The interest in the fate of the Ten Lost Tribes received a new impetus from a number of developments, among them the growth of the Kabbalah and of the Jewish mysticism after the 16^th century, including various messianic movements, of them that of Shabbetai Zvi (1626-1676) having the strongest impact. The great geographical discoveries and the European contact with previously unknown regions and populations also contributed to an increased interest in the quest for the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The Jerusalem kabbalist R. Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi in a letter from 1528 describes the Jews of Ethiopia as descendants from the tribes of Dan and Gad while in a letter to R. Israel Ashkenazi of Jerusalem there is mention of a man claiming to belong to the Ten Lost Tribes and who testified that the Ten Lost Tribes do not have any knowledge of the Oral Law. David Reubeni, a 16^th century Jewish adventurer, managed to be received by Emperor Charles V in Regensburg along with the false messiah Solomon Molcho (1500-1532), and claimed to represent a relative of King Joseph who ruled over the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh. David Reubeni eventually died in a Spanish prison in 1538, but his extraordinary story prompted Abraham ben Mordechai Farissol (c.1451-c.1525), the first Jewish author to mention the newly discovered American continent, to dedicate an entire chapter of his tractate to the subject of the Ten Lost Tribes – (Igeret Orhot Olam, Venice, 1586). In the 17^th century, the myth of the Ten Lost Tribes became a central theme of Sabbatean propaganda – Shabbetai Zvi; the false messiah is depicted as commander of the Ten Tribes. At the same period, R. Manasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam (1604-1657) in his book Mikve Israel (Hope of Israel, London, 1652) brings the testimony of the Portuguese crypto-Jew, Aaron Levi (known as Antonio de Montezinos), who claimed to have encountered during his travels to South America (Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela) Indian tribes practicing some Jewish rituals and who allegedly were descendants of the tribes of Reuben and Levi. Manasseh ben Israel used the legend of the lost tribes in pleading successfully for the admission of Jews into England during Oliver Cromwell's regime.

The 19^th century saw a renewed interest into the fate of the Ten Lost Tribes by Jews. Some Jewish communities sent emissaries to search for the Ten Lost Tribes; other seekers were private individuals who undertook to disclose the place of the Ten Lost Tribes. Of them a special mention should be made of Joseph Israel (1818-1864), a Romanian-born Jewish adventurer and great admirer of Benjamin of Tudela to the extent that he changed his name to Benjamin the Second. Joseph Israel traveled between 1845 to 1859, from Istanbul, Turkey, to Egypt, Syria, Land of Israel, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, India, and after 1859 to North America, searching and inquiring everywhere for the Ten Lost Tribes. Joseph Israel met various Jewish communities and collected valuable information about their way of life and traditions. Among the Jewish communities of Asia, he met of the Bene Israel in India who in Israel's opinion were descendants of of the Ten Tribes.

Jewish travelers from the Land of Israel that set out in search of the Ten Lost Tribes in the 19^th century include Rabbi Baruch of Pinsk, who was murdered in Yemen having left Safed in 1830; Isaac son of Chaim Baruch Halevi (d. 1886) who traveled from Tiberias to India hoping to find the Sambatyon river; Ezekiel Asche, a German-born physician who left Jerusalem in 1848 and disappeared in Ethiopia, having traveled through Egypt and Yemen; and Rabbi Moshe Yaffe of Hebron who disappeared during his second visit to India in 1848.

Moses ben Isaac Edrehi (1774-c.1842), a Moroccan-born rabbi and kabbalist who lived for many years in Amsterdam and London and eventually immigrated to the Land of Israel is the author of two works dealing with the quest for the Ten Lost Tribes. Ma'aseh Nissim (originally published in Hebrew and German in Amsterdam in 1809), is a mythical description of the Sambatyon river who was later published in London in 1834, along with An historical account of the ten tribes, settled beyond the river Sambatyon in teh Eastl with many other curious matters relating to the state of the Israelites in various parts of the world, published in London in 1836.

The quest for the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel has been conducted by Jews, Christians and Muslims, in practically every corner of the earth. As a matter of fact during the last centuries this search turned into a theme that has reoccurred occasionally with many Christian travelers, missionaries, authors, and explorers belonging to the Roman Catholic Church as well as to various Protestant denominations. Jewish motifs and beliefs were adopted by non-Jews while Jews accepted some concepts and ideas developed by non-Jewish seekers of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

At various periods, indigenous tribes and peoples over all continents were identified as possible descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. The supposed offspring of the Ten Lost Tribes have included different ethnic groups living in Asia - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burma (Myanmar), Kurdistan, Kashmir, China, Japan; in various countries and regions of West Africa – Mali, Ghana, Nigeria; in Southern Africa – Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Africa, Mozambique, in East Africa - Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea; in Europe - the Celts of the British Isles; in Oceania - the native people of New Zealand; in South America - Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela; and in North America, where various native American nations as well as the Mormons were linked to the Ten Lost Tribes. Occasionally, beliefs disseminated by European travellers, Jews and Christians alike, were eventually adopted by some of the indigenous ethnic groups and sometimes, after being further elaborated by them, evolved into an integral part of their ethos and identity.

Bene Israel family in Bombay Bombay, India, c.1890 Photo: Carmel Berkson, India Beth Hatefutsoth – Visual Documentation Center Carmel Berkson Collection, India

Prayer at the Zion Shalom Synagogue in Aizawl Mizoram, India, 1989 Photo: Samuel Joram Beth Hatefutsoth – Visual Documentation Center Courtesy of Myer Samra, Australia

The Quest for the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

The New World

The discovery of the American continent with its various populations generated among the Jews and the Christians alike a number of speculations about the supposed Israelite origin of the American Indians. The Spanish bishop Bartolomeo de Las Casas (1484-1566), a fervent defender of the rights of the native nations of the Americas, forwarded a theory according to which the American Indians were descendants from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The same idea was advanced by some English missionaries. Thomas Thorowgood is his book Jewes in America, or Probabilities that the Americans are of the Race (London, 1650) strongly supported the idea of relating the American Indians to the ancient Israelites. Although Thorowgood's theory was disputed soon after its publication, among others by members of the clergy, it nevertheless did not loss its attractiveness for other seekers of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who continued to raise new ideas and speculations in support of the Israelite origin of all or part of Native American nations in both the Northern and Southern American continents.

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