Opinion

Once near extinction, the tribe called Samaritans lives on

Steven Fine is professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University and director of the university’s Israelite Samaritans Project.

When my oldest son was in fourth grade, he was studying in a Talmud class preparing for the Jewish New Year. The teacher arrived at a passage that describes the nefarious Kutim, an ancient expletive for Samaritans. The rabbi explained how these awful Kutim disrupted communication of the date of the new year from Jerusalem to surrounding communities some 2,000 years ago. No “good Samaritans” here.