Free Republic

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...

MUMBAI: "Is it safe to be here, all of us together?'' asked a Jewish woman before seating herself on a chair facing the Gateway of India. A retired colonel reassured her. Fighting back fears of congregating at a public place, a sizeable number of Jews-both Indians and foreigners-came forward to attend a prayer meeting organised by Chabad House on the occasion of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil. While Moshe, the orphaned child of Rabbi Gavriel-who was claimed by the terror attack at Nariman House-was conspicuous by his absence, his grandparents-Shimon and Yehudit...

MUMBAI, India (JTA) - The Colaba neighborhood that surrounds the modern apartment block where terrorists last week murdered a Chabad-Lubavitch couple and four other Jews has begun to return to normal. But for Mumbai's ancient Jewish community, nothing will ever be the same. "This is the first time when a Jew has been targeted in India because he is a Jew," said Jonathon Solomon, a Mumbai lawyer and the president of the Indian Jewish Federation. "The tradition of the last thousand years has been breached." Jews are believed to have lived in India since the time of King Solomon, and...

As an Indian Christian, I occasionally remind my Jewish friends that I owe my faith to them. Indian tradition maintains that a few years after Christ's death, one of his apostles, Thomas ("the Doubter'), sailed to the southern Indian state of Kerala to share the Good News with his co-religionists. Jews have lived in India for thousands of years, perhaps arriving on a mission from the court of King Solomon to trade in "elephant's tooth, peacocks and apes". The Jews of Cochin are said to have been less than receptive to Thomas's message, though he did make many other converts....