Manipur, India – The Bnei Menashe community of northeastern India was able to celebrate Sukkot this year thanks to the generous support of the Shavei Israel organization, which sent numerous sets of Lulavim and Etrogim from Israel to India prior to the onset of the holiday.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
In their festival prayers, the Bnei Menashe offered a special plea, asking to fulfill their age-old dream to make aliyah to Israel during the coming year.
Shavei Israel Chairman and Founder, Michael Freund, said: “the Bnei Menashe are anxiously waiting for Israel’s government to pass a decision to allow them to come to Israel. We hope the New Year will bring good news and that the dream of the Bnei Menashe to come to Israel will soon become a reality”.
The Bnei Menashe (Hebrew for “sons of Manasseh”) claim descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago. They live in India’s northeastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram.
Their ancestors wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries, before settling in what is now northeastern India, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh.
Throughout their exile, the Bnei Menashe nonetheless continued to practice Judaism just as their ancestors did, including observing the Sabbath, keeping kosher, celebrating the festivals and following the laws of family purity. And they continued to nourish the dream of one day returning to the land of their ancestors, the Land of Israel. In recent years, “Shavei Israel” has brought some 1,500 Bnei Menashe back home to Zion, including 450 in the past three years who settled in the Upper Galilee. Another 7,000 still remain in India, waiting for the day when they too will be able to return to Israel and the Jewish people.
The esrog in the 3rd picture is probarly not kosher cuz its too big
do they have any Yichus going back at least 1500 years?
I wonder how accurate their information is. Do we know about them for generations? My question is not sarcastically I am curious about meticulous information
The decision on approving the Bnei Menashe for immigration to EY should be forthcoming right after the yom tovim and by’irtzah hashem, they will be resettled by the end of the year. They will be among the first in line for new housing in the settlements along with being provided with special social service support including job counseling.
Actually because of the Holocaust in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s there is a good chance that these people might have better and more accurate records of their “yichus” tracing further back than we do. Much was lost during the war including vital family records for thousands of people.
I have a family tree that gets me back to Dovid Hamelech.
What type of hadasem are they using? they look nice.
My father was a Levi because his father told him and his father told him and his father told him. Therefore, it seems that there is a kav of yichus that exists in our zman. It is mesorah like any other. When I actually think about this I am ashamed because I certainly am not on the madrega of Avraham Avinu. Nonetheless, let us all remember that we are all Bnai Yisrael and the Avos are Fathers for all of us and certainly the Imahos !!! HKBH created the Olam for Avraham Avinu. We learn in seforim that who is the Father of Avraham? HKBH !!! Remember this.
My mother has a huge yichus tree in her living room, Going back 1000 years . How you ask? We are aniklech of a rabbi who lived 150 yrs ago who wrote seforim and put his yichus (in the hakdoma) back another century + to a well known tzadik who wrote a famous safer and traces his yichus in the hakdoma and so on. All you have to do is trace yourself back to a famous rabbi and go from there, as we can clearly trace ourself back to the Maharal from Prague. Our yichus tree even has pictures going back to the 1880s ….It did take alot of work but the cousin who did it, sold hundreds of copies to the many grand-kids and they weren’t cheap
Only the Sepharadim have kept accurate yichus records, and even by them their family trees usually only go back to the date of their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Many Jews in Curacao and Panama can shlep out their yichus trees going all the way back 500 years. It would be impossible for an Ashkenazi to do the same. There simply are no Ashkenazim that have such detailed yichus records that are not in some way fabricated. For instance, those of you who are sure you are related to King David, usually the lineage ends in the 18th centure with a line of descendency going all the way to B.C.E. to King David’s time. Very, very accurate!
my yichus is no chassidishe blood going back to Har Sinai
It’s impossible to trace your yichus back to Dovid Hamelech. Shlomo Hamelech had 700 wives and 300 concubines, if you are descended from one of the concubines are you still legitimate?
I’m not impressed, MY YICHUS goes back to Adam Harishon!