Aizawl (Mizoram): More than 200 people from Manipur migrated to Israel on tourist visas last month, claiming they were descendants of one of the 10 lost Biblical tribes.
Members of the Shavei Israel Organisation (SIO) in Israel received a group of 231 people from Manipur’s Churachandpur district who went in two batches about a fortnight ago.
Rabbinical leaders announced last year that some 6,000 members of the Bnei Menashe tribe in Mizoram and Manipur were descendants of ancient Israelites or one of the 10 lost Biblical tribes.
"This is a historic moment for us. We have come home," Yigal Henshin, president of the Bnei Menashe community, was quoted as saying in Israel by Tlantea, a leader of the Mizoram chapter of SIO.
"The group from Manipur entered Israel on tourist visas and will undergo training on religious and social lines for three months and then will be formally converted to Judaism," Tlantea told IANS.
The recognition from Israel came after tribe members sent scores of applications seeking to migrate to Israel, or the ‘Promised Land’, saying it was their right to do so.
According to Israeli law, every Jew enjoys the ‘right of return’ – or the right of abode in the country. The SIO is a group headquartered in Jerusalem and is dedicated to searching for the lost tribes of Israel and helping them return to their Promised Land.
Although Israel recognised the Bnei Menashe tribe as one of the 10 lost Biblical tribes, the homecoming requires that they first convert to Judaism by taking a holy dip at a mikvah or a ritual bath.
There have reportedly been complaints from the Indian Government about the emigration of people from Mizoram and Manipur.
But Tlantea said: "The Bnei Menashe conversion cannot be stopped as we are one of the lost tribes."
Some 1,000 people from Mizoram and Manipur have migrated to Israel since 1994 when a private body, the Amishav Association, took up their case. The last batch of people from Mizoram had 205 people who left for Jerusalem in November last year.
Mizoram is a predominantly Christian state, while most Manipuris follow Hinduism. Most Jews in the two states were Christian by birth.
(This is a new technique by Christian Missionaries to fool Hindus and convert them. Due to continuing ignorance of Indian government, these states are on verge of separation from India. – Editor)
Source: http://www.aol.in/news/story/2007091000539012000005/index.html
