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Archive for November, 2008

Bnei Menashe for everyone

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on November 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

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 [...]

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Bnei Menashe paradoxes

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

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 [...]

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Benny the extremely busy editor

Posted in Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

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 [...]

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Danger and beauty

Posted in Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

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 [...]

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Nothing else matters

Posted in Sderot, Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

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. [...]

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It’s not a vacation, it’s an expedition

Posted in Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

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 [...]

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Deadly duel on floating islands

Posted in Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

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 [...]

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Chocolates from Israel

Posted in Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

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 [...]

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A Beit Shalom Ghetto?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

KANGPOPKI, Manipur – We visit the Beit Shalom Synagogue set up by the Shavei Israel organization at the Bnei Menashe compound in Kangpopki. As our bus pulls up to the top of the street dozens of kippa-wearing Bnei Menashe come out to greet us. Our group gets off the bus and a big celebration starts [...]

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So, how is Ariel Sharon?

Posted in Uncategorized on November 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

IMPHAL, Manipur – This city’s entrance looks like a shanty town, and the rest of the city is not much better. There are heaps of garbage on most street corners which can’t be burned fast enough before they’re refilled. We are the only tourists here, and the locals make us aware of that; I don’t [...]

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Stories from the bus

Posted in Uncategorized on November 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

From Nagaland we head south into the state of Manipur, bordered on the east by Burma. We enter Manipur at the Mao border crossing. It takes about 3 hours to drive 25km on these roads, which are incredibly bumpy and windy. We’re heading towards Imphal, the capital of Manipur state. Manipur is crossed by a [...]

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The plot thickens

Posted in Uncategorized on November 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Until 100 years ago the Bnei Menashe, like other peoples in the North East of India were animists, i.e. they believed that nature and animals had spiritual qualities. They practiced their own ancient religions and had their own time-honored customs, including ritual sacrifice. At the end of the 19th Century Christian missionaries got to them, [...]

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Under my purple shawl

Posted in Uncategorized on November 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »

This is going to be a very personal blog post.
KOHIMA, Nagaland – As the ceremony at Ben Hur’s home was winding down and the last songs were sung, Eyal the guide suggested we should all sing Hatikva. The group didn’t need much convincing and we all turned to the right, to what Ben [...]

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So how many Bnei Menashe are there?

Posted in Uncategorized on November 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

So much has happened today, both for me personally and for the group. A lot of new information has come my way, and with it many more questions. For instance, experts back home in Israel say there are about 7,200 Bnei Menashe in Nagaland and that the vast majority of them want to convert to [...]

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Ben Hur loves Zion

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on November 19, 2008 | 4 Comments »

KOHIMA, Nagaland – Today we went to visit Ben Hur Kaoki, a Bnei Menashe man who is one of the most important figures in the community here in Kohima. The dilemmas and challenges that arose from this visit I wrote about in my previous entry.
Ben Hur is an interesting character. He wears a [...]

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Deeper into India

Posted in Uncategorized on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

KOHIMA – We board “the best bus we could find” in Dimapur and take the long winding road up the mountain range towards the Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. This is a fascinating and beautiful part of North East India. It is here that British and Indian forces stopped the advancing Japanese army in 1944. [...]

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First meeting with Bnei Menashe

Posted in Uncategorized on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

DIMAPUR – Our group has now flown from Israel to Amman, from Amman to Delhi, from Delhi to Calcutta, and from Calcutta to Dimapur, the commercial capital of Nagaland in the North East.
I have to say that for a group of twenty middle aged and older religious folks I’m amazed at the energy and [...]

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Indian Airports

Posted in Uncategorized on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Delhi airport has been overrun by paramilitary forces. Oh wait, no, these soldiers actually work here. I’m used to seeing civilians working at airports worldwide, with police and army units providing security. Well, at Indian airports, the soldiers do everything. There are soldiers printing out your boarding pass, other soldiers checking your boarding pass, still [...]

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Some thoughts from Jordan

Posted in Uncategorized on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Due to a maddening airport worker’s strike, we were delayed at Ben Gurion Airport for three hours before our flight to Amman, Jordan.
Some observations about Jordan:
For me it was the first time flying out of Amman, and seeing where else Royal Jordanian can take you in the Middle East was a tantalizing, yet ultimately [...]

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May I have your attention please

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on November 16, 2008 | 2 Comments »

May I have your attention please.
The airport management regrets to inform you that due to workers’ sanctions there is a delay in all departures until further notice. The management regrets the inconvenience to passengers and extends its apologizes [sic] to all passengers.
May I have your attention please
The airport management regrets to inform you [...]

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