This is an open article. I am specifically not being all-inclusive. Please add your comments and knowledge on the issue. I invite the moderators to combine the comments into the original post.
Biblically, we are told of 70 nations that sprouted from the three sons of Noah. Throughout the generations nations have split, creating new borders and distinctions. However, as Jews, it is hard to miss the almost common occurrence of some group of people claiming to be part of the tribes separated and dispersed from the group left intact, from which we believe we can trace our ancestry (i.e., part of the ten lost tribes).
So many people have come up with this claim that it seems that instead of the Jewish people being a minority in the world of gentiles, somehow the Jewish people have dispersed and dominated many of the seventy nations.
The Israelites. This group has already been mentioned on Jewneric, with Rabbi Funnye of the Chicago congregation having achieved a near celebrity status in the last twenty years. They believe that they are from the tribes of Israel, left in Africa, and vary in their customs along the same spectrum as “standard” Jews vary in their practices.
The Rastafarians. These buffalo soul-diers believe that they are born from Jacob as well. They believe that Samson wore dreadlocks as part of his being a Nazir. Aside from some other wacky stuff, Bob Marley is noted to have put tons of references and he uses “Jah” as the name of God in his music.
The Japanese. You might think I am making this one up, but not long ago Masayuki Imai, the writer of a Japanese film, Winds of God, was interviewed on the radio where he made the claim that the Japanese believe that they are descended from Jews and that the original word for Japanese was “Jew”. He is not alone in this belief.
The English. This one I find to be cute at best: British could be translated from the Hebrew as “Man of the Covenant” (or something similar). This would indicate that Great Britain was founded by a lost cluster of Jews (because how would anyone have landed there if they weren’t lost?).
I know I’m missing some documented cases of found tribes or tribes with claims. Please help fill in the blanks and add your thoughts on this oddity. Converted tribes count too: The Khazars, the Gibonites, the Kusim, et cetera.
