102 Immigrants From India Ready For Normal Life In Israel
Bnei Menashe
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Some 102 immigrants to Israel from India, members of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community, are ready to leave their absorption center.
The olim, who came to Israel in February from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, have completed their required formal conversion to Judaism and intensive Hebrew language studies, the Shavei Israel organization, which facilitated their immigration, said in a statement. Shavei Israel is an Israel-based organization that works to find lost Jews throughout the world.
The new immigrants are set to leave their absorption center in Kfar Hasidim on Monday and move to Nazareth Illit in Israel’s north, where there is already a Bnei Menashe community, according to Shavei Israel.
“More than 2,700 years after their ancestors were exiled from the Land, the Bnei Menashe are returning home. Our task now is to ensure that they truly feel at home as well,” Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, said in a statement.
The Bnei Menashe are believed to be descended from the biblical tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel more than 2,700 years ago.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
