Indian Jews from ‘lost tribe’ land in Israel

[oberliner]

JERUSALEM (AP) — Dozens of Jews who claim to be the descendants of a lost biblical Jewish tribe emigrated to Israel on Monday from their village in northeastern India, celebrating their arrival after a five-year struggle to get in.

The Bnei Menashe say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century BC. An Israeli chief rabbi recognized them as a lost tribe in 2005, and about 1,700 moved to Israel over the next two years before the government stopped giving them visas.

Israel recently reversed that policy, agreeing to let the remaining 7,200 Bnei Menashe immigrate.

Fifty-three arrived on a flight Monday. Michael Freund, an Israel-based activist on their behalf, said nearly 300 others will arrive in the coming weeks.

“After waiting for thousands of years, our dream came true,” said Lhing Lenchonz, 26, who arrived with her husband and 8-month-old daughter. “We are now in our land.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/indian-jews-from-lost-tribe-land-in-israel/

[Festivito]

1. Oh boy, someone's out there playing an endtimes card.

Wonder what they're up to.

[shaayecanaan]

4. Just the usual

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz halted Bnei Menashe immigration to Israel in June 2003 following charges by Ofir Pines-Paz (Minister of Science and Technology, 2006) that the Bnei Menashe are “being cynically exploited for political purposes" because they are being settled in the Gaza Strip Gush Katif settlements (evacuated two years later) and in the West Bank ("Judea and Samaria&quot . Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a rabbinical judge dealing with the conversion of Bnei Menashe, says that the Knesset Absorption Committee's decision is one based on "ignorance, racism, and unjustifiable hate".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Menashe

They used to use the ex-Soviet immigrants (some Jews, some not, it really didn't matter) as settlement fodder, but that tap dried out long ago. In a demographic war, a pawn of one colour is as good as any other, as long as it isn't one of theirs. Besides, it would be embarrassing to steal some land from the Palestinians and then have no one to move into the newly established settlements.

Apparently a traveling Pentecostal preacher had a dream in which he had a vision that these people were descended from one of the ten lost tribes, and it all went from there.

[oberliner]

5. Wow you really have not a clue what you are talking about here

It's a sad and sorry state of affairs when Wikipedia takes the place of actual knowledge.

[King_David]

7. +1

[shaayecanaan]

8. Perhaps you can post something from the Gatestone institute

and set us all straight. Either way, saying "lol you havent got a clue" without any further particulars isnt worth much, even by the already low standards of internet debate.

[oberliner]

9. The Gatestone Institute?

I have no idea what that is.

Anyway, I just don't think you really understand the topic you are addressing here. I'd prefer to leave it at that - or we can talk via PM if you'd like.

[Festivito]

6. I like that better than someone trying to play anti-Christ.

A lot less messy.

[pangaia]

2. I thought Mormons were the lost tribe.. HUH?

[AnnieBW]

3. The Mormons Got it Wrong!

The "Lost Tribe of Israel" had dots, not feathers.