KARACHI. The ethnic Afghans, or Pashtuns, originated from the biblical Lost Tribes of Israel. It's an old theory. And many Pashtun tribes proudly subscribe to it. But it's not just a theory. Not just a hypothesis. We have historical, physical and anecdotal evidence to establish a genetic connection. This is what Rabbi Harry Rozenberg believes, at least.

"Pashtunwali makes it very clear to us who they [the Pashtuns] are," says the Jerusalem-based rabbi while referring to an unwritten tribal code the Pashtuns have been following unfailingly for centuries now. "It's the Mosaic Law in its most primitive form that these people in Afghanistan and Pakistan are keeping to this day."

If the Pashtuns accept their Israeli [Jewish] origin, their identity, it'll be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, says Rozenberg, a social entrepreneur who heads iTribe.us, a global platform to connect the Israelite tribes scattered across the world.

"If we move down the history of the tribes of Israel, we know they were sent to Chavor. Verses [of the Torah] speak about it," he says in a Skype interview with The Express Tribune. The reference is to the Second Book of Kings. It says when the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) some 2,730 years ago, some of the 10 Jewish tribes had been exiled to Chavor [Khyber], on the banks of the River Gozan [the Gazni River].

Rozenberg is not making a new claim. In the late fifties, Israel's second president, Itzhak Ben Zvi, also referred to the exile from Samaria. "The Afghan tribes, among whom the Jews have lived for generations, are Muslims who retain to this day their amazing tradition about their descent from the Ten Tribes," he wrote in 'The Exiled and the Redeemed'.