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Dominican Republic: Tropical Zion in the Caribbean

Museum project could help tell the little-known story of Holocaust refugees who found a haven in Sosua

By Dan Fellner

SOSUA, Dominican Republic — Sitting inside a small wood-frame shul just around the corner from Playa Alicia, where tourists sip rum punch while watching catamarans glide by, Joe Benjamin recounted one of the most uplifting but often forgotten stories of Jewish survival during the Holocaust.

Joe Benjamin, president of the Jewish Community of Sosua, inside the sanctuary of La Sinagoga, built for the Jewish refugees who immigrated to the Dominican Republic in the 1940s.

“I was bar mitzvahed right here,” he said, pointing to a podium at the front of the sanctuary in La Sinagoga de Sosua, built in the early 1940s to meet the spiritual needs of about 750 German and Austrian Jews.

At the time, the Dominican Republic was the only country in the world that offered asylum to large numbers of Jewish refugees, earning the moniker “tropical Zion.”

Benjamin, 82, is president of the Jewish community of Sosua and one of only four surviving second-generation Jews remaining in this touristy beach town on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. His parents were part of the unconventional colony of Jewish immigrants who established an agricultural settlement between 1940-47 on an abandoned banana plantation overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Photos of some of the 750 Jewish refugees who settled in Sosua in the 1940s on display at the Gregorio Luperon International Airport in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

“When I talk about that, I get goosebumps,” Benjamin said. “This is a distinction that the Dominican Republic has. It was the only country that opened its doors to Jews.”

At the 1938 Evian Conference in France, attended by representatives of 32 countries to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees wanting to flee Nazi persecution, the Dominican Republic announced it would accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees. About 5,000 visas were issued but fewer than 1,000 Jews ultimately were able to reach the country, which is located on the same island as Haiti, about 800 miles southeast of Miami.

La Sinagoga de Sosua in the Dominican Republic served the spiritual needs of the Jewish refugees who found a safe haven in Sosua during the Holocaust. It’s now open only for the high holidays.

Benjamin was born in 1941 in Shanghai, the only other place besides the Dominican Republic that accepted large numbers of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. Shanghai, then a divided city not under the control of a single government, did not require a visa to enter. About 20,000 Jewish refugees immigrated there, including Benjamin’s parents, who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. (See article by the author about Shanghai’s Jewish refugees:  https://danfellner.com/2018/04/25/jewish-shanghai/).

The bimah inside La Sinagoga de Sosua.

In 1947, with a civil war raging in China, Benjamin’s father realized the country “was getting a little difficult” and looked for another place to raise his two children.

“I think my father read it in a newspaper – there was a Jewish refugee colony in the Dominican Republic,” he says. “My father had no idea where that was, but he said, ‘I’m going there.’”

A stained-glass window inside the sanctuary of La Sinagoga de Sosua.

Benjamin’s family took a ship from China to San Francisco, a train to Miami, and then flew into Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s capital city. At that time, the city was officially called Ciudad Trujillo after the country’s dictator, Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.

Historians suggest the Dominican dictator’s motives in accepting large numbers of Jewish refugees at a time when so many other countries — including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom — turned their backs were fueled more by opportunism than altruism. It’s believed that Trujillo wanted to improve his reputation on the world stage following the 1937 massacre of an estimated 20,000 Black Haitians by Dominican troops. Furthermore, Trujillo liked the idea of allowing a crop of mostly educated immigrants who would “whiten” the country’s population.

Sosua’s Playa Alicia, a beach on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. About 750 Jewish refugees found a safe haven in Sosua in the 1940s.

“He was a cruel dictator,” Benjamin said of Trujillo. “But it’s not for me to judge. Because for us, he saved our lives. If you’re drowning and someone throws you a rope, you hold on to it. You don’t start asking his motive. You just hold on.”

In 1947, Benjamin was among the last group of Jewish refugees to arrive in Sosua, one of about 10 families known by the other colonists as the “Shanghai group.” The Sosua settlement was run by an organization called the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA) that was funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in New York.

“DORSA would give you 10 cows, a mule, a horse and a cart,” said Benjamin. “My father by profession was a cabinet-maker. He thought he was going to do that here. But there was no market for that. So he dedicated himself to farming.”

Dr. Rosen Street in downtown Sosua, named after Joseph Rosen, one of the founders of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA).

Benjamin said conditions in Sosua were “primitive” and a difficult transition for many settlers who had been city-dwellers in Europe. Still, he spoke fondly of a childhood in which he was relatively insulated from the horrors that befell so many other Jewish children his age.

“We had enough to eat,” he says. “We enjoyed the beach. And I went to a Jewish school.”

The school, originally called Escuela Cristobal Colon, opened in 1940 in a barracks and was attended by Jewish children as well as the children of Dominican farm workers. The school still exists and is now called the Colegio Luis Hess, named after Luis Hess, one of the Jewish settlers. Hess taught at the school for 33 years and lived in Sosua until his death in 2010 at the age of 101.

Students outside the Colegio Luis Hess, the original school built for Jewish settlers in Sosua. The school has since been named after Luis Hess, one of the Jewish founders of the town who taught at the school for 33 years.

While the children attended school, men worked on farms and women cooked dinner for their families, who ate communal style. Beds were lined with mosquito netting to prevent malaria. As men greatly outnumbered women — Trujillo did not allow single Jewish women to enter the country — intermarriage was common.

Over time, the agriculture venture failed and DORSA instead decided to promote a beef and dairy cooperative, Productos Sosua, which ultimately proved successful.

After finishing high school, Benjamin moved to Pittsburgh to attend college (he’s an engineer who once built and flew his own airplane), got married and started a family. After 17 years in the United States, he decided in 1976 to return to the Dominican Republic, where he became an executive with Productos Sosua. He worked there until he retired in 2004, when the firm was sold to a Mexican company.

A street mural recognizing Sosua’s Jewish history on the main road connecting Sosua with Puerto Plata on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

“All my life I talked about Sosua as my home,” he said. “I like it here. Everybody knows me.”

Today, Sosua is vastly changed from the sleepy town in which Benjamin was raised. In 1979, an international airport opened in Puerto Plata, just a 15-minute drive to the west. Sosua morphed into a congested tourist destination known for its golden-sand beaches and water sports. It also became a hub of the Dominican sex tourism industry.

A youth baseball complex in Sosua, located right across the street from the synagogue.  Baseball is the Dominican Republic’s most popular sport.  

Most of Sosua’s Jewish population immigrated to the United States by the early 1980s. Benjamin estimates that only 30-40 Jews remain in Sosua, most of whom are not religiously observant. As a result, the synagogue hasn’t been able to financially sustain a permanent rabbi for more than 20 years. Services are held only on the high holidays, when a rabbi is flown in from Miami.

Benjamin says a group of seven Jews chips in about $2,500 a month to pay for security and other operating expenses.

The Museo Judio de Sosua, which tells the story of the Jewish refugees who found a safe haven in the Dominican Republic during the Holocaust.  The museum is closed while the community waits for funding to reopen it.

“It’s very hard to get the Jews here to pay,” he said. “When we bring in the rabbi, we try to charge something. But we don’t get any people if we charge.”

Next to the synagogue is a small museum called the Museo Judio de Sosua, which offers a window into the town’s Jewish roots. Five years ago, the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo donated $80,000 to the museum to preserve and digitize its archives. However, the museum, which is badly in need of repairs, has been closed for the past year.

Sosua’s Jewish cemetery, where about 70 people are buried, is a five-minute drive from the synagogue.

Benjamin has been in discussions with the Dominican government in hopes it will soon finance a major renovation of the museum that would include an exhibition hall big enough to accommodate 100 people for events. Benjamin says he is optimistic the project, which has a price-tag approaching $1 million, will be green-lighted by the government.

“They are very positive about it because it could become a tourist attraction,” he says, noting that Puerto Plata and nearby Amber Cove have become popular port-stops on Caribbean cruises originating in Florida. “If it comes to fruition, it will be in the next year. Because if they don’t do it by then, the government changes. And the next government never continues what the previous government started.”

A star of David in Sosua’s Parque Mirador overlooks the Atlantic Ocean on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.  

Otherwise, there are only a few remnants of Jewish life in Sosua for visitors to see. In Parque Mirador overlooking the Atlantic, there is a white cement-block star of David, built to honor the Jewish refugees. About 70 Jews, including Benjamin’s parents, are buried in a Jewish cemetery about a five-minute drive south of the synagogue.

The main street connecting Sosua with Puerto Plata has a street mural depicting the town’s history that features a large star of David right above a scuba-diver. And two of the most prominent streets in Sosua — Dr. Rosen and David Stern — still bear the names of two of the colony’s Jewish founders.

A coconut vendor pushes his cart on Dr. Rosen Street in downtown Sosua, Dominican Republic.

There had been an exhibition about Sosua’s Jewish colony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York but it closed several years ago. All the more reason, Benjamin says, that the Sosua museum reopens as soon as possible so that the story of the Jews who found a Caribbean cocoon to ride out the Holocaust isn’t forgotten.

“Look at what’s happening in the world — there is a rise in antisemitism,” he said. “It’s very important that our history is documented. It will also be a place where Dominican schoolchildren can come and learn about Judaism.”

A meringue band plays in the departure lounge at Puerto Plata’s airport next to a display about Sosua’s Jewish settlers.  

With the museum closed, the only place in the area to see photos of the Jewish settlers on public display is the departure lounge in Puerto Plata’s airport. Next to a Dominican band serenading travelers with meringue music, there is a display of pictures showing the colonists riding horses, tilling the fields, attending school and praying in La Sinagoga.

“When they came here, the Jews found no antisemitism at all in this country,” said Benjamin. “They were as free as anybody. They had a wonderful life.”

Sosua street art depicting the city’s unique Jewish history.

This article was originally published by The Jerusalem Post on April 30, 2023, and on Dan Fellner’s website. You can view the original article on his website by clicking here.

India’s Bnei Menashe celebrate Hanukkah

India’s Bnei Menashe celebrate Hanukkah

Descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel staged a candle-lighting ceremony and prayed for Hamas hostages and IDF soldiers on the frontlines.
The Bnei Menashe community at the candle-lighting ceremony in Churachandpur. Photo courtesy of Shavei Israel
The Bnei Menashe community at the candle-lighting ceremony in Churachandpur. Photo courtesy of Shavei Israel
By Yulia Karra

Hundreds of members of the Bnei Menashe community in India over the weekend celebrated the start of the weeklong Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which began last Thursday night.

The main candle-lighting event was staged in Churachandpur, in the southwestern corner of the Indian state of Manipur.

During the ceremony, members of the community prayed for Israel’s soldiers fighting in Gaza, and the safe return of the hostages still being held by Hamas.

The Bnei Menashe, or sons of Manasseh, is a community of Indian Jews from various Tibeto-Burmese ethnic groups from the border of India and Burma. They claim descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who were exiled by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago.

Three-year-old Ezra Janggousang at the Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony. Photo courtesy of Shavei Israel
Three-year-old Ezra Janggousang at the Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony. Photo courtesy of Shavei Israel

Up until a few decades ago, the community never celebrated the Festival of Light because their ancestors were exiled from the Land of Israel about 560 years before the events related to Hanukkah took place.

After their exile, the community wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries, before settling in what is now northeastern India. They continued practicing Jewish traditions and customs and always maintained their desire to return to the Land of Israel.

The return of a Lost Tribe of Israel, 27 centuries later

The Shavei Israel organization, which encourages Jews across the world to strengthen their connection with Israel, has been helping the Bnei Menashe members make aliyah (move to Israel). Shavei Israel also helped organize the candle lighting event in Churachandpur.

Bnei Menashe members lighting Hanukkah candles. Photo courtesy of Shavei Israel

Over 5,000 members of the community have immigrated to Israel thanks to the Jerusalem-based organization, and 5,000 more are scheduled to arrive in the near future.

Shavei Israel Founder and Chairman Michael Freund said: “The story of the Maccabees’ heroic determination to preserve their Jewish identity resonates strongly with the Bnei Menashe, who – against all odds and with tremendous effort – have managed to cling to their faith and that of their ancestors down through the centuries.”

Since Hamas atrocities, Bnei Menashe Jews face enemies on two fronts

Times of Israel header - Since Hamas atrocities, Bnei Menashe Jews face enemies on two fronts - Many of the Jewish immigrants from Manipur and Mizoram live in areas hardest hit in the Oct. 7 massacre; while they serve in the IDF, others in India suffer from sectarian violence
Over 1,000 members of India's Bnei Menashe Jewish community have been displaced in the wake of violence in their region. (Shavei Israel via JTA)
Over 1,000 members of India’s Bnei Menashe Jewish community have been displaced in the wake of violence in their region. (Shavei Israel via JTA)

JTA — In the 2000s, as the small Israeli town of Sderot endured heavy rocket fire, thousands of residents left the city. Around the same time, a new population began moving in: Bnei Menashe Jews from the northeast Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram.

More than 100 Bnei Menashe families called Sderot their home until October 7. The community was deeply proud of what it created: the first synagogue and beit midrash — or Torah study hall — run exclusively by Bnei Menashe Jews. It was a dream, for many, that began halfway across the world in India.

The dream was interrupted when Hamas terrorists infiltrated many towns and kibbutzim surrounding Gaza, brutally murdering 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 240 more to the Gaza Strip. By the end of that day, 50 civilians and 20 police officers in Sderot had been killed, according to The Times of Israel.

But none of them were Bnei Menashe Jews.

That day, about 40 people gathered at a new synagogue building given to the community by Sderot’s mayor, Alon Davidi, only a few weeks before. Rabbi David Lhungdim recalled feeling rushed by Davidi to begin high holiday services there long before the community felt ready to make the move.

But in the end, the building saved them. The new synagogue, Alfei Menashe, is located to the east of Menachem Begin Road. While Hamas terrorists drove up and down that road on October 7 shooting people in the street, in their cars and in their homes, the Bnei Menashe prayed.

“I told them, let’s finish our morning prayer, we have no choice,” Lhundgim said.

Illustrative: Bnei Menashe Jewish community members pray in a local synagogue in Manipur, December 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
Illustrative: Bnei Menashe Jewish community members pray in a local synagogue in Manipur, December 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

After the massacre, “I questioned myself, why was the mayor in a state of hurry? When it was Simchat Torah, everything was clear,” Lhungdim said. “I said, wow, this is a miracle that God gave us… Had we been praying at the old site [a caravan https://www.shivteimenashe.org/about-4 on Natan Elbaz Road, which does not have a bomb shelter], the terrorists would have seen us because they were on the main road and shooting everyone that they see. But because the mayor gave us the new site, we don’t need to cross the main road.”

Rivka Guite, Lhungdim’s sister, and her husband Zevulun had been visiting Guite’s mother for the holiday. Their home, located near the old synagogue where Hamas had been active, was destroyed in a Hamas rocket attack. Nothing could be salvaged from the rubble, Guite said.

But Guite is just thankful to be alive and living in Israel.

“It’s a miracle indeed. I really do not have an explanation for these things,” Guite said through a translation provided by Isaac Thangjom, project director at the Israel-based nonprofit Degel Menashe. “How many of us would have died if the old synagogue had been used?”

An estimated 200 young Bnei Menashe men have joined the Israeli military's war effort. (Courtesy of Degel Menashe via JTA)
An estimated 200 young Bnei Menashe men have joined the Israeli military’s war effort. (Courtesy of Degel Menashe via JTA)

Now, most of the Bnei Menashe community in Sderot has been evacuated to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, where they are waiting out the war in refugee hotels. An estimated 200 young Bnei Menashe men have joined the Israeli military’s war effort, Thangjom told JTA. One soldier, Natanel Touthang, was injured by a rocket while on duty at the northern border.

“When I went to the reserves without being called up,” Touthang said, “I did it for my family. It sounds selfish, but I did it for my family.”

Some relocated Bnei Menashe community members seen at a Western Wall tour in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Degel Menashe via JTA)
Some relocated Bnei Menashe community members seen at a Western Wall tour in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Degel Menashe via JTA)

From Manipur to Sderot

The Bnei Menashe Jews are said to be descendants of the “lost tribe” of Manasseh, separated from their fellow Israelites after exile over 2,000 years ago. They are part of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo ethnic groups that reside in northeastern India, western Myanmar, and southern Bangladesh.

Researchers say the group came to Judaism via Christian missionaries, who introduced them to the Bible in the late 19th century. Bnei Menashe tradition recalls the story of Met Chala, a Christian local tribal leader in Mizoram who was told by God in a dream to return his people to the land of Israel and their true religion: Judaism.

They began immigrating to Israel in the late 1980s with the help of Israeli Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail and his organization Amishav, undergoing formal conversions upon arrival. The immigration process was handed over to the Israeli nonprofit Shavei Israel in 2004, headed by Michael Freund, a former advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Both Avichail and Shavei Israel have faced intense criticism and accusations of right-wing political motives from the Israeli left, as new Bnei Menashe immigrants moved to West Bank settlements upon arrival — particularly Kiryat Arba, which today hosts a community of about 700 Bnei Menashe Jews.

A group of 102 Bnei Menashe who just completed the absorption process in Kfar Hasidim, May 2017. (Photo credit: Yehuda Schwartz/Shavei Israel)
A group of 102 Bnei Menashe who just completed the absorption process in Kfar Hasidim, May 2017. (Photo credit: Yehuda Schwartz/Shavei Israel)

Shavei Israel halted that practice over a decade ago following the criticism, but some still move to settlements upon arrival to Israel to be with their families who already live there. Many have also settled in other towns within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

Their settlement in the West Bank and on the border with Gaza has been less a product of political motivation than of convenience and accessibility, said Gideon Elazar, an anthropologist at Bar-Ilan University who researches the Bnei Menashe and other “lost tribes.”

“These were the communities that would accept them,” he said.

New Bnei Menashe immigrants have experienced difficulty learning Hebrew, finding profitable work and assimilating into Israeli society. Some experience discrimination and racism. Last year, Yoel Lhunghal, an 18-year-old Bnei Menashe Jew who had immigrated just a year earlier, was murdered in northern Israel. Though police found no evidence of a racial motive behind the attack, his father believes Yoel was “a victim of racism.”

The case of Lhungdim’s Sderot community is a slightly different story. The 120-family-strong community moved there on their own accord, Lhungdim said. Some came from other areas such as Carmel and Kiryat Arba — both towns where Lhungdim lived before coming to Sderot — and some directly upon arriving from India to join their families. Affordability was a major factor, as costs were lower due to Sderot’s location on the Gaza border. The area also offers work that corresponds with the Bnei Menashe community’s skills, such as fruit and vegetable packing.

A girl belonging to the Bnei Menashe Jewish community arrives at Ben Gurion airport in 2017. (Laura Ben-David)
A girl belonging to the Bnei Menashe Jewish community arrives at Ben Gurion airport in 2017. (Laura Ben-David)

“We want to strengthen Israel, that’s why we go to live in Sderot. And I’m proud to be from Sderot,” Lhungdim told JTA. “As a convert Jew, I would have been ready to sacrifice my life to the Jewish nation.”

Like other Israelis in towns near Gaza who survived the October 7 attacks, the entire Bnei Menashe community in Sderot was relocated to hotels in Jerusalem. The more than 100 families staying there have kept busy by continuing religious education, praying at the Western Wall and enjoying free admission to local museums. Many had never before enjoyed stays at four-star hotels or had the opportunity to spend much time exploring Jerusalem.

But they are still eager to get back to their hometown. Guite and other community members have been making day trips to the south to tend to vegetable fields that have been left abandoned since the evacuation.

“The government is doing so much for us, and of course, we are only too happy to contribute and give something to Israel in forms of service,” Guite said.

Over 100 Bnei Menashe have taken shelter in a synagogue in Mizoram amid sectarian violence. (Shavei Israel via JTA)
Over 100 Bnei Menashe have taken shelter in a synagogue in Mizoram amid sectarian violence. (Shavei Israel via JTA)

The other war in India

Bnei Menashe Jews are now facing war and displacement on two fronts: within Israel, and in Manipur, where an ethnic conflict has been raging for nearly eight months.

There, hundreds of Bnei Menashe Jews are rebuilding their lives in the midst of an ethnic conflict that began in May and has no end in sight. Human rights groups say the ethnic Kukis — the group to which the Bnei Menashe belong — have been targeted by the majority Meiteis in what some have called an “ethnic cleansing.” Many Kukis have been forced out of their local valley, which is now mostly occupied by the Meiteis, to the hills, which have become Kuki territory.

Homes and businesses set on fire in the state of Manipur in northeast India, after clashes erupt between ethnic and religious communities, May 3, 2023. (Twitter video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Homes and businesses set on fire in the state of Manipur in northeast India, after clashes erupt between ethnic and religious communities, May 3, 2023. (Twitter video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Others have moved to the neighboring Mizoram state, where other Bnei Menashe Jews live.

Unlike in Israel, the hundreds of displaced community members in northeast India have no hope of returning home, as new informal territorial borders based on ethnicity have become the norm. Many are living in newly built houses with vegetable plots on a picturesque 200-acre piece of land donated by community leader Lalam Hangshing. It has been named “Maoz Tzur,” and Degel Menashe, which advocates for the community, proudly refers to it as India’s first kibbutz.

These Jews have dreamed of immigrating to Israel for more than two decades. Thangjom called the war a “setback” to the process and will lengthen the timeline before the next slate of immigration, but conversations with the government are continuing, he said.

The war in Israel also impacted the amount of aid that Degel Menashe has been able to provide to Bnei Menashe refugees in India, as international Jewish organizations pour money into Israel.

“Since the war started in Israel, I don’t know if I’ll be able to give the same amount of help. But we are approaching our donors,” Thangjom said.

Displaced by ethnic violence, India’s Bnei Menashe Jews construct sukkahs nonetheless

JTA header - Displaced by ethnic violence, India’s Bnei Menashe Jews construct sukkahs nonetheless
A member of the Bnei Menashe community in northeastern India works to construct a temporary structure used in celebrating Sukkot. (Courtesy Shavei Israel)
A member of the Bnei Menashe community in northeastern India works to construct a temporary structure used in celebrating Sukkot. (Courtesy Shavei Israel)

The temporary shelters that Jews erect during the holiday of Sukkot are meant in part to recall a time when Jews had nowhere permanent to live. In Northeast India, that symbolism is heavy with additional meaning this year.

That’s because large numbers of Bnei Menashe, the Jewish community that lives there, have fled their homes in the state of Manipur since ethnic unrest broke out in early May.

According to the Israeli organization Shavei Israel, about 2,000 people from the Jewish community have been displaced. A different nonprofit that works with the community, Degel Menashe, cites a smaller number, 700.

But either way, the community has been ravaged, with three locations that have been home to large numbers of Bnei Menashe decimated in the violence. Synagogues and homes have burned to the ground, and the number of displaced people has only grown with time.

Now, as the conflict enters its sixth month, what many believed would be temporary displacements in the Manipur hills or the neighboring state of Mizoram are becoming permanent.

“Despite these challenging times for the Bnei Menashe and even in the farthest reaches of northeastern India, they have continued to uphold the ancient tradition of building Sukkot in honor of the festival,” said Michael Freund, chairman and founder of Shavei Israel, which helps “lost tribe” communities return to Israel.

Shavei Israel distributed pictures showing members of the community constructing sukkahs out of bamboo. Their efforts come as their own safety in their areas where they live is in question — or already compromised.

“[For] the Bnei Menashe and the rest of the people who have left Imphal, I don’t think there is any chance of them returning back because there is no security,” said Isaac Thangjom, the Israel-based director of Degel Menashe, which assists Bnei Menashe communities in Israel and India, referring to Manipur’s capital city. “If you ask me honestly, the separation is complete.”

The Bnei Menashe identify as descendants of a “lost tribe” group, tracing their origins to the Israelite tribe of Menasseh. In 2005, a chief rabbi of Israel affirmed their identity as a “lost tribe” group with historic Jewish ties, but researchers have not found sufficient evidence to back the claim. Bnei Menashe Jews began immigrating to Israel in the 1990s, and because of their “lost tribe” status, they all undergo formal Orthodox conversions upon arrival. Around 5,000 remain in the states of Manipur and Mizoram today, and about 5,000 have already immigrated to Israel.

Many have struggled to gain entry into Israel over the past two decades, and they are now asking the Jewish state to expedite the immigration process to help them escape the violence.

Israeli authorities have yet to comment publicly about the situation and did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Israel has recently been seeking to advance its relations with India.

Conflict erupted in May when tribal groups in Manipur launched a protest against the ethnic majority Meitei’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status, which is traditionally reserved for minority tribes. The Bnei Menashe Jews belong to the minority Kuki tribe.

The Kukis (about 16% of the population and majority Christian) say the Meiteis (53% and majority Hindu) already have outsized privilege and political representation in Manipur.

A destroyed house is seen in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur following the clashes between Meiteis and Kukis, Aug. 11, 2023. (Biplov Bhuyan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A destroyed house is seen in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur following the clashes between Meiteis and Kukis, Aug. 11, 2023. (Biplov Bhuyan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

According to local reports, unofficial “but very real” borders have been drawn between what have become Kuki and Meitei areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been criticized for failing to control the situation. In August, opposition lawmakers called for a no-confidence vote over Modi’s handling of the situation, but it was easily defeated.

Some 190 people have died in the conflict since May, according to local media, including at least one Bnei Menashe community member. Over 60,000 are displaced.

Several other Bnei Menashe Jews are hospitalized with injuries, according to Shavei Israel.

In the face of displacement, the Bnei Menashe Jews have remained religiously observant, even as some fled with nothing more than their prayer books and the clothes on their backs, a Mizoram Jewish community member told JTA in June.

“It was so sudden,” said Ariella Haokip, a Bnei Menashe community member taking shelter in Thingdawl, Mizoram. “Funds were sent to us to buy special items for Rosh Hashanah and now for Sukkot. In spite of our misery, it is comforting to think that we are remembered.”

Some are currently staying at government shelters, others at schools and homes of other community members, or rented homes paid for by nonprofit groups. In Thingdawl, Mizoram, one young member has begun organizing Hebrew classes for displaced members, said Thangjom.

Members of India’s Bnei Menashe community pose outside a structure under construction as a semi-permanent dwelling for nine families displaced by ethnic violence in the Manipur region of India. (Courtesy Degel Menashe)
Members of India’s Bnei Menashe community pose outside a structure under construction as a semi-permanent dwelling for nine families displaced by ethnic violence in the Manipur region of India. (Courtesy Degel Menashe)

Both Shavei Israel and Degel Menashe have been working since May to provide continued support to the Bnei Menashe Jews through donations of food, mattresses, mosquito nets, infant formula, medicines and other necessities. Both organizations have arranged shelters for displaced families. Additional financial support has poured in from Jewish and Christian organizations in the United States and Israel.

For some, the High Holiday season also represents a new beginning, as Degel Menashe races to construct homes for several Bnei Menashe families. Lalam Hangshing, chairman of the Bnei Menashe Council-India, donated a piece of land of about 200 acres in Churachandpur on which nine homes are being constructed.

“It was hoped that it could be ready by Rosh Hashanah but there were some unforeseen delays and challenges,” said Thangjom. “Each family will be allotted a piece of land to grow or raise something of their choice so that it can be a source of livelihood for them.”

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https://www.jta.org/2023/10/02/global/displaced-by-ethnic-violence-indias-bnei-menashe-jews-construct-sukkahs-nonetheless