Miracles in Israel: The Gathering of the Lost 10 Tribes I. From Africa

Nadene Goldfoot                                   Isaiah said it first in 43:5-7:                                

Ethiopian Jewish IDF 

 "I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west:  

I will say to the north, give them up; and to the south, keep not hold them back:

bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth;

Every one that is called by My Name."  (the ingathering) 

                                              

Rachel and her cousin Jacob (son of Isaac and Rebekah) are in the middle with Rachel holding Benjamin.  Rachel will soon die.   Joseph had already grown up and was in Egypt. He fathered 2 tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, by an Egyptian wife.  Joshua was from one of these tribes.  Ephraim was so dominant in later years that the northern tribes of Israel who became the Lost Tribes were sometimes called "Ephraim."
Leah is on the left with her 6 boys; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun  and daughter, Dinah.
On the right are  Zilpah, mother of Gad and Asher, handmaid of Leah and Bilhah, mother of Dan and Naphtali, maidservant of Rachel, Bilhah had been the maidservant of Uncle Laban, father of Rachel.  Laban also had given Leah Zilpah who was also his maidservant.  

 Laban and his daughters had lived in Haran in Aram Naharaim.  Laban was an Aramean. a Semitic tribe who invaded the Fertile Crescent in the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BCE and roamed between the Persian Gulf and the Amanus Mts.  (The Amanus Mts are near the Gulf of Issus and Antioch). 

They had a common ancestry with Israel, and the Israelite patriarchs were said to be of Aramaic origin and maintained ties of marriage with the tribes of Aram.  
                                                                         

The Ethiopian Jews, who used to be called the Falashas (strangers), now call themselves "Beta Israel."  There are several theories about how they came to be but the favorite one is that the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia), took an entourage and traveled to Israel to meet King Solomon.  She converted to Judaism and bore him a son, Menelik.  Menelik returned to Ethiopia with other Hebrew notables of the court who the population is descended from.  

Another theory is that after the Exodus from Egypt in 1,351 BCE, they broke off from Joshua and the other 600,000 and made their way down the coast of Africa to Ethiopia.

Still another is that they emigrated from Israel after the Destruction of Solomon's 1st Temple by the Assyrians in 721 BCE and then again after the 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians  in 586 BCE.  

Female Ethiopian IDF 

                                                                               

A mixed multitude in Israel's IDF; Black Ethiopian or Lemba Jew,
Druze, Christian and Muslim. 

I lived in Safed, Israel in the 1980's and saw the Bene Israelis, who used to be called the Falashas (strangers), be settled in there, where Israel had enough empty apartments.  They came clothed in sheets and were barefoot.  Not being aware of modern life as we know it, they attempted to make a bonfire in the plane to cook a meal.  There was lots to learn, such as walking on steps to board the plane.  They didn't have steps in their culture.  After spending some time being checked out in the hospital, they soon were learning the ways of the city's supermarket, and becoming just as assertive as all of us were.  They had arrived in 1984 in Israel's Operation Moshe, and again in 1991 in Operation Shlomo.

                                                                           

Miss Israel of 2013 was the Ethiopian immigrant, 21 year old
Yityish Titi Aynaw who was now living in Netanya, Israel.  She made
Aliyah at age 10 with her family. Here she is, talking with
President Obama of USA.  

Over 50,000 had arrived.  Now, there are 80,000 immigrants from Ethiopia of which 30,000 are already native sabras (born in Israel.)  

                                                                         

They had had a rough time in Africa due to being different from the other tribes, many of whom were Christians.  They experienced anti-Semitism, too!  Their Judaism was based only on the written Torah.  Then they had lost communication with the major body of Jews as they never knew about our Oral Law.  Their sacred texts were written in their own Amharic language written in Ge'ez.  Because of religious persecution, they had to move inland to Gondar and became a semi-autonomous Jewish kingdom.  They had to walk all the way through Africa to arrive at the plane, and that was a long trip.

                                                                         

The Lemba tribe in South Africa's Benda region also claim descent from ancient Hebrews.  They have converted to Christianity, but maintain many Jewish practices such as circumcision, the shofar using a rhinoceros horn, and some kashrut (keeping kosher) by not eating meat with milk, nor pork.  They have a tribal emblem that is an elephant inside a Star of David.  They used to circumcise on the 8th day as Jews do, 

but have given into doing it as other tribes do, at the 8th year or even older.   Their funeral practices are African, not Jewish. 

Their theory is that they may have come from the Ethiopian Jews, but their main legend is that they are descendants of Hebrew who emigrated from Israel to Yemen.  From their city of Sana'a that has now vanished, they sailed across the straits to the east coast of Africa and then went south to Zimbabwe and South Africa.  So their elders say they are Jewish by lineage.  Buba is their 1st and most senior clan and is said to be the early founder of the tribe.  The men have a different skin coloration and facial features than other Africans.  

                                                                             

It's possible that the very first founders of their community were Hebrew traders as many of their tribe are found to be carrying the Cohen genes. There are about 80,000 Lemba today, living around the city of Louis Trichardt in what was Transvaal, now just the Northern Province of South Africa, and in villages in the SW region of Zimbabwe.  some live in Soweto near Johannesburg.  

Both Black groups had their DNA studied.  Scientists found 2 haplotypes being the most widespread , being about 70% of the total number of haplotypes in Ethiopia.  The Jewish haplotypes were not found in the Ethiopian population, so the conclusion was that today's population descended from ancient people of Ethiopia who had converted to Judaism.  The female line of MT  Haplotypes showed they were a mixture of both Mediterranean and African maternal origins.  The earliest founders may have been  Hebrew, but their genetic pattern is not found in today's Jewish population.  

                                                                       

Maasai Warriors are found to be carrying the Cohen gene, but in one study, 50% were carrying the E1b1b  Y haplogroup of which many Jews also carry.  We have Maasai serving in the IDF.  One fellow is my friend, Parpaih S. Peres, who brings tears to my eyes since he's also acting as Rabbi for his tribal people.  Not all Masai are found to be Jewish, of course, and many are Christians.  My friend is also a lawyer, and had spent time traveling between his native home in Africa and Israel where he continued his Jewish education.
                                                                               

Our ancient Hebrew ancestors certainly got around, didn't they?  He didn't have to serve in the IDF.  He could have just visited Israel, but there he is, risking his life, and has now brought his whole family to live in Israel.  Gosh, but I'm proud of him and glad he's my facebook friend.  

We also have the Black Hebrews, some 2,000 African-Americans from Detroit and Chicago who have been living in Dimona in the Negev Desert that is in southern Israel who believe they are descendants of the Tribe of Judah, of which where all Jews alive are from, with a smattering from Benjamin, most likely.  Judah broke off from Israel as another state after King Solomon died and the word Jew comes from Judah.  If these people had Jewish fathers or mothers or other Jews on their family tree, this would be true.  A DNA test would show up if they have any Jewish chromosomal connections.  

Being they come from Detroit and Chicago, one should understand that those 2 cities have had it in many ways for Blacks.  These are hard times, and Blacks have not done well at least in Detroit, where auto manufacturing has been hurt and jobs must be hard to find.  Whereas it's very hard to get many American Jews to move to Israel, there they are, facing all the dangers our relatives warn us about.  Now, the question is, are they enlisting in the IDF?  If not, I'm not very proud of them.

Black Jews were started by Rabbi Wentworth A. Matthew as a congregation in 1930 in New York.  Many have been converted.  They claim descent from the Ethiopian Jews.  Some are believed to be descendants of black converts to Judaism dating back to American and West Indian slavery days.  Most adopted Judaism quite recently.   Before moving to Dimona, Israel, they had an unsuccessful experience in Liberia.  

After waiting since our 10 tribes were taken from their homeland, they are returning.  DNA is helping us to see how far our people have had to travel.  This is truly a miracle.  The Africans are just one batch who have been found to be members of our Lost Tribes.

Updated 11/4/16 1:24pm. on Black Jews. 

Resource:  DNA Tradition-the genetic link to the Ancient Hebrews by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman

The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/09/us/dna-backs-a-tribe-s-tradition-of-early-descent-from-the-jews.html

http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/01/claiming-to-be-one-of-lost-10-tribes.html Maasi  others

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemba_people

The Lost Ark of the Covenant by Tudor Parfitt

Journey to the Vanished City, by Dr. Tudor Parfitt on Lembas
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2010/10/african-admixture-in-near-east-where.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/09/us/dna-backs-a-tribe-s-tradition-of-early-descent-from-the-jews.html