CHURACHANDPUR, India -- Rabbis from Israel have begun converting to orthodox Judaism about 9,000 members of an impoverished tribe here that is thought to be one of the 10 lost tribes of biblical Israel.
Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based group that has been trying to locate descendants of lost Jewish tribes and bring them to Israel, believes that all Chins in Burma, Mizos in Mizoram, and Kukis in Manipur -- three prominent tribes of the region -- are descendants of Menashe, an ancient Jewish leader.
There are up to two million Bnei Menashes in the hilly regions of Burma and northeastern India.
After an Assyrian invasion around 722 B.C., Jewish tradition says, 10 tribes from Israel were enslaved in Assyria. Later the tribes fled Assyria and wandered through Afghanistan, Tibet, and China. Around A.D. 100, one group moved south from China and settled in northeastern India and Burma.
The conversions culminate an almost a decade-long investigation, which included DNA tests.
As reported in The Washington Times, September 26, 2005.
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