Samaritaan

Samaritaan, or Samaritan, refers to a small ethnoreligious community originating from the ancient inhabitants of the region of Samaria in the Near East. They trace their ancestry to Israelites who remained in the land during the Assyrian conquest and have maintained a distinct religious and cultural tradition separate from Rabbinic Judaism. Central to Samaritan identity is their belief that Mount Gerizim near Nablus is the original sanctuary chosen by God, in contrast to the Jewish emphasis on Jerusalem.

Today the two main Samaritan communities are located at Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim in the West Bank and in Holon, Israel. The community is governed by hereditary priestly lines (Kohanim and Leviim) and a small council that oversees religious and communal affairs. Samaritan religious life centers on the Torah as their scripture, used in a form known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, which differs in some readings from the Jewish Masoretic Text.

Key practices include worship on Mount Gerizim and adherence to Mosaic law, with a distinctive calendar and rituals. The annual Passover sacrifice on Mount Gerizim is a notable rite performed by a small group of priests and attended by members of the community. Other observances emphasize purity rites, weddings, and community fasts within their own liturgical framework.

Linguistically, Samaritan religious services use a form of Biblical Hebrew written in the Samaritan script; in everyday life, most Samaritans speak Arabic and Hebrew. The global Samaritan population is small, estimated at about 800–1,000 people, with the majority living in Israel and the West Bank and smaller diaspora communities.