Where is the Lost Tribe of Israel?

Answer 1

The notion of the ten lost tribes of Israel arose after the Assyrian destruction of Israel in 722 BCE. The Assyrians exiled many of the Israelites who were unable to flee south into Judah or Egypt. The exiles gradually assimilated into their host communities, adopted thel local religious cults and lost their separate ethnic identity. However, some are unwilling to accept the possibility that the Israelites so readily assimilated, when two hundred years later the Jews managed to retain their identity. Thus the notion that somewhere out there, there must still be the descendants of the Israelite exiles.

Since the Israelites assimilated into the various nations of the Assyrian empire, their descendants, the "lost tribes", will be some of the people among modern Assyrians, Iraqis, Syrians and so on. Occasionally some scholars try to investigate Middle Eastern family groups whose names suggest a possible Hebrew origin.

Answer 2

who knows, big question... there are people claiming that they are part of the 10 tribes but nobody really knows.

Nobody knows, which is a big part of the reason that they are referred to as "lost".

Answer:When they were carried into captivity (traditional date: 555 BCE), the Ten Tribes were brought at first to Assyria, but later spread further afield. Fanciful notions which were put forth centuries ago (such as identifying the Ten Tribes with the Native Americans, Irish or Japanese) may be ignored. Less unreasonable are reports linking the Ten Tribes with groups in Afghanistan or the Arabian peninsula (for example). But these remain moot until the Future Redemption and are not dwelt upon in Judaism today.

It should be noted that we Jews, descendants of Judah, do possess among us small percentages of every one of the other eleven Tribes, since there was a slight amount of intermingling before the two Kingdoms separated. See for example the Talmud, Pesachim 4a.

Answer 3

Because of the lack of a continuous tradition in this particular matter, we can only speculate. Some well-known claims, such as the suggestion that the Native Americans or African Americans are the Lost Israelite Tribes, we can confidently dismiss offhand; and DNA analyses have also debunked such ideas. Other claims, such as that which has been suggested concerning the Pathani (Pashtun), are less far-fetched but must for the time being remain nothing more than a guess.

The Tribes of Israel today are the Jewish people. The great majority of Jews today, some 80% or so, are descended from the tribe of Judah (plus converts and descendants of converts). The remaining 20% include Levites (from the tribe of Levi), Cohanim (also a part of the Levites), the entire Tribe of Benjamin, and a small percentage from every one of the remaining tribes. (When the Ten Tribes were carried off into Assyria and didn't return, some of them had already mixed into the tribe of Judah before that, through marriage and through large-scale migration [e.g. 2 Chronicles 15:9]. Also, the Talmud relates [Megillah 14b] that, one century after the Ten Tribes were exiled [and their location was still known], Jeremiah journeyed to where they were and brought some of them back to Judea. Thus, today's Jewry includes a small percentage of every one of the Lost Tribes. [See for example the Talmud, Pesachim 4a.])

See also:

Jewish history timeline

Are Hebrews Israelites and Jews the same people?

Answer 4

Historians do not yet know what happened to these tribes. They are often called the "Lost tribes of Israel.