Netanyahu vows to bring entire Bnei Menashe community to Israel within four years

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Tel Aviv: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel plans to bring the entire Bnei Menashe community from northeastern India to Israel within four years while speaking at an event for recent Indian Jewish immigrants.

“After years of strengthening the bond between Israel and India, thanks to the warm relationship with my friend Narendra Modi, I am thrilled to see the Bnei Menashe returning home. We are going to bring the entire community to Israel over the next four years,” Netanyahu said, speaking to Bnei Menashe who recently settled in the Galilee town of Nof HaGalil. “You are an inseparable part of the Jewish People, and Israel is your home.”

About 600 members of the community have arrived since the beginning of the year, with another 600 expected by the end of 2026. The government has approved a proposal by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry to facilitate the immigration of the remaining 6,000 members over a five-year period.

Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer described it as a deeply moving moment to see members of the community fulfilling a long-standing dream. He announced the establishment of an absorption center to support new immigrants, including Hebrew language instruction, integration into the education system, assistance in entering the workforce, and housing support.

Over the past two decades, about 4,000 Bnei Menashe have already immigrated to Israel under earlier government decisions. The current initiative is intended to complete that process, with a particular emphasis on family reunification.

The Bnei Menashe — literally “Sons of Manasseh” — are a community from India’s northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur that preserves elements of Jewish tradition, including observing the Sabbath and holidays, keeping kosher, and following family purity laws. Rising ethnic tensions in their home region have also contributed to efforts to facilitate their immigration to Israel.

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They claim descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, exiled by the Assyrian Empire more than 2,700 years ago.

According to tradition, Jews from India first arrived in the region on Tu B’Shevat after surviving a shipwreck around 2,000 years ago. Legend holds that the Prophet Elijah appeared to them, promising that they would prosper in India and that their descendants would eventually return to the Land of Israel.

Israel’s Indian-origin community numbers roughly 10,000 to 15,000 people, with the Bnei Menashe forming the largest and fastest-growing segment. Older communities include the Bene Israel from Mumbai and the Cochin Jews from Kerala.

A study of international Jewish demographics released in May found that Israel could become home to the majority of the world’s Jews within the next decade. At current growth rates, the report — released by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research — projects that Israel could cross the symbolic threshold of hosting the majority of the world’s Jews as early as 2035.

(Source: ANI)

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