VIDEO: Meet Yochanan Phaltual, Shavei Israel’s Indian emissary, now new Israeli immigrant
Yochanan Phaltual
There are few views sweeter than the sight of the Israeli coastline appearing on the horizon after miles of blue ocean, as glimpsed from high above on an airplane winging its way towards the Holy Land. How much more satisfying, then, for someone making aliyah after a decade of working on behalf of countless others who have come before him?
That’s how Yochanan Phaltual felt as his flight touched down in Israel earlier this summer. “I’m very excited. I really can’t explain it. This is just a dream come true!” he said as he headed towards the immigration processing center at Ben-Gurion Airport.
We sent a camera crew to India to document Yochanan’s journey from his former home to his long awaited one. You can watch it below.
Yochanan has been Shavei Israel’s emissary to the Bnei Menashe in India, heading up the organization’s main Beit Shalom center in Churachandpur in the Indian state of Manipur, for ten years now. He has traveled extensively among various communities, organizing events and, with Shavei Israel’s direction, has helped hundreds of Bnei Menashe make aliyah while he stayed back, waiting for the day when it would finally be his turn.
That turn came on June 19, 2014. Yochanan, his wife and two young children were on the last Shavei flight of the summer. He joins the 250 immigrants already living at the Kfar Hasidim absorption center in the north of Israel. He is studying to learn Hebrew and soon will move to his own apartment, making way for another 500 Bnei Menashe immigrants expected in the next nine months.
Unlike Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt and across the desert, but was never permitted to enter the Land of Israel, Yochanan has crossed that border. “This is a great day for me and my family, and for all of the Bnei Menashe,” Yochanan said at the airport.
“We invest a great deal of effort in accompanying the immigrants every step of the way as they integrate into Israeli society,” Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund says in the video. “We don’t just bring them on aliyah and abandon them at the airport. We help them find housing, get job training, study Hebrew and get settled here in the Land of Israel. We want to ensure they’ll become an integral part of Israeli society.”
Watch the video and join all of us at Shavei Israel in welcoming Yochanan Phaltual as a new Israeli citizen!