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The present term "Jews" includes all the so-called "lost-tribes", not just members of the tribe of Judah.

From the time of David when Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) which comprised all but Judah and Benjamin, and the Southern Kingdom (Judah), which included only Judah and Benjamin, the name Judah (and particularly "Jew") began to develop into an iconic label for all of Israelite extraction. Much the same way as Kleenex is used generically as a term for all brands of tissue.

The known world at the time of the Jewish dispersion was the present Middle-East and parts of Asia Minor. The bulk of the nation of Israel (both Judah & Israel) were most probably "lost" through assimilation and intermarriage. The idea that homogeneous groups of Israelites survived to be dispersed to societies and cultures that did not yet exist, or were not known to the civilized world, is simply not realistic.

Individual tribal identity most certainly did not survive the Babylonian conquest. While some Jews (even at the time of Jesus) lay claim to identity to the tribe of Benjamin and Levi, the bulk of what are the Jews today simply do not know what tribe they hail from. They are a mixture of all the twelve.

Conquests by four different empires destroyed through assimilation, death, intermarriage any hope of identifying the tribes. If there were some groups that were carted off, or escaped to distant lands, there bloodlines were diluted past any recognition of identity. Genetically they would have ceased to exist. Where are the Phoenicians? The Carthaginians? The Amalekites? ...and countless others.

Also, to suppose that ALL the people of the tribes of the Northern Kingdom left Babylon, and only the tribe of Judah stuck around is simply far-fetched hooey.

If "lost tribes" would have survived, history would witness that evidence along the way, if nothing else, by the national religion, mention of Moses and Abraham, etc. in these peoples cultures.

That just simply is not the case. Any mention of those Hebrew patriarchs and religion by the peoples of Great Britain, Germany, etc. is through Christian conversion of Roman conquests of those barbarous peoples.

So, all of Israel is represented in what today is called a "Jew". Jewish belief is that the Messiah will sort things out. This is the Christian belief too. The only debate is who is, and who is not the Messiah. Not who is a Jew (Israelite). Why would one seek to find Israelites outside of present Jewry, anyway?

Actually, the Maronite and Assyrian Christians in Lebanon claim to be Phoenecians.

From the time of David when Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) which comprised all but Judah and Benjamin, and the Southern Kingdom (Judah), which included only Judah and Benjamin, the name Judah (and particularly "Jew") began to develop into an iconic label for all of Israelite extraction. Much the same way as Kleenex is used generically as a term for all brands of tissue.
1. The division of the land of Israel into tribal territories is set forth in Exodus and Leviticus.
King David was the second ruler of the united Kingdom. The Kingdom split in two, when the Northern Tribes under Ephraim revolted against King Rehobam's taxes.
2. The term "Yehudi" or Jew was used for any subject of the southern kingdom, whether or not he was a member of the tribe of Judah. After fall of the Northern Kingdom and the influx of Northern Israelite refugees, Judah was the only remaining Israelite kingdom. The Northern Israelites who did not flee, where dispersed by the Assyrians and became "lost". (I happen to think that their descendants are Kurds and Pashtuns, but that is another matter.) At any rate, after the return from Babylonian exile, there was another split between Jews and Samaritans. The term "Jew" was used to reffer to any Israelite who followed the Priests centered around the rebuilt Temple on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. (Those Israelites and Assyrian settlers who followed the Priests at Mt. Gezerim became known as Samaritans.)