Certain officials at the Chief Rabbinate are providing
assistance to an operation slated to bring approximately
6,000 immigrants from India, based on claims they are
descendants from the Tribe of Menashe. These officials are
asking the Interior Ministry to recognize them as Jews
according to the Law of Return.
Several thousand members of a tribe living in Northeast India
near the Myanmar border have claimed for years they are from
the lost Tribe of Menashe. Two weeks ago, Chief Rabbi Shlomo
Amar sent a delegation of rabbonim to the cities of Mizoram
and Manipur to conduct an inquiry, including rabbonim from
the Chief Rabbinate and from Amishav. Upon their return, the
delegation reported many tribe members observe kashrus,
miloh and taharas mishpochoh but have no
documentation to prove their Jewishness, instead relying
primarily on testimony by tribe elders who recall hearing
from their forefathers that they are descendants of the sons
of Menashe who left the Egyptian Diaspora and were scattered
among the nations.
In recent years, Amishav has brought several hundred tribe
members to Israel, settling them primarily in Judea, Samaria
and Gaza, where they married local Jews after undergoing
giyur lechumroh according to the Chief Rabbinate.
Knesset Immigrant Absorption Committee Chairman MK Colette
Avital objects to further aliyoh by tribe members,
claiming it entrenches the settlements in Judea, Samaria and
Gaza.
Meanwhile members of the Lamba Tribe, a tribe of 50,000
living near the Limpopo River in South Africa, also claim
that they are Jews and want to come to Israel. Some of them
circumcise their children, do not eat pork and do not mix
meat and milk. A portion of the tribe members have begun
studying Hebrew and a few have already visited Israel.
Rabbonim and chareidi public figures expressed concerns, in
light of Chief Rabbinate figures who presume to render
halachic decisions regarding whether or not these tribe
members are Jewish, delving into major halachic issues
without consulting gedolei Yisroel for an
authoritative ruling.
"The Chief Rabbinate figures are taking heavy responsibility
upon themselves and are committing an act that is liable to
bring about the planting of foreign seed in Am Yisroel and
mixed marriage. The matter is of a very grave nature and a
decision as to who is Jewish cannot be made independently,"
say rabbonim.
