Joseph Eidelberg was born in Odessa in 1916, and at the age of seven he moved with his family to Palestine. He served as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces and in 1952 became the general manager of the Dead Sea Works. The author was fluent in seven languages. Later in his career he discovered interesting linguistic similarities between the Hebrew language and Bambara, spoken by an African tribe in Mali, leading to the original publication of Bambara in 1972. Upon retirement Eidelberg devoted all of his time to the exploration of the mysterious story of the ten lost tribes. After intensive research, travel and study, the author completed his second book, The Japanese and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.