High Court Confirms: Freund, Shavei, Guilty of Forgery

Shavei chairman, Michael Freund.

(February 2, 2023) At a January 22 session, Israel’s High Court rejected Shavei Israel’s appeal of a Tel Aviv district court’s finding that it and its chairman Michael Freund were guilty of forging numerous documents submitted to the Registry of Non-Profit Organizations in Jerusalem. The district court’s verdict, handed down by Judge Naftali Shilo in April of last year, held that Freund forged his ex-wife Sarah Green’s signature on the documents so as to make her appear to have been active in Shavei Israel’s affairs. The purpose of this, it was implied, was to refute Sarah’s claim, made in a civil suit against Freund, that he embezzled 50 million shekels given her by her father, the American businessman Pinchas Green, and turned it over to Shavei without her knowledge.

The January 22 session, conducted by Judges Uzi Fogelman, Yael Vilner, and David Mintz, was a short one. Having read Judge Shilo’s decision and a preliminary brief submitted by Shavei Israel’s lawyers Tal Shapira, Merav Bar-Zik, and Michal Geller, the judges advised the latter to withdraw their appeal inasmuch as it stood no chance of success. As put by the court:

After reviewing the appellant’s arguments, we have not bothered to request a rejoinder from the defendants [Sarah Green and the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations]. In light of our comments, the appellant’s counsel declared that they would drop the appeal. The appeal has therefore been rejected.

Inasmuch as the counsel for the defense has not requested court costs [from the plaintiff], and for no other reason, costs have not been imposed.

Shavei's second-in-command, Tzvi Khaute.

Although cases in which the High Court advises plaintiffs to withdraw a complaint are not unusual, our Newsletter was told by a legal expert, the Court’s rebuke to Shavei Israel was especially sharp. “There was really no need,” the expert told us, “for the Court to stress that courts costs would have been exacted, had they been asked for, apart from its wish to emphasize Shavei‘s poor judgment in appealing the case. Judge Shilo’s verdict was damning and based on ample evidence. There were simply no grounds for an appeal.”

Shavei Israel is now in grave difficulty. Already last August 15, it received notice from the Registrar’s office that, in light of Judge Shilo’s decision, its “certificate of proper management” [nihul takin} was under review and in danger of being revoked. In a statement submitted to the High Court on November 6, the Registrar confirmed that such a step was being considered. (Revocation of nihul takin for an NGO like Shavei would be fatal, since it would result in the organization’s loss of all government funding and contracts, as well as of its ability to raise money from private donors, whose contributions to it would no longer be tax-deductible.) In response to this notice, the law firm representing Shavei Israel, M. Firon & Co., submitted a demurral arguing against such action. Both documents are in our Newsletter’s possession and will be dealt with an article next week.

Itzhak Kawlhni.

Reactions to the High Court’s decision were, predictably, mixed. Spokesmen for Shavei Israel sought to downplay its importance and to attribute the charges against Freund to a divorce fight with Sarah Green that was being maliciously exploited by anti-Shavei forces. “This type of news is a common occurrence….the fallout of a marriage gone bad and of a hatred of the B’nei Menashe by one of the parties [Sarah Green],” stated Itzhak Kawlhni, Shavei’s Israel-based representative in Mizoroam. “Until this matter is fully resolved, his [Freund’s] opponents will continue their attacks on him.” And Shavei’s Information Secretary Eliezer Baite declared, blaming opponents of Shavei for the Freunds’ marital discord and Sarah Green’s subsequent law suit,

Eliezer Baite.

“Creating rifts between married couples is one of the greatest sins. What Michael [Freund] has done for us, the people who wish to ruin it could not accomplish in their entire lifetimes. The scoundrels who disrupt and wreck Aliyah [of the B’nei Menashe] will never be forgiven.”

Others in the B’nei Menashe community thought differently. “The Torah teaches that we reap what we sow,” said Yoel Sehmang Haokip, the B’nei Menashe Council’s Cultural Secretary in Manipur. “For years, Shavei has separated families and abused its power over Aliyah for its own selfish ends; now a family separation has taken its revenge on it. Shavei has become a cult, ruling by fear and turning us into a joyless community. Hopefully, all this is now coming to an end.”

Ya’akov Haokip of Phalbung, a village in Manipur whose B’nei Menashe have been ostracized by Shavei Israel for not obeying its dictates, had this to say:

“Justice has been served. Now, I hope that all the divisions within our community will end and that unity will prevail. We in Phalbung have been punished by Shavei for years in which none of us was allowed to make Aliyah. With Shavei out of the way, we will finally be able to fulfill our dream of living in Israel.”

Machir Lotzem.

And Machir Lotzem of Kiryat Arba observed that the forgery case ruled on by the High Court was only “a small part of the many atrocious things that have been done to the B’nei Menashe by Shavei. The disappearance of funds, the practice of favoritism in compiling Aliyah lists, the arbitrary demands made as conditions for being put on these lists: there should be a commission of inquiry to look into these things. I hope that the Registrar’s office will do the right thing and cancel Shavei’s NGO status. Even that wouldn’t be enough. Shavei should be permanently barred from ever returning to a positon of responsibility, and it should be made to pay for all the damages it has inflicted on our people.”

Degel Menashe wishes all it's readers a Happy Indian Republic Day

A Shabbat With Young B’nei Menashe: Our Managing Director Visits A Yeshiva

(January 19, 2023) Degel Menashe’s managing director Yitzhak Thangjom and his wife Jessica spent last weekend with young B’nei Menashe immigrants at the yeshiva of Nahal Yitzhak at which they are studying. Here is his account.

The call came from Gemuel Lotzem, the counselor of the thirty young B’nei Menashe now studying and living at the Nahal Yitzhak Yeshiva, which is located in the village of Nehalim on the outskirts of Petach-Tikvah, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Gemuel and his wife Re’ut were inviting Jessica and me to spend a Shabbat with the group, whose members immigrated to Israel in 2020-21 and are now between the ages of 13 and 18. He felt that there were many things regarding Israel and their futures in it that they did not have a clear grasp of and were curious to learn more about, and he wanted the two of us to discuss some of these things with them. He was concerned, he told me, about the possible effect on B’nei Menashe youth of the murder of Yoel Lhanghal and

Re'ut and Gemuel Lotzem.

the fear it might arouse in them of not being wanted in Israel. This was a special cause for concern, so he thought, because of an incident that had taken place in the yeshiva a few weeks previously, in which, in the course of a soccer game, a brawl broke out between some B’nei Menashe boys and other students.

Yet from our general observations, and from the three sessions that Jessica and I spent with the B’nei Menashe contingent at Nahal Yitzhak – the first one on Friday night after Shabbat dinner, the second following Kiddush on Shabbat morning, and the third at the Se’udah Shlishit, the “Third Meal,” that afternoon – it wasn’t our impression that the question of anti-B’nei Menashe prejudice weighed on them. When asked about their relations with the other students at the yeshiva, their answers were all in the “there’s no problem”-“we get along”-“everything’s all right” category, and watching them interact with the others as they prayed, sang, ate, and joked together seemed to confirm that this was the case. We felt no tension and were impressed by the efforts the yeshiva makes genuine efforts to integrate the B’nei Menashe youngsters in its life. At the Kabbalat Shabbat, the Sabbath evening service that we attended, the youth chosen to lead the prayers was a B’nei Menashe boy.

Of course, since teenagers are shy in general, and B’nei Menashe teenagers tend to be even more so, it’s possible that that the youngsters we spoke to did not tell us everything that was on their minds. Once the ice was broken, however, they were not reticent about other subjects. Mostly, they were full of questions for us. How important was it for them to get their high-school diplomas? What awaited them in the army? (Three of the boys will be getting their call-ups this year.) Did they stand a chance of being accepted into any of its best units? What careers might be open to them afterwards? What professions that they might qualify for earned the best?

A view of the Nahal Yitzhak Yeshiva campus.

There were lively discussions about these things. We already knew from Gemuel that Nahal Yitzhak provided its B’nei Menashe students with a special program of their own in order to equip them for life ahead. “The yeshiva route is chosen by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption for most B’nei Menashe boy, their age,” he told us. (Girls are placed in a parallel track in religious institutions of their own.) “Nahal Yitzhak has the largest such group, but there are many others scattered at yeshivot throughout the country. Because they’re new in Israel, haven’t had much of an education in India, and are still learning to master Hebrew, we don’t mix them educationally with the other boys. They have classes of their own, divided into two age groups – the 13-to-15 year olds, and the 16s-to-18s. In the religious field, they study mostly Bible and simple rabbinic texts. In their general studies, besides intensive Hebrew classes, they concentrate on math, English, and history, which is what they’ll most need for their matriculation exams. The Ministry of Education lets them take these exams in a simplified form, so that their chances of getting diplomas are good.”

The 29-year-old Gemuel, a B'nei Menashe from Kiryat Arba, is a fairly new immigrant himself, although by now a thoroughly acclimatized one; he arrived in Israel in 2014, began his military service in the air force soon after, and has been a counselor at Nahal Yitzhak since October, 2021. “I took the job,” he says, “because I wanted to do something for my community. I’ve seen how so many B’nei Menashe immigrants, both young and old, end up stuck in low-paying factory or cleaning jobs because there are no other options available to anyone with their skills. It’s sad. There’s not much that can be done for the older people, But the younger ones can be given opportunities: they can have careers and not just jobs. I don’t look at what I am doing as just a job, either. It’s more of a mission.”

A dorm room at the Yeshiva.

It’s a full-time one. “I’m with the students most of the day, including Shabbat,” Gemuel says. ”I have to make sure they’re up on time for morning prayers and classes, that they attend all their lessons, that they turn up for meals on time, that they get the help they need if they run into any difficulties, that they have someone to talk to about their problems. If I can’t solve them myself, I’ll look for someone who can. Recently, a group of them came to me and complained that they weren’t being given rice to eat, which is the mainstay of every B’nei Menashe diet. I went to the kitchen staff and explained this to them, and now rice is served for those who want it at almost every meal.”

Rice isn’t the only thing the B’nei Menashe boys miss. When Jessica and I came for our visit, she brought with her a special dish she had prepared for the Shabbat meal, mepoh, which is a kind of slow-cooked B’nei Menashe cholent based on rice, meat, and fresh herbs and spices. It was fallen upon with relish, and her only regret was that she hadn’t made more, especially since there were quite a few non-B’nei Menashe boys who wanted a taste, too. There was a lot of laughter over it, as well as over other things, and a lot of singing and merriment. In fact, it was the noisiest Shabbat dinner we’d been at in quite a time!

Despite what seems to be the successful integration of the B’nei Menashe youth in the yeshiva’s life, we were struck by its lack of knowledge of Israeli society in general. Especially at a time like this, when the country is in a turmoil, we would have expected these young people, to know and want to know more about their new homeland’s politics, divisions, and controversies. No questions were asked about any of these things. I was made to think of the fourth son, the one we read about in the Passover Seder, who did not know how to ask. Both Nahal Yitzhak and the other yeshivot where young B’nei Menashe are currently placed need not teach them not only Jewish and matriculation subjects but also more about the country that is now theirs.

With some of the Bnei Menashe Yeshiva students..

They need to understand Israel better than they do. The culture they have grown up in emphasizes conformity rather than individuality, whereas Israel is much the opposite. They are going to have to deal with the line between these two worlds and learn how to cross and recross it. Gemuel feels that they have already come a long way since he first met them. “They lacked confidence,” he says. “I have tried and mostly succeeded in bringing them out of their shells. They are now more sure of themselves than they were a year ago. The reward I truly look forward to is that one day they will be able to find good, fulfilling jobs, raise children of their own, and contribute to their and our only home: Israel.”