|
 Soizagin, 40, who will soon renounce his Indian citizenship, calls
his permanent move to Israel a "golden opportunity".
"We have been very excited," said Soizagin who goes by only one name
and is recuperating at a Sikh temple, which has been turned into a
COVID care centre.
"(We've been delayed) just because of this COVID positivity.
Otherwise...we should have left by 31st of last month."
Soizagin is part of India's roughly 6,000-member Bnei Menashe
community, which lives largely in Manipur and neighbouring Mizoram
state and has formally been recognised by Israel's rabbinical
leaders as Jews.
On Wednesday, about 40 Bnei Menashe were quarantined at the New
Delhi Sikh temple, said Soizagin, who was dressed in an olive green
T-shirt and black pyjamas and donned a Jewish kippah skullcap.
The tale of how Bnei Menashe or the "Children of Menashe" settled in
an Indian region, sandwiched between Bangladesh and Myanmar, is
grand in its sweep of history but short on scientific support.
Exiled from ancient Israel by the Assyrian empire around 730 BC, a
tribe is forced east and travels through Afghanistan and China
before settling in what is now India's northeast.
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 With time all that is left is a
name -- Manasseh, Menasia or Manmase, an
ancestor whose spirit the community invokes to
ward off evil.
That name is then linked to the Israelite tribe
of Menashe, one of the biblical "Twelve Tribes
of Israel", 10 of which disappeared after the
Assyrian invasion.
While search for conclusive proof of Bnei
Menashe's Jewish origins continues, the
community says some of their practices were
similar to ancient Hebrew traditions.
Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization
which has been locating descendants of the lost
tribes of Israel and bringing them home, has
previously called the Bnei Menashe's return a
miracle.
(Reporting by Adnan Abidi; Writing by Sankalp
Phartiyal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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