-Zvi, The Exiled and the Redeemed

[33] David Baron, The History of the Ten Lost Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined

[34] Maharal of Prague, Netzach Israel, Chapter 34