"Brit-Am Now"-976
Contents:
1. Question on the attitude of "Jewish Religious circles" to the Lost Tribes
2. Brit-Am Survey Questions: Progress
3. Meeting of Brit-Am Representatives with Rabbi Avichail

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Hi,

I may have asked you this before but I was wondering if you could write something about how you perceive current thinking to be in Jewish Religious circles about the Lost tribes.

Specifically

What significance do most Orthodox Jews attach to the issue? What does most Jewish Thought say about what happened to the lost tribes. Am I right to think most thinks the Northern tribes were reabsorbed back into the southern Kingdom after the babylonian captitvity. Amongst those who believe the tribes are still lost what percentage believes  they are scattered generally everywhere or else in manner that cannot be identified. Presumably Rabbis have been aware down the centruries of the identity message. How have they tended to react to it? If negatively, might that be becasue so much of that identity thinking has been anti-semitic (just as much of it still is?)

I think this question is interesting. I find it so anyway.

Best wishes

Jonathan

Answers:
Most Orthodox Jews do not care about the Lost Ten Tribes one way or other because they are not aware of
the subject. The Lost Ten Tribes are mentioned in Jewish sources but so are numerous other issues not all
of which appear on our everyday agenda.
Recently Rabbi Avichail (with whom we recently met) has aroused some interest in the subject by
bringing to Israel people from Burma, Peru, Mexico, etc.
Brit-Am is attempting to arouse interest in the Brit-Am point of view.
Awareness of our work in English has reached quite a few Rabbis as well as in some cases copies of our
Hebrew work, "Achim Acharim".
No negative reactions have, so far, been recorded.
Jewish sources on the whole say that the Ten Tribes are still lost and will return
in the Messianic Era or just before it.
As Brit-Am has shown the older and more respected sources say the Lost Tribes are in the west.
Some of the more recent sources say they are in the east or are ambiguous.
A Minority opinion believes they were re-absorbed into Judah.
Jewish scholars on the whole do not relate to the issue since it is not considered something
of practical significance, i.e. the question does not arise.
The linking of "Identity" movements with anti-Semitism is a very recent phenomenon.
Jewish scholars as far as I know have never related to British-Israel type beliefs per se one way or the other.
Brit-Am does not consider itself a "Jewish organization" since we are open to "Ephraimites" as well.
Nevertheless our outlook is, or we consider it to be, compatible with  Judaism.
To our knowledge, no known authority has ever said anything different.
God bless you
Yair Davidiy
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2. Brit-Am Survey Questions: Progress
More than 60 answers have been received so far.
This information is very valuable to us.
It will be used to help determine our policies in the near future.
If you would like to see Brit-Am improve itself in any particular field
please send in your answers ASAP.
On the whole people are quite pleased with Brit-Am and the direction it is going in.
There were exceptions and these will be taken into consideration.
We will publish an overall description and summary of the Survey answers.
Most of the answers are very well written and make some very pertinent points.
Why did you not all write in sooner?

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3. Meeting of Brit-Am Representatives with Rabbi Avichail
Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail is the founder of "Amishav".
This organization looks for the Lost Ten Tribes in the  east.
See our article,
<<The Burma Blues.Who is Israel?
 The Burmese or   "Danny Boy"? >>
http://britam.org/Burma.html

Yair Davidiy together with Brit-Am supporter, Colbert ("Bert") Bryan, met with Rabbi Avichail at his residence in Jerusalem.
 The meeting was initiated by Rabbi Avichail after reading a copy of our
book in Hebrew, "Achim Acharim" ("The Other Brothers").
Much of the meeting revolved around  descendants of Captive Jews in the Caribbean
[This is an especial interest of "Bert" who may be putting together a study group on the subject
of Captive Jews (from Judah) in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Those who are interested should contact us and we will pass the information on to Bert.]
In the course of the meeting,
Rabbi Avichail described the activities of his group.
Rabbi Avichail concentrates on the willingness of relevant communities to keep the Jewish religion.
He judges applicants by their willingness to convert, being prepared to come to Israel,
their potential to assimilate to Israeli society, and preferably that they come in small groups.
So far, he said, more than 1000 people from Burma have been brought to Israel, about 120 from Peru,
a group from Mexico, and individuals from elsewhere.
Regarding Brit-Am,
Yair Davidiy had already read the works of Rabbi Avichail in English and Hebrew
but all the same we purchased a copy of Rabbi Avichail's latest edition,
"The Tribes of Israel. The Lost and Dispersed" as well as copies of his short summary of
Jewish Principles and Law,
"Judaism. Am Introduction to basic Jewish Thought and Practice.
The Laws in Detail".
Rabbi Avichail suggested that Yair read the latest edition of his work on the Lost Tribes
and then return for further discussion.
The meeting was quite amicable.


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