I CLOSE-UP
I
ndiana Jones and the Lost
Tribes of Israel? Why not? it
has all the right ingredi-
ents—ancient legend, fabu-
lous characters, adventure,
danger, drama. Spielberg
might really go for it.
But if Indy ever does set off on a
desperate quest for the Lost Tribes,
he'll find himself trekking through
Africa, India, Japan, Afghanistan .. .
and always following in the footsteps
of a handsome British professor with
the impossibly romantic name of
Tudor Parfitt.
On the face, of it, Dr Parfitt does
not seem a likely candidate for hunt-
ing down lost Jewish tribesmen in far-
flung corners of the earth, but British
academics are renowned for their in-
trepid eccentricities, and the passion
that drives this blond, blue-eyed Lon-
don University professor is no
exception.
Parfitt points out that ever since
the Assyrians destroyed the northern
kingdom of Israel 2,700 year ago, the
fate of its dispersed people—and the
promise of their redemption—has ex-
erted a powerful tug on the human
imagination.
Over the past few thousand years,
hardly a people or tribe has not laid
claim to, or been linked with, what he
describes as "this fabulous ancestry"
Surprisingly, perhaps, in an Age of
Skepticism, interest in the Lost
Tribes has never been greater. Sud-
denly all manner of people are in-
sisting that they are lost tribesmen.
And some have managed to make
their claims stick.
Parfitt did not have far to go to
start his research: the flourishing
British Israel World Federation
clings to a centuries-old belief that
Britons themselves are descended
from the 1bn Lost Tribes.
Fortunately for Parfitt, however,
most of those who lay claim to des-
cent from "this fabulous ancestry"
live in more exotic parts of the world.
Which adds enormously to the adven-
ture and excitement of tracking them
down.
As a result, Parfitt's quest has
taken him to the Bene Israel and the
Shinlung peoples of India, Burma
and Bangladesh; to the colorful neo-
6
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
SEARCHER
FOR THE
ST TRIBES
A British professor with a
romantic name has been
absorbed for the last 25
years with a quest for the
remnants of the dispersed
peoples of ancient Israel.
HELEN DAVIS
Special to The Jewish News
Judaic groups of Japan, and to the
Falashas of Ethiopia. He has also
spent time with the Jews of
Damascus who are "lost" in a dif-
ferent way.
Most recently, however, he spent
six months trekking through
Southern and Central Africa in-
vestigating claims that Lemba tribe
- perhaps the most intriguing, and
least known, of the "Lost Tribes"—
are descended from the Children of
Israel.
Parfitt leaped onto the trail follow-
ing a tip from Dr. Margaret Nabarro,
a South African anthropologist. His
journey started in Vha Venda, which
the apartheid regime has ascribed as
the "independent" Venda state.
There, living among the Venda as
they apparently have done for cen-
turies, Dr Parfitt encountered the
Lembaruger's Jews" (so called
because the turn-of-the-century Boer
leader, Paul Kruger, had pointed out
their many apparently Semitic char-
acteristics).
Early white explorers and mission-
aries had also noted the unusual
phenomenon that they practised
crafts and skills—they were potters,
artisans, metalworkers and trades-
men—which were unknown to other
tribes in the area at the time.
According to a study published by
anthropologist H.A. Stayt in 1931,
"the life and customs of this peculiar
people are strangely reminiscent of
the wandering Jews of medieval
times. They are rapidly losing their
individuality since European traders
have robbed them of their heritage."
Many of the 70,000-80,000 South
African Lemba are indeed strikingly
Semitic in physical appearance. More
compelling, however, is the fact that,
like Orthodox Jews, they eat no pork
or "self-dead" animals, they practise
circumcision, do not mix meat and
milk, and have ritualized matters of
personal purity.
Although many Lemba in South
Africa were converted to Christiani-
ty, there is now a strong move to
"return" to what the Lemba leaders
are convinced are their Jewish roots.
They claim kinship with the
Falashas of Ethiopia, who have been
accepted by Israel's rabbinic