Tourism in the footsteps of the Ten Lost Tribes

Here is the final Bnei Menashe feature that ran Friday in The Jerusalem Post Magazine section, summing up my trip to North East India:

How did a few thousand exiled Jews from ancient Judea and Samaria traverse on foot across the entire Middle East, Europe and Asia to end up 2,700 years later in isolated border regions and backwater villages dotted around the globe from northeast India to Nigeria? How long did it take them to make the arduous journey, and what were their disparate routes? Did they stick together through thick and thin, or did they split up, succumbing to the merciless weight of exile in foreign lands? How many of them dropped off along the way, perished or settled down and assimilated with the local tribes across the oceans, mountains and deserts?

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Jews lost and found, in India

Dotted across villages on the slopes of mountains that make up the lower Himalayan ranges in northeast India, thousands of Indians are adopting and practicing Jewish traditions in the hope of one day officially converting to Judaism and immigrating to Israel. In the states of Mizoram, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland along the Burmese border, these Jews-in-waiting form a community that has come to be known as the Bnei Menashe - alleged descendants of the lost tribe of Manasseh that was exiled along with nine other Israelite tribes from Samaria when it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.

Some 2,700 years later, the descendants of the tribe of Manasseh spend their weekends in dozens of synagogues, community centers and ritual baths in this remote region, thousands of miles away from present-day Samaria. Many of them pray three times a day, and there are children among them who can recite psalms and other prayers by heart.

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The Bnei Menashe could benefit from some secular influence

AIZAWL, Mizoram - The northern approach to the Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram state, is deeply deceptive. Driving in from the north just after sunset, we're hit by what seems like a city with no electricity - none of the houses have lights on and there are no street lamps. With no life on the streets, it feels like we're headed into a dark, doomed city, a city under lockdown where even the lights inside your home is off lest you be found out.

When it's dark in a city and the lights in the homes are out, you think people don't live there. Even Silchar, with its pandemonium and filth, still had a sense of life, light and sound.

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Coloring the Bnei Menashe in orange?

KOLASIB, AND SHIFIR, Mizoram - We drive north to south through the Chin mountains into Mizoram. We're climbing along a ridge road which naturally winds from left to right in wide arcs, so every few minutes we can see the view from the right side of the mountain into the valleys below, and then the same from the left side. Even this far up the terrain looks tropical - lush jungles, this is because of the monsoons which bring over 2,000mm of rain annually [Israel has something like 300mm]. We're headed into Kolasib district, northern sector of Mizoram. And we're headed to Aizwol, the largest city in the state. Mizoram is roughly the size of Israel: 21,000 km squared in length, and it has small pockets of confused Jews. That's where the comparison ends.

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Benny the editor

CHURACHANDAPUR, Manipur - This dusty, smoky and dark town is much smaller and quieter than Imphal, the capital of the North Eastern Indian state of Manipur, but it has a jewel in its crown  - a colorful monthly magazine called Cholla, Hindi for 'get a move on' [identical to the Arab 'yalla']. The magazine is bilingual - English and Hindi, and features stories and informative articles about life in Manipur and the region, news about the Kuki tribal people, international news, sports, entertainment and a personals section called Heart To Heart [with a logo of cupid's arrow through a heart]. It also features stories and news about the Bnei Menashe communities in Manipur, especially when someone is given permission to make aliyah. And it's all run single-handedly by a Bnei Menashe Judaism-practicing Kuki called Bennny Khongsai.

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Danger and beauty

IMPHAL, Manipur - We leave Churachandupur and head towards the airport for our flight to Assam province, due west. We're not going to spend any real time in Assam or meet any of the Bnei Menashe there, but the road we were going to take to Mizoram for the next leg of our journey has been closed by the authorities, so we have to fly to Assam and then drive to Mizoram through a mountain range. The whole North East region is seeing sporadic violence between assorted militants and the security forces, who are on high alert everywhere. Leave it to Israelis to trek their way through a war zone. Last night two drivers from the Manipur irrigation and flood control department were found dead on the outskirts of Imphal.

Tourists and activists

Shavei Israel Beit Shalom, Churachandapur - Shabbat morning prayers last over two-and-a-half hours, and the sounds are reminiscent of home. The prayer books used by the Bnei Menashe are written in English, but the words are in Hebrew. Most of them can't read Hebrew, and they don't know the meaning of the words they're praying. 

Hundreds of Bnei Menashe from Churachandapur's four Judaism-practicing communities pile into the Beit Shalom for a night of song and dance. They've worked on this event for weeks, and it really is one of the centerpieces of our trip. Mosh says he's gotten to know the four communities during his preparatory trip, and their internal politics leave him with no doubt that "they are Jewish."

'We are the descendants of Menashe, we are Jewish; we need to get to Israel, the land of our forefathers, immediately. Help us.'

CHURACHANDAPUR, Manipur - Friday morning we get up at 05:30! We leave Imphal with a tfilat haderech [prayer for the traveler] and a parasha about the life of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Amen. Yishar Koach. I didn't know that the first piece of real-estate the Jews bought in Canaan was a piece of land that Abraham bought so that he could bury Sarah. The first piece of land in Eretz Israel was a grave.

As we head out of Imphal we drive past an army base. On the base's entrance is a large sign: Prove your identity. I love the English here. The group is getting more disciplined with every passing day [I'm grudgingly becoming more disciplined too]. We are told to get up at 05:30, so we're up at 05:30. Shacharit [morning prayer] is at 06:00 [I do yoga]. By 6:30 the bags need to be packed and outside our hotel room doors. Breakfast is between 6:30 and 7:30, and in this time we also need to make sandwiches for lunch. For breakfast we have omelettes, salad, tuna, cereal and banana shake. This group is so disciplined that we're even shaving time off - everyone is ready to go before 07:30, and Mosh is happy.

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Soldiers, militants and insurgents

LOKTAK LAKE, Manipur - We head to a huge lake called Loktak [Lok is lake in Indian so it's actually Lake Tak]. The lake is huge, some 25 km long and 20 km wide. During WW2 Japanese forces swarmed into Manipur from this direction.

This expedition is not all about meeting with Bnei Menashe, it is also going to interesting places that most regular tourists have never been to are not on the tourist map. This is something that Mosh from Shai Bar Ilan tours has done for a living for decades, pioneering routes for Israeli travelers to places that were closed to them. Mosh has gone into every corner of this world to seek out adventures and learning opportunities for Israeli tourists. The Geographical Company he worked for first took Israelis to Eastern Europe when the Iron Curtain fell, and he's also taken Israelis to Yemen, Tunisia and Morocco, as well as further afield in places like China. I think he's one of those people you meet in life that you think to yourself, 'wow, this person has an interesting job'.

Internalizing the meaning of this expedition to meet a lost tribe

SAJAL, MANIPUR - Another Shavei Israel Beit Shalom visit, this time in Sajal, Sadar Hills, Manipur. As usual, dozens of people wait outside to greet us, and as we disembark our group starts to sing: Hevenu Shalom Aleichem [We bring peace upon you]. My group is so cute: everything we give the Bnei Menashe "is from Israel": balloons "from Israel," chocolates "from Israel," embroidery with passages from the Tanach "from Israel."

Once inside the Beit Shalom synagogue, the usual routine takes over and everyone sings and dances, men at the front and women behind the mehitza [separation]. Even though we've done this a few times now, instead of getting tired of the routine, the group seems to be absorbing more information, and the contact with the Bnei Menashe becomes more informed, more intimate. I'm seeing more and more of our group taking longer talks with the Bnei Menashe, talking to them from a base of deeper understanding. I'm not surprised at this, as you cannot help but learn on this trip.