Posted on 08/19/2004 7:11:00 PM PDT by missyme
A team of senior Israeli rabbis is due to rule soon on whether thousands of Indians who say they are members of one of the lost tribes of Israel can settle there.
Only 5,000 of the Benei Menashes have converted to Judaism Shlomo Amar recently led a delegation of rabbis to the north-eastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram where members of the Benei Menashe tribe live and practise Judaism.
At the Beith-el Synagogue in the Manipur capital, Imphal, nine men wearing knitted skull caps read silently from the Old Testament.
Four others stand on a wooden platform in the centre of the room as a young man reads from the holy book under the supervision of an elderly priest.
These people claim to be one of the lost tribes of Israel.
Recent discovery
Tongkhohao Aviel Hangshing is the leader of the Benei Menashes in Imphal.
We found that the stories, the customs and practices of the Israeli people were very similar to ours
Tongkhohao Aviel Hangshing "We are Benei Menashe, because we belong to the Menashe tribe," he says.
"Menashe is the son of Joseph, who was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. So we are the lost tribe of Israel."
Mr Hangshing says for thousands of years they did not know they were lost.
"We found out only 27 years ago," he says.
"When the Bible was translated into our language, in 1970s, we studied it.
"And we found that the stories, the customs and practices of the Israeli people were very similar to ours. So we thought that we must be one of the lost tribes."
Saturdays are observed by Jews the world over as the Sabbath, the day of rest, and the members of the Benei Menashe community meet for morning prayers at the synagogue in Imphal.
A lamb-skin scroll of the Torah, is unrolled and then rolled up again as each reader finishes his part.
Hope
There are more than 300,000 Benei Menashes in Manipur but most of them follow Christianity.
Only about 5,000 have converted to Judaism, most of them during the 1970s.
Mr Hangshing says although India has treated them quite well, they do not consider it their home.
Lucy Vaiphei (right) is hoping to join her family in Israel The recent visit by a delegation of rabbis from Israel has given new hope to the members of this community.
Caleb, a 24-year-old college student, wants to go to Israel because he says it is the land of his forefathers.
Amram is studying to be a lawyer. He says Israel is the promised land, for him and the others too.
"In Israel it will be easier for us to practise our religion."
In a chamber partitioned from the main prayer hall, about a dozen women join in the Sabbath prayers.
Lucy Vaiphei is the caretaker of the synagogue.
Her parents and six siblings have emigrated to Israel in the last few years and she is now looking forward to making the move herself.
Michael Freund, director of Amishav - an organisation that helps Jews move to Israel - says he firmly believes that Menashe is one of the lost tribes of Israel.
"We have brought over 800 of them to Israel," he says, "and the remaining people also want to emigrate".
Mr Freund says that last year the new Israeli interior minister, Avraham Poraz, suddenly declared his opposition to bringing the Benei Menashes into Israel.
"But I'm confident that if the chief rabbi issues a ruling saying that the Benei Menashes are indeed descendents of the Jewish people and should be allowed back home, then he will have no choice but to let them in."
So while the rabbis in Israel take a decision on whether or not to grant the right to emigrate to Israel to the Benei Menashes, this community here is waiting with bated breath - and praying.
I'm a descendent of the Jews as well, but I'm a third generation Christian branch of the family.
Before that the Jewish ancestor's father was from Germany. He was born and raised in Boston, MA, and from there he traveled west and found himself on a boat heading to the South Pacific, where he eventually founded our family in German colony. To save his children from the anti-semitic Germans, he gave his children a German last name and baptized and raised them as Christians.
Our Jewish origin remained undiscovered until recently when a member of our family traced our genealogy and discovered the truth.
Oh, I'm suspicious of the guys in India, but it isn't up to me. It is up to Israel if they are going to deny immigration rights to 5,000 practicing Jews based suspicion of their bloodlines. Israel should know that to deny a group that large would be too close to the same mindset that led to the German attempts to exterminate the Jews. The whole Master Race theory too...
I don't know about these boys, but there was a documentary in which the people around the Khyber (phonetic) Pass were probably lost Jews.
What's your point?
Maybe I am sitting in the dark without my glasses
maybe I'm not so what?
Gentiles cannot claim DNA to Jesus Christ only Jews can...
I don't know what you're trying to say here? I don't know of anyone trying to claim a blood relation to Christ. And that's not what these guys in India are trying to do.
So, what point are you trying to make anyhow?
Figure it out...
You figure it out Farmboy!
Oh I have...
I am saying no-one in year 2004 can accurately claim a blood line to the Ancient Israelites. I brought up Jesus because he was born to a Jewish mother and had brothers and there DNA through there children would not be traceable...
She is as expert in genetics as she is in spelling.
This sad little lizard told me he was a brontosaurus on his mother's side. I did not laugh, people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.
Robert Heinlein
What a wonderful story! Please keep us updated on the progress of these people to emigrate to Israel.
Forgot you must of given up your practice as a physician to become the FR Spelling Police what a noble concept.
Make sure that you have someone read over your application for a high school equivalency diploma for spelling mistakes before you submit it. (I typed this very slowly so you could understand it).
No it's okay I dropped out of school after I read "See Spot Run" and now I live off my million dollar inheritance from my ex-husband the "Physician" who I kicked to the curb
Jesus is a bad example. He is one man. Tracing a genetic link to a single man in the past would require that you have his DNA on hand so you can compare the Y-chromosome and adjust for genetic mutation.
But, trying to determine Jewish ancestry isn't that hard. The goal isn't to say that these genes are Jewish. It is to demonstrate that Jews from another geographic location share certain genetic characteristics with their Middle Eastern brethren. The Israelites are a people, and DNA from the descendants of Israel that never left the Middle East is still available. A comparative genetic analysis shows that European Jews have Middle Eastern links. Iraqi Jews and North African Jews are nearly identical. And Palestinian Jews (before the meaning of Palestinian changed) share genetic similarities with all of these groups.
Jews typically marry within their faith, so regardless of where they are in the world, certain genetic characteristics are going to carry through through all the generations.
That's pretty much what the studies found. Intermingling with other races may have altered their appearances somewhat, but Jews from many places around Asia, Europe, and Africa share enough genetic similarity with the Middle East to indicate ancestry in that region.
When compared to the populations in which they lived, the similarities were deemed statistically significant because the Jewish populations in areas like Germany were dissimilar from their neighbors in those aspects that point to the Middle East ancestry.
You really should read about it.
Should be: "Forgot you must have given up your practice...
Little mistakes are admissible. Lay off.
Well, you must be good looking, 'cause he sure didn't marry you for your intellect!!!
Boo!
A comparative genetic analysis shows that European Jews have Middle Eastern links. Iraqi Jews and North African Jews are nearly identical. And Palestinian Jews (before the meaning of Palestinian changed) share genetic similarities with all of these groups..
So are you saying that would not include Jews who have abandoned there faith? It seems to me all people could claim a genetic link with the exception of Asians..
When I brought up Jesus I did necause I have read that many of his followers are part of the 12 lost tribes of Israel scattered about the earth...
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