The government approved on Sunday a plan to bring the last 6,000 members of the so-called “lost tribe” of Menashe to Israel within five years.
While about 5,000 of the Bnei (sons of) Menashe currently live in Israel, having trickled in over the last 20 years, they have had great trouble bringing in the rest of their community, which is based in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur.
The decision will enable some 1,200 immigrants to hopefully arrive by the end of 2026, with an Israeli delegation leaving to start processing their immigration applications by next week.
The rest are expected to come by 2030, which will finally reunite all families who have been apart for years.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who submitted the proposal with Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, the Bnei Menashe will be settled in areas that were hit hard by the war in northern Israel.
“This is an important and Zionist decision that will also bring strengthening to the North and the Galilee,” he said.
There are already concentrations of Bnei Menashe in northern towns such as Maalot and Carmiel as well as in Sderot in the south and in villages in Judea and Samaria.
The cost of the project is estimated at NIS90 million, which will include immigration rights, housing costs, Hebrew instruction (ulpan), and an Orthodox conversion.
All Bnei Menashe who come to Israel must undergo conversion because the community was only recognized in 2005 as being “of Jewish descent” by Israel’s chief rabbinate.
They were mostly practicing Christians until late into the twentieth century, even if several of their ancient rites had some semblance to Judaism.
The group began keeping Jewish law and establishing synagogues and ritual baths after learning from Orthodox groups such as Shavei Israel, which supports Aliyah by descendants of lost tribes and took the group under its wing.
The community traces its ancestry to Menashe, the son of Jacob, believing that the tribe made its way to India after the Assyrian dispersion of the Ten Tribes prior to the destruction of the First Temple.
The Bnei Menashe are “passionate Zionists and care deeply about the State of Israel, its citizens and their security,” Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund told The Jerusalem Post last year at the height of the War of Revival in the Gaza Strip.
More than 200 of its men were in the IDF fighting both Hamas and Hezbollah, the organization said, and Freund noted that “since the outbreak of the war, we have received hundreds of requests from young community members in northeastern India who wish to immigrate to Israel and enlist immediately in the IDF to fight shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters.”
11 comments:
So now Linker Rabbanut clowns are aiding the twisted propaganda stunts of Freund's Shavei Yishmael to repackage all kinds of 3rd World exotic tribes as "Yidden". Multiple batei din (not just Satmar) investigated these people who are determined to not be Jewish, not even sofek Yidden. This goyishe tribe think they are Jewish because a galich who found them in the 1800s told them he 'thinks' they are Aseres Hashvotim. This should be good enough for DIN's agenda however to get some more warm bodies in IDF uniforms, Jewish or not!
Aseres Hashvatim
If you read the article you would have seen that they will be Me'gayur Kehalchasa"
Having said that, Charedim are ecstatic about this since they themselves refuse to be part of Klall Yisrael and have in effect, separated from the rest of the 7 million Jews. We will more than happy to accept people who want to be part of Klall Yisrael and who will serve with distinction.
Interesting that you said
"Multiple batei din (not just Satmar) investigated these people who are determined to not be Jewish, not even sofek Yidden"
These Batei Dinim don't accept DNA as evidence so how dod they "investigate and determined that are not even to be sofek Yideen"
Ela Mai most of the Charedie Batei Dinim are a bunch of ama-ratzim and Paskin based on their utter ignorance! Even Ponovitz refused to use anyone who sat on a Charedie Bais Din and went shopping for a retired secular Judge!
To Stop Tainting Klal YisroelNovember 26, 2025 I believe Ovadia Yosef held that they are Jewish.
To DIN 11:55
With or without the ama-ratzim in the Batei Dinim, DNA is only a tracabilty, it has never been a identity, let alone jewish one. If you have yiddisha DNA from your father's great-great-grandmother who even was a bas Cohen, and your mom is mormon, catholic or buddhist, DNA won't do a thing for you.
The fact that these Bne Menashe will be "Me'gayur Kehalchasa" means less than half a peanut, knowing that only a tiny fraction of them will perform a true, complete, sincere and practical Kabolas hamitzvos. Without kabolas hamitzvos, the giyur is posul and worthless.
At the end of the day, importing the self-appointed "Bne Menashe" will only raise the percentage of mixt-marriages.
This blog should be called “The Lies that DIN told me” because it’s reminiscent of “The Lies my father told me” which won Best International Film in 1975. It’s based on the true story of Alan Herman growing up in Montreal with a freya father (a pathological liar) & ehrliche Charedishe zeidy.
Of course this backwater dirt poor ethnic group wants to be megayer when aliyah benefits in Israel are riches to them - a bfeirush problem lehalacha. Another problem besides that is the issur of doing kiruv on goyim which fools like Freund & some other Dati-Looneyniks act as if it’s a mitzva. I don’t recall reading anywhere about DNA markers for this group but if yes it would be even more problematic. Not that DIN could care less about the most chomur yichus issues but the gedolei haposkim have warned that when such groups do have our DNA they are choshud on psulei yichus - including mamzerus (which DIN often holds is a maylah!) It’s utterly laughable to call them Aseres Hashvotim for reasons that could fill an encyclopedia volume. But would they be that is also highly problematic because except for one group who stay frum ad bias Goiel who the Neviyim call the Bnei Moshe, the lost Aseres were completely removed from being Yidden who have no chelek in Oylam Haboh & are cut off in gantzen from the Shechina in Oylam Hazeh. Lehoraaya, the Pathan tribe aka the Taliban who DO have our DNA & almost certainly are from the Aseres are reshoyim gemurim collaborating with al Qaeda. Rav Ovadya said a Shvartza group are Yidden & no Charedi poskim agreed with him. I don’t think he ever poskened on this group. Some poskim did at least concede that the Shvartzas are sofek Yidden but all say this Burmese-Indian group are not even that much. The Halacha is that we don’t even ask internally that unzerah give money when their lives are in danger - but we do ask goyim to please help save them from being slaughtered by their enemies which is why Hisachdis sent Duvid Niederman to implore the State Dept pressure India to send troops to guard them from ethnic cleansing. Please DIN, no Satmar Derangement Syndrome please! There is surely SOMETHING that Hisachdis have done right despite their doomed affiliation! Asking to save their lives is not avlah even when the request comes from Satmar …
Who paid Ovadia Yosef's salary or supported his institutions? Bribery blinds.
Bollystone
Your reasoning on why the Bnei-Menasha want to convert can be said about every single ger! Not one Rav knows whats really in the heart of a goy that wants to convert only the RBS"O knows that! Anyone else who pretends that he knows is a Shoiteh Shebeoilom!
When you say "Giur Kehalacha" I would ask which "halacha" are you referring to?
Whose "halacha?"
Just because your Charedie Gedoilim who are not "goires", anyone who is not Charedie paskin, that means zero to anyone else!
Even Charedim amongst themselves are not "goires" other Charedim for example I remember when Belz broke off from the Eida Hachareidis, and had their own meat, everyone then said, Belz Meat is not kosher!
There are hundreds of Halls in Israel that now serve Belz Shechitah exclusively!
You then go ahead and question the integrity of R' Ovadia Yosef because you don't like his psak! You questioned the integrity of Rav Belsky, of Rav Shmuel Kaminetzki because you don't like their psaks?
To you Rav Malkiel is the "BIG GADOL" which is news to those who learned with him in Brisk!
So I ask you, who the hell are you??? Who died and made you the know-it-all all?
There are gedoilim that will paskin if the Bnei-Menashe are Jews regardless of your mostly ama-ratzim Chardeie Poiskim!
The Chardeie world in gerneral are basically פורץ גדר and has totally disconnected itself from the rest of klall Yisrael!
As far as DNA is concerned!
I know a lady and I'll even give you her name ... Mrs Foreman of Monsey, who lost her husband on 911 in the Twin Towers, they found a couple of bones that matched the DNA of Mr. Foreman hy"d and based on that DNA, the Monsey Rabbanim permitted her to remarry! But the chassidishe amaratzim said that they cannot give her a heter based on DNA!
The entire Monsey at the time was in an uproar and concluded that the Chassidishe Poiskim are a bunch of amaratzim and should be ignored as they are full of "shtissim and havalim" and that they need to shut up!
If you would open Tanach you would see that not all of the Aseres Hashvotim were expelled by Sancheriv, many remained and were assimilated in Yehuda and Binyomin! So not all of Aseres Hashvotim are lost and there are many geoinim that held that the Aseres Hashvotim will be returned in the Achris Hatyomim, and that view is actually coming to fruition as we see them being returned!
OI have met many of the Bnei-Menashe here in Israel and I can tell you first hand that those I met have more Yirei Shomyim than any of those in Ponovitz that are beating the crap out of each other!
9:34
Who paid Rav Shach's salary or supported his institutions? Who is paying today Rav Landau's salary and his institutions?
Don't dig to deep...... its the Zionists!!
Hey DIN, it’s entertaining to read your deyah zuggen on this inyan because you have it in for one of the groups noigayah (for racial reasons). We haven’t forgotten your caustic commentary during the Falasha riots. Your high skepticism, even denial, of the Falashas being fin inzerreh can also be applied to other groups, can it not lol? Shmarya might even have to concede it’s a form of Equal Opportunity!
Fat Shmarya in the Basement
I have since changed my mind on the Falashas, and that moment came after the riots, when I realized they must have the same DNA as the Peleg or Auerbach crazies since they have similar minhagim!
And I’ve changed my mind about the movie The Lies My Father Told Me. I had thought that one of the starring roles, Alan Herman’s zeidy’s horse named “Ferdelah” was exactly that, a ferd. But there was apparently a huge conspiracy to conceal that the character was actually played by DIN in a costume!
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