Ethnonyms: Samaritans, Benei Yisrael, Shamerim, Shomeronim, שומרונים / سامريون, Cutheans, Cuthaeans, Cuthim
Total population: 800-900
Ethnolinguistic classification: Afro-Asiatic → Semitic
Homeland: Mount Gerizim
Regions with significant populations: Gerizim, Holon
Languages and dialects: Samaritan Hebrew, Samaritan Aramaic, Samaritan Arabic, Modern Israeli Hebrew, Neo-Samaritan Hebrew
Religion: Samaritanism (majority), Torah-centered worship, Mount Gerizim pilgrimage and worship, Festival observance from the Torah, Ritual sacrifice, Sabbath, circumcision, and purity laws
Samaritan ethnoreligious community are best understood as a tiny, historically rooted population from the region of Samaria who see themselves as the surviving branch of ancient Israel rather than as a later offshoot of Judaism. Britannica notes that they call themselves Bene Yisrael (“Children of Israel”) or Shamerim (“Observant Ones”), and says they claim descent from Israelites of ancient Samaria who were not deported after the Assyrian conquest; their own official site likewise describes them as the remnant of the ancient northern Kingdom of Israel, descended from the tribes of Joseph. Religiously, they are sharply distinct in practice: they accept only the Samaritan Pentateuch as sacred scripture, reject most later Jewish canon and rabbinic tradition, and hold that Mount Gerizim near Shechem/Nablus—not Jerusalem—is the divinely chosen holy place. Historically, this identity has made them a long-lived minority community defined by continuity, separation, and survival under changing empires; even today Britannica describes them as existing in small numbers in Nablus, while modern scholarship and Samaritan tradition emphasize their strong internal kinship, priestly leadership, and preservation of a distinctive ritual world.
