MKs Urge Government to Allow Aliyah for India’s Bnei Menashe Community

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Israeli lawmakers have called on the government to allow the immigration of around 5,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community in northeast India, the Jerusalem Post reports.

While the Bnei Menashe do not qualify for immigration to Israel under the country’s Law of Return, the community claims descendency from the Lost Tribes of Israel and has long sought acceptance and recognition from the wider Jewish community to allow them to make Aliyah to the Land of Israel.

Indicating that members of the Bnei Menashe are in danger amid local sectarian violence, Members of Knesset from the Aliyah and Absorption Committee on Wednesday (October 22) reminded the government that around half of the community have relatives already living in Israel, JPost said.

“According to data presented to the committee, 4,121 community members have made aliyah so far, with 1,421 having done so in the past five years. Approximately 1,000 of them receive government welfare services,” JPost said in its report. Around 100 Bnei Menashe families have settled in the southern Israeli city of Sderot near the Gaza border.

Because the Bnei Mensahe have a unique claim to membership of the Jewish people and do not automatically qualify for Israel’s Law of Return, a special cabinet decision is required to allow their immigration, JPost said. If approval is given they would then have to undergo formal conversion to Judaism by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

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