Headings:

A Message from Peter Salemi
Answers to Claims against British Israelism. JUDASIM IS NOT AGAISNT British Israel!
Was Armstrongism a Cult?
When Did British Israelism Begin?
Enemies Posing as friends? Christian Identity as an Adversary of Israel.
British Israelite Friends and Allies of the Jews.
Monarchs Descended from King David?

a. A Message from Peter Salemi

We received the following message from Peter Salemi a foremost advocate of British Israel teaching and an ally of Brit-Am/Hebrew awareness.

Peter Salemi:
Hi Yair what do you think of this video trying to debunk British Israelism. Maybe you can debunk this
The Cult I Grew Up In | British Israelism Debunked
https://youtu.be/HaKpI7tpryc
Peter

Reply from Brit-Am/Hebrew Awareness.

Our movement, "Brit-Am/Hebrew Awareness" understands that the Lost Ten Tribes are now to be found among Western Peoples. We jutify this belief from the Bible, from Jewish Religious Traditions, from History, and from numerous other sources. This belief of ours in some ways overlaps with those of other movements, such as British Israel, even though they are not the same in every respect.
Brit-Am in effect in some ways is a more faithful promoter of British Israel beliefs in their pure form in the Classical sense than they themselves are and than any other existing movement is. In defending British Israel as it is popularly imagined to be we are justifying ourselves.
Some of the other "British Israel" groups give the impression today of not really believing in it anymore. Brit-Am for its part researches the subject, spreads knowledge about it, and merits to reveal previously unknown truths confirming it.

b. Answers to Claims against British Israelism.

JUDASIM IS NOT AGAISNT British Israel!

1. The Narrator (named "Mat") says he grew up in BI ("British Israelism") and is now a convert to a "Progressive" branch of Judaism.
He says he is going to tell us why BI is wrong.

ANSWERS (A):
A1. The main point of BI is that the Lost Ten Tribes are among Western Peoples.
I myself am an Ultra-Orthodox, "HAREIDI" Jew, and I find the main point of BI supplements Jewish Teaching.

c. Was Armstrongism a Cult?

2. The Narrator says he grew up in Armstrongism or the World Wide Church of God which he defines as a Cult.
One of their beliefs was "BI."

A2. Armstrongism was a powerful force. Part of its appeal was its active propagation of BI beliefs. This indicates that such beliefs resonate with an inner need of many in the west. This is not a negative factor. Our own movement, "Brit-Am/Hebrew Awareness," has among its members those who first became aware of Ten Tribes Identity through Armstrongism. They also gave rise to important researchers in their own right. Dr. Herman Hoeh did important work concerning early European geneaolgies and traditions. When our first book, "The Tribes" by Yair Davidy, 1993, appeared Dr. Hoeh acquired a copy and urged his students to do the same. Other researchers of note from this school include Craig White and Steven Collins who may both be considered de facto allies of Brit-Am.

d. When Did British Israelism Begin?

3. "Mat" says that BI first became popular in the 1800s.
A3. This is not accurate. Beliefs that the Lost Ten Tribes became part of the European Peoples have existed from early times.
The Rabbinical Commentator Rashi (on Obadiah 1:18), 1040 - 1105 CE spoke of the Ten Tribes being in France.

In the 1400s we find a Danish source that they and the Jutes, and Angles (of England) descend from Israel.

# A 15th-century Latin chronicle, "Chronicon Holsatiae vetus", found in Gottfried Leibniz's Accessiones historicae (1698), states the Danes were of the Tribe of Dan, while the Jutes the Jews. #

We find similar beliefs in the Netherlands in the 1600s.
So too, in England, Scotland, Finland, Sweden, along with references in Wales ,and Ireland.
See:
The Earliest West European Beliefs in their Israelite Origins
https://britam.org/countries/countriesindex.html

At the very least all these sources show that the idea was extant long before the 1800s.
Wikipedia also says that BI had "roots in the 16th century," i.e. in the 1500s.

# Anglo-Israelism has also been attributed to Francis Drake and James VI and I, who believed he was the King of Israel. #

On the other hand BI beliefs are often identified with the BIWF (British Israel World Federation) which was founded in 1919 but which evolved from the "Anglo-Israel Association" that by 1886 had 27 affiliated groups throughout Britain.
Different groups and individuals that had spontaneously sprung up were merging forces and this gave rise to the BIWF as we know it.
There were also believers overseas including the USA.
In our book, "Joseph. The Israelite Destiny of America," 2001, by Yair Davidiy, we quote lengthy excerpts from a Pamphlet "Manasseh and United States, An Essay," by Rev. Joseph Wild, 1882.
So too, "Judah's Secret and Joseph's Birthright," by J. H. Allen (1902) contains an analysis of Biblical Verses identifying the USA with Manasseh. It is claimed that this work helped Herbert W. Armstrong form his own doctrines.
At all events BI did not have one source but was a widely spread belief found among many different circles.

e. Enemies Posing as friends? Christian Identity as an Adversary of Israel.

Mat mentions the fact that groups such as Christian Identity with its "White Supremacist Ideology" also believe in a version of BI. This is correct to some degree bit it is not really British Israel. It is its own thing. Some schools pertaining to BI consider Europeans in general to be descendants of Israel even though most Europeans have historically been antagonistic. Other BI scholars concentrate on inhabitants of the British Isles (and their offshoots) to the exclusion of others. Nevertheless, among the BIWF ideologues in Britain and in the USA there were those who adopted anti-Semitic doctrines. This is a problem. These types claim that the Jews are bad but that is what they themselves are. In the USA some of the Christian Identity followers have been charged with murder, rape, and incest. In our opinion they represent the enemy. They are agents of the Devil trying to undermine the truth from within.
A Wikipedia article on "Christian Identity" traces its ideological origins not only to British Israel but also to German Volkisch beliefs that preceded Nazism and influenced it. The present Aryan Nations movement is described as a break-off of Klu Klax Klan members who have picked out various Christian Identity beliefs from different sources. They do not really on the whole believe in BI but rather something else such as the White "Caucasian" Peoples in general or something like that being from the Ten Tribes. This is not BI though some BI adherents may interpret BI in that direction.
See:
Christian Identity
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/quora/tentribes/ci.html

It would seem that pro-Jewish believers in BI far outnumber the negative ones and have been of much greater importance. Nevertheless the bad ones exist. We need to be careful of attempts to besmirch BI beliefs by association.
By analogy Adolf Hitler was one of the most evil people who ever existed. At the same time as the Nuremburg Laws (15 September 1935) against Jews first promulgated Hitler also laws issued protecting animals from cruelty.
Does that mean that we must suspect anyone who is kind to animals of being a closet Nazi?
An other example concerns Conspiracy Theories. I personally am against them. They are false and harmful. Nevertheless I know some good Religious Jews who believe in them. I also know of many others who believe in them and virulently hate Jews as well. Does that mean that the Religious Jews who believe in them need to apologize for the Jew-hating retrogrades who believe in "Conspiracy" the same as they do?

f. British Israelite Friends and Allies of the Jews

Historically beleivers in BI in Britain helped reinforce the Restorationist Movement that gave rise to the State of Israel. Important allies of the Zionists before the rise of Israel included:

(1) Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, CBE, DSO (3 March 1878 - 17 June 1967) was a British soldier, intelligence officer and ornithologist (studier of birds). He became a strong advocate of the Zionist cause and an important one.
He believed in British Israel.

(2) Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, DSO (1867 - 1947), known as J. H. Patterson, was an Irish-born British soldier, hunter, author and Zionist, best known for his book "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo" (1907). In World War-1 Patterson had commanded Jewish forces serving in the British Armies. These included "both the Zion Mule Corps and later the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (also known as the Jewish Legion) which would eventually serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force decades later. "
Patterson also believed in British Israel.

(3) Orde Charles Wingate DSO & Two Bars (1903 -1944) was a senior British Army officer, known for his creation of the commando-type ("Chindit") deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory during the Burma Campaign of World War-2. Before being in Burma Wingate had liberated Ethiopia from the Italians, and before then he had trained Jewish soldiers in Palestine and helped lay the foundations of the IDF. Wingate also believed in British Israel.

g. Monarchs Descended from King David?

4. Mat proceed to give an overview of the "United State and Britain in Prophecy," by H. W. Armstrong. This book may have some value but it is not a BI Bible.
Mat says that BI claims that British Monarchs are descended from the House of David. They claim that a Jewish princess named "Tea Tephi" came to Ireland, married the King and from their line came the Kings of Britain.

A4. There is a Biblical passage indicating that the Lost Israelites in their places of Exile may in some cases by ruled by descendants of David.

Jeremiah 33:
14 ..THE DAYS COME.THAT I WILL PERFORM THAT GOOD THING WHICH I HAVE PROMISED UNTO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND TO THE HOUSE OF JUDAH. 33;15 "IN THOSE DAYS.. WILL I CAUSE THE BRANCH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS TO GROW UP INTO DAVID; AND HE SHALL EXECUTE JUDGEMENT AND RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE LAND. 33:17 ...DAVID SHALL NEVER WANT A MAN TO SIT UPON THE THRONE OF ISRAEL.

Having rulers from the House of David rule over them would be in accordance with these verses but it would not have to be that way. The Descendants of David who rule over Israel from a Biblical perspective should by rights (in order to be considered representative of the "House of David") be descended from David through the male line .
Historically, the House of David reigned in Judah and quite a few families amongst the present day Jews trace themselves back to David. We find descednants of David ruling over segements of the Scythians from whom emerged part of the Western Peoples. The ruling dynasty of Sakastan (a Scythian enclave in eastern Persia) believed itself descended from King Solomon the son of David. In Iberia (Georgia in the Caucasus in southern Russia), which also belonged to the Scythians, there was too, a dynasty (related to the Arsacid Kings of Parthia) that traced itself back to David. The Khazars, who were also basically a Scythian group, had a ruling house named after Jesse the father of David. The ruling houses (of David) of the Sakae-Scythians in Sakastan and Scythia were interrelated and had familial connections with the monarchs of the Guti (Goths) and Parthians and they with each other. From these monarchic and aristocratic lines came the early kings of Scandinavia, of the Franks, and of the Anglo-Saxons.

Another fount of the Davidic line may have penetrated West European nobility via France! There was once a semi-autonomous Principality in Narbonne (southern France) described by Arthur J. Zuckerman ("A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 768-900," New York, 1972). It was ruled by a Jewish Prince of the House of David whose offspring intermarried with the aristocracy and Royal Line of France and these with that of Normandy, Scotland, and England. Amongst the Welsh, Scottish, English, and other groups in Europe there were families who believed they descended from King David of Judah.

In other words if it really was destined that descendants of David should become rulers over the Ten Tribes or part of them there are numerous pathways by which they could have done so.
Tea Tephi in our opinion was probably not one of them. Belief in Tea Tephi has a great attraction but it is not an integral part of BI or Brit-Am teaching.
As far as were are concerned this is a point worth looking into but not necessarily making a whole issue out of. It is not something that belief in Brit-Am needs to stand or fall over. See Also: Tea Tephi Defended by Eric (TubalCain)

Brit-Am/Hebrew Awareness has its own beliefs. We believe in the Bible, in the Hebrew Nations of Judah and Israel i.e. in the Jews and in the Ten Tribes. This is what the Bible wants. This is the Way of Scripture. Join us. Come with us. It may be worth your while. Perhaps this is what Divine Providence requires of you?

Continued at:

British Israelism-2. Criticism Refuted.