There are moments when the lofty notion of Jewish history ceases to feel abstract and instead hits us with a powerful immediacy as the saga of our people forcefully unfolds before our very eyes.
The aliyah of hundreds of members of the Bnei Menashe community from northeastern India in recent days was one such moment, as a long and meandering journey that began nearly 2,700 years ago is now, in our time, heading toward completion.
The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the Tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled by the Assyrian Empire during the First Temple period. Cast out from the Land of Israel, they were scattered in an eastward direction across distant lands, their fate seemingly sealed in obscurity. However, over centuries of wandering, they carried with them something that refused to disappear: a memory of who they were, a connection to the people of Israel, and a dream of returning to Zion.
Eventually, the Bnei Menashe settled in the remote hills of the northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, far removed from any center of Jewish life. There, against all odds, they preserved elements of their heritage, such as belief in one God, observing Shabbat and the High Holy Days, various practices that echoed biblical tradition, and a persistent conviction that they belonged to the people of Israel.
Even in the most isolated villages, they continued to observe, to remember, and to hope. Throughout human history, communities have disappeared. Traditions have faded. Identities have dissolved.
But this one did not.
The story of the Bnei Menashe is remarkable not only because they survived but also because they never gave up on the dream, however distant it may have seemed, that they would eventually return. Across continents and centuries, they preserved a memory: We were once part of the people of Israel, and one day we will rejoin them.
Remarkably, thousands of years ago, the prophet Isaiah foresaw a time when the most distant remnants of our people would be gathered into their ancestral homeland. “Fear not, for I am with you,” God declares. “I will bring your descendants from the East and gather you from the West” (Isaiah 43:5).
If anyone ever doubted those verses, the Bnei Menashe have proven otherwise. They are literally descendants of Israel from “the East,” a people whose very existence attests that Jewish history is a tapestry far wider than we commonly imagine.
The first to connect with the Bnei Menashe was Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, who took up their cause in the late 1980s.
More than two decades ago, I followed in his footsteps and founded the Shavei Israel organization. With God’s help, and thanks to our efforts, there are now more than 5,000 Bnei Menashe living in the Jewish state, anxiously awaiting the aliyah of the rest of their community.
Last November, after years of our lobbying and advocacy, pressure and pleading, the government finally acceded to Shavei Israel’s request and approved a resolution to bring the remaining 6,000 Bnei Menashe in India to Israel over the next five years. The most recent arrivals are the first batch to come in the wake of that decision.
During my numerous trips to India over the years, I met countless Bnei Menashe men and women, young and old. I prayed with them and wept with them, danced with them in joy to celebrate Shabbat, and saw the longing in their eyes for a far-off place called Zion.
I visited remote villages where homemade Hebrew signs adorned the walls of the synagogue, which echoed with the sounds of prayer three times each day. And I watched in awe as their young children recited the Rambam’s 13 Principles of Faith from memory.
The return of this ancient community is truly a miracle of biblical proportions. It is the answer to countless whispered prayers down through the generations, as well as the fulfillment of the divine promise conveyed by the prophet Amos: “I will bring back the captivity of My people Israel... and they shall be planted on their land and shall never again be uprooted” (Amos 9:14-15).
The Bnei Menashe do not come to Israel merely to reclaim a past; they come prepared to assume responsibility for its future. Their sense of belonging is not passive. It is active, expressed most powerfully in their service to the State of Israel.
Serving Israel today
Since Oct. 7, 2023, hundreds of young Bnei Menashe men have taken part in the ongoing war against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Israel’s many other enemies. The IDF enlistment rate among Bnei Menashe males is nearly 100%, a figure that speaks not only to commitment but to identity.
But behind these numbers are stories. There is Netanel Touthang, who made aliyah from Manipur in 2018 and, while serving in the Golani Brigade, was wounded by shrapnel during a Hezbollah attack. There are young soldiers like Ariel and Azaria, who arrived in Israel as children and now stand on the frontlines, defending a country that for their parents existed only as a distant dream.
And there are also those whose journey ended with the ultimate sacrifice.
St.-Sgt. Gideon Hanghal, 24, who immigrated to Israel in 2020 and served in the Nahal Brigade, was killed in September 2024 when a terrorist rammed a truck into his checkpoint near Givat Asaf. And St.-Sgt. Gary Zolat, 21, a soldier in the Kfir Brigade, was killed in November 2024 by a missile attack in Gaza.
From the hills of northeastern India to the frontlines of Israel’s defense, these men’s lives traced a path that few could have imagined just a generation ago. They came from exile to their homeland, from memory to reality, and in doing so, they gave everything.
Their stories are not separate from the larger narrative of the Bnei Menashe. They are its most profound expression.
Because they demonstrate, in the clearest possible terms, that this is not a community seeking opportunity or advantage. It is a community that sees itself as part of the Jewish people in the fullest sense, sharing not only in its history but also in its responsibilities, its struggles, and, when necessary, its sacrifices.
To put it simply, the Bnei Menashe are a blessing for Israel and the Jewish people. They work hard, support themselves and their families, raise beautiful Jewish children, study Torah, and serve in the IDF to defend the country.
They strengthen us as much as we might think we are strengthening them.
Sure, there will be many difficulties ahead for the immigrants in terms of housing, employment, and education.
But these challenges are not reasons for hesitation – they are calls for commitment. If Israel can absorb more than a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union and tens of thousands from Ethiopia, it can surely embrace 6,000 more Bnei Menashe Jews.
Upon arrival, the Bnei Menashe undergo conversion by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.
Throughout the years, judges in the rabbinical conversion courts have repeatedly told me that the Bnei Menashe are by far among the most knowledgeable and dedicated conversion candidates they have ever encountered.
I recall one instance in late 2021, when the rabbinical court convened in Haifa on a high floor in a government building with a beautiful view of the Mediterranean in the background. A Bnei Menashe family that had made aliyah just a few weeks beforehand entered the room.
The rabbis greeted them warmly, and then one of them turned to the parents, pointed to the Mediterranean Sea beyond the window, and asked them if they knew the special blessing that is recited upon seeing it. Without missing a beat, they both said that it is “She’asah et hayam hagadol” (“Who made the large sea”), which is in fact the position of the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law. I dare say that even many learned Jews might not know the answer to that question off the top of their heads.
For 27 centuries, the Bnei Menashe dreamed of Zion. By 2030, all of them will be living and dreaming in Zion.
A people once scattered are being gathered in. A history, long fractured, is being healed. And a promise, carried across 2,700 years, is coming to fruition. Not all at once, but one family, one flight, one life at a time.
May this remarkable chapter of Jewish history inspire us all to recognize God’s boundless love for His people Israel.
And may the return of Manasseh’s children herald the dawn of redemption, both theirs and our own.■
The writer is the founder of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), which assists lost tribes and other hidden Jewish communities to return to the Jewish people.