<P>... As Michael Pollack shows, Menassah's argument was based on,' three separate and seemingly unrelated sources: a verse from the book of Isaiah, Matteo Ricci's discovery of an old Jewish community in the heart of China and Antonio Montezinos' reported encounter with members of the Lost Tribes in the wilds of South America .' </P> <P> In 1605, Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci discovered a small community consisting of approximately ten to twelve families of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng, China, the Kaifeng Jews . According to historical records, a Jewish community in Kaifaeng built a synagogue in 1163 during the Southern Song Dynasty, which existed until the late nineteenth century . </P> <P> The Portuguese traveler and Marrano Sephardic Jew Antonio de Montezinos returned to Europe with accounts that some of the Lost Tribes were living as Native Americans of the Andes in South America . Menasseh ben Israel, a noted rabbi and printer in Amsterdam, was excited by this news . He believed that a Messianic age was approaching, and that having Jewish people settled around the world was necessary for it . </P> <P> In 1649 Menassah published his book, The Hope of Israel, in Spanish and in Latin in Amsterdam; it included Montezinos' account of the Lost Tribes in the New World . An English translation was published in London in 1650 . In it Menasseh argued, and for the first time tried to give learned support in European thought and printing, to the theory that the native inhabitants of America at the time of the European discovery were actually descendants of the (lost) Ten Tribes of Israel . Menasseh noted how important Montezinos' account was, </P>

Where are the lost ten tribes of israel today