Indian 'lost tribe' members find home in Israel
TEL AVIV - 22 Nov. 2006 ~ Claiming to be descendants of an ancient "lost" tribe, a first batch of some 50 Indian immigrants who converted to Judaism started a new life in amid tears and a warm welcome.
The group touched down at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on a commercial flight before being handed new immigrant cards by Israeli officials and bused to an absorption centre in the north of the country.
Nirit Pachuau, a 23-year-old woman travelling with her parents and four brothers and sisters, said she had fulfilled a life-long dream.
"I'm living a real miracle. I have finally come to live in my country, we have returned home. It's as if we were coming from Egypt," she said, evoking the exodus from Egypt by the Israelites in the time of Moses.
The Indians claim to be descendants of one of the 10 tribes who lived in the land of Israel during Biblical times and which dispersed, according to Biblical tradition, when the Assyrians invaded in 721 BC.
Men dressed smartly in shirts and trousers and women in colorful clothes and neatly cut hair pushed trolleys laden with bags to be greeted by a pack of press photographers, welcoming relatives and a "welcome home" banner.
In the arrivals hall, Esther Cawlny was overwhelmed by tears after catching sight of relatives she had not seen for more than 10 years.
They came from the Mizoram region, more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) north of Mumbai in northeastern India.
Cawlny's relatives have been waiting years for authorisation for her to follow them to Israel. They, like around 1,000 other members of the tribe who converted to Judaism, moved to Israel in the early 1990s.
"A seven-hour trip but a journey across 2,700 years for these immigrants," enthused Michael Freund, director of Shavei Israel.
The Indian members of the tribe of Bnei Menashe, or the sons of Menashe, have been officially recognised as Jews by Israel's Orthodox chief rabbinate in recent years after a long struggle.
They are now entitled to settle in the Jewish state, should they wish, under the law of return for all Jews.
The Israeli organization, Shavei Israel, has established educational centers in India to help prepare the Bnei Menashe for life in Israel, teaching them Hebrew, Jewish rituals and traditions.
The organization was also instrumental in lobbying the Israeli government to make the Bnei Menashe's immigration a priority.
At least another 150 immigrants from the same tribe are expected to arrive in Israel in the coming days.
The group's elder, a grandfather aged more than 90, enfolded in his arms children and grandchildren he had not seen for years, and met for the first time great grandchildren who were mostly born in Israel.
"I've realised my dream," he murmured with emotion, wearing the kippa of religious Jewish men before boarding the bus.
The Bnei Menashe Aliya -- Hebrew for the immigration of Jews in the diaspora to Israel -- is sponsored by a controversial Jewish American association funded by Evangelical Christians who staunchly support the Jewish state.
The association's president, Rabbi Yekhiel Eckstein, says he poured 1.5 million dollars into this project, which he brands as a "historic moment for the Jewish people and the state of Israel".
Eli Yitzhaki, who represents the Jewish Agency responsible for bringing Jews to Israel, says the operation faced a wall of difficulties.
"India refused to grant us visas for Mizoram, but we finally managed to get them," said Yitzhaki, who spent several months in the country.
Posted: 24 November 2006