Rabbinate Recognizes Bnei Menashe as “Descendants of Israel"

Arutz Sheva ^ | 3-31-05

[SJackson]

Rabbinate Recognizes Bnei Menashe as “Descendants of Israel"
16:47 Mar 31, '05 / 20 Adar 5765

In a historic decision, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has decided to formally recognize the Bnei Menashe community of northeastern India as “descendants of Israel.”

The Chief Rabbinate has also agreed to send a beit din (rabbinical court) on its behalf to the region to formally convert them to Judaism.

The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten tribes exiled from the Land of Israel by the Assyrian empire over 2,700 years ago. They reside primarily in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh. In recent years, over 800 members of the community have made Aliyah [immigration to Israel], thanks largely to the efforts of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), a Jerusalem-based group that reaches out and assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people.

Bnei Menashe Graduates of the MaTan-Herzog Hospital Nurse's Assistant Program in Israel

Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, who took part in yesterday’s meeting with the Chief Rabbi, praised the decision. “This is a momentous day," he said, "and we are very grateful to the Chief Rabbinate for the openness and sensitivity that they have demonstrated in addressing the issue of the Bnei Menashe. This is the breakthrough that we have all been waiting for, and thank G-d, the remaining 6,000 members of the community still in India will at last be able to come home to Zion.”

In June 2003, then-Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of the Shinui Party decided to halt the Bnei Menashe aliyah, reportedly because he objected to the fact that they were all religiously-observant and many chose to live in Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

After Poraz’ decision was announced, Freund turned to the Chief Rabbinate, and began lobbying to receive official rabbinical recognition of the Bnei Menashe as a means of circumventing the Interior Minister’s decision. Yesterday’s meeting with the Chief Rabbi marked the culmination of those efforts.

Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a dayan (rabbinical court judge) and spokesman for Rabbi Amar, said that the decision had come after careful consideration and study of the issue. “The Chief Rabbi sent a delegation of two dayanim (judges) to India last year," Rabbi Birnbaum said, "to conduct a thorough investigation of the community and its origins. After a thorough review of their findings, it was decided that the Bnei Menashe are in fact descendants of Israel and should be drawn closer to the Jewish people.”

Rabbi Birnbaum added that once various conditions laid down by the Chief Rabbi are fulfilled, such as the construction of mikvaot (ritual baths) in India, and the dispatch of additional teachers, the Chief Rabbinate would send a beit din of its own to the area to convert members of the community to Judaism, thereby allowing them to make Aliyah to Israel.

A recent Bnei Menashe immigrant giving thanks to G-d at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount for allowing him to fulfill his dream of making Aliyah to Israel.

The first of the Bnei Menashe to arrive in Israel did so in 1979. More members of the community continued arriving slowly during the coming years, and large groups came in 1993 and 1994. Several hundred of them now reside in Israel, mainly in Kiryat Arba, Gush Katif, Beit El and Ofrah.

[Alouette]

This actually has nothing to do with "conversions" but with non-normative "rabbis" of phony "Judaism" craving authority and recognition.

This is nothing new, they have been whining for decades. The number of sincere converts they make who actually practice their form a "Judaism" and make aliyah are very small.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Amar: Bnei Menashe are descendants of ancient Israelites

By Yair Sheleg

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar decided on Wednesday to recognize the members of India's Bnei Menashe community as descendants of the ancient Israelites.

Amar also decided to dispatch a team of rabbinical judges to India to convert the community members to Orthodox Jews. Such a conversion will enable their immigration to Israel under the Law of Return, without requiring the Interior Ministry's authorization.

The International Fellowship of Christians & Jews (IFCJ), a group that raises money among evangelical Christians for Jewish causes, has undertaken to finance the process of converting the Bnei Menashe community and bringing them to Israel.

The Bnei Menashe community consists of close to 7,000 members of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo tribe, which lives in northeast India near the border of Myanmar (formally Burma). For generations they kept Jewish traditions, claiming to be descended from the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten lost Israeli tribes that were exiled by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C.E. and have since disappeared.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the tribe's members converted to Christianity, but about 30 years ago, some of the community began moving back to Judaism and set themselves apart from the rest of the tribe.

A number of researchers who visited the group over the years got the impression that their traditions are authentically Israelite in origin. Two genetic studies carried out over the past year have attempted to examine the issue. The studies compared DNA samples taken from several hundred members of the Kuki tribe to a DNA Jewish profile and to a general Middle Eastern profile.

A study performed by scientists in Kolkata concludes that while the masculine side of the genetic profile has no affiliation to the nation of Israel, the feminine side has a certain family relationship to the genetic profile of Middle Eastern people. The difference between the masculine and feminine sides may be explained by the marriage of one of the mothers of the tribe, who came from the Middle East, to a local native.

A second genetic study is still being conducted by the Technion in Haifa.

About 12 years ago, the Interior Ministry allocated an annual quota of 100 immigrants from the Bnei Menashe tribe. So far some 800 of them have immigrated and undergone conversion in Israel. The majority of them live in settlements in the territories, including 250 people in Gaza's Gush Katif.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. Jacobovici's "Lost Tribes" video has a segment on this group.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[ElkGroveDan]

This is really going to bring some growth to the convenience store industry in Israel.

[struwwelpeter]

I would presume at some point there would have to be some accepted minimum level of standards to prevent "sale" of conversions, particularly in the third world.

I had a friend in the East Ukraine named Aleksandr (Sasha) Shults. All during his life and father's and grandfather's lives they were called 'zhidy' (bad term for Jews), even though like everyone else they were agnostic.

After the Soviet Union dissolved, Sasha wanted to learn more about Judaism and possibly immigrate to Israel. He found out that for x amount of dollars he could be 'declared' a Jew and then be eligible for Aliyah. He said quite a few Ukrainians - with Jewish roots or none - had gone this route.

He didn't have the money, so he stayed agnostic.

[SJackson]

After the Soviet Union dissolved, Sasha wanted to learn more about Judaism and possibly immigrate to Israel. He found out that for x amount of dollars he could be 'declared' a Jew and then be eligible for Aliyah. He said quite a few Ukrainians - with Jewish roots or none - had gone this route.

He wouldn't have needed to be Jewish to emigrate, rather have a Jewish grandparent. That's likely the documentation he was offered. Obviously the potential for abuse, without standards, would be great.

[SunkenCiv]

See my review, headed "Reporter from the Apocalypse?" Thanks to CD universe for the cover art.

Quest For The Lost Tribes Simcha Jacobovici, director

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution. A DVD version is available if memory serves, just not from Amazon.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

later, similar topics:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377539/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1436777/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1486127/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1492212/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1493271/posts

[Alouette]

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I'm not a big "lost tribes" person (for one thing, the "lost tribes" theory is sometimes used to try to legitimate chr*stianity as the "fulfillment" of Judaism), but I must admit to being jealous. All us rednecks here have been thumping the Bible for centuries and no one thinks of us as anythings but chr*stian anti-Semites.

But then again, if we ever were recognized as a "lost tribe" I'd be required to observe the entire Torah and I don't think I could handle that! If I could, I'd have converted a long time ago.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Just ask them if they long to retire in Miami.

LOL! And if any of them wind up in the United States, don't refer them to the American Jewish Committee (considering how the AJC feels about religious and conservative Russian Jews)!

[Sometimes A River]

You mean Miami Beach ;)

[Alexander Rubin]

Great news!