Degel Menashe Board Meets At End of Year

(January 7) At a year-end Zoom meeting last week, Degel Menashe’s board of directors met to review the organization’s 2021 accomplishments and to look ahead to 2022. The meeting was held almost exactly two years after the organization’s official founding in December, 2019 as an Israel government-recognized non-profit NGO.

After opening the board meeting, executive director Yitzhak Thangjom called on Hillel Halkin, the board’s chairman, to give a report on Degel Menashe’s activities in the past year. This included:

1. The Degel Menashe Website, which now has concluded its second year of operations, too. Its weekly newsletter \covers B’nei Menashe and Degel Menashe affairs and has a regular readership, the report said, of 600 viewers, whose number often doubles when items of special interest appear. Although off to a good start, this audience needs to be increased. The Website’s appeal can be heightened by such things as running a weekly editorial, reviving the now dormant Letters to the Editor section, and creating an Index of published articles that would enable them to be easily referenced. Thought should also be given, Halkin suggested, to changing the Website’s current operating template, which while easy to use, is highly restrictive in the options it offers.

Scholarship recipients, file photo.

2. The Degel Menashe academic scholarship program. Under the direction of board member Batel Rently and with the continued help of a New Mexican Jewish donor who has preferred to remain anonymous, Degel Menashe was able to expand this program once again in 2021. From six scholarship recipients in 2019 and 14 in 2020, it reached 17 young B’nei Menashe this past year, all pursuing higher studies in different institutions in Israel. The total sum dispersed to them, averaging 40 percent of their tuition fees, also grew from previous years.

One new aspect of the 2021 program, Halkin’s report stated, is its stipulation that all scholarship winners devote 12 hours of volunteer work during the year to the B’nei Menashe community. Scholarship winners will be encouraged to work together in teams when they share interests or places of residence.

3. The Degel Menashe leadership project. Less successful than the scholarship program, the report stated, was 2021’s attempt to launch a leadership training program for young B’nei Menashe under the auspices of board member Dr. Reuven Gal and Israel’s Institute for Quality Leadership. Although a preliminary workshop with Dr. Gal in late April was attended by 11 Bnei Menashe youngsters and generated great enthusiasm, the Institute’s suggested program called for more hours of their time than many of the workshop’s participations felt able to commit themselves to. The project has therefore been suspended, though the possibility remains of reviving it at a future date.

4. The Degel Menashe oral history project. Consisting of oral history interviews with scores of B’nei Menashe elders in Israel, all of whom were involved in the early years of the B’nei Menashe movement in India, this project, it was reported, has resulted in a book called Lives of The Children of Manasia that will be published in English by Gefen Books of Jerusalem in the course of 2022, The book comprises edited versions of 12 of the most interesting of these interviews, plus an Introduction, Afterword, and Glossary. Taken together, the interviews fully tell the story of the B’nei Menashe and their origins for the first time, dispelling many myths while presenting a complex and compelling narrative of their own. Fascinating reading in their own right, they will constitute, Halkin said, to be a basic reference work on the B’nei Menashe for scholars and historians of the future.

In addition, the oral history project is now continuing and seeking new informants in Manipur. In charge of it there is the journalist Mang Taithul, who will be conducting additional interviews under Degel Menashe’s direction.

Baite and Troupe at a practice session.

5. The Degel Menashe musicology project. For several reasons, the chairman’s report stated, this project, whose goal is to collect and record traditional B’nei Menashe music and singing before they are forgotten, has yet to fulfill its initial promise. Although one successful recording session was held in Kiryat Arba in 2020, several factors have impeded further progress. Among them have been the Covid epidemic, which made it extremely difficult to bring singers together (nearly all traditional B’nei Menashe music is performed in groups); the illness or incapacity of elderly members of the B’nei Menashe community in Israel who still know the old musical traditions; and the opposition of Shavei Israel, which having fought all Degel Menashe projects with threats against those taking part in them has fought this one as well.

As a result, the report said, the project’s focus has now shifted to Manipur, where a musically talented member of the B’nei Menashe community with a good knowledge of traditional music, Sarah Baite, has been put in charge of it. Baite is now in the process of contacting and organizing other B’nei Menashe who know and can perform these traditions along with her.

With this, the chairman’s report moved from Israel to India, where Degel Menashe has stepped up its activities, These have been concentrated, he said, in three areas: 1. The "Lakoi" or traditional/folk songs, 2. Children songs and 3. Recent proto-Judaic compositions from 60s and 70s.

6. Degel Menashe’s Hebrew school projects in Mizoram and Manipur. After a tentative start interrupted by lengthy school closures occasioned by the Covid epidemic, this project resumed in October, 2021, after the Jewish holidays, and has been developing quickly. Two remarkable young B’nei Menashe, one in Mizoram and one in Manipur, are directing it. In Mizoram, the director is Asaf Renthlei, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from St. Stephen’s College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, respectively, and is currently working on a Ph.D. In Manipur, it is Ohaliav Haokip. who has a degree in aerospace engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, and additional degrees in economics and computer applications.

The aim of both the Mizoram and Manipur programs, whose students include children, adolescents, and adults, is to instill an elementary facility in reading Hebrew, a familiarity with the basic sources of Jewish tradition, especially the Bible, and a greater knowledge of Jewish customs and observance. At present, the Manipur program has enrolled over 100 students spread over four regional centers, of which the main one is in Churachandpur, while the Mizoram program has some 20 students in Aizawl, from which it hopes to spread out, too. This program has been funded by a grant from the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, and its directors are now negotiating with ORT, the worldwide Jewish educational network whose Indian center is in Mumbai, in the hope of involving them, too.

Classes in progress at the newly opened schools at Manipur and Mizoram.

File photo of food distribution.

7. The Degel Menashe food relief program. Following three rounds in 2020 of emergency food distribution to B’nei Menashe in northeast India thrown out of work by the Covid epidemic, two more rounds were conducted in 2021 with the help of donations from the Jewish Federation of New Mexico and the San Franciso-based organization Scattered Among the Nations. Twenty tons of rice and cooking oil were distributed in Manipur and Mizoram to some 300 needy families -- a significant decrease from 2020, Halkin reported, because Shavei Israel was more successful in its scare campaign designed to prevent acceptance of aid from Degel Menashe. This campaign was bolstered in 2021 by the Aliyah, under Shavei Israel’s auspices, of over 700 B’nei Menashe to Israel, which heightened the impact of Shavei’s threat to bar anyone having contact with Degel Menashe from future Aliyah lists.

8. Degel Menashe’s ongoing struggle to break the monopoly on the B’nei Menashe Aliyah process granted to Shavei Israel by the Israeli government. This struggle, Halkin said, has known many ups and downs, which occurred in 2021 too. This was a year in which, on the one hand, Degel Menashe met with high Ministry of Immigration and Jewish Agency officials, including former Agency chairman Isaac Herzog; forwarded to both the Ministry and the Agency petitions signed by over a thousand B’nei Menashe in India and Israel who asked to be freed from Shavei Israel’s domination; helped organize anti-Shavei demonstrations in Churachandpur, Aizawl, and Tel Aviv; and collaborated with former Likud cabinet minister and present Knesset member Miri Regev in taking her anti-Shavei fight to the Knesset floor. Yet it was also a year in which the Ministry of Immigration and the Jewish Agency, despite repeated promises to take action, chose to remain on the sidelines and let Shavei’s Aliyah monopoly continue. The struggle, Halkin said, would be carried into 2022, and there were reasons for optimism that it would eventually succeed.

The last topic on the board meeting’s agenda was that of the chairman’s post. At their previous meeting, Halkin reminded the board members, he had indicated his desire to step down and be replaced. He felt, he had said then, that Degel Menashe had accomplished a tremendous amount in a short period and that he would be leaving it to his successor in good administrative and financial shape. Yet at last week’s Zoom meeting it transpired that such a person had yet to be found, and Halkin agreed to continue as board chairman on a pro tempore basis.

A Call for Justice A Degel Menashe Editorial

Last week’s 16-minute exchange on the Knesset floor between Miri Regev and Pnina Tamano-Shata has electrified the B’nei Menashe community. Within a week, the YouTube video of the debate has garnered over 2,300 viewers and 125 comments, nearly all of them from B’nei Menashe. These comments reflect the split in our community between the supporters and opponents of Shavei Israel. To Shavei’s supporters, Miri Regev is an irresponsible politician who has besmirched a worthy organization. To Shavei’s opponents, she is a determined fighter who has spoken the truth on the Knesset floor about Shavei’s misdeeds.

There is one thing, however, that both sides should be able to agree on, which is that the rape of a young child is a terrible crime. Referred to by Regev in her remarks, the sexual assault on the then 10-year-old daughter of Sarah Baite, which Sarah tells about in this week’s Newsletter, should not be a matter of controversy. It should not divide us into pro-Shavei and anti-Shavei camps. It should be condemned by us all, and we should all want to see its perpetrator punished.

The accused rapist lives today in Israel. His name, which we have concealed from our readers for legal and other reasons, is known to many people. He made Aliyah with the complicity of cronies who sought to protect him and spirit him out of India so that he need not fear facing prosecution. The Indian judicial system, they reasoned, would not ask for his extradition from Israel even if the case reached the Indian courts, which they were sure it would not. Sarah Baite, they were confident, having been intimidated into not filing a police complaint in the first place, would not dare take action now.

But Sarah Baite is a braver woman than they realized. She had the courage in 2020 to write a letter to the Minister of Immigration relating what had happened to her and her daughter, and she has had the courage to speak up again now to our Newsletter.

Nor is it true that the alleged rapist can only be prosecuted in India. This is his cronies’ second miscalculation. Israeli law provides for his prosecution in Israel, too. To be sure, this is not a simple matter. Charging an Israeli citizen with a crime committed outside the country’s borders is a procedure that requires the approval of the Attorney General. The crime has to be considered sufficiently serious to justify it.

But are there many crimes more serious than the rape of a 10-year-old child?

What Sarah Baite and her daughter have suffered and still are suffering can never be compensated for. At the very least, they deserve the satisfaction of seeing the man responsible brought to justice. It can be done.

Sarah Baite Tells Her Story

(December 30) Since the rape of her daughter in 2016 by a Shavei Israel crony, Sarah Baite has publicly spoken of the incident only once, in a letter sent in July, 2020 to Israel’s Immigration and Absorption minister Pnina Tamano-Shata. Originally written in Kuki, it read in the English translation sent to the minister:

To, Penina Tamano Shato, Minister of Immigration and Absorption, Government of Israel. Subject: A request for Aliya Respected Madam, my name is Sarah Hatneilam Baite, I am 40 years old, member of the Bnei Menashe community in Manipur. I am a widow living with my only daughter under abject poverty. I have been with the Jewish community for the last 20 years and till now Shavei has not given me permission for Aliya. I am neglected maybe because I am unable to influence since I am only a poor widow. Shavei has misused Aliyah, I say this because on the 15th July 2016 an unworthy fellow Kailam Singson raped my 10 year old daughter. I reported the matter to Shavei and our congregation but they have ignored my plea. The reason is that this man Kailam is very close to the Shavei leadership. I used to belong to the congregation which also serves as the Shavei Centre and its leadership does not have the courage to stand up due to its fear of being left out of the Aliya list. When the matter of Kailam Singson came up for discussion to the Village Authority, District Head Quarter, Shavei used a bye-law to have me expelled from the community. But what hurts me the most is that on the 10th June 2018, my daughter’s rapist, Kailam Singson was granted Aliyah by Shavei. As long as Shavei is in charge of Aliya, my daughter and myself, we have no hope of ever coming to Israel. It pains me that I have no one to help me. Madam, I am a widow with no hope, but with you my hope has renewed. I plead with you to remember me this coming Aliyah. I pray to you that Shavei should not be given charge of Aliyah because it is used as an instrument to oppress widows and destitute like me. I thank you, may Hashem help you in all your endeavors. Sarah Hatneilam Baite, Ex-member of Beith Shalom B. Vengnom, Shavei Israel Centre, Churachandpur, Manipur-795128

After last week’s Knesset exchange between Tamano-Shata and former Likud minister Miri Regev in which the latter referred to Sarah Baite's letter, Tamano-Shata, who professed not to have seen it, reportedly expressed an interest in speaking to Baite in a Zoom meeting. Baite promptly indicated her readiness; Tamano-Shata, as far as is known, has yet to contact her. Meanwhile, however, Sarah Baite has agreed to be interviewed by our Newsletter. Here is our conversation with her:

Let’s pretend you’re talking to the minister. Can you tell us a bit about your personal history?

I was born in 1979 in a village called Zoupi, in the Chandel district of Manipur. Not long after that, my parents moved to a nearby village, Sugnu, where I grew up and was sent to school, although I never got further than first grade. In the mid-1980s, when I was still a small girl, my parents joined a Messianic church. [“Messianics” in Manipur are Christians who, while believing in Jesus’ messiahship, stress his Jewish roots and the need to observe many of the practices laid down by the Hebrew Bible.] From there, it was natural to make the move to Judaism. My family did that in 1993 or ’94.

In 1999, I married a man who was from a B’nei Menashe background, too. We weren’t together for long when he left me, saying that he was going off to earn some money. He never came back. Later, I found out that he had joined an anti-government underground movement and been killed in an armed encounter.

Were there any children from that marriage?

There was a child even before it, because when I was married, I was already caring for my older sister's son. Her first husband had died, and when she remarried, she and her second husband moved away and left me with their little boy, whom I brought up as my own.

Sarah Baite with grandson.

After my own husband’s death, I found out that I was pregnant from him and some months later I gave birth to my older daughter.

My younger daughter was born in 2006, after I was happily remarried to another man from the B’nei Menashe community. Our happiness didn’t last long, though, because he died of stomach cancer in 2007.

So you were now a widow again, now with three children to support.

Yes. I owned some family rice fields, but it was too risky to depend just on them. It was hard for me to tend to them while raising the children and if there was a year of poor rainfall, we faced starvation. And so I began to take all kinds of odd jobs, whatever I could find. That’s how I make a living to this day. I work in other people’s fields as a day laborer. I sell jewelry and clothes. I have a good voice, and sometimes, I’m invited to events at which I sing traditional songs. I don't charge a fee. I take whatever is given me. It can be one or two thousand rupees [15 to 30 dollars], or sometimes just a meal and a shawl. For important occasions, like Independence Day or Republic Day, the government might pay me up to 10,000 rupees. It’s never enough, but thanks to God, I’ve managed to get by and even to send my older daughter to an inexpensive boarding school.

Did you think in those years of making Aliyah?

I was never invited to any of Shavei Israel’s Aliyah interviews. I was a poor widow and had no influence with anyone in the Shavei leadership. The one time I inquired, I was told that my family wasn’t eligible because my daughter’s attendance at a boarding school kept her away from Jewish communal life. I was told that she would have to leave the school and that we would then have to wait three more years until we would even be considered for Aliyah.

Tell us about what happened to your younger daughter.

I had a trusted friend in the community, K [K’s full name, blackened out by us, is given by Sarah Baite in her letter]. We visited each other a lot and our two families shared many of our Shabbat meals. K often invited my daughter to go shopping with him and bought her candy and other treats. He was related to Meital Singson, who was Shavei Administrator for Manipur at the time and close to Tzvi Khaute [Shavei Israel’s second-in-command], which made her very powerful. All major decisions affecting the B’nei Menashe of Manipur were made by her..

I was out of the house most of the time, making a living. One day when I had to go somewhere, K. offered to take my daughter to a neighborhood grocery to buy some sweets. I never imagined anything bad might happen to her. But when I came home that night, I found her curled on her bed, crying. That wasn’t like her. I asked what was wrong, but she just went on crying without answering, and so I thought she must be ill and took her to the doctor, the next day. He, too, couldn't figure out what the matter was, but since she seemed weak, he put her on a glucose drip to perk her up. Having things to do, I left her in his clinic with her grandmother, my mother. While I was away, she told my mother what had happened to her and my mother told me as soon as I returned. I then told the doctor, who suggested a vaginal examination. It confirmed that she had been raped. It was hard to believe. She was barely ten. How could anyone have done such a thing to her?

Word of what happened reached relatives and one of them informed the neighborhood authorities. As soon as K. and his wife heard about this, his wife rushed to my house in tears and apologized profusely on her husband’s behalf. She even brought a shawl, wrapped it around me, and begged me to forgive her husband, and begged me not to go to the police, since that would bring shame on our community. The next day, heads of Beit Shalom [Churachandpur’s largest synagogue, controlled at the time by Shavei Israel] came and also warned me against going to the police. They assured me that the matter would be settled within the Jewish community, and that justice would be done and the perpetrator suitably punished in accordance with Jewish law. I believed them and did not file a police complaint. After all, the dignity of the community was at stake.

And did they punish K.?

No. They did just the opposite. They held a meeting, and a few days later I received a letter telling me that I had been expelled from the Jewish community for informing on one of its members to non-Jews. Nothing was done to K. at all. It was too painful for words.

The letter of expulsion from Beit Shalom.

Its English translation is:

To,

Mrs. Lamshi Baite,

District Hqrs Tuibong, Churachandpur.

ANNOUNCEMENT

We want to inform you today, 20.07.16 Wednesday at 7:30 am, in connection with the unpleasant event that took place in your household in matters of you not respecting Law and Order, after the Executive Committee had a meeting and deliberated it over with deep thoughts with consultations on the laws which cannot be by-passed, in accordance with the Bye-Law Article No.10, Clause(D) the leaders have decided to cancel your name from community census. In addition we request you not to bear bitterness and ill-feelings to the leaders of the community.

In the name of the community.

Tuvia Tungnung

Secretary,

Beith Shalom, B. Vengnom

What happened then?

My family was thrown out of Beit Shalom. We weren’t allowed to attend prayers there. Many members of the congregation were sympathetic and knew an injustice had been done, but no one had the courage to speak out. They all knew that if they did they would incur the wrath of Shavei and forfeit their chance for Aliyah.

Did that mean you were no longer able to live a Jewish life?

No, I was still able to, because there was one congregation in the area, Petach Tikvah, that welcomed us. We were able to observe Shabbat and all the holidays there. .And in 2018, I was told that if I apologized, I could rejoin Beit Shalom.

You were told to apologize to them?

Yes. I was made to stand up in front of the whole Beit Shalom congregation and say that that I was sorry for having caused it problems. I did it because I felt I had no choice. The Petach Tikva synagogue was a long walk from my home, and my entire social world had revolved around Beit Shalom.

And how is your daughter now?

Since the incident, she’s become totally withdrawn. She hardly talks. For about a year, I took her to a doctor for treatment, but I had to stop because I could no longer afford it. She was left back in fourth grade because she didn’t pass her subjects, and when the following year the school agreed to promote her to fifth grade after I begged it to, the same thing happened again. Now, she’s dropped out of school entirely. She has no friends and takes no interest in anything.

I’ve given up hope. My daughter’s life is ruined. Every time I talk about what happened, all the pain of it comes back again. It’s like reliving a nightmare. I feel helpless -- but that’s the reality I have to live with. I can tell my story to the minister, but will she listen to me, a poor widow against so many powerful people? Some who saw the video of the Knesset debate have even accused me of selling my soul by writing to her. To be honest, I have no expectations any more. I can only put my trust in God. And even if I were someday to get to Israel, the land of my dreams, I’d have to live with the fear of running into my daughter’s rapist. What a terrible thing to have to think of!