From Upland Southeast Asia to the Israeli Periphery: The Conversion and Immigration of the Bene Menashe

The global age has witnessed the widespread movement and rapid dissemination of religious ideas and practices and unprecedented widespread access to religious traditions. Judaism is no exception to these global currents. In the past, conversion to Judaism was forbidden in many locations and Judaizing groups, a recurring feature in many Christian contexts, were often severely repressed (Murray 2004).  The social and legal status of Jews was such that even where conversion was permitted, it promised significant social challenges and indeed little earthly benefits for the convert. Thus, the disappearance of Legal and social restrictions and the accessibility of knowledge in the global era, have led to the interest in Judaism among communities in numerous locations worldwide, often claiming a genetic relationship with the long lost ten tribes of Israel, exiled from the Israelite Kingdom 2700 years ago (Parfitt and Semi 2002).

Originally known as the Kuki-Chin-Mizu or Shinlong, the Bene Menashe originate from the Eastern Indian states of Mizuram and Manipur. Following a vision experienced by a local mystic in 1951, a group claiming  to be of Israelite origin began emerging in the region with several group members expressing a growing interest in establishing ties with Jews and the State of Israel (Chakraborti 2010, 95-97). In 1979, contact was made with the Israeli rabbi Eliyahu Avihail, the most important contemporary advocate of the worldwide search for lost tribes. Avihail identified similarities between certain local traditions and Jewish practices and made the connection between the group's tribal ancestor Manmasi and the biblical figure of Menashe, thus giving the group their current name (Egorova 2015, 5). Conversion to Judaism and immigration to Israel began in the 1990s. Currently the community numbers approximately 5200 people in Israel with another 5000 remaining in India.

Like many other peoples in the region sometimes referred to as Zomia, the Bene Menashe maintain an oral history of continuous struggle and cultural loss. According to Scott (2009), Zomian peoples have throughout history opted for the adoption of heterodox religions as a means of maintaining their independence in the face of the expansionist policies of lowland empires.  Such adoption of heterodoxy is closely related to a commonly held myth of lost knowledge, often in the form of an ancient book, lost during their long years of struggle. In the case of the Bene Menashe, oral traditions point to gradual migration southwards from China and a protracted struggle with the Chinese state, widespread conversion to Protestantism in the 19th century, a violent conflict with India in the 1960s and finally conversion to Judaism.  

In orthodox Judaism, conversion is usually perceived as a single, well-defined sequence of events leading to the erasing of the convert's past. The convert is renamed and referred to as son or daughter of Abraham and Sarah. Indeed, Jewish law prescribes that it is forbidden to remind converts of their conversion and non-Jewish past. The Bene Menashe represent a unique and paradoxical case in this regard, reflecting the fact that they are both converts and immigrants. Immigration to Israel is allowed under the Israeli Law of Return granting all Jews automatic Israeli citizenship. The immigration of the Bene Menashe is thus based on conversion or a commitment to convert to Judaism upon arrival in Israel. This in turn is based on a set of orally transmitted traditions and practices, provided to rabbinic and state authorities as the basis for the claim that conversion is in fact an act a restoration of their original identity. The reconnection of the lost tribes with the tribe of "Judah" is expected to be followed by rapid assimilation, a process that retrospectively affirms the authenticity and sincerity  of their conversion.

Thus, Bene Menashe community members find themselves in a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, conversion entails a clear expectation to fully negate the past. Accordingly,  investing in cultural preservation runs contrary both to the community's main incentive of trying to fully integrate into Jewish-Israeli society. At the same time, the legitimacy of the Bene Menashe claim to Israelite heritage is based on the preservation of oral traditions as proof  of an historical connection to the tribe Menashe and the ancient Israelites.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among community members in Israel, this lecture  deals with Bene Menashe attempts to negotiate the fine line between integration and assimilation. Attempts made by Israeli cultural agents to reinforce the group's historical narrative seem to incur only limited success as they are perceived as overemphasizing separateness and a distant origin. Perhaps more importantly, the lost tribe narrative, while generally maintained, does not sufficiently promote the community's assimilation in a practical everyday sense. In contrast I discuss three local strategies employed by different community members. These include the normalization of cultural Mizu concepts to aid the integration of school children, the preservation of food culture as a contribution to Israeli multiculturalism and the translation of biblical and liturgical Hebrew texts into Mizu as a means towards religious legitimacy.

My discussion of the strategies employed will also concern the specific context of the Bene Menashe community in Israel and the obstacles to integration. In addition to the need to deal with economic and social disparities, the Bene Menashe are the only Jewish community of East Asian origin in Israel and community members are often identified as Thai or Chinese foreign workers. As a relatively small group, unknown to many Israelis, the Bene Menashe are faced with the need to defend their Jewish identity, making the issue of conversion a constant and sometimes painful point of friction.  Finally, the conversion and migration of the Bene Menashe is discussed in the double context of its Zomian origin and its Israeli terminus.  Thus, the Bene Menashe carry the legacy of Zomian cultural resistance and independence while simultaneously negotiating their assimilation into 21st century Israeli society.