Special guests greet Bnei Menashe at Ben-Gurion Airport
MIchael Freund and MK Rabbi Dov Lipman greet Yochanan Phaltual and family at Ben-Gurion Airport
Last week, we invited you to join us in welcoming 43 new Bnei Menashe immigrants as they arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport. A big thank you to everyone who came – it was perhaps the most emotional aliyah flight of the year and the final in a series that has brought 410 Bnei Menashe to their homeland in the past six months. A new set of flights will be starting soon, as Shavei Israel has received permission to bring a total of 900 Bnei Menashe from India to Israel by 2015.
Among the distinguished guests who greeted the Bnei Menashe: Knesset Member Rabbi Dov Lipman and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Mr. Ofir Akunis. They joined supporters who came from Ra’anana, Modi’in and Jerusalem to welcome the arrivals and offer them encouragement as they set out to begin their new lives here in Israel.
On the other side of the tarmac, the flight was notable for the arrival of Yochanan Phaltual, who has served for the last seven years as Shavei Israel’s emissary to the Bnei Menashe in India.
Based out of Shavei Israel’s Churachandpur headquarters in the Indian state of Manipur, Yochanan has toiled tirelessly, organizing events, traveling between communities, and preparing those Bnei Menashe who were selected for the resumption of aliyah in the last year, but like Moses, never quite reaching the Promised Land himself…until now. Yochanan was also our main contact for sharing the moving stories you’ve read in the Roots newsletter, profiling the newest immigrants. You can read some of those stories here.
“This is a great day for me and my family, and for all of the Bnei Menashe,” Yochanan said at the airport.
We will miss Yochanan’s indefatigable presence in India but we are delighted to welcome him to Israel as he fulfills the dream he has nurtured – in others as well as himself – for so long.
MK Rabbi Lipman was also moved by his first encounter with the Bnei Menashe. Referring to the current kidnapping crisis in Israel, Rabbi Lipman said that “the arrival of the Bnei Menashe this morning is a ray of light in these dark days. I could not control my tears as I watched each of them kiss the huge mezuzah in the arrivals hall with tremendous fervor and joy. Hearing them sing v’shavu banim ligvulam (‘the children have returned to their borders’) reminded me of the special times in which we live.”
Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund summed up the goals of the last half-year of Operation Menashe. “After 2,700 years, the Bnei Menashe are returning to our people and our land. We won’t stop until all the remaining 7,000 community members still in India will be able to come here.”
We have a selection of pictures from last week’s aliyah flights below.
