Samaritan culture is fascinating for numerous reasons. I believe many people find the tiny indigenous Levantine nation that has survived a Millenium of persecution to be quite endearing. After all, who doesn’t love a good underdog story? There are few who can call themselves underdogs as in the way the of the Samaritans.
It seems to me in the common appreciation of Samaritan culture and the Samaritan people, appreciation for them as individuals is often lost. The Samaritan Cohen Gadol or High Priest is somewhat well known, as his existence itself is somewhat of a novelty to some people.
There is one person, however, who’s importance to this generation of Samaritans, rivals that of the High Priest himself. That person is Benyamin (Benny) Tsedaka, the chief intellectual of the Samaritan community. In doing my research for this project his name has come up again and again. In almost any reliable article you read on the Samaritans he is mentioned or credited.
I think he deserves all the praise which he gets. Tsedaka is quite an interesting individual. While most Samaritans are inwardly focused and (to people unfamiliar with the Samaritans) surprisingly average, Benny Tsedaka acts as a mediator to the outside world.
According to the Samaritan website, Benny Tsedaka was born in Nablus, Israel in 1944. This description raises more questions than answers. Firstly, Nablus was part of the British Mandatory-Palestine in 1944. It would become part of Jordan in 1949, following the Arab defeat in the first Arab-Israeli war, and the Jordanian-Egyptian occupation of the territories promised by the UN to a future Palestinian-Arab state. If the information listed was correct, then Benny Tsedaka would have been raised in Jordan.
This is an important combination of roles for any small community, especially a threatened one: scholar, mediator/media representative, historian, chronicler, webmaster, etc. Are there some good links to explore what little there is for ourselves?
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