Posted on 09/27/2011 3:42:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Israeli government is expected to approve the long awaited 'aliyah' (immigration) of more than 7,200 Indian Jews from the north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram in the coming weeks, a media report said.
The decision to allow the last members of the "lost" Bnei Menashe tribe to immigrate to Israel is being greeted with excitement by local Evangelical Christian groups, who view it as fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and who have pledged financial support for the move, 'The Jerusalem Post' daily reported.
The ministerial committee on immigration and absorption, headed by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, decided, about three months ago, "in principle" to bring the remaining 7,232 members of the northeastern Indian community to the Jewish state
"I am very optimistic that within the next few weeks we will at last have a historic breakthrough which will allow the lost tribe of Bnei Menashe to return to Zion," Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organisation that has been at the forefront of Bnei Menashe immigration to Israel, was quoted as saying.
More than 1,700 members of the north-eastern Indian Jewish community, referred as Bnei Menashe (sons of Menashe), have immigrated to Israel over the last decade, but their aliya was subsequently halted in 2007 over the issue of their "Jewishness", even though the Israeli Chief Rabbinate had earlier recognised the community as "descendants of Israel".
The community claims descent from one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago.
Their ancestors are believed to have wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries, before settling in what is now northeastern India, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh.
I don’t remember the name of the organization, but for 250 dollars you can bring a jew out of other countries and bring them to Israel...I did it once. I jew is in Israel due to my donation....it makes me happy to have done so....many are the poor & elderly, so they can live and die in their homeland...
Shimon was in the southern kingdom too. It's just that Shimon so completely assimilated into Judean culture that its people lost their tribal identity earlier than elsewhere. Also, during the reign of King Josiah, Judah reconquered most of the old northern kingdom and assimilated the common people of the northern tribes who the Assyrians left behind (the Assyrians exiled only about 27,000 people). It's a mistake, albeit a common one, to think that today's Jews descend only from Judah, Binyamin, and Levi.
By analogy: we call the Roman Empire "Roman," and its citizens "Romans," even though few of its citizens lived in Rome even at the height of the empire. Most lived elsewhere in what is today central Italy, and descended primarily from Italic or Etruscan tribes that weren't quite "Roman." But, because of Rome's dominion over its neighbors, all eventually identified as "Roman."
My childhood rabbi, who was from Calcutta, was very familiar with this whole situation.
They are righteous converts and thus full Jews. But they aren't physically descended from ancient Israel.
The tribes of Judah and Benjamin with the Levites should not be considered "only"and yes there were those from the Northern Kingdom that were absorbed into Judea even possibly through intermarriage but they became identified with the Southern Kingdom. They too are of those that know that they are Israelites. There are exceptions for many reasons but I am talking generally about the identity of the Southern Kingdom and what happened to them as opposed to what happened to most of the people of the Northern Kingdom. The Old Testament is written largely around the two Kingdoms, the differences between them and that in the end they shall come gloriously back together again.
The Bible repeatedly says that many Israelites were dispersed though out the whole world. The side that is "Judah" He did not divorce and send away. Yes, they ended up being out there in the world also but they never lost their identities as "The Chosen of God". They have always looked to Jerusalem with longing in their hearts believing in the prophesies about the coming Messiah and their ultimate return to Israel (at least the faithful among them). The side that was Sameria i.e. the Northern Kingdom He dispersed though out the whole world but they on a whole lost their identities as descendants of Abraham, Israelites. I believe that many people in the world today are descendants of Abraham and are unaware of it. Many who hate Israel may even be part "Jewish" and do not know it. Abrahams descendants would be as the sands on shore and numbered as the stars. Where are all these Israelites? They are us, I believe, many of us, but we don't realize it. The LORD knows though.
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Hsa 1:4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little [while], and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. _______________________________
Hsa 1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And [God] said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. _________________________
Hsa 1:9 Then said [God], Call his name Loammi: for ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God].
Hsa 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people, [there] it shall be said unto them, [Ye are] the sons of the living God.
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A central theme in The Old Testament is the bringing together of the two houses of Israel that had been split up between the N. and S. Kingdoms. If, on a whole, the two Kingdoms have been as one even in the days of Jesus why would The LORD speak of them coming back together at the end of the age?
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Hsa 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people, [there] it shall be said unto them, [Ye are] the sons of the living God.
Hsa 1:11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great [shall be] the day of Jezreel.
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2Ki 18:9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which [was] the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, [that] Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.
2Ki 18:10 And at the end of three years they took it: [even] in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that [is] the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
2Ki 18:11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
2Ki 18:12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, [and] all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear [them], nor do [them]. ____________________________________
Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
Thank you so very much, dear Quix.
I tried googling this and found arguments for and against, but I have my doubts -- other Jews separated from the mainstream of Judaism for centuries like the East AFrican (not ethiopian, but further south) or Bukharan Jews still retained many of their original beliefs and did not become animists -- I doubt any Israelite people would degenerate like that. The second is genetics -- to Bellflower's point, the Bukharan "jews" are technically descended from the Northern tribes and more to the point, the Northern tribespeople would still have semitic genes and the Cohen gene would be expected to be present -- that is lacking (iirc) amongst the Bnei Menashe
ChicagoHebrew is correct both about this and about the fact that many of today's Jews would have blood from the northern tribes and not all of the northern tribes were exiled (as he pointed out the Assyrians only exiled about 27,000 people)
That being said -- the people from the North-East of India are hard-working and honest folks and will be an asset to Israel even if they are not genetically Israelite
These are supposed to have left Israel before the time of the Maccabees when the Judeans were under threat by the Hellenizers (read the books of Maccabees for reference). They look like Marathas and speak Marathi but maintained Jewish diets and circumcision and Sabbath
This is a map of the state of Maharashtra where the Beni Israelis lived.
This is a state of India of about 300,000 sq km and a population of 70 million. The majority of these live in the megapolis of Bombay (which has the separate cities of New bombay and Thane linked) or its whereabouts.
This state was formed in 1960 out of the old Bombay Province and other princely states when India re-organized its states by language. The majority language here is Marathi which is a Western Indic language belonging to the Indo-Irani branch of the Indo-European language family.
The people are divided into the Deccanni people (from the plateau called the Deccan) -- with the cultural center as Pune, then the Vidarbha people from the interior with the center as Nagpur (nearly the exact center of India with summer temperatures of up to 120 and the Konkani areas with Bombay, Ratnagiri as centers.
The original folks in Bombay - Bassein now call themselves "East Indians" -- these are mainly Catholic and have been for 500 odd years since the Portuguese came across there.
“The original folks in Bombay - Bassein now call themselves “East Indians” — these are mainly Catholic and have been for 500 odd years since the Portuguese came across there.”
First, good morning.
Second I also remember that besides those Catholics who go back to the days of the Portuguese, there are what are called “Eastern Rite” Catholics who go back futher, to the days of St. Thomas the Aposle. Are they are also in this area you have pictured? Thank-you ahead for your response.
When God said He would gather His people back to the land of Israel I trust He knew who they were and will sort the out.
Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!
Wow, this is really good news.
Hijacked Thread Alert!
You are correct. The Portuguese were influential in converting the Goans, East Indians and Mangalorean Catholics plus some Tamilian Catholics
the Eastern Rite Catholics you refer to are the Marthomite Christians. These are descendents of those converted by St. Thomas the Apostle
Incidently most of those were Jewish, dating from a Jewish community dating back to at least 300 BC (since Kerala is on the monsoon trade winds between Yemen/Somalia and India)
These are now either Syrian Orthodox (meaning Oriental Church) or Syro-Malabar Catholic or Syro-Malankara Catholic or Jacobite
The state of Kerala is about 300 to 400 miles to the south of the southern tip of Maharashtra
and here is a view of the trade routes across the ancient world
I have my doubts these people really are one of the lost tribes, but what the heck, they believe it and apparently convinced the honcho rabbis.
Please add me to the ping list.
An Indian convert to Judaism from Mumbai, now living in Kiryat Arba, has told me that I look very much like one of the Bnei Israel that he met there. If I knew how to upload pictures to this site, I’d let you judge for yourselves.
But I’m talking about genetics, not about how a person looks. I know a Japanese guy who looks Mediterranean! And as far as I’ve read, the Mizos do not have Semitic genes at all.
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