Bnei Menashe exhibition hits the road
New immigrant at gallery for Bnei Menashe exhibit in Acre
Sambatyon is the name of the legendary river beyond which the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were said to have been exiled by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser in 722 BCE. Across the Sambatyon is also the name of a photo exhibition on the Bnei Menashe that is currently being displayed at the Acco (Acre) municipality. The name is fitting: the Bnei Menashe trace their roots to the Biblical tribe of Manasseh (Menashe) which crossed the Sambatyon when it was forced out of the Land of Israel 2,700 years ago. After many years of wandering, the Bnei Menashe eventually settled in what is now northeastern India.
The ancient tribe of Menashe today is making a remarkable return to its homeland, with some 3,000 having made aliyah in recent years with the help of Shavei Israel.
When the Bnei Menashe first land in Israel, they take up temporary accommodations in the Kfar Hasidim absorption center in the north of Israel. After three months, they move on to permanent homes in various communities across Israel. One of those is the city of Acre.
The Across the Sambatyon exhibition tells the story of the journey of the Bnei Menashe and their steadfast commitment to Jewish tradition over more than two millennia. In 13 pictures with accompanying text and a historical timeline, the exhibition recalls Bnei Menashe life in India, highlights the process of the community’s aliyah and current settlement in Israel, and describes their status according to Jewish Law.
An earlier version of the exhibition opened in December 2010 at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Jerusalem. The idea was conceived by then-Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver after she visited Shavei Israel’s Beit Miriam community center for the Bnei Menashe outside of Jerusalem. Landver was so moved by her experience that she contacted Shavei Israel to curate the project.
The exhibition has been updated in the four years since it was first put together with new pictures and stories, as more Bnei Menashe have come to Israel and established communities in Upper Nazareth, Migdal HaEmek and now Acco.
The opening of the exhibition in Acco at the end of November was attended by a number of local municipal and government officials and the Israeli Ministry of Absorption, as well as nearly all of the city’s entire Bnei Menashe community. Rabbi Hanoch Avitzedek, Shavei Israel’s Director of Bnei Menashe Aliyah and Absorption, adds that, at the end of a series of “very touching speeches, the Bnei Menashe broke into song, giving a spontaneous rendition of the community’s hymn expressing their longing for Zion.”
The Across the Sambatyon exhibition will be taking to the road shortly, with its next stop the town of Ma’alot, where a Bnei Menashe community has lived for more than a decade, followed by Migdal HaEmek, Upper Nazareth, and finally Safed.
Why Safed? Because that’s the newest destination where Bnei Menashe immigrants exiting the absorption center in Kfar Hasidim will be headed. Unlike previous groups, which were divided between different cities, Safed has sufficient housing for a large group of 50 Bnei Menashe families.
Safed was chosen, Rabbi Avitzedek explains, in part because it has a local Garin Torani, a small community of young families who had previously moved to Safed to strengthen its overall religious life. Safed’s Garin Torani has enthusiastically agreed to take responsibility for the new arrivals who will be moving to Safed in the second week of February.
The move is coming just in time: the final flight of 250 immigrants (out of the 900 which Shavei Israel received permission to bring over the course of 15 months) is due to arrive in Kfar Hasidim just after the Passover holiday. They will stay until the end of the summer, when they will be moving to their own permanent homes.
The Across the Sambatyon exhibition will most surely follow.
Here are some more pictures from opening night:
