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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/19061/full/19061/-lost-tribe-emigres-from-india-making-a-dramatic-aliyah/ <br /><br /> <b>‘Lost Tribe’ emigres from India making a dramatic aliyah</b> <br /> Friday, January 3, 2003 | by <p>JESSICA STEINBERG </p> <br /><br /><p>JERUSALEM—Shlomo Gangte is a graphic designer, a documentary filmmaker and a recently ordained rabbi.<br /><br /> That wouldn't be so unusual, except that Gangte is one of the recently arrived members of the Bnei Menashe, a community from northeastern India that says it is descended from one of the biblical Lost Tribes of Israel.<br /><br /> Along with 95 other members of the community, Gangte immigrated to Israel in late August.<br /><br /> They were brought by Amishav—Hebrew for "My People Return"—a group that has helped 700 of the Bnei Menashe come to Israel during the past dozen years.<br /><br /> "We prayed to come as a nation and see this land," said Gangte, 35, who immigrated with his wife and two small children. "There is a higher degree of holiness here."<br /><br /> For now, Gangte and 60 of his fellow emigres are living in Shavei Shomron, a small Jewish settlement in the West Bank. It is located between Nablus and Kalkilya, two Palestinian cities that Israeli officials have described as breeding grounds for terrorists.<br /><br /> The recent immigrants don't seem concerned that they might be living in dangerous territory, surrounded by Arab villages and with Israeli soldiers based in the community.<br /><br /> "We want to be on the frontier," said Gangte, a short, trim man with a quick smile and energetic manner. "We knew about what was happening here before we came."<br /><br /> But it is more than that, added Naomi Sing Sung, a married woman whose hair is covered with a soft, olive green hat.<br /><br /> In India, members of Bnei Menashe were singled out for their customary dress, whether it was the men who wore yarmulkes or the women who covered their hair.<br /><br /> "Here, men can cover their heads with pride, freely," she said. "There, it wasn't always so easy."<br /><br /> Advocates for the Bnei Menashe had struggled in relative obscurity to convince Israelis that the Indians were long-lost Jews who had returned to the faith.<br /><br /> The Bnei Menashe claim to descend from the tribe of Menashe, one of the 10 tribes that was driven from ancient Israel in the eighth century BCE by Assyrian conquerors.<br /><br /> According to Bnei Menashe tradition, their ancestors wandered eastward toward China, then made their way south into what is now northeastern India and nearby Myanmar.<br /><br /> Today, some 5,000 Bnei Menashe live in the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, where much of the population is Christian, converted by British missionaries during the late 19th century.<br /><br /> When the missionaries first arrived in the region, they found that many of the locals worshiped one God and were familiar with the stories of the Bible.<br /><br /> They nonetheless succeeded in converting most of the native population, though many of the people continued to believe they were descended from ancient Israelites.<br /><br /> About 25 years ago, a group of Bnei Menashe decided to adopt a Jewish lifestyle and observance.<br /><br /> They were later discovered by the founder of Amishav, Eliyahu Avichail, an Israeli rabbi who wanders the globe in search of lost Jews in order to bring them back to Judaism and Israel.<br /><br /> Avichail and several other Israeli rabbis believe the descendants of lost tribes could help offset Israel's dwindling demographics against the burgeoning Arab population.<br /><br /> "I believe that groups like the Bnei Menashe constitute a large, untapped demographic and spiritual reservoir for Israel and the Jewish people," said the director of Amishav, Michael Freund.<br /><br /> The organization has created a Jewish outreach center in Mizoram. It also translated and published several books into Mizo—the language used by Mizoram's Bnei Menashe community—including a prayer book, a Hebrew-English-Mizo dictionary and a guide to Jewish holidays.<br /><br /> At Shavei Shomron, Rivka Bondy is overseeing the absorption of the latest group of emigres, a task she views with a certain</p> <p> </p>

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