JERUSALEM – The Israeli government has greenlit a plan to facilitate the immigration of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community from northeastern India, the Prime Minister’s Office announced. The initiative, put forward by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer, comes amid ethnic tensions in India’s Manipur and Mizoram regions.
Under the approved plan, 1,200 community members are expected to immigrate to Israel by 2026, with an additional 5,800 arriving by 2030. The effort aims to reunite families and complete the relocation of the entire Bnei Menashe population to Israel. New arrivals will primarily settle in Nof HaGalil and other northern cities.
Netanyahu called the move “a significant Zionist decision that will strengthen the Galilee and the North,” and thanked Sofer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Minister Ze’ev Elkin for their collaboration on the initiative.
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Over the past two decades, around 4,000 Bnei Menashe have already moved to Israel under earlier government programs. This new plan seeks to complete the community’s migration.
Separately, Netanyahu met with India’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, to discuss deepening economic ties, expanding trade and investment, and advancing the U.S.-backed India-Middle East-Europe corridor (IMEC), a trade and transportation initiative that includes Israel. Economy Minister Nir Barkat and Indian Ambassador J.P. Singh also participated in the talks. https://vinnews.com/2025/11/23/israel-approves-plan-to-bring-bnei-menashe-community-from-india-by-2030/
The “Bnei Menashe” include up to 7000 people in two states in north-eastern India: Manipur and Mizoram. People in this small sect within the local Christian population considers themselves to be descendants of Manmasi, “the lost son of the God”. They would come to believe that this legendary “Manmasi” was actually the Hebrew “Menashe”. Some of their religious and cultural customs closely resemble Jewish ones, such as a weekly day of rest on Saturdays and a strict prohibition on eating pork.
In 1981, Israeli Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, a Zionist rabbi who researched and wrote extensively about the lost tribes, visited the Bnei Menashe in India and recognized them as descendants of the lost Jewish tribe of Menashe. He assisted the first groups of the community’s youth move to Israel, where they underwent the process of giyur to officially convert to Judaism. For many Bnei Menashe, the move represented a radical change in lifestyle. This change was especially drastic because most Bnei Menashe had belonged to a tribal society and lived in poverty in India. In 2005 the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel officially recognized their Jewish roots, and in 2006 they were all allowed to make Aliyah if they wished. However, upon arriving in Israel they are still required to convert to be officially recognized as Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbanut.
The relationship between these north-eastern India tribes and the ancient lost tribes of Israel, however, remains doubtful. Most on the anthropologists believe that Bnei Menashe developed their self-identification under the influence of the Christian preaching. DNA tests seem to show no evidence of Middle Eastern roots of the Bnei Menashe or any genetic relationship with modern Jews. Read More: https://yomyom.co/episode-14-bnei-menashe/
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