It is estimated to have just under four thousand members in the USA, Latin America, Canada, Australia, and Europe. It is characterised by its practice of communal living and its cottage industries, particularly health food bakeries and the ‘Yellow Deli’ chain of approximately 15 restaurants worldwide. The Twelve Tribes, also known as the Messianic Communities, was founded by Elbert Spriggs (known as Yoneq) (b.1937) and his wife, Marsha, in the USA in the early 1970s.
