Jews in Mizoram offer prayers for victims of conflict torn Israel

Amid the ongoing conflict between the Hamas and the Israelis, the Mizo Jews known as ‘Bnei Menashe’ (children of Manashe) in Mizoram have been offering prayers and holding candlelight vigils showing solidarity with victims of the Hamas attacks, the safety of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, and others safeguarding Israel.

The members of Bnei Manashe include the Jews from Mizoram and those from Manipur who fled amid the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur.

As per sources, the Bnei Menashe members have been offering special prayers and holding candlelight vigils inside the relief camps for Israel since October 8, which they regard as the ‘Promised Land’ or ‘Holy Land’.

Over 5,000 Bnei Menashe community members who migrated to Israel from Mizoram and Manipur are safe till date, sources said.

Asriel, the Secretary of Shavei Israel Mizoram Chapter, said that there are around 200 Bnei Manashe members serving in the Israel Defense Force and more than 300 reservists are engaged in a war with the Hamas.

The Bnei Menashe community in Mizoram and Manipur claims descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who were sent to exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago.

Their ancestors wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries before settling in Northeast India.

Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, who had visited Mizoram from Israel in 1986 and again in 1988–89 and 2004, named the Jewish community of Zo-Kuki ancestry as Bnei Menashe, meaning descendants of Menashe. He gave the recognition after scrutinizing the community’s account of their ancestral connection with Menashe, the largest of the 10 lost tribes mentioned in the Bible.

Avichail’s recognition of ethnic Mizos as the lost tribe of Israel was confirmed by Israel’s Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar in early 2005, triggering the mass exodus of people from Mizoram and Manipur.
Bnei Manashe’s migration to Israel began in the early 1990s.

“Around 1500 people from Mizoram and 3500 people from Manipur have so far returned to the Holy Land,” said Asriel, adding that there are 800 to 900 people in Mizoram who are waiting for their turn to migrate.

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