brachy-pride
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2005
- Messages
- 123
The other thread about a black actor playing Jesus made me think of this...
They have been living an endogamic in the land of Israel for milleniums, I think they are a good representative of how jews looked like 2.000 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan
Samaritans (Hebrew: שומרונים(Known in the Talmud as Kuthim) "Shamerim Yisraelim" are both a religious and an ethnic group. Ethnically, they are descended from a group of inhabitants that have connections to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the beginning of the Christian era. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, a religion based on the Torah. Samaritans claim that their worship (as opposed to mainstream Judaism) is the true religion of the ancient Israelites, predating the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
In 2005 there were about 700 Samaritans, living mostly in Kiryat Luza on the holy Mount Gerizim near the city of Nablus in the West Bank, and in the city of Holon in Israel.
The Samaritans speak either Modern Hebrew or Palestinian Arabic as their mother language. For liturgical purposes, Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic are used.
Samaritans now number just under 650, divided approximately equally between their modern homes on Mount Gerizim, which is sacred to them, and the town of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv.
Until the 1980s, most of the Samaritans resided in the Palestinian town of Nablus below Mount Gerizim. They relocated to the mountain itself as a result of the First Intifada (1987-1990), and all that is left of the community in Nablus itself is an abandoned synagogue. In 2001, the Israeli army set up an artillery battery on Gerizim.
Relations of Samaritans with Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in neighboring areas have been mixed. In 1954, Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi created a Samaritan enclave in Holon but Israeli Samaritans today complain of being treated as "pagans and strangers" by orthodox Jews. [citation needed] Those living in Israel have Israeli citizenship. Samaritans in the Palestinian territories are a recognized minority and they send one representative to the Palestinian parliament. [citation needed] Palestinian Samaritans have been granted passports by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
As a small community divided between two mutually hostile neighbors, the Samaritans are generally unwilling to take sides in the conflict, fearing that whatever side they take could lead to repercussions from the other.
One of the biggest problems facing the community today is the issue of continuity. With such a small population, divided into only four families (Cohen, Tsedakah, Danfi and Marhib; a fifth family died out in the last century) and a general refusal to accept converts, there has been a history of genetic disease within the group due to the small gene pool. To counter this, the Samaritan community has recently agreed that men from the community may marry non-Samaritan (i.e. Israeli Jewish) women, provided that the women agree to follow Samaritan religious practices. This often poses a problem for the women, who are typically less than eager to adopt the strict interpretation of Biblical (Levitical) laws regarding menstruation, by which they must live in a separate dwelling during their periods and after childbirth. Nevertheless, there have been a few instances of intermarriage. In addition, all marriages within the Samaritan community are first approved by a geneticist at Tel HaShomer Hospital, in order to prevent the spread of genetic disease.
They have been living an endogamic in the land of Israel for milleniums, I think they are a good representative of how jews looked like 2.000 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan
