Meet Emunah and Eden: Shavei Israel’s new “Fellows” in Mynmar (Burma)
Group in Myanmar (Burma)
The distance between the village of Kaleymo in Myanmar (Burma) and the northeastern Indian border town of Moreh is a mere 70 miles – a comfortable commute in many Western metropolises. But here, in the foothills of the Himalayas, traversing twisting mountain roads that pass through treacherous passes, while skirting inquisitive local police at the ever-present checkpoints, the trip takes no less than a full day.
That didn’t stop Emunah Hanvung and Eden Suantak, two Bnei Menashe young women from Myanmar, from joining Shavei Israel’s most recent seminar for Bnei Menashe “Fellows” in India. Their dedication has already paid off: no sooner had the two women returned to Myanmar at the conclusion of the seminar last month, than they were already visiting families, teaching the Hebrew songs and prayers they’d just learned, and handing out Shavei Israel’s “Birkonim” (blessings) booklet produced especially for the Bnei Menashe.
Emunah and Eden are members of the Bnei Menashe community on the “other side” of the border from more populous India. Only 250 or so Bnei Menashe families live in Myanmar, scattered throughout a number of tiny villages but, says Rabbi Hanoch Avitzedek, Shavei Israel’s Director of Bnei Menashe Aliyah and Absorption, “Every Bnei Menashe is a treasure, wherever they live, and it’s our obligation and responsibility to do our best to bring Judaism and Torah to this small group that is so isolated.”
Rabbi Avitzedek was in India to help lead the latest Shavei Israel Fellows seminar. Eighty young men and women, representing all of the Bnei Menashe communities in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam – and now Myanmar – participated. The seminar was held in a picturesque Buddhist village in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim.
But while Emunah and Eden came all the way from Myanmar to India for the seminar, no Shavei Israel staff has yet been able to visit them in their home villages. In fact, before 2008, Shavei Israel had no direct contact whatsoever with the community. That’s because it was only in 2008 that the Indian government allowed non-locals to visit Moreh, the closest town to Myanmar. When the rules were relaxed, Rabbi Avitzedek jumped at the chance, as did a delegation from Myanmar, which crossed the border to meet with him.
India’s pre-2008 restrictions on travel to Moreh had nothing to do with the Bnei Menashe. Rather, the area was deliberately cut off from the rest of India to help residents “defend their culture,” Rabbi Avitzedek explains. “The region is politically part of India, but culturally more connected to China, Tibet and Bhutan with many small tribes.”
The government was concerned that free access, including to Indian citizens, would result in waves of immigration from other parts of the country, leading to assimilation. But a desire to improve the local economy by boosting tourism changed that, and with it, the lives of the Bnei Menashe in neighboring Myanmar.
Rabbi Avitzedek is hoping to visit Myanmar in the future, but it will have to be on a tourist visa entering via Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, rather than crossing the border at Moreh. When he arrives, he’ll find a community that hearkens back to the lives led by the Bnei Menashe of India from before Shavei Israel came on the scene. Hebrew literacy is much lower than in India, as is knowledge of basic Jewish tradition and texts.
That’s now changing. Several years ago, Shavei Israel chose a young man, Shimon Hatlang, from the village of Kaleymo in Myanmar, to become the first Shavei Fellow for his community. Shimon, at the time just 17-years-old, traveled to Churachandpur, where Shavei Israel maintains its main community center for the Bnei Menashe, and studied for nearly two years, living at the home of Yochanan Phaltual, Shavei Israel’s emissary to the Bnei Menashe until his aliyah in 2014.
Shimon eventually returned to Myanmar and has been a key part of the community’s spiritual growth. Shimon quickly put into practice the extensive training he received, where he learned everything from how to build a sukkah to baking kosher-for-Passover matzah. In 2011, the first ever synagogue was dedicated in Myanmar – “Ohel Michael,” named after Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund – located in Tualmu, some 150 miles from the border with India.
Emunah and Eden, who are based in Tualmu, will now follow in Shimon’s path, Getting to this point was a “challenging experience” for the two young women, however, reports Rabbi Avitzedek, as neither speaks the same languages as the Bnei Menashe in India. “The seminar was like the Tower of Babel,” Rabbi Avitzedek recalls. “The Manipur group speaks Kuki, there’s Mizo for the Bnei Menashe from Mizoram, and Emunah and Eden didn’t understand either.”
Fortunately, Shavei Israel’s Israel-based Coordinator for the Bnei Menashe, Tzvi Khaute, was also on staff at the seminar. While he hasn’t mastered Zou, the local Burmese language that Emunah and Eden speak, he is fluent in many tongues and dialects and was able to translate.
The other Bnei Menashe at the seminar were delighted by their Myanmar cousins’ presence, especially as the two women came wearing their traditional clothes, adding an extra splash of color to the nearly month-long studies.
The participants in this year’s seminar are replacing veteran Bnei Menashe Fellows who have made aliyah with Shavei Israel’s help in the last year and a half. The new Fellows are committed to staying in their home communities for the next 2-3 years. For Emunah and Eden in far-away Myanmar, their stay may be even longer. But at only 23-years-old, the two have time – and their efforts will be greatly appreciated both by their brethren in Burma and all of us at Shavei Israel.