Aliyah from India: Yoshi Thouthang and family
Yoshi Thouthang (left) and family before making aliyah
The Bnei Menashe aliyah is back! With G-d’s help, Shavei Israel will be bringing 247 new immigrants from northeastern India during the month of November. This will bring the total number of Bnei Menashe who have returned to Zion in 2014 to 660, the most ever in one year! As Shavei Israel staff prepares the Kfar Hasidim absorption center for the newest arrivals, we present a new series of profiles where we visit with some of the remarkable Bnei Menashe who have arrived in the last two years.
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At age 70, Yoshi Helkam Thouthang was one of the elders of the Beit Shalom community, the main Shavei Israel community in Churachandpur, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, before making aliyah last year. He lived together with his wife Esther, daughter Dori, son Yishai, daughter-in-law Yehudit and three adorable grandchildren, as “extended family” in the village of M. Songgel in the Indian state of Manipur. Yoshi already had two children in Israel, a daughter and a son, whom Shavei Israel helped to make aliyah in 2007, so this family reunification after so many years was particularly joyful for the extended Thouthang clan.
When he was growing up, Yoshi felt something was missing. “Deep inside, I always felt something was incomplete with my faith. After I got married, I thirsted for a spiritual truth. When I met some of the early Bnei Menashe pioneers, men and women who were already devout practitioners of Judaism, I knew I had found the spiritual comfort I had been seeking for so long.”
From that day, Yoshi has lived a traditional Jewish life, reading the Torah regularly and doing his best to observe Jewish Law. “But there are certain obligations which can only be done in the Holy Land. I wanted to follow all of the halachot (Jewish laws) and fulfill all of the mitzvot (commandments), which is not easy to do in the Diaspora, especially in India. Making aliyah to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) became my burning desire. And Baruch Hashem (thank G-d), we have finally overcome those obstacles. We are here!”
Yoshi’s son Yishai is now in Israel as well. Yishai served as a Shavei Israel Fellow in India, traveling between Bnei Menashe communities in Manipur to teach Hebrew and Judaism, with Shavei Israel’s training. Unlike his father, Yishai was raised in a fully observant Jewish home. “Keeping in mind that we are the descendants of the Israelites, I always believed that someday we will return to our native land, Israel, for good,” Yishai says.
As a teenager Yishai says he wanted desperately to make aliyah “in order to join the Israel Defense Forces and fight for Israel. However, as time took its toll, I met my beautiful wife Yehudit. We married and are blessed with three lovely children.” Yishai’s goals have now shifted to the next generation. “My objective now is to bring up my children in an Orthodox Jewish environment in the Holy Land,” he says. “Words fail to express how thankful we are to Shavei Israel for its endless support in getting us to this day!”
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Please watch this space in the coming weeks for more stories of Bnei Menashe who have made aliyah – as well as stories direct from India of Bnei Menashe who are on their way now to their new home in Israel.
If you’d like to help support Shavei Israel’s momentous undertaking in bringing the Bnei Menashe home, not at some point in the future, but at this very moment, please click here.