Shavei Israel holds Bnei Menashe Study Day in advance of aliyah
Shavei Israel panel (l-r): Avi Mizrachi, Rabbi Gurion Sela, Esther Colney and Yehoshua Menashe
Prior to the arrival of the first group of Bnei Menashe immigrants, Shavei Israel held a special Study Day for 80 employees from the interior, education, welfare and social services, absorption and health ministries, as well as personnel working in the cities of Acre and Migdal HaEmek, where the first group of Bnei Menashe will be living after their initial absorption period.
The goal of the study day was to help bring those Israeli government and local city officials who will be working with the Bnei Menashe up to speed on the unique requirements of this dynamic new population of immigrants.
Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund, educational director Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, and Avi Mizrachi, our project director for the Bnei Menashe immigration, spoke, along with three representatives of the Bnei Menashe community – Rabbi Gurion Sela, Yehoshua Menashe and Esther Colney, a Bnei Menashe social worker. They presented lectures on the history and Jewish background of the Bnei Menashe, the previous aliyot to Israel that Shavei Israel has facilitated, and the process that will now unfold.
Here are some pictures from the Study Day.