Although there is no anti-Semitism in India and the Jews have even occupied top government and military posts, the number of Jews in the country is dwindling fast. The latest development is likely to reduce their number in a dramatic fashion. Of the 5,000 estimated Jews in India, Israel has allowed 899 Indian Jews from states of Manipur and Mizoram, the members of the “lost” Bnei Menashe tribe, to immigrate to the Jewish state.
The Israeli cabinet last week decided to allow the immigration of the Indian Bnei Menashe community to Israel in multiple groups with the first batch expected by the end of 2013. “Bnei Menashe (literally sons of Menashe), a group of indigenous people from north-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram, trace their roots to one of the ten ‘lost tribes’ of Jews exiled by the Assyrian regime over 2,700 years ago,” reports India’s Outlook magazine. More here…
Hundreds of Bnei Menashe are already living in Israel, having made aliyah (immigration) with the help of an NGO, Shavei Israel, dedicated to bringing “lost Jews” around the world to Israel. “Our goal is to bring all the remaining members of the Bnei Menashe community here to Israel as quickly as possible,” says Michael Freund, the founder and chairman of the Shavei Israel.
“Their immigration to Israel was facilitated by the ruling of the former chief Sephardic Rabbi in 2005 who declared them descendants of Israel amid intense debate over their Jewish ancestry. Some 274 members of the northeastern Indian Jews arrived in Israel earlier this year. However, in 2004 Israel’s then Interior Minister Avraham Poraz had put a freeze on the immigration of the group raising questions on their Jewishness.”
“This is a bluff,” said Avraham Poraz, a former Israeli interior minister who temporarily halted Bnei Menashe immigration a decade ago. “They don’t have any connection to Judaism.” The Bnei Menashe are hardly the first group to make claims of ancient Jewish ancestry in a bid to gain Israeli citizenship. The Falash Mura, Ethiopians who claimed to be descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity more than a century ago, were brought to Israel starting in the early 2000s.More here…
India is almost unique among countries of the world in its attitude towards its Jews. There is no known anti-Semitism in India nor are Jews looked upon as in any significant way different from the many Indian minority religions. The character of Indian culture — its relative placidity, its acceptance of diversity, and its inherent communalism — have given the Jews a sanctuary the likes of which has never been known in any of the countries of the western world. At the same time Indian Jewry has, perforce, acquired the characteristics of the Indian population in general. Their social patterns, psychological characteristics, and culture all bear the marks of the civilization within which they have been located for hundreds if not thousands of years. See here…
The oldest of the Indian Jewish communities is in Cochin. The traditional account is that traders from Judea arrived in the city of Cochin, Kerala, in 562 BCE, and that more Jews came as exiles from Israel in the year 70 CE. after the destruction of the Second Temple.The distinct Jewish community was called Anjuvannam. The still-functioning synagogue in Mattancherry belongs to the Paradesi Jews, the descendants of Sephardim that were expelled from Spain in 1492. More here… … And here…
My two-year-old post in this blog on the oldest Jewish woman in India. I contacted the family in Chandigarh, India, recently, and learnt that the old Jewish lady was in a fairly good health. Pl see here…
Photo above: Bnei Menashe children celebrating Yom Haatzmaut in Manipur, India (Photo by Natasha Mozgovaya)
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.