(April 4) As conflict turned violent, and tensions in Manipur between supporters of Shavei Israel and of the B’nei Menashe Council reached a new height, the B’nei Menashe women’s group known as Hevra Tehillim met in Churachandpur to recite Psalms and pray for a restoration of calm. Here are some photographs of them.
(April 7) A pitched battle broke out on Sunday, April 3 at Churachandpur’s Beit Shalom synagogue. The brawl, which resulted in injuries on both sides, took place when a group of Shavei Israel supporters, led by Shavei militant Ronel Letkholien Haokip, broke into a classroom of the Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail Memorial School and put an end to the lesson.
The school, an initiative of Manipur’s B’nei Menashe Council, has held regular Hebrew and Bible classes for the past several months. The classes, attended by youths and adults, have been conducted on the premises of Beit Shalom, the oldest and largest B’nei Menashe synagogue in Northeast India, with the permission of the synagogue’s officials. Yet Shavei Israel, the Jerusalem-based organization whose control of B’nei Menashe Aliyah to Israel for the past two decades has enabled it to dominate the community, considers the independent school an unacceptable challenge to its authority and has campaigned against it.
The April 3 incident was the second of its kind in two weeks. On March 24, Shavei intruders also barged into an Avichail School class and sought to disperse it, and the ensuing shouting match ended only when the police were called in. (See our March 24 Website article, “Shavei Hooligans Storm Churachandpur Classroom.”)
The Sunday, April 3 incident started similarly. It quickly turned violent, however, when a Shavei supporter, Moshe Mangoulien Haokip, attacked one of the students, David Lhouvum. Several of Lhouvum’s classmates came to his aid, and the classroom soon became an arena of blows, punches, clubbings, and karate kicks. This time, too, the police were forced to intervene.
Emboldened by the lack of opposition to Shavei Israel’s holding of an illegal by-election for Beit Shalom’s chairmanship in which Shavei supporter Seithang Haokip was chosen for the post by a 99-to-0 vote (see our March 31 article, “Shavei Strong Arm Tactics Continue With Synagogue Putsch”), the invaders were clearly surprised by the resistance they met. At a meeting between them and a B’nei Menashe Council official convened after the brawl, they reportedly offered to agree to the Avichail School’s continuing at Beit Shalom in return for the BMC’s recognition the validity of the March 24 vote.. This report could not be confirmed by our Newsletter.
News of the Beit Shalom brawl traveled quickly beyond the Beit Shalom community and was widely talked about. Interviewed on the Manipur TV station TCN, Shlomo Sehjalal Kipgen Shave Israel’s Manipur Administrator, denied that Shavei had anything to do with the affair and said that it was an internal Beit Shalom matter. Yet writing on a Shavei WhatsApp site, Ronel Letkholien Haokip referred to Tsvi Khaute, Shavei Israel’s International Co-ordinator and second-in-command, as “our Master.” Ronell called the BMC and its followers “idol worshipers” and told them to “build yourselves a new synagogue.”
Shavei Israel in Manipur is being run by hoodlums.
It‘s no secret that, ever since its founding, Degel Menashe has been critical of Shavei Israel. We have objected to the monopoly given Shavei by the Israeli government over the Aliyah of the B’nei Menashe. We have denounced the ways in which Shavei has used this monopoly to control and intimidate the B’nei Menashe community. We have argued that a fair and transparent Aliyah process, such as does not exist under Shavei, would benefit all B’nei Menashe. We have appealed to Israel’s Ministry of Immigration and Absorption to transfer the administration of the B’nei Menashe’s Aliyah to The Jewish Agency. Yet for all our criticism, we have never before called Shavei an organization of gangsters.
This is what we now must do.
Consider these recent developments, all reported by this Website – the latest of them in today’s Newsletter:
Two months, ago, after Knesset Member Miri Regev referred on the Knesset floor to B’nei Menashe congregant Sarah Baite and her daughter, who was raped in 2016 by a Shavei crony now in Israel, Shavei’s Manipur Administrator Shlomo Sehjalal Kipgen threatened Baite with violence if she dared to re-open the case with the Manipur police. Kipgen did not shrink from conveying this warning to Baite through the leader of a banned brutal underground militia.
Last week, drunken Shavei Israel hooligans, led by Shavei’s Manipur Coordinator Benjamin Nehmang Haokip, broke into a classroom of Torah students in Churachandpur’s Beth Shalom synagogue, cursed and spat at them, and warned them that they and all other B’nei Menashe would be at physical risk if they did not carry out Shavei’s orders.
Two days later, as related by our Newsletter today, Shavei forcibly took over Beit Shalom and held an illegal, Soviet-style election for the synagogue’s Executive in what can only be called a criminal putsch.
To this needs to be added that Shavei Israel and its officials are now under investigation by the Manipur police for suspected acts of fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement. This, too, is a story that first broke in our Newsletter over a year ago.
And to this mafia-like organization Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption continues to entrust the B’nei Menashe’s future!
It is late, but not too late, for the ministry to step in and put an end to this. The government of Israel needs to be aware that it is not the only government with responsibilities toward the B’nei Menashe, and that there are courts and officials in India who will no longer turn a blind eye to Shavei Israel’s behavior. It will be unfortunate if the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption decides to leave the dismantling of Shavei’s power to them.
