A multicultural meet-up in Jerusalem: Polish Jews and Bnei Menashe together
Bnei Menashe meet young Polish Jews
Shavei Israel reaches out to Lost Tribes and hidden Jewish communities around the world, including those in India, China, Poland, Peru, Spain, Portugal and Russia. But rarely do these communities get a chance to meet. That’s why an in-person encounter between a group of “Hidden Jews” from Poland (young Jews who have only recently discovered their families’ Jewish roots) and Bnei Menashe youngsters, whose parents immigrated to Israel from northeastern India, was so unique…and emotional.
Twenty-five Polish Jews were recently in Israel on a two-week Shavei Israel-sponsored seminar (we’ve written about it here). They spent most of their stay either in class, studying the laws of Shabbat, the holidays and how to keep kosher, or on field trips visiting historical sites around Israel.
But near the end of their journey, the Polish group headed out on a field trip of a different kind, to Shavei Israel’s Beit Miriam community center for the Bnei Menashe, near Jerusalem. The Polish group initially came to plant flowers at the entrance to the community center together with some of the Bnei Menashe youth.
Planting together
“At first both sides were quite shy,” reports Tzivia Kusminksy, Shavei Israel’s coordinator for Poland, who accompanied the Polish group throughout their visit. But after a while, they began to interact and, as you can see in our photo gallery, quite a few plants were planted that day.
The interaction kicked into full swing – despite the fact that the Poles know very little Hebrew and the Bnei Menashe, understandably, have never learned Polish! – when the groups visited the nearby “Federman Farm,” which has many animals and, to the delight of both groups, a trampoline! After working up an appetite jumping together, the groups joined to bake pita bread on an open taboon (an outdoor clay oven used in many parts of the Middle East to bake flat breads).
“By the end of the trip, the Bnei Menashe kids didn’t want the Polish group to leave!” says Kusminsky. “They were asking ‘why don’t you stay in Israel’ and ‘why don’t you make aliyah?’” Our young Zionists!
The Polish students felt the same. When Kusminsky asked them to rate their experience with the Bnei Menashe on a scale of 1-5, one person gave a score of 100. Why? “It was something different, not just studying or visiting ancient places” the Polish Jewish participant explained. “As a tourist, this is not something you usually see, the way people really live.”
As the day ended, the Bnei Menashe handed the Polish group a gift – a key holder with an Israeli flag, and a small box of Israeli chocolate. Clearly, the Bnei Menashe had won the keys to the Polish Jews’ heart, demonstrating how the Jewish people is a single nation, no matter how dispersed or distant from each other we may be.
In addition to our picture gallery, Marius Frej, one of the Polish participants and a professional photographer, created a Facebook page just for the seminar. You can view it here.
Additionally, we have a lovely video slide show, created by Tzivia Kusminsky, that sets Marius’ pictures from the trip to a background of Israeli music. You can see that here.