You are listening to Rabbi Harry Rosenberg as he looks at the television camera and tells you to your face what meticulous research proves. Deal with it.
About Rabbi Rosenberg
Rabbi Harry Rozenberg is the founder of Partners in Israel. Rozenberg was born in Queens and brought up in a Conservative Jewish home. Rozenberg holds B.A. degree in Judaic Studies from SUNY (State University of New York), he received semicha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Founder of the Theological Research Institute, a nationally accredited institution.
As Rozenberg delved deeper into learning about the lost tribes, he discovered how many groups of people living in the world today have a national narrative tracing their lineage back to the Children of Israel.
Example 1: There is a tradition among the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan (population approximately 40 million) of being descended from the exiled lost tribes of Israel. The Pashtuns refer to themselves as “Banay Israel.” Their tribes’ names have Hebrew origins, like Yusufzai, meaning sons of Joseph and Afridi. They have traditions and customs very similar to Judaism, including dietary restrictions, wedding canopy, lighting Sabbath candles, and more.
Example 2: The Igbo Tribe of Africa
Rozenberg also learned about the Igbo tribe of Africa. While there are only a few thousand of them left in Africa today, they were the main group of Africans that were brought to the U.S. during the slave trade. Rozenberg believes that a large number of today’s African Americans have Igbo ancestry and therefore Jewish ancestry.
This group also practices Jewish rituals, including circumcision of boys on the eighth day, separation of husband and wife during the women’s menstrual cycle, dietary laws very similar to kosher, and more. It was through this Igbo connection that Rozenberg and Stoudemire met.
Example 3: Ancient Jews in Japan
In Japan, on the island of Honshu, there is a mountain called “Mount Moriya.” This is the same name in the Torah where Abraham performed the binding of Isaac and is the place of the Holy of Holies in Jewish tradition. For the local people on Honshu, their Mount Moriya is also associated with God. In fact, they even reenact the binding of Isaac each year as part of their Shinto tradition and go through the entire story, including sacrificing an animal in the place of a boy. The festival is called “Mi-isaku-chi,” which some believe originated from the Hebrew “Yitzchak.”
There is also a practice of the holy men of the island wearing black boxes, called “Tokin” and have a very clear resemblance to tefillin.
CONCLUSION
The commonly held belief that only white people from Europe or the nation of Israel can lay claim to being "Jewish" is a blatant lie. That lie is historically inaccurate, linguistically inaccurate, and easily disproven by the overwhelming abundance of archeological evidence.
