“Freeze” on conversion puts NE’s “lost tribe” in jeopardy

Aizawl – The members of the “Bnei Menashe” tribe settled in the north–eastern states of Manipur are facing an uncertain future after the Indian government complained to their Israeli counterpart about "conversion" to Judaism, compelling the latter to put a "freeze" on the conversions of the 6,000–strong tribe.

Last March, Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a dayan or rabbinical court judge and spokesman for Shepardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, said the decision to accept Indian Bnei Menashes as a lost Jewish tribe followed a careful study of the issue.

"The chief rabbi sent a delegation of two dayanim [judges] to India last year to conduct a thorough investigation of the community and its origins." After that, "it was decided that the Bnei Menashes are in fact descendants of Israel and should be drawn closer to the Jewish people," said Rabbi Birnbaum.

In September, an official delegation or a beit din (rabbinical court) arrived in northeast India to formally convert the tribe to Orthodox Judaism, thus, paving the way for the tribe to apply for immigration to Israel under the Law of Return, which grants the right of citizenship to all Jews.

However, this “conversion” ceremony was frowned upon by both the local churches as well as the state governments. According to news reports, at their behest, the Central Government advised the Israeli government to check such activities.

"The Indian authorities, through official channels, told us they do not view positively initiated efforts at conversions to other religions," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev was quoted as saying.

"When the Indian government issues a complaint we take it seriously. At the moment there is a freeze on all such conversions taking place."

"We were all shattered after we got confirmation that the Indian government forced Israel to stop converting any more people to Judaism," Peer Tlau, a practicing Jew in Mizoram's state capital Aizawl, said.

In Genesis, God promised Abraham that his descendants would become "a great nation," but the line begins with Jacob, Abraham's grandson. Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, does not have a tribe bearing his name. Instead, Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are blessed by Jacob as his own and each fathers a separate "tribe." The Menashes are descendants of Menasseh.

According to an Israeli organization formerly called Amishav — "My people return" — there are 1 million to 2 million Bnei Menashes living in the hilly regions of Burma and northeast India.

After an Assyrian invasion circa 722 B.C., Jewish tradition says 10 tribes from the northern part of the kingdom of Israel were enslaved in Assyria. Later the tribes fled Assyria and wandered through Afghanistan, Tibet and China.

About 100 A.D. one group moved south from China and settled around northeast India and Burma. These Chin–Mizo–Kuki people, who speak Tibeto–Burmese dialects and resemble Mongols in appearance, are believed to be the Bnei Menashes.

Although many Bnei Menashe want to "return" to Israel, only about 800 have been able to emigrate there in the past few years. Israeli visas were denied to most others. The last batch of 71 tribal people left the northeast for Jerusalem in May 2003.

Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem–based organization that has been trying to locate descendants of lost Jewish tribes around the world and bring them to Israel, believes that all Chins in Burma, Minos in Mizoram and Kukis in Manipur — three prominent tribes of South Asia — are descendants of Menashe.

According Shavei Israel, India has more than a million people who are ethnically Bnei Menashes. Because they lived for centuries in northeast India, mingling with local people, many of their Jewish traditions became diluted. And after Welsh missionaries arrived in the area in 1894, nearly all Indian Bnei Menashes converted from their animistic beliefs to Christianity.

Mizoram is a predominantly Christian state, while Hinduism is the dominant faith in Manipur.