Aliyah from India: Paomang Issachar Haokip sings a new song in the Holy Land
Issachar Haokip and family
We continue our series of profiles of Bnei Menashe who have made aliyah in the past two years with Shavei Israel’s help. This week, we “sing” the praises of Paomang Issachar Haokip.
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Paomang Issachar Haokip loves to sing. The 43-year-old Bnei Menashe from the tiny village of Mateyang in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur served as the chazan (cantor) for the community’s synagogue for ten years. He subsequently was appointed chairman of Mateyang’s Bnei Menashe community.
While it was rewarding to be able to sing G-d’s praises in India, Issachar dreamed “for ages and ages” of making aliyah, so he could “shout out to the Creator” from the Land of Israel.
The chazan is also known as a shaliach tzibur, which means literally “agent of the community.” The chazan in this respect carries a weighty responsibility: to humbly and faithfully represent all those who have come to pray. For ten years, as Issachar would recite the blessing in the daily Amidah prayer on behalf of his community, beseeching G-d to allow the ingathering of the exiles back to Zion, Issachar hoped that this prayer would come true – and that he too would be included in the great return to the Holy Land.
In November 2012, Issachar’s prayers were answered when, along with his wife Shira, their two sons and a daughter, he made aliyah with Shavei Israel’s assistance.
Issachar shared with us a new “song” – his words of gratitude for making such a momentous transition possible. “To live in Eretz Israel [the Land of Israel] is a commandment which I am now able to fulfill. I feel both physically and spiritually comforted being able to dwell in the Holy Land. I am so grateful – really, I couldn’t be happier!”
His wife Shira adds, “From time immemorial, we have been ready to return to Eretz Israel. As we waited, we were sometimes humiliated by our non-Jewish neighbors as they would mock us, asking, ‘when are you moving to Israel already,’ and we had no answer. Deep in my soul, though, I knew it would happen one day…and it did! My hopes and prayers did not go in vain.”
Now in the land of his forefathers, Issachar Haokip has a new prayer: that the rest of the Bnei Menashe, who are waiting patiently for their time, will be granted the opportunity to make aliyah speedily, so they can join the nearly 3,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community already here.
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