Samaritans Ethnic Community

A Samaritans Ethnic Community is a ethnic community that ...

• Context:
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • In the 12th century, there were an estimated 1,900 Samaritans in Palestine and Syria.
  • By 1919, the number decreased to 140.
  • In 2013, the number increased to 756.
  • In 2023, the number is estimated to be around 874.
  • ...
• See: Brazil, Passover (Samaritan Holiday), Mount Gerizim, Nablus, Israel, Holon, State of Palestine, West Bank, Kiryat Luza, Modern Hebrew, Palestinian Arabic, Samaritan Hebrew.

---

---

References

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans Retrieved:2023-11-4.
  • Samaritans, ( /səˈmærɪtənz/; Template:Text; Template:Lang-he; Template:Lang-ar) also known as Israelite Samaritans, are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites.Template:Sfn They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic and ethnic religion similar to Judaism, but differing in several important aspects.

    Samaritan tradition claims the group descends from the northern Israelite tribes who were not deported by the Neo-Assyrian Empire after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. They consider Samaritanism to be the true religion of the ancient Israelites and regard Judaism as a closely related but altered religion. Samaritans also regard Mount Gerizim (near both Nablus and biblical Shechem), and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to be the holiest place on Earth.Template:Sfn They believe that the schism between them and the Jews originated from Eli's establishment of a competing shrine at Shiloh, in opposition to Mount Gerizim.

    Once a large community, the Samaritan population shrank significantly in the wake of the brutal suppression of the Samaritan revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Mass conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines and later to Islam following the Muslim conquest of the Levant further reduced their numbers.Template:Sfn In the 12th century, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela estimated that only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in the regions of Palestine and Syria.Template:Sfn

    As of 2022 the community stood at around 874 individuals, divided between Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritan compound in Holon.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The Samaritans in Kiryat Luza speak Levantine Arabic, while those in Holon primarily speak Israeli Hebrew. For the purposes of liturgy, Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic are used, both written in the Samaritan script. The head of the Samaritan community is the Samaritan High Priest.

    Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice versa, largely due to interfaith marriages. While Israel's rabbinic authorities came to consider Samaritanism to be a sect of Judaism,Template:Sfn the Chief Rabbinate of Israel requires Samaritans to undergo a formal conversion to Judaism in order to be officially recognized as Halakhic Jews. Rabbinic literature rejected Samaritans unless they renounced Mount Gerizim as the historical Israelite holy site.Template:Efn Samaritans possessing only Israeli citizenship in Holon are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, while those holding dual Israeli and Palestinian citizenship in Kiryat Luza are exempted from mandatory military service.

    There are also a significant number of growing communities, families, and individuals who are not indigenous to the Holy Land currently known around the world who identify with, and observe the Samaritan tenets of faith and traditions.

    The largest community globally, the "Shomrey HaTorah" of Brazil, has approximately 20,000 members as of February 2023, according to A. B. - The Samaritan News.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

---