Forecast Highs

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?

How many of these wandering Jews kept their faith and traditions, and how many had to negotiate away, in order to survive amongst pagan and barbaric tribes, some of their Judaism, and in return adopt the worship of other Gods? Is it true that there are many cultures in the world that have some Jewish blood in them, and that the DNA of our ancient forefathers can now be found in tribes that have absolutely no connection to Jews and Israel at all? Why do some people in India and Japan circumcise their newborn babies on the eighth day, while still others immerse themselves in ritual baths? Could it be that some descendants of the ancient Israelite tribe of Ephraim are now Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists hatching the destruction of the modern State of Israel within caves along the Afghanistan – Pakistan border?

What happened to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel after their exile, can we retrace their steps, and once we find their descendants, can we ignite their ancient Israelite souls and bring them all back, so that the Jewish nation can be reunited again? Should we even try?

These and so many more questions form the fascinating penultimate chapter of the Ten Lost Tribes of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, who were exiled from Samaria when ancient Israel split up after the reign of Solomon [10th century BCE] and was conquered, in the north by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.

This ancient story, spanning eons and continents, is one of humankind’s most fascinating anthropological phenomena, one of the few mysteries that have throughout the centuries caught the imagination of adventurers, philosophers, scholars, holy men – and now, for the first time, tourists.

The final chapter of the story, according to some, is the discovery and return of the Ten Lost Tribes to their ancient homeland, present day Israel. The exile and assimilation of the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Menashe, Issachar, Zevulun, Joseph, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher has spawned countless myths, launched civilizations and destroyed others, and has had a formative effect on the culture, religion and history of vast numbers of people. The story also has a messianic, religious aspect, which says that one day all the descendents of the Lost Tribes will return to their ancient homeland, a gathering of the exiles, when all the Jews return to Israel. There are some who take this prophecy to a Messianic extreme, and say that once the ingathering happens, the Jews will be redeemed, the Messiah will come, a catastrophic war between good and evil will be waged, after which there will not be enough room for all the Jews between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River in Iraq.

There are many who think the whole story is a fable, and that lost Jews should remain just that. Amongst them is current Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who famously told a Jewish Agency meeting last year: “Don’t go finding me any more lost Jews”.

While there are always new discoveries being made of ‘new Lost Jews’ across the world, what is new in this complex and controversial nexus of religion, politics and mythology, is that for the first time in history, an idea has formed to launch tourism expeditions to seek out the lost tribes, to follow in their footsteps and attempt to find them, wherever they are in the world, to tell them they are not alone, and by extension, to affirm to the tourists, that they too are not alone in this world of billions of Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. The concept that there are millions of ‘lost Jews’ out there in the world - brethren, allies, saviors – has been a closely guarded dream of countless Jews scattered and surrounded in foreign lands since the Exile.

The Ten Lost Tribes Challenge was conceived in a collaborative effort by Israeli travel and adventure companies Shai Bar Ilan Tours and Eretz Ahavati.

The first such expedition set off for northeast India in mid-November 2008 to meet the descendents of the tribe of Menashe, a group of some 7,000 Kuki-Mizo Indians living in the remote states of Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Nagaland along the Burmese border. The group was made up of 18 Israelis, one American doctor from Santa Fey in New Mexico, 2 Israeli guides, and this reporter. Of the group, only the chief guide and this reporter were secular. There were six couples, mostly Modern Orthodox people in their early sixties and seventies. There was one man in his early eighties. Without exception, each one of the members of the expedition was at some point moved to tears of joy by the opportunity to participate in a unique adventure – discovering a Jewish community in a faraway land. The 12 days of the journey took the group across four Indian states, waking before dawn for morning prayers [the group averaged about 5 hours sleep a night], traveling in rickety buses on treacherous roads for hours on end, passing through countless military checkpoints in a region racked with sectarian violence, staying at modest hotels with varying degrees of services. As the group was religious, it was carrying most of its food with it; there was very little luxury; sandwiches for lunch were made during breakfasts; food was prepared by specially-trained Bnei Menashe. In short, it was not a vacation, but an expedition in every sense of the word. The members of the group took the hardships in their stride; such was the makeup of the people on the expedition. There was always song, prayer, stories from the Old Testament and Israeli history, and much cheer. In between every visit to a Bnei Menashe community there was a lot of sightseeing. While very underdeveloped, northeast India is a breathtaking mix of mountains which make up the lower Himalayas; majestic streams, dense jungles, miles upon miles of terraced rice fields; tea plantations, and even a lake of ‘floating islands’. In the cities, the usual panoply of India: extreme poverty; sacred cows, intense marketplaces, sweet smells of spice, and the putrid, overpowering stench of garbage burnt in the streets.

It is through this landscape that the expedition trekked, each destination bringing with it a new encounter with the Bnei Menashe, who greeted the group as if it were a visit of Kings and Queens. Nestled amongst the lush green jungles and hard knock villages and towns of the largely Christian northeastern states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Assam, there are currently some 7,000 ethnic Kuki and Mizo people who are counted as Judaism-practicing Bnei Menashe, many of whom are organized into tight communities with their own neighborhoods, synagogues and ritual baths. Every encounter with the Bnei Menashe is accompanied by song [Am Yisrael Chai; Ivenu Shalom Aleichem], much rejoicing, praying together, many talks and getting to know each other. Some nights are spent in modest Bnei Menashe homes singing Jewish and Kuki songs, as well as Hatikva, all under candlelight.

They all want to make aliya as soon as possible and are awaiting approval by the government of Israel to do so. In Jerusalem, the Ministry of Interior is dead-set against the mass aliya of the Bnei Menashe, preferring a quiet policy of allowing small groups of them to come to Israel on tourist visas, after which they undergo conversion. In the past, rabbis were sent to convert the Bnei Menashe in India, a practice which came to an abrupt hold when the Christians in the area cried foul, leaving the Delhi government with no choice but to kick the rabbis out and ban conversion on Indian soil.

While the day-to-day stories of the encounters between the Israeli tourists and the Bnei Menashe are too numerous to describe here [for an in-depth, daily account of the expedition visit http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/india/] the expedition was an intense experience for both the visitors and the visited. The group of tourists, led by Mosh Savir and Eyal Be’eri from Shai Bar Ilan Tours, traveled from state to state visiting Bnei Menashe community centers, praying, talking and learning with them, spending the Sabbath with them, and generally bringing them warmth and empathy for their cause. For Rabbi Yehoshua Porush from Jerusalem, the trip was a life-long affirmation, a dream come true. “I want to cry tears of joy that God gave me the opportunity to celebrate with you,” he tells a gathering of Bnei Menaseh.

“It was my dream since I was a child that I would join with the ten tribes.” And, gathering his strength through his sobs, he says, “Shechiyanu ve kiyimanu vehegiyanu la zman hazeh!”
Eyal Beeri, the expedition guide from Shai Bar Ilan tours, tells his guests: “I am from Beit El, the home of [the biblical] Benjamin [the brother of Menashe] near Jerusalem. We have a Bnei Menashe family in Beit El and I hope to see more.”

The expedition was such an unqualified success that the organizers have now set up another expedition, this time to Japan.

Touring Japan will be totally different than the rugged trek through northeast India, which is very underdeveloped. The expedition to Japan will center on places holy to the Shinto religion, and will attempt to explore how the local population links these holy sites to the religion of Abraham, Isaac and Yaakov. While there are very few people living in areas around the world that can connect oral and written traditions to ancient Israelite tribes, there are regions where lost tribes scholars point to local architecture and religious and cultural artifacts which share a mysterious link to a Jewish past.

But is this enough for an expedition that contends to follow in the footsteps of the lost tribes? So far, the tour companies believe there is, and are conducting extensive research into various regions. Other descendents and remnants of lost Jewish tribes that the creators of the Ten Lost Tribes Challenge are looking into, and that could one day form expedition routes include the Jaja and Gadi [from Gad] tribes in Afghanistan, who are now Muslim. The Muslims of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, who some believe are descendants of the Naftali tribe as well as several tribes in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan province. There are purported lost Jewish tribes in Japan, China, South America, Spain, Portugal and various parts of Africa. There are even some who believe lost Israelis tribes got as far as Jamaica. In Japan, the peoples in question are not Christian, but Shinto, and there are some researchers who believe that there are certain groups that are descendants of the Gad and Efraim tribes, as well as some also belonging to the Menashe. In Africa, research is being conducted in Uganda, Nigeria [the Ibu], Ethiopia and South Africa [the Lemba].

Ethiopia? This is a region where expeditions would enter a minefield of vested and contradictory interests. The Israeli government has all but shut down the aliya of Ethiopian Falashmura, whereas several Jewish groups in America still believe there are Jews there to bring to Israel. Next year there will be a big conference in Ethiopia with everyone connected to the Falashmura issue, and Shai Bar Ilan Tours/ Eretz Ahavati are considering including that meeting into the expedition’s itinerary.

But there is nothing that happens in this world that does not have a butterfly effect. In this case, the law of intended and unintended consequences collides between visitors to ‘lost Jews’ and those visited.

What effects did the expedition leave on the Bnei Menashe of northeast India: did it strengthen their new chosen identity as the descendants of Menashe and give them hope of aliyah? At the same time did it raise the ire amongst their impoverished and fervently Christian neighbors who now see the Bnei Menashe enclaves amongst them as a growing threat to the burgeoning Christianity of the area? By raising their profile with a visit by a foreign expedition bearing blue and white flags and balloons, gifts and promises, has the expedition created an animosity for the ‘Jewish’ communities - just like in many other places in the Diaspora?

In the dusty and poor city of Kohima, the capital of Nagaland state, for example, the Bnei Menashe have been persecuted and shut out by their fellow Kuki tribes-people, many of whom are Christians converted over a century ago by missionaries. You won’t see a Judaism-practicing Bnei Menashe man wearing a skullcap out in the open in Kohima or other cities in North East India. They’ll wear them at home or at special gatherings, and they wore them to greet the expedition when our bus arrived, but they would not wear them out in the open after we left. They’re not directly advertising their Jewish faith because most of their fellow countrymen and tribes-men in this area are fervent Christians, and the Bnei Menashe’s conversion to Judaism is seen by some here as an insult. Some families have even been ripped apart, with some members deciding to adopt Judaism, while others remain Christian. A teacher at the Logos English School [a Baptist school] in Churachandapur in Manipur state has a brother who practiced Judaism and moved to Israel. Another woman left her family near the Burmese border because her family wouldn’t accept her rejection of Christ.

Does the expedition represent the State of Israel, the Jewish People, or is it just a private venture that bears no responsibility for the consequences of its visit?

The answer is complex. The presence of the expedition in India both helps and harms the Bnei Menashe cause. When the other people of this state see a bunch of well-dressed foreign tourists with expensive hiking boots and flashy cameras walking hand-in hand with the Bnei Menashe [who are of the local Kuki tribe]; and who eat good clean food with them, and sing with them, and give them gifts, and promise to see them “next year in Jerusalem”, these other people start asking questions; they become suspicious, and they become jealous. Others want to join the party, and many have expressed interest in discovering if they themselves are also descendants of Menashe, and whether they are also Jewish and thus eligible for immigration “to the Promised Land”. In truth, nobody really knows how many Bnei Menashe there really are out here, and how many of them want to make aliyah. Shavei Israel, an organization which seeks out Jews all over the world and works to bring them to Israel, says it has drawn the line at 7,232 Bnei Menashe who it wants to bring to Israel. The longer the Israeli government blocks their aliya, the larger that number will get, through natural growth and local inertia, says Shavei Israel chairman and Jerusalem Post columnist Michael Freund. Local Bnei Menashe leaders, however, admit that there is a constant stream of new ‘Jewish-practicing’ Bnei Menashe joining the fold. Some say there are up to 30,000 Kuki-Mizos who consider themselves Bnei Menashe.

The expedition focused on the organized Shavei Israel communities.

The Bnei Menashe community centers in northeast India under the purview Shavei Israel all have synagogues that are called Beit Shaloms. Without fail, each Bnei Menashe community center is surrounded by churches, some even right next door. In Nagaland, for instance, where 95% of the inhabitants are Christians, be they Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals and, increasingly, Evangelicals [and some Muslims here and there], the tiny Judaism-practicing Bnei Menashe communities are surrounded by a very active Christian life. There is a Church on almost every street; many clinics, schools and other institutions bear the name St. Mary, or St. John or any other saint. Religion here, as in many other places, is used as a counterbalance to the hardships of life. Most people here live incredibly poor lives by Western standards, with life expectancy in the mid-forties; running water and electricity is not widespread; sanitation is a relative concept, and you can buy dog meat from hawkers sitting on the dirt right near main roads in most towns.

Electricity is erratic at best in the big cities, almost non-existent in the villages, where most people are subsistence farmers. In the cities, finding a job is not always easy, and you have to jump through hoops if you don’t have the right connections. University graduates drive taxis, and opportunities for a better life rarely present themselves here. So when the chance to move somewhere better arises, can you really blame someone for trying to take it? And can you really blame someone for asking for help from visitors he thinks can help him get out of a bad place and to a better one?

Most of the Bnei Menashe we met, from Kohima in Nagaland to Churachandapur in Manipur, said it quite plainly: “help us fulfill our wish to move back to our homeland, to Israel. Don’t let us die here.” An advisor to the Kuki welfare committee that I met in Kohima was even more forthright in addressing our group: “Now that you have discovered your lost brethren, what are you going to do about it? When you get back to Israel, what are you going to do about your lost brothers and sisters now that you’ve found them? When you go back to Israel find out what you need to do. Everyone here wants to know. And take with you our love and best wishes.”

For Shai Bar Ilan Tours/ Eretz Ahavati the motivation behind the expeditions is humanistic, curiosity, and pure unique tourism. There is no hidden agenda or messianic mission behind the idea, representatives of the companies say. They want to take curious people into this wonderful story of the lost tribes, to walk in the footsteps of ancient brethren, and to meet their possible descendants. But there is no denying that these expeditions will have an effect, and thus form a chapter in the story. “We’re not going with the intention of bringing people to Israel, nor are we going there to tamper with the relations between people of different faiths,” says Mosh Savir from Shai Bar Ilan Tours and the chief guide on the trip to India. “I take responsibility for shedding light in the most serious and respectful way on my main mission, which is the discovery of the phenomenon of the Ten Lost Tribes. I approach it with the utmost respect and responsibility, on the organizational and intellectual levels, with as little judgment as possible, and to allow people the very human opportunity to experience something special surrounding a very unique phenomenon,” Savir, adds.

During a Shabbat oneg in Churachandapur, the expedition sat down and discussed the main issue created by their presence in India: what is their role in this story? Some wanted to help in the absorption of Bnei Menashe in Israel; others wanted to spread their story in Israel and help lobby the government to approve their aliya; others wanted to bring more Jewish learning to this part of India, as well as support the Bnei Menashe financially [some money was donated by the group, and religious material was distributed by a small number of expedition members]. Others thought that this was not the purpose of their visit here – that they had come merely as tourists, not as messengers, emissaries or messiahs.

“We are here just to learn and encourage, and go home,” one of them said.

Regardless of their level of participation and involvement, everyone on the expedition came back to Israel with a much deeper understanding of the Bnei Menashe issue, as well as questions as to his or her part in the story to follow. Do they spread their knowledge amongst their friends and raise awareness in Israel of the Bnei Menashe story or do they file it away as a personal experience? And if they do share their stories with others, will there be more people wanting to undertake the same expedition? Do they actively lobby members of Knesset to do what they can to advance the cause of Bnei Menashe aliya, or do they sit back and let things develop on their own? Do they offer to adopt Bnei Menashe families?

Will this become and industry? If the Bnei Menashe, and other ‘lost’ Jewish communities worldwide are regularly visited by Israeli, Jewish, Christian and other tourist groups, will they develop their own internal industry to meet the demand?

Should the expedition be repeated? And what’s to say that if Shai Bar Ilan Tours and Eretz Ahavati decide not to repeat their first expedition that others won’t do it of their own volition? There is a danger here that dozens of expeditions will take off for northeast India and other places without proper preparation [and without close consultation with the communities themselves]. The expedition to the Bnei Menashe had two preparatory meetings before it set out to India, with lectures by experts on the Bnei Menashe and the lost tribes. The group was given in-depth briefings about the nature of the region they were going to travel through. And once in India, the group used trusted, professional guides who were sensitive to the nature of the expedition.

The expedition was a powerful experience, both for the Israelis and the Bnei Menashe. Up until the expedition, the only people to have come to visit the Bnei Menashe were an assortment of rabbis and missionaries, researchers, representative of the Chief Rabbinate, and Shavei Israel, i.e. people who had some business there. But even in our expedition there were people who “came to work”, so to say – people who sat for long hours into the night discussing religious laws and tips for immigration. But this was a personal choice, made out of fervent belief while being swept up in the moment. There was nobody on our expedition, as far as I know, who had been sent by an organization in order to strengthen the faith of the Bnei Menashe, give them money, or promise them anything. This expedition was unique in the sense that we visited places that already had an infrastructure of Jewish life: synagogues, mikvaot, prayer services, and organized community events. Taking expeditions to meet Muslim, Shinto and African tribes living without any real outwardly Jewish framework will be an entirely different story. The chief rabbinate of Israel has not officially classified the Afridi people of India and Pakistan as the descendents of the tribe of Efraim, yet. But if and when the rabbinate does, and even if it doesn’t, there will still be many Israelis and Diaspora Jews who will see in this an opportunity to reaffirm their own beliefs [in the redemption that will come to Israel once all the lost tribes are gathered] and to hasten the coming of the Messiah. Still others will just want to be part of the wider story – the story of the Ten Lost Israelite tribes, which is, undoubtedly, one of the most interesting anthropological narratives in human history.

While Shai Bar Ilan Tours and Eretz Ahavati recognize that initially their core ‘customers’ will be those who have a religious and faith-based attraction to the expeditions, their ultimate aim is to reach out to as wide an audience as possible – to people who find the story fascinating and want to see it up close for themselves. While there is a messianic element to the story, and many people on the expeditions may be in that mindset, the tour operators see it more in terms of the mysteriousness of the story itself. They would much rather focus on the ethnographic and historical ingredients that make up the story of the ten lost tribes, for instance: what was the route of the exiled? How did they get from Samaria to India and Japan? Where did they end up, and what was their impact on the cultures they met along the way? How much of the current cultural and ethnic makeup of many peoples in central and East Asia were influenced by ancient Israelite nomads? Is it not entirely absurd to think that due to intermarriage and assimilation, there are countless tribes and nations in the world that have some Jewish blood in them? And what if one day this buried Jewish past resurfaces [partly due to the expeditions] and these myriad nations start exploring their ancient links to Israel? Will they want to come visit us here, in the tiny little land they left almost three thousand years ago between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River?

The author was a guest of Shai Bar Ilan Tours and Eretz Ahavati