The subtext of the iconic parable of “the Good Samaritan” was that the compassionate man who Jesus (a Jew) exalted over the Jewish elite was from a community greatly despised by the Jews. In the first century A.D., when this parable was told, there were over a million Israelite-Samaritans. Their numbers then dwindled. Hence the legend of “The Lost Tribes of Israel.”
Yet here the Israelite-Samaritans still are. Their population has risen from fewer than 200 people a century ago to about 800 today and continues to rise. They live by most ancient Biblical traditions and are a cultural treasure of Biblical proportions.
The Israelite-Samaritans have achieved something that has proved elusive to others: they live and thrive in peace with the Israelis and the Palestinians both. And they offer themselves as a “Bridge of Peace” in the Middle East.
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