Reply To: Black Ethiopian Jews

AAQ: I said earlier that throughout history, from ancient times until today, there have always been groups that falsely claimed to be Jewish. There have been real Jewish communities in various parts of the world where they no longer exist. Some places had ancient communities that left long ago and some had communities that lasted much longer but nevertheless left the region in more recent centuries. This is all well documented and uncontroversial.

That there was, at some point in history a Jewish community living in Ethiopia, hundreds of years ago seems very plausible if even likely, yet something of a question that still was raised with a question mark that resulted in various opinions by the rabbinic establishment over more recent centuries.

Yet, even if we accept the premise that there was a Jewish community there half a millennium ago (which is the approximate timeframe of the Radbaz, Benjamin of Tudela, and Eldad HaDani — and even back then it wasn’t a widely or universally accepted opinion), a group that about 500 years later claims to be Jewish but doesn’t have a known or demonstrated lineage to the group that a few opinions referenced hundreds of years prior, doesn’t make them Jewish.

Here’s just a partial list of other groups that also claim to be Jewish, mostly claiming to be from the Ten Lost Tribes:

Igbo Jews (Nigeria) — they’ve been claiming Jewish since the 1500s
“Jews of Rusape”
House of Israel (Ghana)
Black Hebrew Israelites (United States)
Bene Ephraim (India)
Bene Israel (Mumbai, India)
Bnei Menashe (China and India)
Banu Israil (India)
Benei Sión (Chile)
Knanaya
Lemba (Africa)
Yibir (Somalia)
Xueta (Spain)
Rastafari (Jamaica)
Knanaya (India)
Brutakhi

As you can see, there’s a preponderance of these kooks in Africa, especially.

And there are other groups that some claim to be of Jewish descent, including:

Samaritans
Pashtuns
Kurds

Even the Mormons claim to be the Israelites, although that is an entire different category.