Bnei Menashe wedding: Leah and Yediel
What’s more festive than a Jewish wedding? When the couple are both members of the Bnei Menashe community and came all the way from India to Israel to meet their beshert (their intended one).
The bride Leah, 24, made aliyah with Shavei Israel’s help in 2007 when she was just 15. Originally from the Indian state of Manipur, Leah came with her family and lived originally at the Pardes Hana absorption center Shavei Israel was running at the time. She joined Sherut Leumi (Israel’s National Service) and eventually moved to Ma’alot, where other members of the Bnei Menashe community had settled.
In 2014, as the Bnei Menashe aliyah restarted big time with Shavei Israel’s help, Leah was recruited to work as a madricha (a counselor) at the Kfar Hasidim absorption center where most of the latest immigrants were living before heading off to homes of their own.
The groom Yediel, also 24, made in June 2014 and Leah was his counselor. This is the place where the story usually ends: the two fell madly in love, got married and lived happily ever after.
But Leah and Yediel didn’t see much of each other for the next few months until they finally spent a Shabbat together. And then, yes, the sparks began to fly. They were married earlier this month at the Arena wedding hall in Haifa. We have pictures below.
Leah and Yediel live now in Ma’alot. She hopes to study social work in Safed like her Bnei Menashe cousins Yitzhak and Esther Colney. Yediel is currently learning n the Hesder Kolel yeshiva in Ma’alot.
Aliyah has been “like a dream,” Leah tells us. “I can hardly believe I am in Eretz HaKodesh – the Holy Land.”
But by looking at the happy faces at Leah and Yediel’s wedding, we have no question. They have come home and have taken the first step to building a bayit ne’eman b’Israel (a faithful home among the Jewish people).
Mazel tov to Leah and Yediel from all of us at Shavei Israel!
Here are a couple of videos from the wedding, including the Bnei Menashe “anthem” Eiho Menashe: