Samaritas history

Subsequently, in 1981, the editors of AB established the AB Institute of Samaritan Studies, named after Yefet ben Avraham Tsedaka, the former head of the Samaritan community in Israel.

Kiryat Luza re-established a youth club in 1982, with around 100 members.

Starting in 1985, Conservative Judaism drew farther away from Orthodoxy by ordaining women rabbis.

The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, 82(1/2), 1991) relates that the differences were primarily ones of religious practice, not theology, although the interpretations of differences were becoming increasingly ethnic/partisan and in a few instances violent in nature.

Jewish History, 7(1), 1993) relates that both considered themselves Israelites throughout the Second Temple era (see John 4.12) with Crown stating that it wasn’t until after the Second Jewish War that the Samaritans were unquestionably considered by Jews to be Gentiles.

Samaritans observing Passover on Mount Gerizim in 2006. © Edward Kaprov (Wikimedia Commons)

© 2nd of September 2009, Margaret Mowczko

By the 20th century the Samaritan population dwindled to fewer than 200 individuals, but it grew steadily to about 800 in the 2010s.