B’nei Menashe Refugees Reach Aizawl Mizoram BMC Offers Aid

(May 25, 2023) When, during the violent assaults by Meitei attackers on Kuki communities in Manipur in early May, an estimated 600 B’nei Menashe, all ethnic Kukis themselves, fled from their homes in the capital of Imphal and the two villages of Sajal and Kangchup, their main destinations were safer places in Manipur. A few with family elsewhere and the means to get there, travelled as far as New Delhi. None at first chose Manipur’s neighboring state of Mizoram, despite its proximity and its own 1,000-member B’nei Menashe community.

The reasons were several. Despite lying on Manipur’s southern border, Mizoram is not easily reached from there; the only roads are in poor condition, public transportation involves arduous roundabout routes, and air travel is expensive and even dangerous, since Manipur’s only airport is in Imphal, where Kukis venture at their peril nowadays. They speak different though related languages, and have managed their affairs separately over the years. When Manipur’s B’nei Menashe refugees thought of finding a safe haven, their first thoughts were not of Mizoram.

BMC-I, Aizawl visits displaced families.

And yet since mid-May, a trickle of B’nei Menashe has begun arriving in Mizoram’s capital of Aizawl (several families have also sought refuge in the northern Mizo towns of Bairabi and Kolasip), and this shows signs of turning into a larger flow. The overall number has been estimated at 15 families and close to 100 people. Just last week, our Newsletter was told by Asaf Rentlei, a B”nei Menashe communal leader and educator in Aizawl, they were joined by five more families from Imphal, all traveling together.

The route taken by them was not a direct one, although, lately, some have done so, out of desperation. When Meitei mobs rampaged through their Imphal neighborhoods, the first refuge they found was in a temporary shelter in a local army camp. Following the camp’s disbandment, they were given the choice of being bused, with an army escort, to either Churachandpur in Manipur’s south, or to Kangkpokpi in its north, both Kuki towns with sizable B’nei Menashe communities that had not been directly affected by the violence. Along with other B’nei Menashe refugees, the five families chose to move in with relatives in Kangpokpi.

Yet there, too, they did not feel truly safe and they soon set about procuring bus tickets for Dimapur, a city in Nagaland to Manipur’s north, from where they traveled to Shillong, the capital of the adjacent state of Meghalaya, and from there, via another long bus trip, to Aizawl. “It wasn’t easy,” says the leader of the five families, Elisha Haokip, “but to be blunt, we have no more prospects in Manipur.” Haokip, an enterprising and well-educated young man who tells a harrowing tale of a co-ordinated attack upon hapless Kukis throughout Imphal, feels that until Israel allows him to make Aliyah, he would be better off earning a living and studying Judaism in Mizoram. The chances of ever recovering his family’s burned and looted property in West Imphal, he estimates, are slim at best. Better to live among fellow B’nei Menashe than in exile elsewhere.

Relief materials donated by local organizations to aid the refugees.

Upon arriving in Aizawl, the five families turned to Lemuel Haokip, a a B’nei Menashe Council advisor who hails from Manipur but has been employed in Aizawl in government service. Haokip found them lodgings to rent, from which they subsequently moved to other rented quarters where a BMC delegation visited them this week and discussed ways of helping them. With the BMC’s help, other B’nei Menashe families from Manipur now in Aizawl have found alternative solutions. Two are staying in the South Aizawl home of long time BMC member Elisheva Khiangte, and some are being housed at the BMC-administered Shlom Tzion Synagogue.

Although the distance they must travel is greater, B’nei Menashe heading for Aizawl from Kangpokpi have in one respect an easier time than those wishing to do so from Churachandpur. This is because in the latter city, which is the center of Kuki life in Manipur and of Kuki resistance to the Meitei onslaught, the departure of able-bodied men who can be conscripted to the Kuki cause has been discouraged by Kuki volunteer groups. Thus when, convinced they would have a better future in Aizawl, Oren and Efrona Tungnung decided to leave Churachandpur with their two small children even though their house there was in no immediate danger, Oren secretly left first while Efrona, pregnant with a third child, joined him only upon hearing that he had safely arrived. Now together again, they are staying for the moment at the BMC’s Shlom Tzion Synagogue.

Asher Chen weds Noami Lhoujiem at Shlom Tzion, Aizawl.

“We are doing all we can to provide assistance and comfort to our displaced B’nei Menashe brothers and sisters from Manipur,” says Mizoram BMC treasurer Nadav Hauhnar, says, “We appreciate what the government of Mizoram has done to aid all Kukis who have sought refuge in the state, and we are adding our own bit for the B’nei Menashe. If more come, we will extend ourselves for them, too. We welcome them in fellowship in our synagogue and at our prayers, and hope they will think well of our efforts.” Asaf Renthlei adds, "We are a small community here is Aizawl. Our numbers have doubled since the conflict began and we are overstretched. Friends, well wishers and organizations have reached out to us with aid but we will be needing every assistance in the coming days. Even if this conflagration were to end tomorrow or in a month, which I doubt, the effects will linger on for a long time to come."

Amid all these travails, the Aizawl community shared a moment of joy in mid-May when the first Israeli-B’nei Menashe marriage ever to take place in India was celebrated at the May 15 wedding of Asher Chen and Naomi Lhoujiem. They had narrowly escaped the violence in Manipur taking the southerly route to Aizawl. The bride, a native of Manipur, has known her new husband since 2019, nor is Asher a stranger to the B'nei Menashe community, having visited it that same year and worked there as a volunteer teacher with B’nei Menashe youth in Manipur. “We all wish them a hearty Mazal Tov,” says Asaf Rentlei.

MANIPUR B'NEI MENASHE FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE

(May 18, 2023) Although the situation in Manipur remains tense, with curfews still in force and a continuing shutdown of Internet and mobile phone communication, the violence of the previous weeks has for the moment largely abated. The state’s Kuki ethnic group of half a million, to which Manipur’s B’nei Menashe belong, is licking its wounds while demanding administrative separation from a Meitei majority that went on a two-week rampage that resulted in an official figure of 60 deaths, 200 injuries, and 1,700 homes and 40 churches burned to the ground. Nearly all of the casualties and destroyed property have been on the Kuki side, and the actual numbers may be considerably higher.

A burnt-out building in Manipur.

B’nei Menashe casualties have been low. There has been one reported death, that of Yoel Zamkhogin Baite, a 38-year-old member of Churachandpur’s Beit Shalom Synagogue, killed by a Meitei mob trying to storm the largely Kuki-populated city, and one reported injury, that of Binyamin Hangshing, also of Churachandpur, who was fired on by the army while out-of-doors during a curfew. Yet property losses, though limited to three localities, have been high. One of these three was the state capital of Imphal, where dozens of B’nei Menashe homes were burned and looted and their inhabitants forced to flee for their lives.

The other two locales were villages: Sajal, which lies in the Kuki-populated foothills bordering the southwestern edge of Manipur’s Meitei-dominated Central Valley, and Kangchup, right above the valley to the northwest. In the former, an estimated 60 B’nei Menashe homes housing 250 inhabitants were destroyed by Meitei attackers, while in the latter 20 B’nei Menashe homes were razed and 100 left homeless.

Manipur’s estimated 600 B’nei Menashe refugees are now scattered in different locations. Some, especially from Imphal, have fled the state entirely for places as far as New Delhi. Roughly 150 have taken refuge in the northern town of Kangpokpi, half staying with relatives and half in the town’s Beit Shalom Synagogue. Several hundred more have made their way to Churachandpur, where about 70-80 are now housed at the Vengnuom Beit Shalom Synagogue, 15 at the Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail School, and an unidentified number with relatives or in one of several Christian charity refugee camps. Another 10 families have managed to reach Aizawl, the capital of the neighboring state of Mizoram, which also has a large B’nei Menashe community. “It’s difficult to arrive at exact figures,” says Degel Menashe’s managing director Yitzhak Thangjom. “The refugees have scattered in all directions and it’s hard to keep track of them with the communication restrictions now in force.”

The only Jewish or organizations on the ground currently helping the displaced B’nei Menashe, Thangjom told us, are Degel Menashe working together with the B’nei Menashe Councils of Manipur and Mizoram. “It would be nice to be joined by others,” he says, “but right now we’re alone in this. Since the refugees have all found shelter of one sort or another, their most immediate need at the moment is an assured supply of food – which in northeast India means above all rice, the mainstay of every meal. The average person needs about a quarter of a kilo of rice per day, and so far we’ve distributed four metric tons or 4,000 kilos and are gearing up for more. To this we’re adding supplementary foods like lentils and potatoes, plus cooking oil and firewood, since cooking gas in currently unavailable in some places. ”

Food relief being dispensed for the B'nei Menashe at Churachandpur.

The aid, Thangjom emphasized, is not for the refugees alone. “It’s also for the families that have taken them in,” he said, “as well as for the many others in the B’nei Menashe community who are now out of work, because they have lost their jobs or cannot get to them due to the curfews and all the disruption. It’s important to realize that the entire community is in a state of crisis.”

Like all the Kukis of Manipur only more so, being a tiny minority within a minority, Manipur’s B’nei Menashe are fearful for the future. “There is a general sense among the Kuki population,” says our source, who prefers to be anonymous, “that co-existence with the Meiteis is no longer possible, and Kuki politicians are already calling for the secession of the southern, Kuki-dominated part of the state; in effect this would mean joining neighboring Mizoram, whose Mizo inhabitants are close ethnic relations of the Kukis.” This sentiment, Thangjom explained, stems not just from the violence itself, which was almost entirely Meitei-instigated and which the Meitei-controlled Manipuri government made little attempt to stop. “What most shocked people,” he said, “was how Meitei neighbors they had been friendly with collaborated with the pogromists by pointing out next-door Kuki houses for them to pillage and burn. There were many mixed neighborhoods in which no Meitei home was touched and no Kuki home was left standing.”

“It becomes clearer with every passing day,” continues our source, “that what happened was far from spontaneous. The specific events that triggered it were simply a pretext for a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing that had been planned long in advance.

Manipur’s remaining 3,500 B’nei Menashe, all of whom have dreamed for years, and in some cases for decades, of joining their families in Israel, did not need the recent events to convince them of the need for Aliyah. Yet with the growing feeling that there is no longer even a short-term future for them in Manipur, this need now seems more urgent than ever. “For over thirty years,” Thangjom says, “Israeli governments have dilly-dallied on B’nei Menashe Aliyah, opening the gates a crack and then shutting them, opening them again and shutting them once more. It’s time to put an end to this policy once and for all. Let’s bring every single B’nei Menashe still in India home to Israel – and let’s do it now!”

B'nei Menashe women pray for peace and security in Manipur at the Western Wall.

A Sajal Survivor Tells His Story

(May 11, 2023) On the evening of May 3, Sajal, a Kuki village of some 350 imhabitants between Imphal and Churachandpur 250 of them B’nei Menashe, was burned to the ground by Meitei assailants in what has so far been the worst incident in the current ethnic violence in Manipur. Here is the account of one survivor, B’nei Menashe community member Letkhoneh Shem Haokip. I am from Sajal, 47 years old with a wife and two children, an older son and a daughter. My son is in Bangalore, working to help support us and our 12 year old daughter lives with us. I work in construction at the Manipur-Mizoram border and am away from home most of the time. On the 3rd of May, I happened to be home. I had gone to Nambol, a nearby Meitei town, to buy some tin sheet roofing for my house in Sajal that I was adding to. I came back home late afternoon that day. I had no idea whatsoever what was going to happen that night. The first warning was when I began to see messages on my WhatsApp from people in the nearby Kuki village of Agijang, about 5 or 6 kilometres way, saying that a menacing crowd was gather near their village. I thought they were overreacting and went on planning the construction on my house. I was still involved in it as the sun began to set.

It must have been about 6:30 pm when I sat down for my supper. Outside I could hear excitement, movement, people running around for no reason I could make out. I continued eating, finished my meal, and walked to the edge of the village to have a look. Sajal is high up and we have a good view of the valley right below us, the rice fields, and the roads. It was already dark, probably about 7. Looking down, I saw the headlights of what must have been about 30 to 40 vehicles heading towards us on the Nambol road, where I'd been earlier that day. At the same time, on the other side of the horizon, we saw Aigijang village on fire. The vehicles stopped at Leimaram, which must be about 2 kilometers away from us. By now I agreed that it certainly looked menacing. A few minutes later, someone from Sajal fire a shot with a shotgun. It was replied to by several rounds from automatic rifles. It was then that we realized that the worst was happening: they were coming for us!. There was nothing much a few shotguns could do against automatic rifles.

There was no time, it was a matter of minutes before they reached Sajal. I went to fetch my family, including my old father and mother. My father is a semi-invalid, but at least he could walk. Hurriedly, we made our way up the hillock nearby. From a relatively safe place we watched our houses as they were torched one by one until the whole village was engulfed in flames. There must have been at least 500 attackers Our synagogue, too, was burnt along with our Torah. There was simply no time to save anything. We'd left Sajal with only the clothes we had on. Some lucky ones managed to grab a shawl or a blanket. I felt lucky that I'd eaten supper, at least I wouldn't have to worry about being hungry.

Army evacuates Sajal refugees.

We spent the night in the jungle. Most of us were too tense to sleep; moreover there was nothing that could serve as a bed. The next day, at dawn, we trudged to a nearby village of the Chiru tribe. The villagers gave us food and water, which was gratefully welcomed by us after a harrowing night. After a while, though,, we were told by them that we had to leave their village since they had been warned by the Meiteis that they would be made to pay for it if we were given shelter. We headed to the nearest Assam Rifles army camp in the area. I wouldn't call the welcome given us there a warm one, but at the same time we were not refused. We must have been a little over 120 in our group from Sajal. I didn’t know where the others were: it wasn’t possible to keep track of everyone in the chaos. There were over 2,000 Kukis from several villages taking refuge in the camp. The food was terrible, nothing but rice with lentil gruel cooked with jackfruit three or four times a day. But who were we to complain? At least we had food and shelter. We slept on the floor, finding space wherever it was available.

Finally, after five days, we were told that we could choose where we would like to go with security and transport provided by the Assam Rifles. With our homes gone, the only places we possibly could choose were the homes of relatives who could take us in. Around 80 of us chose to go to Churachandpur and the rest headed for Kangpokpi. On the 9th of May, we arrived at a camp in Churachandpur which was run by various charities, and that evening we were given shelter at Beit Shalom Synagogue. Food has been provided by the Kuki Youth Association. I have no idea what the future holds for us. I have been waiting for more than 27 years to make Aliyah to Israel. Now is the time to let me come.