Posted on 04/03/2005 11:49:19 AM PDT by ChicagoHebrew
A special team of rabbis from Israel will soon be sent to the Indian-Myanmar (Burma) border in order to convert thousands of members of a local tribe who have been recognized as Jews by Israel's chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, The Times of London has reported.
According to the report, the tribesmen have been defined as members of the lost tribe of Menashe. Once converted, they would be able to immigrate to Israel based on the Law of Return. The mission is reportedly funded by a group of Christian Evangelicals.
About 800 members of the 'Bnei Menashe' have been brought to Israel from northeast India over the last decade by a group called "Shavei Israel."
According to "Shavei Israel," there is ample evidence to show that the Bnei Menashe are of Jewish descent. Their customs, including mourning rites, hygiene and the use of a lunar calendar, closely mirror Jewish traditions.
According to scripture, during the reign of King Solomon, the tribes of Israel split into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judea in south. In 723 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel and took 10 of the 12 biblical tribes into exile, where they dispersed among the nations.
The return of the "lost tribes" to their ancient homeland is viewed by some as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a herald of the Messiah.
The Bnei Menashe were animists when they were converted to Christianity by British missionaries in the 19th century. In 1953, a tribal leader named Mlanchala had a dream in which his people would return to Israel. The tribe then adopted or perhaps readopted Jewish traditions.
However, their links to the Jewish people could not be proved, so they were not deemed eligible to immigrate to Israel under Israeli law, which gives Jews the right to automatic citizenship.
The operative word being "or". They could be of any faith, so long as they have a Jewish mother. At least, that's how I read it.
Did anyone ask these people how they feel about be labelled Jewish and then pushed into relocating across the globe?
If someone tried that on me, I'd be a tiny little bit.... "angry".
These are individual decisions, though they've been asking for help in the conversion process for years. Those who aren't interested don't convert. Clearly it provides an opportunity to excape current circumstances for those who wish. I'm not sure why anyone would be angry about that. The conversions are being done by Orthodox Rabbis, not Christians.
For purposes of immigration you don't have to be Jewish, rather have a connection through a single grandparent and not have adopted another faith. The laws are based on the former standards used to persecute Jews.
Come to massachusetts and try that on me, is what I would tell those Rabbis. Test my DNA, call me a Jew, and put a plane ticket in my hand for Tel Aviv.
I'll tell them where they can relocate, and it's not a pleasant place.
Then why would you even consider converting in the first place?
You are, of course, attempting to establish a strawman suggesting that somehow these people are being forced to convert. That's a lie.
So you're calling me a liar.
Understood.
My guess you're simply pontificating about something you know little or nothing about.
But if you're insisting that this is somehow a forced conversion of the Menashe, yes.
I stated the fact
Where did you read that this is a forced conversion? Read the following lines from the article:
In 1953, a tribal leader named Mlanchala had a dream in which his people would return to Israel. The tribe then adopted or perhaps readopted Jewish traditions.
However, their links to the Jewish people could not be proved, so they were not deemed eligible to immigrate to Israel under Israeli law, which gives Jews the right to automatic citizenship.
It seems like there were members of the tribe who thought themselves Jewish and desired to emigrate to Israel, but were not deemed Jewish under Israeli law. So, rabbis are going there to convert those. I see nothing stating that the conversions are forced.
I'll tell them where they can relocate, and it's not a pleasant place.
Believe me, we don't want you.
But then again, I suspect you knew that and are just arguing against a ridiculous strawman to make Jews/Israel look bad...
Israeli Tribes: Once Lost and Now Found?
Searching for the Lost Tribes of Israel in India and Afghanistan
NEWSWEEK (21 October 2002)
When the veteran Israeli journalist Hillel Halkin began hunting for the Lost Tribes of Israel four years ago, he thought the claim that a community of Indians on the Burmese border was descended from one of the tribes was either a fantasy or a hoax. The fate of Israel's 10 lost tribes, which, after being driven from ancient Palestine in the eighth century B.C. by Assyrian conquerors, disappeared into ethnic oblivion, ranks among history's biggest mysteries.
On his third trip to the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, Halkin was shown texts that convinced him that the community, which calls itself the Bnei Menashe, has roots in the lost tribe of Menashe. The documents included a will and words to a song about the Red Sea.
The argument, made in his new book “Across the Sabbath River” (Houghton Mifflin), is not just academic. Some Israeli rabbis believe descendants of the lost tribes number more than 35 million around the world and could help offset the sharply increasing Palestinian population. As founder of the organization Amishav (My People Return), Eliyahu Avichail trots the globe in search of lost Jews, in order to bring them back to their religion through conversation and direct them to Israel. He’s even hoping to make it to Afghanistan later this year. “I believe that groups like the Bnei Menashe are part of the solution to Israel’s demographic problems,” says Amishav director Michael Freund. The group has already brought 700 of the Bnei Menashe to Israel and believes thousands more are eager to come. Most have been put up in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—the main arena of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
Last week at Utniel, a hilltop settlement south of Hebron, a few of the recent Indian immigrants brought back by Amishav sat on the grass during a break from their Jewish studies, singing songs they learned in Manipur about redemption in Jerusalem. A day earlier, Palestinians had shot two Israelis in an ambush a few miles up the road from the settlement. “We feel good here; we’re not scared,” says one of the students, Yosef Thangjom. At another settlement in the area, Kiryat Arba, Manipur native Odelia Khongsai explains why she chose to leave India two years ago, where she had family and a good job. “I had everything a person could want, but I still felt some-thing spiritual was missing.”
Halkin plans to return to India in February with a team of Israeli and American doctors who will conduct genetic tests on the Bnei Menashe to determine scientifically if their ancestors hail from ancient Palestine. But this time it’s the Bnei Menashe who are skeptical. “I think DNA testing is just hogwash,” says Khongsai, who lives with her 6-year-old daughter in a trailer home in Kiryat Arba. “I know I’m a Jew from the Bnei Menashe tribe, and that’s all that matters.”
You did not follow our quarrel. The "fact" I stated was that he or she says that I am a liar. I made no inference of forced conversion, rather I suggested a course of action should anyone be approached for genetic testing, called Jewish, and then offered Israeli citizenship.
You are arguing a ridiculous strawman to make me seem racist against Jews/Israel.
I have Jewish friends. I ate lunch with a Jew just this week. My roommate in college was Jewish, and we got along fine. We even still call each other just to say "hi" sometimes.
I don't believe they were approached, or anyone is approached. For instance, with the Ethiopian Jews mentioned, they actually wanted to go to Israel, and desired a method of proving their "Jewishness." Same thing here it appears:
In 1953, a tribal leader named Mlanchala had a dream in which his people would return to Israel. The tribe then adopted or perhaps readopted Jewish traditions.
If so then I was mistaken, and I apologise to the easily-offended.
No one accused you of anything. Personally I’ll stand by my comment that you were commenting on something you weren’t familiar with.
Asked by SteveMcKing in Post 22: Did anyone ask these people how they feel about be labelled Jewish and then pushed into relocating across the globe?…If someone tried that on me, I'd be a tiny little bit.... "angry".
Answered in Post 23: These are individual decisions, though they've been asking for help in the conversion process for years. Those who aren't interested don't convert. Clearly it provides an opportunity to excape current circumstances for those who wish. I'm not sure why anyone would be angry about that. The conversions are being done by Orthodox Rabbis, not Christians.
Your reaction to they’ve been asking for helpin Post 25: Come to massachusetts and try that on me, is what I would tell those Rabbis. Test my DNA, call me a Jew, and put a plane ticket in my hand for Tel Aviv. ..I'll tell them where they can relocate, and it's not a pleasant place.
A logical question in 26: Then why would you even consider converting in the first place? … You are, of course, attempting to establish a strawman suggesting that somehow these people are being forced to convert. That's a lie.
You 27 So you're calling me a liar. …Understood.
and me in 28 My guess you're simply pontificating about something you know little or nothing about….But if you're insisting that this is somehow a forced conversion of the Menashe, yes.
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