PTI, Aizawl: Moving across Aizwal, Israel store and Zion Street are common sights and a newcomer to the state capital could be excused if he momentarily wonders he is in any part of Israel.For many among thousands of living in Mizoram and Manipur, Israel is the promised land and believe they are the lost tribes of Israel.
They were overjoyed when the sephardic chief Rabbi, Mr Shlomo Amar reportedly recognised them as ‘descendants of Israel’.
BELMONTE, Portugal, April 15 (AFP) - More than five centuries after the start of the Inquisition, a small Jewish community in a northern mountain town in Portugal is slowly emerging from years of secret observance of its faith.
The 180 Jews who live in Belmonte, a town of granite-walled houses of 3,500 people less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Spanish border, opened a new synagogue -- the first since the 15th century -- eight years ago.
Last week the community, which only began producing kosher wine and olive oil in 2004, formed an association of kosher food producers, yet the town's Jews are still reserved when questioned about their religion by outsiders.
The Jerusalem Post
Barcelona-born Eduard Perez was researching his family's roots and discovered that his ancestors were "anusim" (Spanish Jews forced to convert to Christianity some 500 years ago during the Inquisition.) Lorenzo Ujmin is a descendent of a group of Moroccan Jews who ventured into the Amazon more than 100 years ago in hope of making a fortune in rubber and were left stranded there. Orlando Maman from Peru has dreamed for more than 60 years of meeting his Jewish step-siblings in Eretz Israel.
The Jerusalem Post
"The redemption of Bnei Menashe is just a part of the larger process of the redemption of the entire Jewish people," Rabbi Yehuda Gin of Kiryat Arba said Tuesday.
Gin, probably the first Bnei Menashe to become a rabbi, was reacting to Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's decision on Friday to allow the mass conversion, according to Orthodox Jewish criteria, of a group of 6,000 to 7,000 Indians who are thought to be the descendants of the lost tribe of Menashe.
A special team of rabbis from Israel will soon be sent to the Indian-Myanmar (Burma) border in order to convert thousands of members of a local tribe who have been recognized as Jews by Israel's chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, The Times of London has reported.
One of Israel's chief rabbis has recognised an Indian tribe as lost descendants of ancient Israelites.
The Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Jews, Shlomo Amar, has informed members of the 6,000-strong Bnei Menashe community in India's north-east of his decision.
