Samaritans

Samaritans refers to two related but distinct topics: an ethnoreligious community in the Levant and a modern charitable organization.

The Samaritan people are an ethnoreligious group originating in the ancient northern Israelite community that lived in the region of Samaria. They maintain a distinct religion and identity centered on the Samaritan Pentateuch, their own liturgy, and worship primarily at Mount Gerizim near Nablus. They regard themselves as descendants of the Israelites who remained in the land after the Assyrian conquests and historically have kept a priestly leadership drawn from the tribe of Levi. Their religious center, gravity, and ritual life are separate from mainstream Judaism and its rabbinic tradition. The Samaritans preserve unique traditions, calendars, and scripts, and they historically maintained a compact community with two main centers: a settlement around Mount Gerizim (Kiryat Luza) and another population in Israel’s central region, with smaller diaspora communities abroad. In modern times, the community remains small, typically numbering around nine hundred to one thousand people, with the majority living in Israel and the West Bank.

Beliefs and practice emphasize adherence to the Torah as contained in the Samaritan Pentateuch, with Mount Gerizim as a focal sacred site. They maintain a hereditary priesthood and keep religious practices and liturgy distinct from Jewish and Christian norms, including forms of ritual worship and the way biblical feasts are observed.

Samaritans also refers to a separate modern organization, the Samaritans, a United Kingdom and Ireland-based charity founded in 1953 by Chad Varah. It provides confidential 24/7 emotional support and suicide-prevention services to people in distress, with a wide network of volunteers and helplines.