(JTA) — On Thursday, 240 members of India’s Bnei Menashe community arrived in Israel, marking the latest convoy of immigrants brought as part of a government-backed effort to relocate the entire community.
The flight, which landed at Ben Gurion Airport, was welcomed by a delegation including Israel’s aliyah minister and the chairman of The Jewish Agency for Israel. It was the first of three flights expected over the next two weeks that will bring roughly 600 members of the Bnei Menashe community.
Under the operation, titled “Wings of Dawn,” the government expects to bring 1,200 members currently living in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur to Israel by the end of 2026, and 4,800 more — the rest of the community — by 2030.
“Members of the Bnei Menashe community bring with them unconditional love for the State of Israel, and through family reunification, the heart of Israeli society as a whole is expanded,” Doron Almog, the chairman of The Jewish Agency, said in a statement. “Our responsibility is not only to receive, but to accompany, embrace, and create for them a foundation of opportunity, belonging, and future.”
The Bnei Menashe, based in India, identify as descendants of the “lost tribe” of Menasseh, a claim that has earned backing in Israel but has been disputed by researchers. They began immigrating to Israel in the late 1980s with the help of an Israeli rabbi, undergoing formal conversions to Judaism upon arrival. A different organization took over their immigration process two decades ago but drew criticism from both the right — because the Bnei Menashe’s status as Jews was uncertain — and the left, who accused the government of bringing them to stoke settlement in the West Bank.
A total of 4,000 members of the community have immigrated to Israel under previous government plans, with the most recent arrivals arriving in 2020.
Among those on the first flight in the new wave were young families, who will be brought to absorption centers in Nof HaGalil, a city in northern Israel, and reunited with family members who previously moved to the country.
Many of those family members join the Israeli army and work in fields where the country has a labor shortage. The reinvigoration of the immigration effort comes as labor shortages have been exacerbated by post-Oct. 7 limits on Palestinian labor, increasing Israel’s reliance on imported workers.
Back in India, the region where the Bnei Menashe live, Mizoram, experienced spasms of ethnic violence in recent years, causing some members of the group to become displaced and its synagogues damaged. But until relatively recently, many harbored little expectation that Israel would hasten to open its doors.
Then, in November, the Israeli government approved a proposal from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring all remaining Bnei Menashe community members in India to Israel by 2030. Lawmakers said they aimed to reunite families and repopulate Israel’s north, which had been devastated by years of rocket fire from Lebanon.
The latest operation was supported by a host of Jewish and Christian Zionist groups, including the World Zionist Organization, The Jewish Federations of North America, Christians for Israel and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
“We are making history as we bring the entire Bnei Menashe community to Israel,” Ofir Sofer, the Israeli minister of aliyah and integration, said in a statement. “Today we welcomed the first flight of olim from northern India with great joy and excitement. I thank Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich, who embraced the initiative I led — an initiative that will unite the entire community in the State of Israel.” PJC