Operation Menashe: Meet Elyashiv Khupchwang, making aliyah from Mizoram
Elyashiv Khupchwang
“Operation Menashe” is now underway. The next wave of Bnei Menashe aliyah from India – which will bring a total of 899 people to Israel over the next 15 months – began at the end of 2013 with the arrival of 38 new immigrants from Mizoram. In the past few months, we have profiled some of the Bnei Menashe families who will be arriving shortly in the Jewish state. Here is the fourth in our series. Meet Elyashiv Khupchwang, who made aliyah with his family on the inaugural flight and arrived in Israel on December 26, 2013.
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Elyashiv Khupchawng recalls only too well the day he chose to publicly embrace his Bnei Menashe Jewish heritage. He was a teenager and “all of my friends simply walked away from me,” he says, matter-of-factly, but with the pain clearly still burning just slightly under the surface. “They were afraid of me. They said that I was humiliating them and, from that day on, they treated me like an enemy. Even some of my relatives treated me the same way.”
Khupchawng says that the reaction he received is not unusual for Bnei Menashe in the Indian state of Mizoram where he grew up. Mizoram is known for being particularly “extreme” towards those who don’t fit into the majority culture, Khupchawng says – more so than, say, Manipur, the other main state where the Bnei Menashe live in the northeastern part of India.
Khupchawng shares more details of his difficult experience. “When I was walking in the street, they would say ‘hey, here comes the circumcised’ and they would start to laugh. Imagine if the whole street is staring and laughing at you. Even in school, they made fun of me – not just my friends, but my teachers and even the principal. They would say ‘look, it’s the Old Testament coming.’ To have the courage to think that it doesn’t matter, that’s been the hardest part for me.”
Nevertheless, Khupchawng was always strict about wearing a kippa (head covering) at all times, even outdoors. “People would think I was some kind of comedian or joker,” he adds. “My connection to Judaism was strong but, still, it is very hard to win over people who are all the time snickering around you.”
Beyond Khupchawng’s treatment by his peers, there were also work obstacles to his acceptance. In my village, we have something called ‘public voluntary work.’ It always takes place on the Sabbath and so I could not attend.”
When Khupchawng was old enough to start working, he ran into problems there too. Of course, he couldn’t work on Shabbat, but, he adds, “there are so many Jewish holidays and festivals, that I didn’t have enough vacation days to cover them. So they started to reduce my salary. I became so used to this kind of ‘punishment,’ I began taking it like a habit.”
Fortunately, that habit didn’t have the chance to become addicting: just as things looked like they couldn’t get much bleaker for Khupchawng, Shavei Israel opened its Hebrew Center in Aizawl, the capital city of Mizoram. Khupchawng became a regular. “This has been a great comfort to me and the other Bnei Menashe in Mizoram,” he explains, “because today we are not alone. We work together, we pray together, we face the discriminating words on the street together.
And now, Khupchawng, 28, has taken the biggest step of his young life: for his dedication and unceasingly challenging life circumstances, Shavei Israel chose Khupchawng and his family (including his wife, son and mother) to make aliyah on the first flight from Mizoram to Israel that left New Delhi in December 2013. His years of torment have come to an end.
“I don’t know how to express my gratitude,” Khupchawng said shortly after landing at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. “I am so excited.”
When asked, after all that’s taken place, if he will miss India, he replies, “For sure. Mizoram is a beautiful and peaceful land. But Israel is my home. It’s time for us all to hold our hands together and live in the land of G-d!”
If you’d like to help Khupchawng and his family – or any of the 861 more Bnei Menashe Shavei Israel will bringing to Israel during 2014 – please visit the Support page on our website. You will be making a real difference in the successful absorption of one of Israel’s most faithful Lost Tribes.