Gov't: Bnei Menashe can immigrate

[UndertheOcean]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/738391.html

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim yesterday agreed to allow 216 members of India's Bnei Menashe community to immigrate to Israel.

However, Boim made it clear that he expects the government to hold a discussion on bringing the rest of the Bnei Menashe to Israel.
Advertisement

The Bnei Menashe, who consider themselves descendents of one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, live in the states of Manipur and Mizoram on India's eastern border.

Last September, 216 of the Bnei Menashe in Mizoram were converted by dayanim (rabbinic court judges) from one of Israel's official conversion tribunals, who were sent specially from Israel with the approval of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. The dayanim's work was later suspended under orders from the Foreign Ministry, which was concerned about damaging Israel's relations with India.

[UndertheOcean]

1. I don't understand the fuss , if they consider themselves Jewish that..

should be enough to allow them to immigrate.

[Poll_Blind]

2. There is an entire pseudo-caste system in Israel. It starts at...

...Ashkenazi at the top, I believe Sephardi is second and goes down from there. Not all Jews treat all Jews equally.

PB

[11cents]

3. Nothing to do with this case.

There's been a significant community of Indian Jews in Israel for years. But there are also innumerable small groups around the world who have declared themselves descendents of "the ten lost tribes," often because of the influence of bible-bearing Christian missionaries in the 19th century. Probably the Israeli rabbinate is contesting this particular group because recognizing them as Jews would also mean recognizing others that have no connection with the Jewish world or Judaism. I'm no fan of meddling rabbis, but since "the ten lost tribes" is itself a myth, it's not reasonable to recognize all their self-declared "descendents."