| Total population |
|---|
| 9,000 (estimate)[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| India: 7,232 [2] Israel: 1,700 [3] |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
Mizo, Kuki and Chin people |
The Bnei Menashe (Hebrew: בני מנשה, "Children of Menasseh") are a group of more than 9,000 people from India's North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The claim appeared after a Pentecostalist dreamt in 1951 that his people's pre-Christian religion was Judaism and that their original homeland was Israel. Linguistically, Bnei Menashe are Tibeto-Burmans and belong to the Mizo, Kuki and Chin peoples (the terms are virtually interchangeable).[4] They are called Chin in Burma.
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 which has its own distinct dialect and identity.
The breakaway Judaic group was named Bnei Menashe by Eliyahu Avichail [5] because they believe that the legendary Kuki-Mizo ancestor Manmasi[6] was Menasseh, son of Joseph.
Prior to their conversion to Christianity in the 19th Century, the Chin-Kuki-Mizo were headhunters and animists [7] [8] who migrated in waves from East Asia until they settled in northeastern India. They have no written history but their legends refer to a beloved homeland that they were driven away from called Sinlung/Chhinlung.[9] Anthropologists and historians believe that it was located in China's Yunnan province and that the Tibeto-Burman migration from there began about 6000 years ago. National Geographic's Genographic Project plans to sample the gene pool of northeastern Indian tribes which may shed definitive light on their origins.[10]
The Bnei Menashe believe that the traditional Mizo-Kuki-Hmar harvest festival song in the Hmar language, "Sikpui Hla (Sikpui Song)" which features events paralleled in the Book of Exodus, such as enemies chasing them over a red-coloured sea,[11] quails,[12] and a pillar of cloud [11] is clear evidence of their Israelite ancestry. Translation of the lyrics:
| “ | While we are preparing for the Sikpui Feast,
The big red sea becomes divided; As we march along fighting our foes, We are being led by pillar of cloud by day,'' And pillar of fire by night. Our enemies, O ye folks, are thick with fury, Come out with your shields and arrows. Fighting our enemies all day long, We march forward as cloud-fire goes before us. The enemies we fought all day long, The big sea swallowed them like wild beast. Collect the quails, And draw the water that springs out of the rock. |
” |
On 1 April 2007, Michael Freund reported in the Jerusalem Post that the Bnei Menashe claim to have a chant they call Miriam's Prayer.[14] The words of the chant are identical to that of the Sikpui Song and the Post article is the first known print reference to Miriam's Prayer aka Sikpui Hla.
Freund goes on to report that according to the Bnei Menashe "a century ago, when British missionaries first arrived in India's North-East, they were astonished to find that the local tribesmen worshipped one god, were familiar with many of the stories of the Bible, and were practicing a form of biblical Judaism".
By all empirical accounts, the entire tribe were animists at the time of the arrival of the missionaries.
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 by the missionaries. This policy was abandoned during the 1919–24 Revival and the Mizos began writing their own hymns and incorporating indigenous elements thereby creating their own distinct form of worship.[15]
Dr. Shalva Weil [2], a senior researcher and noted anthropologist at Hebrew University, quotes Steven Fuchs in her paper Dual Conversion Among the Shinlung of North-East: "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)"[3].
According to the Bnei Menashe, in 1951, a Pentecostalist called Chalianthanga or Mela Chala (the name varies) from Buallawn village dreamt that 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.[16] The Bnei Menashe believe that Chalianthanga/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 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.[17][18]
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 .[19] This was certainly the case in other countries, where 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 Qiang people are really Lost Israelites".[20]
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. The Rabbi traveled to India several times during the 1980s to investigate the claims. Convinced that the Bnei Menashe were indeed descendants of Israelites, he dedicated himself to converting them to Orthodox Judaism and facilitating their aliya with funds provided by benefactors such as the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a US-Israeli organisation which raises funds from evangelical Christians for Jewish causes.
1998: US-Israeli translator and New York Sun columnist Hillel Halkin travels to India with Rabbi Avichail to meet the Bnei Menashe and writes a widely-reviewed book about it entitled Across The Sabbath River (2002).
The Rabbi eventually steps aside as leader of Amishav in favour of Michael Freund, a Jerusalem Post columnist and former deputy director of communications and policy planning in the Prime Minister's office. Freund goes on to found Shavei Israel.
July 2006: In an interview with North-East Indian magazine Grassroots Options, Halkin explains the background: "Avichail is today a man in his seventies, and several years ago, persuaded that Amishav needed younger leadership, he ceded his position to an American-Israeli journalist, Michael Freund. 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".[21]
Freund says that the Bnei Menashe "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” [22]
July 2005: Bnei Menashe complete building a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, in Mizoram under the supervision of Israeli rabbis in order to begin the process of conversion to Judaism.[23] 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 the Israel.
1 April 2005: Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, one of Israel's two chief rabbis, accepts the Bnei Menashe's claim because of their exemplary devotion to Judaism.[24] His decision is significant because it paves the way for all Bnei Menashe to enter Israel under Israel's Law of Return.
Although the claims of Israelite descent are rejected by most Mizo-Kuki-Chin and called into serious question by some academics, the Bnei Menashe are unshakable 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.
In the past two decades, some 1,700 Bnei Menashe have moved to Israel, mostly to settlements in West Bank[25] and Gaza strip (before disengagement). Learning Hebrew has been a great challenge, especially for the older generation, for whom the phonology of their native languages makes Hebrew especially challenging, both phonologically and morphologically. Younger members have more opportunities to learn Hebrew and gain employment as soldiers and nurses aides for the elderly and infirm.[26]
When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan for the disengagement of Gush Katif and some Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), the Bnei Menashe community were especially affected because many had decided to settle in these territories. Prior to Israel's subsequent withdrawal, the Bnei Menashe were the largest immigrant community in Gaza.[27]
Bnei Menashe in India were concerned about family members who they feared were in the middle of violent confrontations between settlers and IDF soldiers. They were also concerned because they had thought of Gaza as their future home once they made aliyah, that is, the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel. Although a group of Bnei Menashe left Gaza before the deadline, others stayed with their fellow settlers during the expulsion.[28][29] [30]
Interior Minister Avraham Poraz halted Bnei Menashe immigration to Israel in June 2003 following charges by Ofir Pines-Paz (Minister of Science and Technology, 2006) that the Bnei Menashe are “being cynically exploited for political purposes" because they are being settled in the Gaza Strip Gush Katif settlements (evacuated two years later) and in the West Bank ("Judea and Samaria"). Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a rabbinical judge dealing with the conversion of Bnei Menashe, says that the Knesset Absorption Committee's decision is one based on "ignorance, racism, and unjustifiable hate".[31]
Rabbi Birnbaum says that the Bnei Menashe who move to Israel in fact suffer financially because their move is motivated by a desire to return to the Holy Land rather than material gain.[31]
Michael Freund believes 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 and spiritual reservoir for Israel and the Jewish people." [32]
With the March 2005 decision by Rabbi Amar, the immigration issue seems 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 is short-lived because the government of India, under pressure from Mizo-Kuki churches, objects formally to the conversion of its citizens.
The rapid rise in conversions alarms the staunchly evangelical Mizo-Kuki churches and ignites a furious controversy in Mizoram, culminating in top-rated television debates.
Aizawl Christian Research Centre's Dr Biaksiama says “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 is the author of a book Mizo Nge Israel? (Mizo or Israeli?) which he says "tells us our real identity, the identity with which we are recognised by God and the world".[33]
March 2004: Dr Biaksiama has a showdown on television with Lalchanhima Sailo, founder of Chhinlung Israel People's Convention (CIPC), a secessionist Mizo organization. [34] [35] Lalchanhima Sailo says that 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 [4]
April 2005: Aizawl Theological College's Rev Chuauthuama tells 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".[36]
November 2005: the Israeli government halts all conversions of the Bnei Menashe in India, citing strained relations between the two countries after Indian officials express concern about the conversions; they indicate that 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.
The decision by the Israeli government leads to criticism from Bnei Menashe supporters who say that Israeli officials have 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 is 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 receiving any governmental response.[37]
July 2006: Israeli Immigration Absorption Minister Zeev Boim says that the 218 Bnei Menashe will "be allowed to come here, but first the government must decide what its policy will be towards those who have yet to (formally) convert".[38]
Freund threatens to take the minister to the Supreme Court if he does not immediately facilitate the arrival of the Bnei Menashe.
November 2006: 218 Bnei Menashe arrive in Israel and are resettled in Upper Nazareth and Karmiel. Michael Freund gives the Jerusalem Post several reasons for settling the newcomers in the North including the fact that the government has encouraged more people to settle in the Galilee and the Negev. "And after what the North went through this summer during the Lebanon war, it is especially meaningful that the Bnei Menashe will help to strengthen and revitalize this part of Israel".
September 2007: 230 Bnei Menashe arrive in Israel.
October 2007: Signalling a major change in policy, the Israeli government says that entry into Israel for the purpose of mass conversion and citizenship will in future have to be considered by the full Cabinet, rather than by the Interior Minister alone. A government source is reported as saying "After all, when the whole government meets to vote on something, it can't decide on anything."
This decision is expected to be a major obstacle in Shavei Israel's endeavours to bring all Bnei Menashe to Israel. This is because the immigration of the Bnei Menashe has previously been managed by bringing in large groups of up to 230, rather than by bringing in individuals. [5] [6]
Michael Freund promises to fight against the decision [7].
2003: Hillel Halkin initiates a collection of 350 genetic samples from Mizo-Kuki which are 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 Intoate who helped collect the samples, no evidence was found which would indicate a Middle-Eastern origin for Mizo-Chin-Kuki [8][9]. t].
2004: In paper posted to the internet without peer review, Kolkata's Central Forensic Science Laboratory claimed to have discovered evidence through DNA testing of Middle Eastern genes among a sample of Mizo-Kuki-Chin. The paper was titled Tracking the genetic imprints of lost Jewish tribes among the gene pool of Kuki-Chin-Mizo population of India.[39] The paper remains unreviewed as of October 2011 and the paper elicited a few critical responses:
July 2006: Hillel Halkin says "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 says that in any case, Jewish DNA testing has never been and can never be a requirement in applications for Israeli citizenship. "My conclusions from my research, expounded at length in my book Across The Sabbath River, are 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 [33].
November 2006: In a Jerusalem Post article about an Indian historian's claims of finding a genetic link between his Northern Indian Pathan clan and the Lost Tribe of Ephraim, Hillel Halkin says that "there's no such thing as Jewish DNA. There is a [genetic] pattern which is very common in the Middle East, 40% of Jews worldwide have it and 60% do not have it. But many non-Jews and people in the Middle East have it also"[12].
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