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Tuesday Nov 25, 2008
Ten Lost Tribes Challenge - India: Tourists and activists
Posted by Amir Mizroch
    
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." Before the MC can kick things off, several of the guys try for about 15 minutes to stop the speaker system from crackling and buzzing. It's really amateur hour and I like that because it means they have not yet made it a habit to entertain people and haven't turned their story into an industry, yet. In fact the whole evening is characterized by electricity outages, microphone failure, dance missteps, and a whole host of other things that get a huge cheer from the crowd once they're fixed. I'm reminded of what Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund told me before I left on the expedition: "I don't like the idea of the Bnei Menashe becoming like exhibits in a museum". Actually, sometimes it felt like the tables were switched. The Bnei Menashe take as many pictures of us [and with us] as we take of them. This is an exciting and meaningful visit for them just as it is for us, even more so for them, I would venture. We go back to Israel and carry on with our lives. They see us leave and go back to their uncertainty and limbo. The cultural dancing kicks off with twenty Bnei Menashe dressed in Kuki costume of long shawls with talit-like stripes and feathers tied to their hair. They start off moving slowly in a semi-circle which gradually converges to form a closed circle. Easy enough interpretation. Next is a group of youngsters performing a bamboo stick dance, which they pull off quite nicely until one of the boys missteps. Bamboo dances are all about getting into and staying in a set rhythm, so when one person breaks that patters, the others are invariably going to falter too, like dominoes. Which I guess is also a possible interpretation of the dance they were doing for us. Next a little boy is presented on stage and he begins reciting, by heart, several prayers and liturgies. The boy rattles them off like a machine gun, and it lasts for at least ten minutes. He must have practiced this for months. I've never seen twenty Jewish jaws drop simultaneously, but that's pretty much what happened. "This kid is amazing," and "I can't even do that," and "I don't know anybody who can do that" and "no child in Israel can do that," and so forth. When the child finally stopped, a huge cheer went up from the crowd, and three people from the group burst from their seats and showered the kid with kisses and gifts. Next comes a dance called 'Aliya' and it is performed by a group of 10 dancers to the music of, would you believe, the Bnei Menashe's own 'Menashe Neshama Ensemble. Yes, the Bnei Menashe have their own 5-piece band. The band's musical director, by the way, is also the Mohel for the Manipur communities. They even have a disc out called 'Aliya, Aliya', produced and distributed by Shavei Israel. Maybe they have started an industry about their story after all. I wonder, wouldn't it be interesting if their album were instead called: 'Setting down Jewish roots in India', or 'Patiently learning to become Jews', or 'Help us open an ulpan in Manipur', or something along those lines. Why does it have to be aliyah all the time? Why are they pushing aliya down everyone's throats? They're constantly reminding our group that they must make aliya immediately. I've written about this before, but every time I hear them say 'aliyah' it gets me thinking what's the rush, why are they so desperate to leave here and move to Israel? Even though I'm painting a harsh picture of life in these parts, the truth is that the Judaism-practicing Bnei Menashe we've met here are not destitute, oppressed or under the sword. And when we tell them about the day-to-day life problems in Israel, they can't understand what we're talking about. When we tell them that many of the Bnei Menashe in Israel are security guards, manual laborers and cleaners, they don't like hearing it - as if it is an unpleasant surprise. It seems they are conditioned to think of Israel as a paradise. When you ask them about Israel, they say things like "Land of our forefathers," and "I love Israel." They don't know anything about Israel. Some of them know that there is fighting with the Palestinians, the Muslims. One of them tells me that when he gets to Israel he would fight the Palestinians, "because of religion." It's time for gifts again, and our men are presented with knitted kippot [mine is purple again] and the women are given headscarves. A little piece of paper is stapled to the kippot which reads: "Zion Synagogue, Sijari Community, Jews Colony". During another tribal dance, the lights go out and the whole compound is plunged into darkness. I'm sitting down on a bench taking down notes, and even before I know it, a young Bnei Menashe man, who sees me writing in the dark, shines the light from his cell phone above my shoulder and onto my notepad. He stays with me for a moment or two until the lights go back up. Here's an interesting, yet not unexpected development: Mosh gets up on stage and announces that our group is donating 55,000 rupees [US $1000] for Shavei Israel education projects in this area. At the Beit Shalom in Kohima, everyone in our group [except me] donated ten dollars. Behind the scenes, there were several in our group that wanted to donate for different things, but it was agreed to put the money together into a tidy sum. It's a nice gesture from our group, but the cynic in me is out again: this is not pure and simple tourism here - we're donating money to the advancement of this cause, to build tiles in the synagogues, to buy more prayer books etc. We are, at one and the same time, tourists and activists. The longer we stay with the Bnei Menashe, the closer we get to them. The girls at the Beit Shalom in Churachandapur have now become "our girls". When they dance for us, our group goes wild. Many in our group are grandparents so they especially connect with the little ones. And of all the little ones, seven-year-old Naomi, the sprightly, scruffy, and energetic girl, is the most loveable of all. She's already been adopted by at least 3 of the women here. When we left on Sunday morning, little Naomi, who had been smiling, laughing, posing for pictures, hugging and climbing on top of us, and falling asleep on our shoulders, was totally morose. She was too sad to cry, like some of the older girls, and we were sad to let her go, especially Nava and Yaffa. Saturday night's ceremony ends with the Bnei Menashe anthem [which lays out their central message: we are descendants of the tribe of Menashe and we yearn to return to Zion], and the Israeli national anthem. In the south-east corner of north-east India, 20 Israelis, one American, and 300 Kuki Bnei Menashe sing Hatikva. Afterwards, a group of teenage boys gathers around the electric guitar and one of them starts playing. I move over and ask for the guitar. He gives it to me and I start the intro to Metallica's 'Nothing else matters.' I'm not so good at it, and he takes the guitar and says, "Here I'll show you." He plays it like a professional, and the guys and I start singing my generation's anthem, which seems to me appropriate for the Bnei Menashe: "So close, no matter how far Trust I seek, and I find in you Layla Tov. Amir Mizroch is the News Editor at The Jerusalem Post, a writer and an award-winning blogger. For all of Amir's blogs and articles, visit his personal blog Forecast Highs. PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
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