Bnei Menashe

The Bnei Menashe ("Children of Menasseh", Hebrew בני מנשה) are a group of 8,000+ Judaic converts from India's remote North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Linguistically, they are Tibeto-Burmans and belong to the Mizo, Kuki and Chin peoples (the terms are virtually interchangeable) ^*^*. They are called Chin in Burma (see tattooed tribeswoman) where they are a persecuted ethnic minority ^*.

Depending upon their affiliations, each tribe refers to itself as Kuki, Mizo, Zomi or Chin. It is however more common for people to identify themselves by their subtribe, each of whom has its own distinct dialect and identity.

The breakaway Judaic group was named Bnei Menashe by Rabbi Avichail Eliyahu because they believe that the legendary Kuki-Mizo ancestor Manmasi is one and the same with Menasseh, son of Joseph.

History and Legends

Prior to their conversion to Christianity in the 19th Century, Chin-Kuki-Mizo were headhunters and animists ^*" target="_blank" >[http://www.nccindia.in/resources/c3.htm who migrated in waves from the East until they settled in NE India. They have no written history but their legends refer to a beloved homeland they were driven away from called Sinlung/Chhinlung. Anthropologists and historians believe that it was located in Yunnan Province, Chi, and that the Tibeto-Burman migration from Yunnan began about 6000 years ago.

An old Mizo-Kuki harvest festival song called Sikpui Hla features events paralleled in the Book of Exodus, such as enemies chasing them over a red-coloured sea, quails, and a pillar of cloud.

Revivalism

During the first Welsh missionary-led Christian Revivalism movement which swept through the Mizo Hills in 1906, indigenous festivals, feasts and traditional songs and chants were strictly prohibited. This policy was abandoned during the 1919-24 Revival and Mizo began writing their own hymns and incorporating indigenous elements thereby creating their own distinct form of worship ^*.

Dr Shalva Weill, an anthropologist at Hebrew University, quotes Steven Fuchs in her paper Double Conversion Among the Shinlung of North-East India: "...revivalism (among the Mizo) is a recurrent phenomenon distinctive of the Welsh form of Presbyterianism. Certain members of the congregation who easily fall into ecstasy are believed to be visited by the Holy Ghost and the utterings are received as prophecies" (1965: 16). McCall (1949) records several incidents of revivalism including the "Kelkang incident" in which three men "spoke in tongues" claiming to be the medium through which God spoke to men. Their following was large and widespread until they clashed with the colonial Superintendent who put down the movement and removed the "sorcery" (1949: 220-223)".

Challianthanga's Vision

According to the Bnei Menashe, a Pentecostalist called Challianthanga or Mela Chala (the name seems to vary) from Buallawn village had a dream in 1951 in which God instructed him to direct his people to return to their pre-Christian religion, which he determined to be Judaism, and to return to their original homeland, Israel ^*. Bnei Menashe believe that Challianthanga/MC and several followers set out on foot through the hilly jungles of North East India towards Israel but had to give up due to the sheer distance and terrain.

Despite this initial setback, the number of believers rose steadily (estimated to have risen by 50% in recent years) and their claims gained wider credence in the 1980s when a self-taught researcher, Zaithanchhungi, purported to have discovered similarities between their ancient animist rituals and those of Biblical Judaism, such as sacrifices^*^*.

Shalva Weil writes that "although there is no documentary evidence linking the tribal peoples in north-east India with the myth of the Lost Israelites, it appears likely that, as with revivalism, the concept was introduced by the missionaries as part of their general millenarian leanings (Samra, 1991). This was certainly the case in other countries, where fundamentalist Christian missionaries "discovered" Lost Tribes in far-flung places, in order to speed up the messianic era and bring on the Redemption. In China, for example, the Scottish missionary Rev. T. F. Torrance entitled his 1937 book "China’s Ancient Israelites" expounding the theory that the Chiang-Min are really Lost Israelites (Torrance, 1937)".

Amishav and Shavei Israel

In 1979, "Amishav", (Hebrew for "My people return") an Israeli organisation founded by Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail and dedicated to locating the lost tribes of Israel, heard about a group in India claiming descent from Israelites. Rabbi Avichail travelled to India several times during the 1980s to investigate the claims and Amishav has since been a strong advocate for the Bnei Menashe, helping them to convert to Orthodox Judaism under the auspices of the Rabbinate of Israel, and migrate to Israel.

Rabbi Avichail was eventually persuaded to step aside as leader of Amishav in favour of younger blood in the form of Michael Freund, former deputy director of communications & policy planning in the Israeli prime minister's office and current syndicated columnist for The Jerusalem Post. Freund went on to found Shavei Israel. In a July 2006 interview with North-East Indian magazine Grassroots Options, Hillel Halkin explains the background: "The two (Avichail and Freund) ultimately quarreled over organisational matters, and Freund left Amishav and founded a new organization called Shavei Israel. Both men have their supporters within the B’nei Menashe community in Israel, although Avichail continues to be the more influential and admired figure. Kuki-Mizo tribal rivalries and clans have also played a role in the split, with some groups supporting one man and some the other. Because Freund is independently wealthy, Shavei Israel is the better funded of the two organisations and has been able to conduct more activities, particularly in the area of supporting Jewish education for the B'nei Menashe in Aizawl and Imphal".

Freund says that the Bnei Menashe "are honest, decent and kind people" and "are a blessing to the State of Israel. They have proved themselves to be dedicated Jews and committed Zionists, and I see no reason why they should not be allowed to immigrate to Israel.” ^*.

Discovery and acceptance

Hillel Halkin, a prominent US-Israeli translator and contributing editor to the New York Sun, travelled to India with Rabbi Avichail in 1998 to meet the Bnei Menashe. He subsequently wrote about his adventures in an entertaining book Across The Sabbath River and has since been a tireless advocate for Bnei Menashe^*.

Although the claims of Israelite descent are rejected by most Mizo-Kuki-Chin and called into serious question by Jewish academics, the Bnei Menashe are unshakeable in their belief. Indeed, Bnei Menashe who wish to affirm their connection to the Jewish people are required to undergo Orthodox conversions, and every effort is made to ensure that they are accepted according to the strictest interpretation of Jewish law.

On March 31 2005, Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, one of Israel's two chief rabbis, acceptance of the Bnei Menashe's claim because of their exemplary devotion to Judaism. His decision was significant because it paved the way for all of the Bnei Menashe to enter Israel under Israel's Law of Return.

In the past two decades, some 1,000 Bnei Menashe have been resettled in Jewish communities in the West Bank and formerly in the Gaza Strip. Learning Hebrew has been a great challenge, especially for the older generation, for whom the phonology of their native languages makes Hebrew phonology and morphology especially challenging. Younger community members have had more opportunities to learn Hebrew and gain employment as soldiers and nurses' aides for the elderly and infirm.

According to Haaretz, "the International Fellowship of Christians & Jews, a group that raises money among evangelical Christians for Jewish causes, has undertaken to finance the process of converting the Bnei Menashe community and bringing them to Israel"^*. ^*.

In July 2005, the Bnei Menashe of Mizoram completed building a mikvah, or a Jewish ritual bath, under the supervision of Israeli rabbis in order to begin the process of conversion to Judaism ^*. Shortly after, a similar Mikvah was built in Manipur. In mid-2005, with the help of Shavei Israel and the local council of Kiryat Arba, the Bnei Menashe opened its first community centre in Israel.

Disengagement

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan for the disengagement of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and several settlements in the West Bank, the Bnei Menashe community was especially affected because most of them were settled in the disputed territories. Prior to Israel's withdrawal, the Bnei Menashe were the largest immigrant community in Gaza ^*.

The Bnei Menashe left in India worried about family members, who, they feared, were in the middle of violent confrontations between settlers and IDF soldiers . They were also concerned because they thought of Gaza as their future homeland once they made aliyah. Although a group of Bnei Menashe moved out of Gaza before the deadline, others stayed with their fellow settlers during the disengagement [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtDisengagement.jhtml?itemNo=613885&contrassID=23&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0 ^*.

Controversy in Israel

In June 2003 Interior Minister Avraham Poraz halted Bnei Menashe immigration to Israel following charges by Knesset member Ofir Pines-Paz (Minister of Science and Technology, 2006) that the Bnei Menashe “are being cynically exploited for political purposes". Arutz Sheva quoted Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a rabbinical judge dealing with the conversion of Bnei Menashe, as saying that the Knesset Absorption Committee's decision was one of "ignorance, racism, and unjustifiable hate"^*.

The Shalom Akhshav movement also claimed that the Bnei Menashe were being imported to increase the settler population in Gaza and the West Bank and to undertake the agricultural work previously done by Palestinians. The Middle East Times, reporting on how the Gaza disengagement affected the Bnei Menashe, says that few of Bnei Menashe have risen above "professions of manual labour in Israel".

Shalom Achshav also claimed that the conversion/migration was being encouraged to help offset the prospect of an Arab majority in Israel in the near future and that the Bnei Menashe were economic, rather than religious, migrants. ^* ^*

Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum says that community members who move to Israel in fact suffer financially because their move is motivated by a desire to return to the Holy Land and not material gain ^*.

Michael Freund agrees that the Bnei Menashe could help with Israel's demographic problem saying "I believe that groups like the Bnei Menashe constitute a large, untapped demographic reservoir for Israel and the Jewish people".

With the March 2005 decision by Rabbi Amar, the immigration issue seemed to have been rendered moot. The Bnei Menashe's Orthodox conversion would in the future be conducted in India, and they would be recognized as wholly Jewish prior to their arrival in Israel. However, this solution was short-lived because the government of India, under pressure from Mizo-Kuki churches, objected formally to the conversion of its citizens.

Controversy in India

The rapid rise in conversions alarmed the staunchly evangelical Mizo-Kuki churches and ignited a furious controversy in Mizoram, culminating in top-rating television debates.

In April 2005, Rev Chuauthuama of the Aizawl Theological College told the Deccan Herald, "There may be some similarities between the customs of any two communities of the world. Some customs of the Mizos may resemble those of the Israelites. But that doesn’t mean that our ancestors were Israelites and Jews" .

Dr Biaksiama, a theologian at Aizawl's Christian Research Centre and a former joint comptroller at the Ministry of Defence, added that “the mass conversion by foreign priests will pose a threat not only to social stability in the region, but also to national security. A large number of people will forsake loyalty to the Union of India, as they all will become eligible for a foreign citizenship”. He has written a book "Mizo Nge Israel?" (Mizo or Israeli?) which "tells us our real identity, the identity with which we are recognised by God and the world".

In March, 2004, Dr Biaksiama had a showdown on television with his chief nemesis, Lalchanhima Sailo, founder of Chhinlung Israel People's Convention (CIPC), a secessionist Mizo oganisation. ^* ^*

Lalchanhima Sailo says CIPC's aim is not migration to Israel but to have the United Nations declare the areas inhabited by Mizo tribes an independent nation for Mizo Israelites^*

Israel Halts Conversions

On November 9, 2005, the Israeli government halted all conversions of the Bnei Menashe in India, saying it was straining relations between the two countries. Indian officials reportedly expressed concern about the conversions and indicated mass conversions are considered illegal in India. Concern may have been triggered after a task force from the Rabbinic Court travelled to India in September 2005 to complete the conversion process for 218 Bnei Menashe.

Foreign Ministry official Amos Nadai told the Knesset "Perhaps under previous Indian governments we had more diplomatic leeway to reach creative solutions. We could have tried to explain that Bnei Menashe have already embraced Judaism and that the conversion is only a technical thing".

The decision by the Israeli government led to criticism from supporters of the Bnei Menashe who say Israeli officials failed to explain to the Indian government that the rabbis were not proselytising, but rather formalizing the conversions of Bnei Menashe who had already accepted Judaism.

The Indian government's complaint was also criticized by some Hindu groups in India, who claim that the Indian government takes Christian complaints more seriously than theirs, and that Hindus have complained for years about Christian proselytizing without government response. ^*

In July, 2006, Israeli Immigration Absorption Minister Zeev Boim said that those 218 Bnei Menashe who were formally converted by the Chief Rabbinate in 2005 "would be allowed to come here, but first the government must decide what its policy will be towards those who have yet to (formally) convert" ^* . In response Michael Freund says "If Boim wants to devise an overall policy concerning the 7,000 remaining members of the Bnei Menashe community, let him go ahead and do so. But what does that have to do with the 218 who have already converted? Neither Boim nor anyone else has the right to stall, delay, defer or postpone their arrival, or to link it to some protracted bureaucratic decision-making process. The Absorption Ministry's position is illegal and immoral. It runs counter to the basic values of Zionism and Judaism" ^*.

Freund says that he has engaged "a prominent lawyer" and is prepared to take the minister to the Supreme Court if he does does immediately facilitate the arrival of the Bnei Menashe.

Contradictory DNA Tests

In 2003, Hillel Halkin initiated a collection of 350 genetic samples from Mizo-Kuki which were tested at Haifa's Technion - Israel Institute of Technology under the auspices of Prof. Karl Skorecki. According to the late Mizo research scholar Isaac Hmar [http://news.zogam.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1383 who helped collect the samples and wrote about it in March 2005 for Manipur website e-pao.net, no evidence was found which would indicate a Middle-Eastern origin for Mizo-Chin-Kuki .

A 2004 DNA test at Kolkota's Central Forensic Science Laboratory then claimed to have discovered evidence of Middle Eastern genes among a sample of Mizo-Kuki-Chin in an internet paper titled Tracking the genetic imprints of lost Jewish tribes among the gene pool of Kuki-Chin-Mizo population of India. In an April 2005 Haaretz report In search of Jewish chromosomes in India, Prof. Skorecki says the Kolkota geneticists "did not do a complete `genetic sequencing' of all the DNA and therefore it is hard to rely on the conclusions derived from a `partial sequencing,and they themselves admit this". He added that "the absence of a genetic match still does not say that the Kuki do not have origins in the Jewish people, as it is possible that after thousands of years it is difficult to identify the traces of the common genetic origin. However, a positive answer can give a significant indication."

Halkin: "I contacted two of its authors, V.K. Kashyap and Bhaswar Maity, with a request for additional information that would enable us to evaluate their findings more scientifically. Unfortunately, this information was never given us, nor have Kashyap and Maity taken the next step of publishing their paper in a scientific journal, which would have required it to pass peer review and to display a higher level of scientific argumentation than that of the Internet paper. Why they have behaved this way is a mystery" ^*.

In the July 2006 Grassroots Options interview, Hillel Halkin says that "laboratory analysis has shown that, with one or two possible exceptions, they fail to demonstrate any link between Kuki-Mizo haplotypes, or DNA profiles, and haplotypes typical of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East such as are common among Jews. In plain language, the study has so far come up with no clear evidence that the Kuki-Mizos, or any part of them, have a biblical “lost tribe” past". He adds that in any case, Jewish DNA testing has never been and can never be a requirement in applications for Israeli citizenship ^*.

Halkin believes that "although the overwhelming majority of Kuki-Mizos are not descended from the “lost tribe” of Manasseh, small numbers of them probably are. It is this small group that has transmitted certain biblical memories, traditions, and customs to the Kuki-Mizo people as a whole".

Timeline (Modern)

1854-1910: British missionaries convert nearly all the Bnei Menashe and almost everyone else in the region to Christianity
1953: A tribal leader named Challianthanga had a dream in which his people returned to Israel, and shared it with his community, which led some members of the tribe to adopt Jewish traditions.
1972: Several hundred Bnei Menashe begin practicing Judaism.
1979: Jewish group “Amishav”(shavei Israel) takes up their case.
1980's: First contact with Israel made.* 1994-2003: with the help of Jewish organizations, 800 Bnei Menashe make Aliyah to Israel, most settle in Jewish settlements.
2003: Israeli Interior Minister Avraham Poraz freezes their immigration indefinitely.
August 2004: In response to the Israeli government decision to stop their immigration, Israeli Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar sends a rabbinical fact-finding committee to investigate the Jewish roots of the Bnei Menashe.
March 2005: Historic decision is made by Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, announcing the state of Israel’s recognition of the Bnei Menashe as part of the lost tribe of Menashe, and therefore can now immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, but only after a complete Jewish conversion, due to the fact that they have been separated from Judaism for millennia.
August 2005: 146 Bnei Menashe forced to evacuate the Gaza Strip as part of Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. ^*
September 2005: A beit din (panel of rabbis) fully converts 700 Bnei Menashe to Judaism (200 from Mizoram, 500 from Manipur) ^*. An estimated 9,000 people still await conversion.
November 2005: Israel agrees to halt converting the Bnei Menashe after pressure from the Indian government. The entire rabbinical team is pulled out of the country.
January 2006: Bnei Menashe scholar in Israel, Allenby Sela, heads the publication of four out of the five Books of Moses in the Mizo language, making it easier for them to study the Torah in their native tongue.

External links

Ethnic groups in India Jewish history Tribes of Israel Indian Jews

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