The ‘B'nei Menasseh’ community of Jews in Northeast India - spread over Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, claim to be a lost tribe of Israel. A group of more than 7,500, they say that they were exiled from Israel over 2,500 years ago by a foreign conqueror, and are now eager to return to their homeland. Though written about in newspapers before, their story has been narrated on film for the first time by director Zorawar Shukla in A prayer for Aliyah which premiered recently.
While the Jews of Cochin, Mumbai and Kolkata are pretty well-known, this secretive community of Jews in the Northeast has remained hidden for years. Zorawar informs, “Once while on a trip to South India with a friend, I happened to visit this famous synagogue in Kerala. That is where my fascination with the Jewish community began; and when I came to know about this group in the Northeast, I knew that they had to be the subject of my film.”
Though groups of the ‘B'nei Menasseh’ community reside not only in Northeast India but Myanmar as well, the film has focused on the few thousand living in Langol and Churachandpur cities of Manipur only. Here, they are known as the Kuki community.
As Elitsur Sheikhogin- a Kuki interviewed in the film says, “Even till the late 19th century we were simple tribals - animists by religion. In the 1890s, after the British missionaries arrived here, we were converted to Christianity. We lost our tribal culture but it proved beneficial for us as it brought us in touch with Judaism.
Suddenly we realised that so many rituals and traditions followed in Judaism were already being practiced by our forefathers for centuries. Besides, the name of one of our forefathers is the same as that of the man who led this exiled group out of Israel -Menasseh. That is when we realised that we are the lost tribe of Israel.”
Even though certain books and scriptures in Judaism do speak of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, the ‘B'nei Menasseh’ community of Northeast India has no document to prove its claim. Anthropologists say that due to centuries of intermingling with the locals, even their DNA is not pure enough to establish their roots now. However, that has not stopped them from applying for ‘Aliyah’- the religious and political process of homecoming to Israel. For this they have been practicing Orthodox Judaism, learning all the practices in this religion as well as speak Hebrew - the language through which they hope to gain acceptance in Israel.
Many have accused them of trying to get a free ticket to a western nation through a ‘false fable.’ As a Kuki woman in the film- Yafa Phaltual says, “My daughter has not yet started going to school. I want us to migrate to Israel before she reaches that age. I have heard that schools there are very good. The weather is clean, the roads are clean, even the people there are very clean. I wish to move there as soon as I can.”
Whether it is for religio-historical reasons or to fulfill personal ambitions - their story is definitely worth knowing.