Regev Calls for Overhaul of B’nei Menashe Aliyah Procedures

(December 17) “The notion that a private organization can have sole responsibility for the Aliyah of an entire Jewish community is unacceptable,” said Transportation Minister Miri Regev this week in an hour-long meeting with Degel Menashe Project Manager Yitzhak Thangjom. “Something must be done to change this situation.”

Regev greeting the B’nei Menashe community during last autumn’s holidays

Also present at the meeting was Degel Menashe’s new board member Yossi Dahan. Regev has now become the first cabinet minister to explicitly endorse Degel Menashe’s position that Shavei Israel’s monopoly on B’nei Menashe Aliyah must come to an end. Her words were spoken during a conversation in which Thangjom reviewed Shavei Israel’s mishandling of the Aliyah process and the hardship thus caused to the B’nei Menashe community.

Regev has long been known among the B’nei Menashe for her friendliness and caring attitude toward them. As Minister of Culture and Sport, she took an interest in their activities and helped them to obtain her ministry’s support. Now, she told Thangjom and Dahan, she intends to speak to the Minister of Immigration and Absorption and to the Chairman of the Jewish Agency in an effort to convince them of the need to revamp B’nei Menashe Aliyah procedures and bring them more in line with those applying to Jews elsewhere in the world.