The Samaritans (Hebrew: שומרונים Shomronim, Arabic: السامريون as-Saamariyun) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, a parallel but separate religion to Judaism or any of its historical forms. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by the exiled returnees.
Ancestrally, they claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the beginning of the Common Era. The Samaritans, however, derive their name not from this geographical designation, but rather from the Hebrew term שַמֶרִים (Šāmĕrı̂m), "Keepers [of the Law]".[2] In the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Judaism, their claim of ancestral origin is disputed, and in those texts they are called Cutheans (Hebrew: כותים, Kuthim), allegedly from the ancient city of Cuthah (Kutha), geographically located in what is today Iraq. Modern genetics has suggested some truth to both the claims of the Samaritans and Jewish accounts in the Talmud.[3]
Although historically they were a large community — up to more than a million in late Roman times, then gradually reduced to several tens of thousands up to a few centuries ago — their unprecedented demographic shrinkage has been a result of various historical events, including most notably the bloody repression of the Third Samaritan Revolt (529 CE) against the Byzantine Christian rulers and the mass forced conversion to Islam in the Early Muslim period of Palestine.[4][5] According to their tally, as of November 1, 2007, there were 712[1] Samaritans living almost exclusively in two localities, one in Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim near the city of Nablus (Shechem) in the Palestinian territories' West Bank, and the other in the Israeli city of Holon.[6] There are, however, followers of various backgrounds adhering to Samaritan traditions outside of Israel (especially in the United States) which are not dealt with in this article.
With the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language by Jewish immigrants to pre-state Israel, and its growth and officialization following the establishment of the state, most Samaritans today speak Modern Hebrew, especially in Israel. As with their counterpart Muslim, Christian, Druze and other Palestinian religious communities, the most recent spoken mother tongue of the Samaritans was Arabic, and it still is for those in the West Bank city of Nablus. For liturgical purposes, Samaritan Hebrew, Samaritan Aramaic, and Samaritan Arabic are used, all of which are written in the Samaritan alphabet, a variant of the Old Hebrew alphabet, distinct from the so-called square script "Hebrew alphabet" of Jews and Judaism, which is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet.[7] Hebrew, and later Aramaic, were languages in use by the Israelites of Judea prior to the Roman exile, and beyond.[8]
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Lancashire Telegraph, UK
By David Watkinson samaritans volunteers are dealing with a tremendous increase in calls since the start of the credit crunch. And bosses are now planning to introduce a new text message service to reach out to younger people who may want to ...
Ben Howarth
2009-04-20 19:36:00
The . Samaritans. Were Engaged. Labour Politics, Trivia, Cricket, Indie Bands etc... Monday, 20 April 2009. Web Round-up (I've been reading...) First up, the Daily Mash. Even if you want to get angry about public spending, its probably . ...
Q. Are there any charities apart from samaritans who employ voluntary counsellors even if they are not qualified?
Asked by camartin1979 - Sun Feb 4 17:48:59 2007 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments
A. also, Cruse, most will have in house training that may count toward your counselling time!
Answered by Sluttty McSluttt - Sun Feb 4 18:00:14 2007
