The Jerusalem PostBarcelona-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.
Press Trust of IndiaJerusalem, (PTI) : The Bnei Menashe, a community found in India's north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram, may now be able to immigrate to Israel with the Shephardic Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, formally recognising them as "descendants of Israel".
In a historic decision yesterday, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar decided to formally recognize the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India as “descendants of Israel.”The Chief Rabbinate has also agreed to send a beit din (rabbinical court) from the Chief Rabbinate to the region to convert them.
Following the exposure in NRG Maariv, about 20 Russian Jewish families suffering from Anti-Semitism where authorized to come to IsraelFollowing the exposure in NRG Maariv, the Prime Minister’s office approved the immigration to Israel of about 20 Subbotnik families living in Russian villages.The number of Subbotniks is estimated at ten thousand people. They are the descendents of Russian villagers who converted [to Judaism]. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian czar, Alexander I, expelled them from their homes and dispersed them to various places across the country. With the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Subbotniks suffered persecutions by the Communist authorities but continued to keep their Jewish identity.
Dozens of Portuguese crypto-Jews will gather next week in Lisbon, Portugal for a special seminar and Shabbaton being organized on their behalf by the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org) organization, which reaches out and assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people.
For the first time, members of a Lost Tribe of Israel in northeastern India will be able to read about great Jewish figures from the Talmud in their native tongue.
Shavei Emissary and Author, Allenby Sela
For the first time, an Israeli organization has dispatched a rabbi to northern Brazil to do outreach work among the numerous Bnai Anousim (descendants of Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition) living in the region.Rabbi Avraham Amitai, a graduate of Israeli rabbinical seminaries who is fluent in Hebrew, English and Portuguese, was sent recently to serve as a full-time emissary in the Brazilian cities of Recife and Fortaleza by the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization (formerly known as Amishav).
Shavei Emissary and Author, Allenby Sela