Posted on 04/16/2005 9:11:40 PM PDT by blam
Squeezed between Burma and Bangladesh, 'descendants' of the Lost Tribes of Israel convert to Judaism
By David Orr in Aizawl, Mizoram, NE India
(Filed: 17/04/2005)
Passover is around the corner and Arbi Khiangte is helping her aunt, Dovi, clean and redecorate her home for one of the most important feasts in the Jewish calendar.
The house is next door to the Shalom Zion synagogue where Arbi's uncle, Eliezer, is the cantor. Like most buildings in Aizawl, the synagogue - a large, corrugated-iron structure - is perched precariously on a hillside with nothing but wooden stilts to stop it tumbling into the ravine below.
Arbi Khiangte: ‘We feel more Israeli than Indian’
Though Arbi, 20, has never travelled out of Mizoram - a remote outpost of Indian soil squeezed between Burma and Bangladesh - her heart lies thousands of miles away.
She greets visitors with "Shalom", and a silver star of David hangs from a chain around her neck. Her orange T-shirt declares that "Gush Katif is my Home" - a reference to an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip where her cousins and 800 other tribal Indians have moved, converting to Judaism.
She and her family hope that soon after Passover they will follow. "We feel more Israeli than Indian," says Arbi who, when not working in a hospital canteen, spends long hours poring over her Hebrew lessons. "People ask me, 'How can you be Jewish?' or 'How can you want to leave Mizoram?' Sometimes they're quite hostile, but I just smile."
The incredulity stems from the fact that nearly 90 per cent of Mizos are Christians. Their ancestors were converted by missionaries from Wales and northern England after the region's annexation by colonial administrators in 1891.
Mizoram is today a protected tribal area which foreigners may visit only with a government permit. Most people are Presbyterian - and "happy-clappy" hymns sung in English and Mizo are the staple listening of the youth.
In Aizawl, hilltop neighbourhoods take their names from the Bible - Bethlehem, Salem and Kanan (Canaan). People walk along Zion Street, past shops called Israel Electricals and the Jewish Store.
Arbi is determined to move to Israel: ‘Of course we'll miss Mizoram, but the Holy Land is where we belong’
Arbi, and 6,000 fellow believers in India's north-east, have been bolstered by a recent declaration that their claim to be descended from one of the legendary Ten Lost Tribes of Israel - said to have been driven from the Middle East by invaders in the eighth century BC - is to be officially acknowledged. Last month, after a visit to the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar, announced that a team of rabbinical judges would convert them to Orthodox Judaism. This would allow them to settle in Israel under the Law of Return, which grants the right of Israeli citizenship to Jews. "I was so glad," says Arbi, who wants to become a nurse in Israel. "It was like my dream became real."
Despite their ethnic Mongoloid appearance and Tibeto-Burman tongue, Arbi's family believe that their ancestors belonged to the tribe of Menasseh or Menashe, which travelled through Iran and Afghanistan to China.
According to tribal belief, all Mizos spring from a cave in China called Chhinlung. Their odyssey is said to have continued through Thailand and Burma before it came to these hills. Arbi and her co-believers call themselves Bnei Menashe - Children of Menashe.
Zai Zaithangchungi, a former teacher who has written a book about Israeli-Mizo links, said: "All Mizo people are children of Menashe but only a few have become Jews. It's no coincidence that before Christianity came here, the Mizos believed in a common ancestor called Manase or Manasia. They worshipped one God and, like the ancient Israelites, made animal sacrifices.
"Like the Jews, they held stars and the number seven in special reverence. Their marriage and burial practices were very similar." Circumcisions, for example, were performed using sharpened stones, as is ancient Hebrew custom.
It was more than 50 years ago that, inspired by a tribal elder's vision that Mizos were a Lost Tribe of Israel, a group of believers set off on foot in search of the promised land. One of Zai's relatives was among them. "She got as far as Assam," says Zai, "but was told Israel was very far away and they'd never reach it on foot. She stayed in Assam for many years before coming home."
The trip nonetheless inspired others. Belief in Judaism took root in neighbouring Manipur where there are now 5,000 Bnei Menashe. Arbi's uncle Eliezer and his wife Dovi changed faith in the mid 1970s and Arbi was brought up as Bnei Menashe.
Yet the recent intervention from Israel is not without controversy. Critics say that Right-wing Jewish groups are promoting such projects to boost the populations of areas disputed by the Palestinians.
In Mizo, meanwhile, Christians are alarmed. "Lying, evil spirits have led our people astray," said Dr Pachuau Biaksiama, a Presbyterian evangelist. "Physically, culturally and linguistically, we're very different from the Jewish people. It's nonsense about us having the same rituals. If you compare any two religions you'll always find some similarities."
Genetic studies at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Calcutta and a technical institute in Israel have so far established no ethnic link.
Undeterred, Arbi and her family are determined to go to Israel. "Of course, we'll miss Mizoram," she says. "But the Holy Land is where we belong."
GGG Ping.
Rabbinate Recognizes Bnei Menashe as “Descendants of Israel"
Arutz Sheva | 3-31-05
Posted on 03/31/2005 9:05:10 AM PST by SJackson
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1374681/posts
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