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.
:-)
yes...precisely what i meant
this whole Anglo-Saxons are the true Israelites is pure Pete Peters and I sure don't cotton to all that.
Neither.........but knock yourself out. LOL
thanks...nite!
You could actually understand an Irish fellow? It takes me a couple of pints of Guinness to figure them out...
Whoohoo. Spirited. Get 'em. I get grief for my spelling on here; but, some act like you're supposed to be writing a term paper instead of casually chatting. I say just let it hang out and if it causes somebody a problem, your argument is won or lost on substance - not on how people try to pick you apart lol. ;)
somebody swore to me that ancient Celtic and other steppes tribes runes were closely similar to ancient pre-Aramaic Hebrew Runes...fwiw.
folks have long clamoured for a link to the ancients from whom we derive our faith and a good chunk of our later(maybe) culture.
I really wouldn't know, but chances are that if you go back far enough, you'd hit at least one stray Jew. Say, for example, that a single English Jew converted and married a goy 300 years ago. There are 10 generations since then (1 every 30 years), and say that each generation left an average of 3 children. That would mean that one English Jew would today have roughly 59049 descendants!
Of course her genetic material would be totally diffused, and only her direct female line descendants, if any, (i.e. her daughter's daughter's daughter's.... daughters) would have any tracable "Jewish" DNA (mitochondrial).
Have at it...but there is a reason you have a kitty-kat as your only sole companion.
You have yet to prove that you know much of anything at all,in the time you've been here.
I already have a loving husband and don't need to "hook up" with anyone. :-)
Your one little gutsy wench hiding behind your computer screen....If I ever attend a FR function I hope you are there would love to see you in person...
I don't think anyone is asking what you cotton to. The issue is what the facts show. And facts are facts whether any of us cotton to them or not. There is no such thing as one's "personal truth". There is truth and there is falsehood. Water will drown you. You can decide not to cotton to that and sit on the bottom of a pool and we'll be draggin you out and performing cpr once you do cotton.. lol.
I was just funning about it.
I did see somewhere that some incredible percentage of westerners carried Genghis and Kublai Khan's DNA.
Et tu, Brutus!
Yep. 12,000 sealed from each tribe.
Yes I have a wonderful Kitty Kat and I also have a husband and family and friends..What's your point?
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