India’s Bnei Menashe commemorate Yom HaShoah for the first time
Lighting candles in memory of the six million
On Sunday evening, for the first time, the Bnei Menashe community in India commemorated Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day. The event took place in the main Shavei Israel center in Churachandpur with 400 community members in attendance.
Participants wore yellow star armbands as a mark of solidarity with Holocaust survivors. Sixty candles (to represent the six million who were murdered in the Holocaust) were lit and a goshem – a traditional Bnei Menashe trumpet – was blown, followed by a minute of silence, similar to the custom in Israel where a siren is sounded at 8:00 PM on the night of Yom HaShoah.
The evening in India also included a presentation by Yochanan Phaltual, Shavei Israel’s emissary to the Bnei Menashe, on the topic, “Horrors of the Holocaust and Jewish Survival”; the leading of psalms by local Bnei Menashe women; the singing of El Maleh Rachamim by Shavei Israel’s “Fellows” and Bnei Menashe elders; and the recitation of Shema Yisrael by a Bnei Menashe children’s group.
The commemoration also featured a wall composed of black and white photos, some of them quite shocking and graphic, taken in the death camps and ghettos of Europe. For many Bnei Menashe, it was their first time encountering the tragedy that befell their Jewish brethren so many miles away but so close in spirit.
The evening closed with the entire group singing Naomi Shemer’s Yerushalayim Shel Zahav – Jerusalem of Gold – and Eli Eli, written by Hannah Szenes.
We have a gallery of pictures here.