Bnei Menashe: the "return" of a lost tribe from India to Israel
The Israeli government is turning an ad hoc process into a structured policy, approving in November 2025 a plan to relocate nearly 6,000 people with public funding. The first 240 arrived recently as part of Operation Kanfei Shahar. Faith alone is not driving many to leave their Indian villages in the Indian state of Manipur, interethnic violence is.
Milan (AsiaNews) – According to the biblical account, everything can be traced back to the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC. King Sagon II, who succeeded Shalmaneser V, conquered the capital Samaria and implemented the systematic deportation of the conquered populations to prevent revolts. From then on, most of the inhabitants, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel (except Judah and Benjamin), were dispersed throughout the various regions of the Assyrian Empire.
The "ethnic cleansing" described in the Book of Kings involved the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Dan, and Naphtali. Unlike the Israelites of the southern kingdom of Judah, who were exiled to Babylon and then returned to Jerusalem, these tribes were never heard from again. Hence the idea that they were “lost”
In Israel's recent history, however, occasionally some of the people dispersed over the centuries suddenly resurface, claiming a common origin and a possible return. This is not the first time this has happened.
From "Operation Moses" (1984–85), which brought several thousand Ethiopian Jews (known as Falasha or Beta Israel) to Israel, to the even larger "Operation Solomon" (1991), the history of the Jewish state is punctuated by "exile gathering" missions.
Today, this imagery is being rekindled by the Bnei Menashe: a community in northeastern India who consider themselves, hence their name, a direct descendant of the biblical tribe of Manasseh.
According to their ancestors, the tribe was exiled from ancient Israel after the Assyrian conquest and, over the centuries, crossed Asia until it settled in the hills of Manipur and Mizoram.
Here, after centuries of isolation and a long phase of Christianisation under missionary influence, a segment of the community began, in the 20th century, to reinterpret traditions, songs, and rituals as traces of an ancient Jewish origin.
This reinterpretation gave rise to a movement that led thousands of people to convert to Judaism and attempt aliyah (return), that is, immigration to Israel.
For years, however, the Bnei Menashe tribe remained marginalised: neither fully recognised as belonging to Judaism according to religious law, nor completely excluded. The State of Israel, as it did with the Falasha of Ethiopia, adopted a pragmatic approach: accepting their immigration, but making it conditional on an Orthodox conversion upon arrival.
Thus, since the late 1990s, approximately 5,000 members of the community have settled, especially in the north of the country, often thanks to the intervention of private organisations like Shavei Israel.
So why are we talking about it now? The answer lies in a recent measure: the Israeli government has decided to transform what was an ad hoc process into a structured policy.
In November 2025, a plan was approved to relocate nearly 6,000 members still residing in India to Israel by 2030, with significant public investment to cover flights, accommodations, Hebrew courses, and religious conversion.
A few days ago, on 23 April, the first 240 Bnei Menashe arrived (to widespread media coverage), marking the operational launch of the initiative.
The project is known as Operation “Kanfei Shahar" (Wings of Dawn), and represents a paradigm shift: no longer an initiative driven by private entities (formerly the NGO Shavei Israel), but a fully-fledged state operation coordinated by various ministries, the Jewish Agency, and the Chief Rabbinate. Its primary focus is family reunification, as many families were split for years between India and Israel.
Far more complex issues are behind the humanitarian and religious aspects. One concerns the very definition of Jewish identity: Who is a Jew? Is a recognised tradition sufficient, or is halakhic recognition (i.e., recognised as Jews according to religious law) necessary?
The case of the Bnei Menashe, like that of the Falasha (Beta Israel), reopens a debate that touches on the relationship between religion, state, and belonging.
Another issue is social, and concerns integration. The Bnei Menashe arrive as an Asian minority in a society already marked by great internal diversity.
The experiences of the first immigrants from India paint a mixed picture: some settled into Zionist religious communities, others encountered language difficulties, employment, and sometimes more or less overt forms of discrimination.
These problems have already been widely experienced by the Jewish population of Ethiopian origin, who, not surprisingly, even today remain a few rungs below other groups on the social ladder, especially those of Central European origin.
Finally, there is the geopolitical dimension. The plan calls for many new arrivals to settle in northern Israel, in areas such as the Galilee, where there is a significant Palestinian population with Israeli citizenship.
For years, various governments have sought to boost the Jewish presence in heavily Arab areas through targeted demographic policies. In this sense, the arrival of the Bnei Menashe also fits into internal strategies of territorial balance.
At a time when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government (thanks to the patronage of right-wing nationalist minister Bezalel Smotrich) announced 34 new settlements in the West Bank, some speculated a connection with "Operation Wings of Dawn”. There is no indication that the Bnei Menashe return programme is intended to directly boost settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
However, the use of Jewish immigration as a demographic lever has always justified the increase in settlements in the West Bank. More than an immediate operational connection, therefore, it is a continuation of a certain political logic: strengthening the Jewish presence in areas considered strategic.
It is certainly not just faith, real or imagined, that drives many Bnei Menashe to leave their Indian villages. In the Indian state of Manipur, for example, ethnic violence that erupted in 2023 between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities has created instability, destruction, and displacement.
In this context, aliyah to Israel, though in a region marked by war that has not spared human lives, also appears as a concrete escape route to security and stability.
In short, this is not only a biblical "return” but also (perhaps above all) a modern form of migration, made up of strategic choices, external pressures, and individual hopes.
The Bnei Menashe thus find themselves at the intersection of myth and politics, religious memory (the rebirth of biblical Israel) and new life opportunities.
And precisely this intertwining, revived by a new government plan and the latest arrivals, explains why the "lost children" of Manasseh have returned to the forefront today.
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