Shavei in the news: Bnei Menashe video from India and Israel
Clip from new video documenting Bnei Menashe group’s first visit to the Western Wall last week
The Internet has been all abuzz in the past few weeks with video about Shavei Israel. We wanted to share a few of those links with you.
A group of Bnei Menashe who made aliyah earlier this year paid their first visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem last week. A new video documents that visit, including emotional interviews with some of the new immigrants as they break out into heartfelt song. Watch it now (it’s in Hebrew). The Israeli news site Ynet also wrote about the Bnei Menashe visit to the Kotel – you can read it here. And watch this space for the video in English – coming soon.
During their visit to Jerusalem, the Bnei Menashe sang a special song called Zion a Che Kahi which means “I am going towards Zion” in their native Kuki language. The video has been viewed nearly 60,000 times on Shavei Israel’s Facebook page. You can watch it too. The song was written by the late Daniel Lhungdim – we’ll be writing more about him soon.
From Israel Channel 10 documentary on the Bnei Menashe in India
In December, we reported on Shavei Israel director of marketing Laura Ben-David’s visit to the Bnei Menashe in Manipur. In the story, we mentioned that Israel’s Channel 10 went to India, too, and was working on a full-length documentary about the community. The video is now ready – in Hebrew at least. You can watch it here. (Even if you don’t speak Hebrew, the visuals tell the story. And the Bnei Menashe interviews are in English.) A full English version is coming later this month.