First-Ever B’nei Menashe Demonstration in Israel Held in Tel Aviv

(November 12) A demonstration protesting Shavei Israel’s monopoly on B’nei Menashe Aliyah, and the complicity in it of the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption, was held in Tel Aviv yesterday in front of the ministry’s offices on Esther ha-Malkah Street. Following similar demonstrations in Manipur and Mizoram, the gathering marked the first time that Israel’s B’nei Menashe have turned out to register their anger at the outsourcing of their Aliyah to a private organization that has repeatedly abused its power over them. Over 50 demonstrators were in attendance. A full account of the event, which featured an appearance by Knesset member and former cabinet minister Miri Regev, will appear in next week’s Newsletter.

A group of demonstrators. Center, Miri Regev. To the left of her, B’nei Menashe Council chairman Lalam Hangshing, on a visit to Israel from Manipur.

New Hebrew Schools Open in Mizoram, Manipur

(November 12) The month of October saw the opening of new Hebrew schools, the first of their kind in years, in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, and Churachandpur, the second largest city in Manipur, the two large B’nei Menashe centers in northeast India. Both schools are being supported financially by Degel Menashe, with the help of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.

Classes in the Aizawl school began the first week of October, we were told by Asaf Renthlei, the school’s director and at the moment single teacher. Since then, they have met every Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm. Plans to expand them to weekday evenings, Renthlei hopes, will soon be implemented.

So far, Renthlei reports, the Aizawl school has 15 students, all adults. “Its four Sunday hours are divided into four sessions,” he explained. “The first deals with the basics of Judaism and Torah, with a special emphasis on the weekly Torah portion. The second is devoted to Hebrew, beginning with acquiring a command of the Hebrew alphabet and the ability to read Hebrew words, so that they can be followed in the prayer book, plus a knowledge of basic Hebrew vocabulary. In the third hour, we discuss Shabbat, the Jewish holidays, and other practices of Judaism, while in the last we talk about the differences between Judaism and Christianity. “

This division, Renthlei emphasizes, is not a rigid one. “When questions come up in any of the four sessions, we’ll often pursue them even if they’re not strictly related to that session’s subject. I feel it’s important to satisfy the students’ thirst for knowledge, and to let it take us wherever it does.”

In Manipur’s Rav Eliyahu Avichail (z'l) School, named for the revered rabbi who bought traditional Judaism to northeast India in the 1980s and90s classes began in October’s second week. Nearly 30 students, ranging from eight-year-olds to adults, meet every Monday through Thursday from 6 to 8 pm, and on Sunday from 10 to 1:30, at Churachandpur’s Beit Shalom synagogue. Their two instructors, Gideon Lhouvum and Simeon Touthang, teach on alternate days. Here, too, the emphasis is on basic Hebrew and the fundamentals of Judaism, although plans are afoot to expand the curriculum to include secular subjects as well, such as English, arithmetic, and the sciences. As more students join, separate classes will be formed for the different age groups, but at the moment, a “little red schoolhouse” arrangement prevails in which all ages mingle and study together.

B’nei Menashe Man, Denied Aliyah with family, found dead on street

(November 12) Lunsat Shmida Chongloi, 30, a member of Churachandpur’s B’nei Menashe community, was found dead on a street of the city on Friday, November 5. The cause of death was unclear. Whereas B’nei Menashe social media in Manipur speculated that it might have been a drug overdose, Lunsat’s father, Na’aman Chongloi, a resident of the northern Israeli city of Safed, told our newspaper that it was a stroke due to high blood pressure.

“Lunsat was a substance abuser in the past,” we were told by Na’aman, who immigrated to Israel with his wife and two younger children in 2014. “He had been in a chronic state of depression ever since having been parted from his family by Shavei Israel when it refused to let him join our Aliyah. The reason for the refusal was petty and mean. When Shavei announced that it was holding interviews for the 2014 group of olim, Lunsat, who had been working far away in Bangalore, gave up his job and hurried home to Churachandput to sit for them.

“Unfortunately,” Na’aman continued,” when Lunsat reached Assam, from which he planned to continue to Manipur, ethnic riots broke out and paralyzed transportation. He was delayed, and by the time he reached Churachandpur, the interviews, which the rest of our family passed successfully, were over. We begged Tsvi Khaute, Shavei Israel’s coordinator, to make an exception for Lunsat, since he missed his interview through no fault of his own, but Khaute refused. He was adamant. The one ray of home he could offer us, he said, was to include Lunsat in the next round of interviews, which would take place as soon as a new Aliyah group was formed. We left for Israel without him, trusting that he soon would follow us.”

And yet when such a group was formed a year later, in 2015, Lunsat was not invited to be interviewed for it as promised. “That broke his spirits,” Na’aman said. “We’re a close family and he missed us terribly. On top of that, he couldn’t find a decent job in Churachandpur, where employment opportunities are limited. He was out of work, and I had to send him hard-earned money from Israel to support him. To escape his depression, he turned to drink, and from there he went on to drugs.”

According to Na’aman, however, the immediate cause of his son’s death was neither alcohol nor drugs. “Lunsat had a change of heart half a year ago,” Na’man said. “He told us then that he had had enough. He was turning 30, he said, and wanted to mend his ways and find a B’nei Menashe wife to start a family with. We were very happy to hear that, and we managed to find him a suitable match with a B’nei Menashe girl whose family originally came from Nagaland, as did ours. They were married three months ago.”

Lunsat found dead.

Since his marriage, Na’aman said, Lunsat was a changed person. “He stopped the drugs and alcohol and was clean. He also returned to a full observance of Judaism, donning tefillin every morning and never missing a single one of the three daily prayer services. But by then his health had been ruined by his years of unhealthy living and he was suffering from high blood pressure.

“It was the blood pressure that led to the stroke. But that was only what killed him medically speaking. If this would have happened. He would have been alive and healthy instead of dead on a Churachandpur street. For that, we have Shavei Israel to thank.”

The family rises from its shiva in Safed today, November 12.