Mizo Jews migrating to 'Promised Land' find bullets and menial jobs

Over 200 newly converted tribal Jews in India's northeastern state of Mizoram have migrated recently to Israel following a formal invitation from Jerusalem, embracing new life, either as soldiers defending their 'Promised Land' or by doing menial jobs, Christian Today has confirmed.

The exodus from India begin mid–November when a total of 103 people from Mizoram left for Israel on November 15 while another 105 went on November 15 with the Israeli Prime Minister's office formally inviting them to their Promised Land. The last batch arrived on December 1. Till date, 1300 Mizo Jews have migrated to Israel for a life of opportunities.

The Mizo Jews have been settled in the cities of Nazareth Illit and Karmiel in northern Israel – areas which were hard hit by rockets fired by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah this summer during a 34–day conflict with Israel.

In fact, according to information obtained by Christian Today, many Mizo Jews have found themselves being drafted in the Israeli army and fighting alongside their Israeli 'friends' to defend their 'Promised Land.' Others have taken up menial jobs, working in private enterprises, sources said.

"I have no doubt that the newly converted here are practicing the religion perfectly. Once they reach Israel they will be undergoing a year–long course to finetune other aspects of Judaism at government expense," said Rabbi Hannock Avizedek, an Israeli preacher, who had visited Mizoram recently.

A representative of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem, Avizedek was in India to help the Mizo Jews migrate to Israel.

He had been in Aizawl (capital of Mizoram) for the past six months to help the Bnei Menashe tribe get accustomed to Jewish ways and impart lessons on Judaism.

According to Michael Freund, chairman and founder of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem–based organization that helps communities around the world return to their Jewish roots and to Israel, the Bnei Menashe (children of Manasseh) living in northeastern India are descendants of one of the 10 "lost tribes" of Israel.

"Their ancestors were exiled from the land 27 centuries ago, and despite wandering for so long and so far, they managed to preserve their sense of Jewish identity and now, just as the prophets foretold, we are witnessing their return. This is a miracle of biblical and historic proportions," he said.

"This is the first time they will be coming here as Jews fully recognised as such by the Israeli rabbinate and the Israeli government," he added.

In March 2005, 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.

In September 2005, an official delegation or a beit din (rabbinical court) arrived in northeastern 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 temporarily check such activities.

In Israel, too, recognition of the Indian tribe by the chief rabbi has been assailed by some groups.

Social scientist Lev Grinberg told the BBC in an interview in 2004 that right–wing Jewish groups were promoting conversion of distant people simply to boost the Israeli population (and the army) in areas claimed by the Palestinians.

Despite the controversies, local Jewish leaders and Shavei Israel activists in Manipur and Mizoram are working hard to prepare the newly recognized Indian Bnei Menashes for conversion to Orthodox Judaism and help them "return" to Israel as soon as possible.

"They have proved themselves to be dedicated Jews and committed Zionists. They are a blessing to the state of Israel. We aim to bring all of them to Israel by the end of this decade," said Freund.

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 northeastern 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.

According to Shavei Israel, all Chins in Burma, Minos in Mizoram and Kukis in Manipur — three prominent tribes of South Asia — are descendants of Menashe and 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.

In the early 1970s, some Kuki and Mizo Christians noticed that many of their customs — like male circumcision, animal sacrifices, burial customs, marriage and divorce procedures, observation of the Sabbath and the symbolic use of the number 7 in many festivals — were similar to those of Jews around the world.

DNA studies at Central Forensic Institute in Calcutta also concluded that while the tribe's males showed no links to Israel, the females share a family relationship to the genetic profile of Middle Eastern people. The genetic difference between the sexes might be explained by the marriage of a woman who came from the Middle East to a man of Indian ancestry.

Further genetic studies on the Indian tribes are continuing at the University of Arizona and the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel.

"I want to be in Israel when my last days come. In India, we were poorer than the middle class. In Israel, we are no better but we are in the land that God has promised to us," said Dalia Doliani Sela, waiting for her turn to migrate to Israel. "It is the Promised Land of God and we can properly carry our religious duties over there. In India, it is difficult to practice Judaism properly, so far away."

Others like Martin Lalsawata, a local official associated with the Hebrew Centre in Aizawl, have even claimed that foreign Christian missionaries have attempted to rob them of their Jewish identities.

"[The missionaries have tried] to eliminate all attributes of our Jewish identity and foisted Christian cultural traits upon us," he said. "[We] are the progenies of the Menashe tribe [. . . who came from] ancient Israel some 2700 years ago. [. . .] Till the 19th century our Jewish cultural ingredients had substantially survived. But the advent of the Christian missionaries in the region led to mass conversion of our people to Christianity. Since 1951 one of our local chiefs [. . .] revealed to his people that God had told him that his people should return to their original religion and land [Judaism and Israel] [and] there began a simmering movement to return to Judaism and Israel."

However, local Christians have a different story to tell. "Acceptance of our people as Israelites is the work of Satan," said P.C. Biaksama, a former government bureaucrat and a theologist. "We don't believe these people ever came from Israel. Christianity is at stake here, and we should never take what is happening now lightly."

"[There] is no substantial evidence to claim that these converted Mizo Jews are descendants of the lost Jewish tribe," Cheng Kent, a local Catholic volunteer, said. "This is simply a hoax [. . .] to migrate to Israel where they hope to lead a better life than in India."