Diaspora Ministry To Probe Global ‘Lost Jews’ Claims
TOP OF THE HILL: Gershom Sizomu (center) steps into the rabbinate, accompanied by his mother and brother.
Israel’s Diaspora Ministry is establishing a committee to develop relations with groups that have Jewish ancestry or ties.
Such groups include the Bnei Menashe, a community from eastern India that practices Judaism and has seen thousands of its members move to Israel and convert to Orthodox Judaism. Other groups with Jewish ancestry exist in Poland, Spain, South America and elsewhere.
The committee, according to a Monday announcement, will examine whether the ministry should create policies regarding these groups.
“Over the past few years there has been an increasing awareness of large groups of people who are not Jewish by any definition but who have some type of connection to the Jewish people.” said Dvir Kahana, director general of the Diaspora Ministry, in a press release. “Some of these groups want some kind of association with the Jewish people and/or Israel which raises the question of what ties the government should have with them.”
The committee includes Benjamin Ish-Shalom, chairman of Israel’s Joint Conversion Institute. It will submit its recommendations next year.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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 the protests on college campuses.
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
