Pro-Change Candidates Win BMC Election

(November 5) The first elections in five years for the B’nei Menashe Council of Manipur, held today at Beit Shalom synagogue in Churachandpur, have resulted in a hard-fought but resounding victory for the forces of change in their battle against the continued control of B’nei Menashe life by the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel. By a vote of 28 to 18, W.L. (Lalam) Hangshing, a retired chief commissioner in the India revenue service, won the post of BMC Chairman in his contest against pro-Shavei candidate Shlomo Seijalal Kipgen, chief of Boljol village, while by the narrow margin of 24 to 22, Degel Menashe activist Ohaliav Haokip defeated Shavei-backed Khanan Singsit for the position of Council Secretary. Two other candidates, Obed Thangniang of the village of Muolkoi and Simeon Singson from Zohar, were chosen Finance Secretary and Treasurer without opposition.

Elections delegates listen to proceedings.

All 24 of Manipur’s B’nei Menashe congregations participated in the elections, in which each had two votes. (Two delegates were not present when the vote was held and failed to take part in it.) Until the last moment, it was unclear whether Shavei Israel, which had unsuccessfully sought to organize a boycott of the proceedings, would run candidates of its own.

The vote was conducted by a secret ballot. Preceding it was a floor fight over the seating of four of the delegations. In a repetition of a move made by him in a meeting of the Election Committee last week, its official Convener Aharon Vaiphei, a Shavei supporter, moved to disbar the representatives of Petach Tikva, Pejang, Phalbung, and Saikul on the grounds that they had not been recognized by Shavei Israel as part of the B’nei Menashe communal structure – the first three for practicing the Ashkenazi rather than the Sephardi liturgy demanded by Shavei, the last for having rejected Shavei’s insistence that its members leave their small village and relocate to Churachandpur.

Speaking against Vaiphei, fellow Committee member Nechemiah Lhouvum argued that Shavei had no authority to dictate to the BMC and that there was no room in the B’nei Menashe community for discrimination of any sort. When the Committee failed to make a unanimous recommendation, the question was put to the plenum, and Vaiphei’s motion was rejected by a show of hands after a lengthy debate. The challenged communities’ votes may have helped swing the election in Lalam Hangshing and Ohaliav Haokip’s favor.

The counting of the ballots.

“This is a turning point for the B’nei Menashe community of Manipur,” Hangshing declared after the vote. He was seconded by Beit-Shalom’s Vice-Chairman Demsat Joseph Haokip, whose staunch support for holding the elections helped sway several fence-sitting congregations to take part in them. “The B’nei Menashe of Manipur have spoken,” he said. “This is a victory for the will of the people.”

Whatever the actions and policies of the new Council will be, the elections mark a revolution. Nearly twenty years of domination by Shavei Israel have come to an end. At long last, the B’nei Menashe community of Manipur has its own independent voice and will be able to speak for itself. A new age has begun.

Motion Passed to Hold Election for New B’nei Menashe Council in Manipur in Early November

(October 26) In a sometimes tumultuous session of the heads of the B’nei Menashe congregations of Manipur at Beit Shalom synagogue in Churachandpur on Sunday, October 25, it was decided by a large majority to hold elections for a new B’nei Menashe Council in early November. The vote was a major defeat for Shavei Israel, the organization that has controlled B’nei Menashe affairs in India and Israel for the past 15 years and that opposed the holding of the elections as a challenge to its power.

The 34 ballots were cast by 17 of Manipur’s 24 B’nei Menashe congregations, each represented by its chairman and secretary. Seven congregations did not take part in the vote. Three from the Churachandpur district, New Bazaar, Mualkoi, and Phalien, failed to attend the session for unclear reasons. Four others – Petach Tikva, Peijang, Phalbung, and Saikul – sent delegations whose right to vote was challenged at Shavei Israel's behest on the grounds that they had been excluded by it from the communal structure that it has administered for the past 15 years. A floor fight ended with a compromise: the four congregations would not vote this time but would be full participants in all B’nei Menashe Council affairs in the future.

Avihu Singsit addressing the meeting

Demsat Haokip

The session got off to a stormy start. It was opened by Avihu Singsit, the current BMC chairman, who declared his objection to holding Council elections because, as he put it, “they are opposed by Tsvi Khaute,” Shavei Israel’s coordinator and second-in-command. The floor was then taken by Demsat Haokip, vice-chairman of the Beit-Shalom congregation, who attacked Singsit for defending a “corrupt system” that had not held elections since 2015, even though the BMC’s bylaws call for them every two years. Halfway through his remarks he was interrupted by Singsit with the demand that he step down because he was the vice-chairman, not the chairman, of his congregation. Despite Demsat’s explanation that Beit Shalom’s chairman, Zebulun Haokip, was bedridden and unable to attend, Singsit insisted that he retire over shouted protests from some of the delegates. The matter was finally settled when it was agreed to telephone Zebulun Haokip, who confirmed his illness and formally authorized Demsat to be his replacement.

Michael Kipgen

Demsat was followed by two more pro-election speakers, Degel Menashe activist Ohaliav Haokip and Michael Kipgen of Gangiphai. Both cited chapter and verse from the BMC charter in arguing that not only were elections three years overdue but that other mandated events, such an annual general meeting to review the Council’s activities, had been ignored as well. The BMC Council, they charged, had become a rubber stamp for Shavei Israel and ceased to be the independent body representing the B’nei Menashe community that it was meant to be. It was time, they said, that the community was given the voice that was taken from it when Shavei seized control of the BMC.

Some spoke against holding elections. David Chongloi, chairman of the congregation of Kangpokpi, argued that holding them would jeopardize the Aliyah of the 722 B’nei Menashe now on a Shavei-compiled list of Israeli-approved immigrants to Israel. Tsvi Khaute had requested, Chongloi said, that no elections take place until all 722 had made Aliyah; "disobeying” him might have serious consequences. Yet although Chongloi was backed by speakers from Gangiphai and Keitelmanbi, no other delegates joined them. Not only would an independent BMC not endanger Aliyah, it was argued, it would enable the B’nei Menashe community to take part in the Aliyah process and have a say in it, as it has not had until now.

After three hours of debate, Simeon Hangshing, the chairman of the Tuiliphai congregation, moved to hold a vote. “Let’s have elections!” he declared. “There are rules and we should follow them.” The motion was seconded by Zebulum Satthang Haokip, chairman of Sijang, and passed by a show of hands. The vote on elections then took place, with the chairman of each congregation taking the podium and announcing how he and his secretary were voting. The final tally was 28 to 6 in favor, with only the delegates from Kangpokpi, Gangiphai, and Keitelmanbi voting against.

Aharon Vaiphei

The session’s last act before adjourning was to appoint a committee of five that will set a date and rules for the elections. Nechemiah Lhouvum was chosen from the Churachanpur or southern district of Manipur; Reuben Chongloi from the Kangpoki or northern district; David Haokip from the Moreh or eastern district; and Michael Haokip from the Imphal or central district. Aharon Vaiphei, secretary of the Beit Shalom congregation, was made committee chairman.

As of the moment, it appears that the elections will be held in the first two weeks of November. The election committee met briefly after the vote and issued the request that all members of Manipur’s 24 B’nei Menashe congregations be informed by their leaders of their right to put forth their candidacy for the B’nei Menashe Council’s elected positions of chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, joint or deputy secretary, and treasurer. Candidates, it was decided, will officially register with the committee on the day of the elections, which will again be held at Beit Shalom synagogue. Now, too,, the chairman and secretary of each B’nei Menashe congregation will each have a vote, this time to be cast by secret ballot.

Yitzhak Seimang Haokip

To date, four candidates have announced that they are running for office: Lalam Hangshing for chairman; Nehemiah Lhunzang Haokip for vice-chairman; Ohaliav Haokip for secretary, and Yoel Paolal Dimngel for treasurer. It is not clear if Shavei Israel will field a list of its own. Although it has been rumored that Shavei supporter Yitzhak Seimang Haokip, who was elected BMC secretary in the last elections in 2015, will run for chairman, he himself has reportedly denied this.

A state of excitement over the upcoming elections is said to exist among Manipur’s estimated 4,000 B’nei Menashe. “There is a general sense of satisfaction in the community,” Ohaliav Haokip told our Newsletter. “We all hope this will be the dawn of democracy for us.”

B’nei Menashe Council Elections To Be Held In Manipur

(October 22) In a dramatic development, elections for the B’nei Menashe Council, a once representative body that has fallen into abeyance since the last vote for it took place in 2015, are about to be held in Manipur.

Yosef Demsat Haokip

At a meeting in Churachandpur on October 18 at the home of Demsat Haokip, vice-chairman of Beit Shalom, northeast India’s largest congregation, it was decided to invite the executive boards of all 24 of Manipur’s B’nei Menashe congregations to convene at the synagogue’s premises on Sunday, October 25. The purpose of this session would be to pass a motion to hold the elections and possibly to conduct them right afterwards. Since the BMC’s bylaws call for the Council’s members to be chosen by a majority vote with each congregational board (traditionally, its chairman and its secretary) casting two ballots, it would be feasible to do both things at once.

Although it may seem undemocratic to choose a body claiming to represent Manipur’s estimated 4,000 B’nei Menashe on the basis of at most 48 votes, this is not the case, says Ohaliav Haokip, who is running for the post of BMC secretary. “The executives of each congregation have been elected by its congregants,” Haokip explains. “Together they’re like a legislature that has been empowered by the people.” Nor is giving each congregation an equal say, from the biggest to the smallest, without democratic precedent. One can point to the United States Senate, in which the biggest and smallest states have two votes apiece so as to allay the latter’s fears of domination by the former.

The movement to hold new BMC elections has been gathering momentum in Manipur for months. Behind it lies the growing resentment of many B’nei Menashe of the role played by Shavei Israel, the organization that has effectively controlled the community since 2003, when it was put in sole charge of the latter’s Aliyah to Israel. Even before the 2015 elections the BMC, whose roots goes back to the pre-Shavei days of the 1990s, was under Shavei’s thumb. Yet after two Shavei functionaries, Avihu Singsit and Yitzhak Seimang Haokip, were put in office as chairman and secretary in 2015, even the pretense of a popularly elected body was done away with.

Michael Kipgen

“The Council has totally violated its own constitution,” says Michael Kipgen of the Gamgiphai congregation. Kipgen has observed repeatedly in recent weeks in the B’nei Menashe social media that the BMC’s bylaws call for elections every two years, whereas none have been held for the past five. These laws also require an annual progress report, an annual finance report, an annual audit, and annual approval of a budget, all of which have been ignored. Shavei Israel, Kipgen charges, has reduced the BMC to an empty shell.

Elon Lunjang Haokip

In retaliation, the Shavei-dominated Gamgiphai congregation has expelled Kipgen from its ranks. Initially, indeed, Shavei did all it could to oppose the holding of new elections and warned all 24 Manipur congregations against taking part in them. Spearheading this campaign was Shavei activist Elon Lunjang Haokip, who reportedly told the leaders of several congregations that they would be struck from all Aliyah lists if they lent a hand to a BMC ballot. Four congregations – Monglienphai, Zohar, Moreh, and Kangkopi – heeded the warning and spurned all overtures to join the process.

Meital Singson

Similarly, Shavei Israel’s Manipur representative Meital Singson sought to pressure Demsat Haokip into turning Beit Shalom, whose participation is crucial because of its size, against the elections. “Meital actually tried to bribe me,” the Beit Shalom vice-chairman told our Newsletter. “She said that if I blocked the vote, she would see to it that I was put at the top of the next Aliyah list – and that if I refused, I might never get to make Aliyah at all. I told her that there should be no connection between Aliyah and BMC elections and that Shavei should not interfere in them.”

Seeing that it was unable to prevent the elections from taking place, Shavei decided at the last minute to take part in them and has pretended to be the initiator of the planned October 25 session at Beit Shalom, to which it issued an invitation on October 20 signed by Yitzhak Seimang Haokip -- an invitation sent two days after Demsat Haokip’s group had already done the inviting!

Lalam Hangshing

Nehemiah Lhunzang Haokip

Shavei has also put forward Yitzhak Seimang Haokip as its candidate for BMC chairman. This pits him against Lalam Hangshing, who is heading the pro-change list. Hangshing is the former Chief Commissioner of Customs and Excise for the Northeast Region of India. He is joined by candidates for the Council’s additional elected posts of vice-chairman, secretary, deputy secretary, and treasurer by Demsat Haokip; Ohaliav Haokip; Nehemiah Lhunzang Haokip, a respected local politician and head of the Churachandpur branch of the ruling Indian People’s (Bhartiya Janata) Party, and Yoel Paolal Dimngel, a retired sergeant in the Nagaland police.

The first task facing the October 25 session will be the choice of an election committee that will set a date for the vote. The next will be to deal with an expected Shavei challenge to bar

the four congregations of Phalbung, Pejang, Petach Tikvah, and Saikul from the proceedings on the grounds that they have not been part of the B’nei Menashe organizational structure. “This is particularly outrageous,” says Ohaliav Haokip, “because it was Shavei itself that ostracized these congregations for years for standing up for their religious rights and refusing to switch from the Ashkenai to the Sephardi liturgy. I hope that this motion will be defeated and that all 24 congregations will attend and vote. Whether the elections take place on the same day remains to be seen. Even if they’re put off, it won’t be for more than a week or two.”

Ohaliav Haokip

Meanwhile, he says, “there’s great excitement in the community about these elections. The candidates are out on the campaign trail. Many people realize the need for an independent, democratically elected B’nei Meneashe Council that will represent them in all areas, including Aliyah. They want to have the voice that was stolen from them returned to them.”