Israel enlisting Marranos in PR effort

BARCELONA (JTA) -- On the top floor of this city's Jewish community center, a group whose ancestors were cut off from the Jewish people more than 500 years ago are receiving tips and training to become pro-Israel advocates in the 21st century. “We can use cyberspace to circumvent the traditional media,” Raanan Gissin, a former Israeli government spokesman, tells them.
CHURACHANDPUR, India - When Asher Kipgen is asked the Hebrew name of his father, who immigrated to Israel six years ago from a village in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, he blurts out "Netanyahu" without thinking twice. The real name of his father, who lives in Kiryat Arba, is Natan, but the mention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's name is no coincidence. Many of the 7,232 members of the Kuki, Mizo, Lushai and Shin tribes carefully followed the elections in Israel, in the hope that the new prime minister of Israel would bring them to the country.
For 83-year-old Mendel Kingbol, a recent immigrant, Passover and its message of deliverance resonate far more strongly than perhaps any other festival. As one of the elder members of the Bnei Menashe community, Kingbol still recalls, with a mixture of fondness and nostalgia, the way his ancestors celebrated the festival over the centuries in the farthest reaches of northeastern India.
Following criticism from left-wing politicians, the immigration-assistance group Shavei Israel has stopped settling immigrants in the West Bank, directing them to the Galilee instead. "We did it to stop ideological issues from blinding people to our cause," says Michael Freund, the U.S.-born founder and president of the nongovernmental organization, which focuses on bringing back lost Jewish communities around the world into the fold of Judaism. "We saw that even though our activity in reality had nothing to do with politics, we still had to break out of being viewed as some kind of right-wing organization," he added.  Advertisement
For first time since Inquisition, Portuguese cheese gets kosher seal For the first time since the Spanish Inquisition in Portugal, a dairy product has been given an official kosher certificate. The ground-breaking product is a hard, goat's milk cheese, manufactured by the descendant of Anusim (Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity).
Down a narrow, cobblestone lane in the heart of the northern Portuguese city of Porto stands a centuries-old monument to Jewish valor and ingenuity. Several years ago, workmen renovating a four-story medieval structure at 9 Sao Miguel street in the old Jewish quarter discovered a false wall on the ground floor. Upon removing it, they entered a large and dusty room containing an unusual recess carved into the facade.  
They observe the Sabbath, practice ritual circumcision, and refrain from eating pork. They survived the oppression of the czars, suffered persecution by the communists and were murdered by the Nazis. Alexander Zaid and Rafael Eitan were two of them.  But none of this is enough for the State of Israel, which decided to prevent the descendants of Subbotniks - Russians who converted to Judaism hundreds of years ago – from making aliya to Israel. According to the Ministry of the Interior: They are not Jews.. The villages in this part of the world are similar to one another, containing small stone houses with an aluminum roof and a small entrance way. They all have a brown wooden beamed floor, a freezing outhouse in the courtyard, and a shed nicknamed “The Kitzi Kitchen” that was used for storing food during the winter.  The fronts of the houses are lined with green cherry trees. In the spacious courtyards, meticulously cared for grapevines carry clusters of small red grapes which produce sweet grape juice. The leaves falling from the white birch and poplar trees paint the muddy dirt paths with an intense orange color, providing vitality to the otherwise colorlessness of the village.

During Israel's recent counter-terror operation in Gaza, the Bnei Menashe in India held mass prayer ceremonies demonstrating their solidarity with the Jewish state. ...

Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, who claim descent of one of Israel's 10 Lost Tribes, receive new book on laws and customs of Hanukkah in their native tongues of Kuki and Mizo. The Bnei Menashe of northeastern India will have an added reason to celebrate this week with the release of a new book on the laws and customs of Hanukkah in their native languages of Mizo and Kuki as well as Hebrew.  
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