Jewish schisms

Schisms among the Jews are cultural as well as religious. They have happened as a product of historical accident, geography, and theology. Samaritans The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites (or Hebrews) of the Ancient Near East. Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from the Tribe of Ephraim and Tribe of Manasseh (two sons of Joseph) as well as from the Levites, who have links to ancient Samaria from the period of their entry into Canaan, while some Orthodox Jews suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity up to the Samaritan polity under the rule of Baba Rabba. According to Samaritan tradition, the split between them and the Judean-led Southern Israelites began during the biblical time of the priest Eli when the Southern Israelites split off from the central Israelite tradition, as they perceive it. They consider themselves to be B'nei Yisrael ('Children of Israel'), a term used universally by Jewish denominations for the Jewish people as a whole, but do not call themselves Yehudim. The word Yehudim comes from the Hebrew word Yehudi which means from the Tribe of Judah. The biblical narrative describes the split by the Kingdom of Israel from the Kingdom of Judah. It points to Solomon's unfaithfulness to the divine covenant as the reason for the schism. When Rehoboam, Solomon's son, became king, the people requested tax reform. Rehoboam refused. This caused the break. At first, Rehoboam considered a military solution but the prophet Shemaiah told him not fight because God had caused the schism. Jeroboam, the leader of the tax revolt, became the leader of the Kingdom of Israel. After the destruction and exile of the Kingdom of Israel by Assyria, non-Yahwistic practices continued. The narratives of Jeremiah and others interpreted this as the cause of the failure, destruction, and exile of the Kingdom of Judah by Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar had additional reasons for taking over Judah and turning its inhabitants into exiles, including challenging its great rival Egypt.