[Avodah] Ten Tribes (was Yovel)

[Lisa Liel]

At 06:22 AM 6/29/2011, Zev Sero wrote:
>On 29/06/2011 1:22 AM, Eli Turkel wrote:
>>>
>>>There was a time when some believed that the American Indian was descended
>>>from the Ten Tribes.
>
>>Even if true why would they be Jewish anymore?.
>
>If they only married among themselves (or with other such tribes) then
>they'd still be Jewish, just like the Bene Israel of the Bombay area,
>who were kept from intermarrying by the Indian caste system.

True, but if they didn't have a history of hilchot gittin, the entire 
population might have a chazaka of being mamzerim.  Sometimes it's 
better for them to assume that they're non-Jews, as was done with the 
Ethiopians until too much political pressure was brought to bear on 
the Israeli rabbinate.

Lisa