Posted on 09/27/2005 9:46:08 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Rabbis convert 'lost tribe of Israel'
Recognize 200 members of group believing it descended from Joseph
-----------------------------------------------
Posted: September 26, 2005 11:03 p.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
An official delegation of Israeli rabbis arrived in India last week and began converting to Judaism members of a group that believes it is one of the ten "lost tribes" of Israel, jump starting a process many hope will bring the tribe's remaining 7,000 members to the Jewish state.
The Bnei Menashe say they are the descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph's two sons, and a grandson of Jacob. They live in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, to which they claim to have been exiled from Israel over 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire, and have been trying the past fifty years to return to Israel.
"The rabbinic delegation is a historic turning point," Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israel, the Israeli group that arranged the tour, told WND. "It is comforting to see the words of the prophets are coming true before our very eyes with the journey home to Zion of this lost tribe."
Six rabbis were sent by Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, in conjunction with Shavei to begin converting the Bnei Menashe. The rabbis met with hundreds of tribal members, testing their knowledge of Judaism and assessing their conviction, converting two hundred individuals – over 90 percent of those who were interviewed. The candidates rejected were told to continue to study Jewish tradition for reassessment upon the rabbis' next trip.
"The rabbis were incredibly impressed with the Bnei Menashe," said Freund. "They saw for themselves that the group is very serious, and should be integrated into the Jewish nation."
Now officially Jewish, the 200 converts can apply for Israeli citizenship under the country's "Law of Return" law, which guarantees sanctuary to Jews from around the world. The Bnei Menashe are set to receive financial and other aide from Freund's group.
Over the last decade, Shalvei Israel, working with other organizations, brought about 800 Bnei Menashe members to Israel. Many settled in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
More than 60 lived in Gaza's former Gush Katif slate of Jewish towns, but were expelled with last month's evacuation of the area and are now searching for housing along with other Gaza refugees.
"That these expelled Bnei Menashe are still sticking together with other Gaza refugees shows how deeply they were integrated here in Israel. They see themselves as a part of the Israeli community," said Freund.
Rabbi Amar formally recognized the group as Jews last March. Their return to Israel had been halted in 2003 when then-Israeli Interior Minister Avraham Poraz froze their immigration, prompting Freund to turn to the chief rabbinate so Bnei Menashe members in India can be converted and can return as legally recognized Jews, circumventing the Interior Ministry.
According to Bnei Menashe oral tradition, the tribe was exiled from Israel and pushed to the east, eventually settling in the border regions of China and India, where most remain today.
In the 1950s, a man named Tchelah, the chief of an Indian village, said he had a vision, which he shared with his people, that his community was the lost tribe of Menashe. Most in his town had customs similar to Jewish tradition, but they couldn't explain why. They were told by Tchelach to return at once to Israel and embrace the Jewish faith.
Several thousand Bnei Menashe set out on foot to Israel, but were quickly halted by Indian authorities. Undeterred, many in the village started learning Jewish tradition, and began practicing Orthodox Judaism.
Tchelah's son, Shimon Kolney, was among the Jews brought to Israel by Freund that settled in Gaza.
"The latest events with the chief rabbinate helps so much," said Freund. "In another few years, I am certain the rest of the Bnei Menashe still in India will return home to Zion."
------------------------------------------------------
Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben Ami and leaders of the Taliban.
If they were one of the "Lost" (Not Lost, God knows where they are) tribes, then why do they have to convert?.....
Also covered at
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1486127/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1436777/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377539/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1374681/posts
because there is no paper trail proving they are Jewish. The conversion is a formality.
India's Christians maintain that they date back to the beginning, that their church was started by Thomas, who was martyred in India.
The Ten Lost Tribes aka The House of Israel will be united with the House of Judah to finish up God's final plan of the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.
This 10 lost tribes thing has been peddled by among others, Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God as British-Israelism ( the Brits are mostly descendants of the 10 lost tribes ).
Adter Armstrong's death, control passed to a new Pastor General, Joseph W. Tkatch. His son, Joseph W Tkatch Jr, in turn, succeeded his father in 1995.
The Tkatchs instituted a program to abandon many of the non-orthodox beliefs and practices of this church.
They brought the denomination into alignment with other conservative Christian churches.
Church membership dropped from its peak of about 150,000 members in 1986. In the US, its membership slid from 1986 to 1996 from about 89,000 to 49,000, largely because of this shift.
I don't think they teach British-Israelism any longer.
It would be interesting if they could get DNA evidence to confirm the relationship...but they should be more closely related to the Samaritans than to Jews, since Manasseh was one of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, whereas Jews are mainly descended from the people of the kingdom of Judah. At least that's how I've always understood it...I could be wrong.
There's still a fair bit of support for it among the white-supremacists.
My car keys aren't lost, since God knows where they are?
Andrew
They're not lost. They KNOW where they are............
DNA is not precise enough to differentiate between Hebrew tribes that far back, or even between any other closely related groups then.
There's quite a lot of DNA evidence connecting today's Jews to each other and to other Middle Eastern people, and none connecting peoples of the British Isles to either.
The best the British-Israel folks can come up with is that the original Middle Easterners were all displaced to the northwest and all those people there now (as well as today's Jews) came from elsewhere.
I can post links if you're really interested.
The Lemba people would be Levites by ancestry, and Levi was a son of Leah, whereas Manasseh was a grandson of Rachel. Presumably Leah and Rachel were full sisters (at least there doesn't seem to be any indication that they had different mothers) but that would only be important if they were examining the mitochondrial DNA.
Has DNA testing been done on the Falashas of Ethiopia? Not everyone believes that they are really Jewish by ancestry and that would be a possible way to resolve the question.
I didn't raise the issue of the British-Israelites and have no interest in that topic.
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html
Samaritans are descended from Israelite men and Assyrian women.
Those Lembas who possess the Cohen Modal Haplotype have Middle Eastern ancestry, possibly Jewish Cohen. The Buba clan is especially Middle Eastern in its paternal DNA.
Many Spanish-speaking Latinos of the American Southwest are descended from Anusim (Spanish Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism).
The Mizo people of northeastern India, the self-styled "B'nei Menashe", have no proven genetic connection to the Israelites.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.