The lost tenth tribe of the Israelites discovered

Exactly one month after October 7, the prominent Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported that about two hundred Israeli citizens of Indian origin are attached to the military units on the border of Gaza and Lebanon. They belong to the northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram. I live in Bani Manashe, a branch of the Kuki tribe. Although the majority of Kukis are Christians, about nine thousand members of the Bani Manashe community profess Judaism.

In the ethnic riots that took place in the state of Manipur last May, around 1500 people were killed. Kuki tribe suffered the most loss of life and money. Therefore, the Jewish community of Manipur also moved to the neighboring state of Mizoram to save their lives.

About five hundred houses and two temples of Bani Manashe Jews were also set on fire. Now they want to move to Israel as soon as possible. After the riots, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited New Delhi, but he did not mention Israeli concerns about Manipur, given the sensitivity of the Modi government.

Bani Manashe claims that they are the tenth tribe of Bani Israel who got lost in the mists of exile as a result of the Assyrian invasion twenty seven hundred years ago. They traveled from Iran and Central Asia to China and from there over time. Slipped into North-Eastern India and stayed.

In 1950, the State of Israel passed the Law of Return. According to it, all people who can prove that one of their great-grandparents was of the Jewish faith are allowed to settle in Israel.

The need for this law was felt that two years ago (nineteen forty-eight) when the establishment of Israel was announced, the population of Jewish immigrants from all over the world, including Europe, was around seven and a half million in Palestine. The Israeli leadership wanted to increase this number rapidly so that the balance of the population could be in favor of the Jews as soon as possible compared to the Palestinian majority. Therefore, the conditions for proving oneself to be of Jewish origin were relaxed.

When this news reached India, in 1951, Mela Chala, a Kuki venerable from Manipur, claimed that he had received the gospel that Israel was our original birthplace. So hundreds of Kukis began to adopt formal Jewish religious practices. Jerusalem. Professor Shalva Weil, a researcher at the Hebrew University, visited India in the 1980s with Israel’s chief Rabbi Eliyahu Avichel and introduced them to the Bnei Manasseh community. But these people had no documentary evidence of their Jewish background. Because they used to have a holiday of stability on Saturday or they had heard the story of how the Egyptian Jews migrated to the Sinai desert by crossing the Qalaz Sea and that a tribe of Bani Israel is lost.

In 2005, the Israeli chief Rabai recognized their claim to Jewish descent and issued a religious certificate. Bani Manashe arriving in Israel were admitted to the official Orthodox sect and arrangements were made to teach them Hebrew.

In the last thirty years, about three and a half thousand Bani Manashes have obtained Israeli citizenship. While the other five thousand are also waiting to move from India to Israel. Last year, at the request of the Israeli parliament, the Netanyahu government formed a special committee which The task is to transfer the remaining Bani Manashe to Israel and make the process of granting citizenship easier and faster. The local Jews who suffered financial losses in the ethnic riots of Manipur last year, also sent government aid to compensate them.

But a local researcher of Mizoram says that apparently the Bani Manashes say that they want to go back to their lost homeland and connect with their original roots, but if a little is done, then most of the Bani Manashes, especially the young generation, will get better economic opportunities and comfort. Israel wants to move in search of.

When it is said to them that they have been living in India for thousands of years and there are millions of Jews in the world who are living a contented life even outside of Israel, their answer is that because they are naturally fighters, so they His emigration would benefit the state of Israel itself. His first wish is to join the army when he arrives in Israel. This is a job that all Israelis look up to.

According to the head of the Bani Manashe Council of Mizoram, Thansima Thamte, ninety-nine percent of the Bani Manashe who have moved to Israel have signed up for the army. Moreover, a dozen of them are also in the well-known Israeli Golani Brigade, which is engaged in war with the Palestinians in Gaza. Bani Manashe are doing military service. Many Bani Manashe are also included in the battalions that are fighting Hezbollah fighters on the northern border.

Although the Israeli government quickly moved thousands of Ukrainian Jews to Israel after the war between Russia and Ukraine, Bnei Manashe’s claim to be Jewish is still a little too much for Israel’s ruling Ashkenazi elite (the white Jews of Eastern Europe). Doubtful. Therefore, the Bani Manashe who are allowed to immigrate to Israel are first interviewed by their Jewish quarter in India, and only after their verification is approved, immigration is allowed.

About forty years ago, the black Falasha Jews of Ethiopia were transferred to Israel after many years of research into their roots. But the majority of Falashas are still working menial jobs in Israel today. Therefore, the speed of their absorption in the Israeli society is faster than that of the Flashaz.

According to an estimate, eighty five thousand Jews of Indian origin are currently living in Israel. The largest number of them (seventy five thousand) call themselves Bani Israel who settled centuries ago in Mumbai and Konkan areas in Maharashtra. But now only four thousand Israelites are living in India.

A small number of Jews have also lived in Cochin, a region of southern India for centuries. Since the year 1790, hundreds of Iraqi, Syrian, Yemeni Jews have also settled in Mumbai. They got Israeli citizenship more easily than Bani Manashe because of their transparent pedigree. These eighty five thousand Jews are the pillar of an effective strategic link between India and Israel.

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