Back Bnej Menaše Czech Bene Menashe Finnish בני מנשה HE Bnei Menashe ID ブネイ・メナシェ Japanese 브네이 므낫세 Korean Bnei Menashe LAD Bney Menase Malagasy Bené Menasjé NN Bnej Menasze Polish
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 10,000[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 India | 5,000[1] |
 Israel | 5,000[1] |
| Languages | |
| Various Kuki-Chin languages, Hebrew[citation needed] | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mizo people, Kuki people, Indian | |
The Bnei Menashe (Hebrew: בני מנשה, "Children of Menasseh", known as the Shinlung in India[3]) is a community of Indian Jews from various Tibeto-Burmese[4] ethnic groups from the border of India and Burma who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel,[3]: 3 allegedly based on the Hmar belief in an ancestor named Manmasi.[5] Some of them have adopted Judaism.[3] The community has around 10,000 members.[1]
The movement began in 1951, when a tribal leader reported having a dream that his people's ancient homeland was Israel; some tribal members began embracing the idea that they were Jews.[3]: 7 [4] Before the movement's start, the community was largely a Christian one.[3]: 6 Members are from the Chin, Kuki, and Mizo ethnic groups amongst others.[3]: 3
In the late 20th century, Israeli rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, of the group Amishav, named these people the "Bnei Menashe" based on their account of descent from Manasseh.[6] In 2003–2004, DNA testing of several hundred male community members did not yield conclusive evidence of Middle Eastern ancestry. In 2005, a Kolkata-based study found evidence of maternally descended Near Eastern ancestry but suggested the findings were an artifact of thousands of years of intermarriage between peoples of the Near and Middle East.[7][8] Israel did not formally support immigration of the Bnei Menashe until 2005, when Rabbi Shlomo Amar, then Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, recognized the Bnei Menashe as a lost tribe.[9] Even today, Bnei Menashe must seek special dispensation from the Knesset to make aliyah.[10]
- ^ a b c d "Bnei Menashe: community members demand aliyah, killed in violent India unrest". The Jerusalem Post. 5 May 2023.
- ^ Reback, Gedalyah. "3,000th Bnei Menashe touches down in Israel". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Weil, Shalva (1 July 2004). "Lost Israelites From the Indo-Burmese Borderlands: Re-Traditionalisation and Conversion Among the Shinlung or Bene Menasseh". The Anthropologist. 6 (3): 219–233. doi:10.1080/09720073.2004.11890858. ISSN 0972-0073. S2CID 54579157.
- ^ a b "India's 'Lost' Jews Seek a Place in Israel". NPR.org.
- ^ Dena, Lal (26 July 2003). "Kuki, Chin, Mizo – Hmar's Israelite Origin; Myth or Reality?". Manipur Online. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007. Retrieved 4 March 2007.
- ^ Fishbane, Matthew (19 February 2015). "Becoming Moses". Tablet Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ Maity, Bhaswar; Sitalaximi, T; Trivedi, R; Kashyap, VK (2004). "Tracking the genetic imprints of lost Jewish tribes among the gene pool of Kuki-Chin-Mizo population of India". Genome Biology. 6 (1): P1. doi:10.1186/gb-2004-6-1-p1.
- ^ Asya Pereltsvaig (9 June 2010), Controversies surrounding Bnei Menashe, Languages of the World
- ^ "2005: Sephardi Chief Rabbi Recognizes 'Lost Tribe' of Indian Jews". 2014.
- ^ "MKs push gov't to greenlight aliyah for 5,000 Bnei Menashe from India". 2024.