Answering the call of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to fight Hamas are hundreds of Jews who were born in India and migrated to Israel.
In Jerusalem, 29-year-old Eleazar Chungthang Menashe and more than 200 other Bnei Menashe people, who are from Manipur and Mizoram, went to the frontlines, reported India Today.
The Presidential Medal of Excellence winner has served in the elite 13th Golani Brigade, a highly decorated infantry unit of the IDF.
“There are about 85,000 Jews of Indian descent in Israel,” Mr Yitzhak (Isaac) Thangjom, executive director of Degel Menashe, told India Today. Degel Menashe helps in the emigration of Jews from Manipur and Mizoram.
But how did Judaism reach India? And how did a Jewish community survive in north-east India, which has no sea link and no obvious connection with Israel?
According to historians, from time immemorial, Jews have found a safe haven in India, where they never faced religious persecution.
The Jews who settled in India were seen as three distinct groups: Bene Israel, Cochinis and Baghdadis. There was no knowledge about the Bnei Menashe – the Jews of north-east India – until recently.
The Bene Israel Jews, who mostly settled in the Konkan and Mumbai, are believed to have landed in India after a shipwreck.
“The Bene Israelis came to Alibaug (a coastal town near Mumbai) 2,400 years ago,” said Mr Reuben Israel, a member of the Bene Israel community and Delhi-based publisher. “At the peak of our population, we used to number around 75,000. There are about 4,000 Bene Israelis left in India now.”
The Cochin Jews came to India in 370 AD from Majorca, off the coast of Spain, and were allowed to settle near Cochin (now Kochi) by a Chera king, according to the book The Jews of India – Their Story by Ms Rachael Rukmini Israel.
The first Baghdadi Jew settler arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1790. He was joined by other migrants from the Middle Eastern cities of Baghdad, Basra and Aleppo, as well as Yemen, according to the book.
All these Jews landed and settled on the western coast of India. So how did the Bnei Menashe reach Manipur and Mizoram?
“The Bnei Menashe claim to have been exiled from present-day Israel following the defeat of the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. They travelled east across Central Asia towards China until finally settling down across the Indo-Burmese trans-border region,” said Mr Vanlalhmangaiha (whose Jewish name is Asaf Renthlei), a sociology researcher from IIT-Delhi, whose PhD thesis is on the Bnei Menashe.
The Bnei Menashe claims to be one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, whose ancestors were forced into exile by the Assyrians after they conquered the Kingdom of Israel.
“Bnei means children and Menashe is grandchild,” explains Mr Asaf, referring to the community’s origins in Manasseh, grandchild of Jacob, considered a traditional ancestor of the people of Israel.
But how did Judaism survive for centuries among the Kuki-Mizo people in Manipur and Mizoram and become known elsewhere only in the 20th century?
The Bnei Menashe community continues to observe the Sabbath and maintained kosher, according to researchers. “But more than Judaism per se, it was remnants of Judaism that survived among the Kuki-Mizo until the entry of the Christian missionaries at the turn of the 20th century,” said Mr Asaf.
“Ironically, it was the arrival of the Christian missionaries and their translation of the Old Testament into the Mizo language that served as an impetus for the elders in the community to rediscover their Israelite origins. Folktales and cultural practices that resonated with the Israelite practices mentioned in the Bible, along with spiritual revelations, eventually led the inquisitive among them to Judaism.”
Since the Bnei Menashe community rediscovered its Israelite roots, it has adopted all the rituals of Orthodox Judaism. Festivals have been adapted to the Indian context.
In 1950, Israel’s Parliament (the Knesset) passed the so-called Law of Return, allowing Jews from all over the world to settle in Israel and become its citizens.
The country has also opened its doors to people like Mr Eleazar, who have discovered their Jewish roots.
Mr Eleazar migrated to Israel from Manipur in 2010 with his family.
Mr Yitzhak said Jews of Indian descent are spread out all over Israel, but there is a large concentration in Lod and Ramla, both close to Tel Aviv. The Bnei Menashe people live in 14 towns and villages.
“The Baghdadis and Cochinis have all but left India and their numbers are probably in single digits,” said Mr Yitzhak, who settled in Israel in 2008 with his wife and daughter. “The Bene Israel and Bnei Menashe have about 5,000 each. A large majority of the Bnei Menashe people in India have relatives in Israel.”
Mr Reuben said Jews who stayed back in India have done so because they are comfortable and have no financial reasons to leave. “They have no difficulty practising Judaism in India. They face no persecution,” he said.
And how close-knit are the Jewish communities in India with those in Israel?
“Most of the Bnei Menashe people have close family ties in Israel, and it is a strong transnational community,” said Mr Asaf, adding that transnational ties have grown stronger with the rise of the Internet and social media.
It is believed that around 200 Bnei Menashe people are actively serving in IDF, in addition to the 200 reservists who have been activated after the recent attacks by Hamas.
In 2017, 20-year-old Binyamin Tungnung, who had migrated from Manipur, joined the Israeli army and was placed in the same unit as his five friends from India.
“My family’s dream was always to immigrate to Israel and build our future there, and my personal dream was always to serve as a soldier in IDF,” he told Jewish News.
Indo-Asian News Service
