Shavei Israel launches new book series for Bnei Menashe
First book in new Thadou-Kuki book series
Shavei Israel has launched a new book series in the Thadou-Kuki language for Bnei Menashe living in the Indian states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, as well as in neighboring Myanmar (Burma). Each 50-page book is filled with customs, halachot (Jewish Law) and stories relating to specific subjects. There are illustrations and photos interspersed throughout.
The first in the series is called Na’aseh VeNishma – literally “we will do and will hear” – taken from the book of Exodus when the Israelites received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Accordingly, the Na’aseh VeNishma booklet is all about the holiday of Shavuot, which marks the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. It was published and distributed in India prior to the holiday this year.
Shavei Israel plans to publish a new booklet every month, explains Shavei’s coordinator for the Bnei Menashe, Tzvi Khaute. Other topics to be covered including the basics of Judaism, Shabbat, and the laws of keeping kosher. While the booklet is primarily intended for Bnei Menashe in India and Myanmar, copies will also be distributed to new Bnei Menashe immigrants in Israel.
In India, each Shavei Fellow will be given his or her own copy and every Bnei Menashe household will also receive a copy. Meital Singson, who heads up Shavei Israel’s operations in Churachandpur, Manipur, says that the new book series is certain to “uplift the Bnei Menashe and inspire their progress. It is an important tool for Shavei Israel’s outreach projects and very useful for individual households. Feedback from Bnei Menashe community members has been very good – they are eagerly awaiting the next volume!”
The new series in Thadou-Kuki complements the project we announced in October 2014 – a translation series of key Jewish texts into both Kuki and Mizo, the other main language spoken by the Bnei Menashe. Rabbi Gurion Sela translated Maimonides’ seminal text Hilchot Teshuva (The Laws of Repentance) into Mizo to kick off the series.
You can be a part of this important endeavor to bring Jewish study material and classic texts to the Bnei Menashe – either through our new series in Thadou-Kuki or the “Bnei Menashe Translation Project” as a whole. For just $18, you can purchase a single booklet for a Bnei Menashe family. $36 will buy three. $100 will buy enough booklets for ten Shavei Fellows. For $500, you can dedicate an entire book in the series. $1,000 will buy booklets for an entire village.
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