Tzvi Khaute – From Manipur to Israel
As a child growing up in the small Indian village of Churachandpur near the Burmese border, Tzvi Khaute didn’t pay all that much attention to Jewish tradition.
Like most kids, Tzvi was more interested in playing soccer with his friends and doing well at school.
Nonetheless, even from a very young age, Tzvi always knew that by being Jewish he was different.
“My grandfather, who was the chief priest of the village, told us that our living in India was only a sojourn and temporary, and that we Bnei Menashe are separate from the rest of the country – politically, socially and ethnically,” Tzvi recalls.
His family instilled within Tzvi a deep pride in their roots as Bnei Menashe (Hebrew for “the Children of Manasseh”), who trace their descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes which were exiled from the Land of Israel some 27 centuries ago by the Assyrian empire.
As he grew up, Tzvi began to take more interest in his heritage. He took note of the rituals of the Bnei Menashe that he would later learn were in many ways parallel to modern Jewish observance. “Shabbat was always observed as a rest day from work,” he says. “We never mixed milk and meat, and chicken and cattle were slaughtered by the community priest.”(Spanish test) As a child growing up in the small Indian village of Churachandpur near the Burmese border, Tzvi Khaute didn’t pay all that much attention to Jewish tradition.
Like most kids, Tzvi was more interested in playing soccer with his friends and doing well at school.
Other Bnei Menashe customs Tzvi remembers include a form of brit mila (circumcision) which was followed by a community feast; a mourning period that lasted 30 days (rather than the usual Jewish custom of seven); tithing one-tenth of one’s agricultural produce to sustain the community’s priestly caste; and a strict policy against intermarriage.
Other familiar traditions include the head-coverings that married women wear (“this is a Bnei Menashe tradition and it was prohibited to take them off,” Tzvi explains) as well as the deep respect shown for one’s elders (“we always got up and gave them a chair”). Each village had its own minyan (a council of ten men) who took care of managing daily affairs.
Passover was also observed, albeit in a uniquely Bnei Menashe way. “We cleaned out all of the wells and pathways of the village for seven days, and put up tree branches at the entrance to the city, barring any outsiders from entering for the duration of the festival,” Tzvi explains. A special matzah-like bread was served made from corn and wheat, which contrasted with our main food of rice, he says.
The community yearned for Zion, but “we thought Zion was in heaven. We didn’t know it was real,” Tzvi says. After the creation of the State of Israel, the Bnei Menashe began their struggle to reach the Promised Land. “The first official letter was sent in the name of the Bnei Menashe to (then prime minister) Golda Meir in 1974. We wrote ‘we are Jewish. We want to come back home.’ But we received no answer.”
All that changed when Shavei Israel chairman and founder Michael Freund first became involved with assisting the Bnei Menashe while working for the Israeli government in the mid-1990s, paving the way for large numbers of community members to move to Israel. “At first we felt like he was the Israeli government because with G-d’s help he succeeded in opening the door for us to return,” Tzvi muses.
Ultimately, it was Shavei that enabled Tzvi and his wife to immigrate to Israel. “Immigrate” may not be the right word. Because the Bnei Menashe were isolated from the larger Jewish community for centuries, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has ruled that they must undergo conversion before being accepted as full-fledged Jewish Israeli citizens.
Shavei Israel was instrumental in supporting Tzvi and his family as well as other members of the Bnei Menashe community as they got settled and began to build their new lives in the Jewish state.
After his arrival ten years ago, Tzvi worked in the greenhouses at Sussia, not far from his home in Kiryat Arba. But he didn’t actually get his hands dirty. With a degree in economics from India’s prestigious University of New Delhi, he served as the greenhouse’s in-house statistician.
And in order to deepen his knowledge of Judaism, Tzvi also spent six years studying Torah part-time at the Machon Meir yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Other Bnei Menashe are working in construction, agriculture and factories – “whatever they can find,” Tzvi says. “We are very industrious.” Most women have found employment in local kindergartens.
While the Bnei Menashe make aliyah primarily for religious reasons, the reality of daily life is not always easy. Tzvi takes it in stride. “The Torah is a living one. So we must live in real-life situations.”
Tzvi now works for Shavei Israel as its representative to the Bnei Menashe communities in both India and Israel. When we met up with Tzvi earlier in February, he had just shipped off five large boxes of matzah to India on behalf of Shavei. “It’s only symbolic, five boxes for 50 communities,” he explains. But the Bnei Menashe in India are hungry for any connection with Israel – even supermarket-variety unleavened bread.
Tzvi will be bringing more matzah with him as he leaves for a month-long stay in India. While there, he will help to run Shavei Israel‘s annual Jewish Leadership Training Seminar for Bnei Menashe “fellows,” which prepares young community members to serve as lay leaders of their home communities.
And of course, Tzvi will visit his family who remain in India. One of six children, Tzvi’s youngest brother is serving in the Indian army. He has a cousin who is the chief of the Indian Police Intelligence department in his home state of Manipur, and another cousin who is a former government minister.
Tzvi’s grandparents – who were influential in his initial Jewish reawakening – died over ten years ago, and never fulfilled their life-long vision of reaching the Holy Land. His parents, however, still long for the day when they will be reunited with their son in Israel. With Tzvi – and Shavei Israel‘s – help, we pray they will merit to see that dream come true.