Bnei Menashe

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Dor Shabashewitz

Apr 30, 2025, 5:30 PM

Chapchar Kut, the spring festival of the Bnei Menashe

Bnei Menashe community members singing in Mizo at Chapchar Kut in Kiryat Arba (Photo: Dor Shabashewitz)

Chapchar Kut, the spring festival of the Mizo people, is little known outside Northeast India where most Mizos live. Perhaps surprisingly to some, it is also celebrated in Israel. This year, my wife Ana and I had the privilege...

Laura Ben-David

Oct 9, 2024, 10:13 PM

A Soldier’s Sacrifice, A Family Reunited

[Laura Ben-David]

A few weeks ago, Gideon Hanghal z"l, an IDF soldier from the Bnei Menashe community, was brutally murdered in a terrorist attack. He was the first Bnei Menashe soldier to die in the line of duty. As someone who has...

Laura Ben-David

Sep 13, 2024, 4:09 PM

From Manipur to Israel: A Bnei Menashe immigrant pays the highest price

First Sgt. Gideon Hanghal was killed in the line of duty, which should remind the Jewish state to bring his community home now (PHOTO ESSAY)

Tsion Hangshing

Oct 19, 2022, 11:00 AM

Addressing the racism that exists towards the Bnei Menashe community.

On October 7, Yoel Lhanghal z”l a new Bnei Menashe immigrant was stabbed to death after being called “CHINA CHINA” and ridiculed while he was at a birthday party in Kiryat Shmona. A similar assault took place in Tiberia...

Laura Ben-David

Oct 14, 2021, 6:33 AM

PHOTO ESSAY: The long overdue aliyah of the Bnei Menashe

(courtesy)

It took 27 centuries, but now what a privilege to witness this incredible parade of smiling, happy, flag-waving people at Ben Gurion airport, as if in a dream

Dec 17, 2020, 8:54 PM

Indian Jews from the Lost Tribe of Menashe Land in Israel

Photo credit: Israel365.com

Two hundred and fifty-two members of India's North Eastern Bnei Menashe community have immigrated to Israel. The immigrants landed in Israel on Tuesday, the 15th, at the Ben Gurion airport. The latest batch of immigrants includes 50 families, 24...

Sep 3, 2020, 4:28 PM

My mother downplayed her Indian Jewish heritage. Now, I’m reclaiming it.

The author in Mumbai (Courtesy)

It was only in Mumbai, when I was standing in front of the synagogue my grandparents had been married in, that I felt a sense of belonging

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Dec 31, 2019, 7:19 PM

The return of the lost tribes

After the jealousy and deceit that we read about over the last few weeks, in Parshat Vayigash, all of Yaakov’s children are reunited. Yosef reveals who he is and does not hold a grudge against his brothers for how...

Laura Ben-David

Nov 23, 2017, 2:54 PM

PHOTO ESSAY: A different aliyah arrival

A girl of the Bnei Menashe arrives at Ben Gurion airport. (Laura Ben-David)

4 flights, many bus rides, an overnight stay in New Delhi, yet the Bnei Menashe sing their way through the airport

Anoop Kumar Gupta

Jul 3, 2017, 1:06 PM

Cultural Connect between India and Israel and its implications

India-Israel cultural connect is much older than their official diplomatic relations. Diplomatic ties between the two states are just 25 years old but cultural bond between the two people are much deeper and stronger. Politico-strategically speaking, India and Israel...

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