There was a lot of dough at a recent Rosh Chodesh (first of the month) event in Maalot. The type that turns into bread; challah, to be specific. This special "hafrashat challah" or separating challah event was with Rabanit Tali Kook. It took place in the...
Shavei Israel is proud of the 270 Bnei Menashe who have settled in Maalot in the north of Israel. Watch this exciting and very moving celebration of Bnei Menashe accomplishments at Yeshivat Maalot in honor of the completion of a professional course of study by a number...
Yotam Ginminthang Baite is 32 years old, with his own carpentry business, living on India’s northeastern border with Myanmar. All of his family - his parents, his siblings and their families - have already made aliyah to Israel. Finally Yotam, his wife and children are...
When Shavei Israel’s new director of marketing Laura Ben-David visited India for the first time last month to accompany a group of 50 Bnei Menashe on their journey from Manipur to Tel Aviv, she was expecting to meet people living in primitive conditions, seeking an...
“This was the first time I really understood what aliyah is all about,” said Tomer Yamtovich as he headed back to the bus after an emotionally uplifting hour of singing, dancing, clapping, hugging and unrestrained joy at Ben-Gurion Airport last week. Tomer is a student...
As a child growing up in the small Indian village of Churachandpur near the Burmese border, Tzvi Khaute didn't pay all that much attention to Jewish tradition.
Like most kids, Tzvi was more interested in playing soccer with his friends and doing well at school.
Nonetheless, even from a very young age, Tzvi always knew that by being Jewish he was different.
"My grandfather, who was the chief priest of the village, told us that our living in India was only a sojourn and temporary, and that we Bnei Menashe are separate from the rest of the country - politically, socially and ethnically," Tzvi recalls.
His family instilled within Tzvi a deep pride in their roots as Bnei Menashe (Hebrew for "the Children of Manasseh"), who trace their descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes which were exiled from the Land of Israel some 27 centuries ago by the Assyrian empire.
As he grew up, Tzvi began to take more interest in his heritage. He took note of the rituals of the Bnei Menashe that he would later learn were in many ways parallel to modern Jewish observance. "Shabbat was always observed as a rest day from work," he says. "We never mixed milk and meat, and chicken and cattle were slaughtered by the community priest."(Spanish test) As a child growing up in the small Indian village of Churachandpur near the Burmese border, Tzvi Khaute didn't pay all that much attention to Jewish tradition.
Like most kids, Tzvi was more interested in playing soccer with his friends and doing well at school.
