In a major development for the Bnei Menashe, a small community from the northeast who claim to have descended from one of Israel’s lost tribes, the Israeli government approved the plan to resettle them by 2030. As per the plan, 5,800 members of the Bnei Menashe community will be by 2030, according to a government decision announced Sunday.
Bnei Menashe is an ethnic community that hails from the northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur. They claim to be the descendants of the biblical tribe of Manasseh, considered one of the "lost tribes" of Israel. They are Christians converted into Jews and observe traditional Jewish practices and celebrate holidays such as Sukkot. Historians believe this community may have arrived in India within the last 300–500 years.
The Bnei Menashe are distinct from Judeans, Levites, and kohanim (priests). Their ancestors were exiled long before the Roman dispersion, but they continued to practice Judaism across the generations, even if not in a contemporary Orthodox way. Once they came into contact with Israel and global Jewry in the 1980s, they embraced modern Jewish learning and practice.
Israel did not formally recognise the community until 2005, when the then-Sephardi Chief Rabbi officially recognised the community as descendants of one of Israel’s lost tribes.
Of the 5,800 people, 1,200 have already been approved for resettlement in 2026. These are people whose close relatives have already settled in Israel.
As per reports, they will be relocated to the Galilee area in northern Israel, a region heavily affected by conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group. Israel will also spend roughly 90 million shekels on flights, conversion, housing, Hebrew studies, and job and school placement for the community.
According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, the government approved the plan on Sunday,
“This is an important Zionist decision that reconnects hearts and families,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said after the decision passed. “Completing the aliyah of the Bnei Menashe is a renewed bond with brothers who have carried a longing for Zion in their hearts for generations. Their aliyah to the Galilee and settlement in Nof HaGalil strengthens our hold in the north and the future of the State of Israel.”
Though the community members are already living a Jewish life, they undergo a conversion process in Israel to remove any halachic doubt. That said, the younger generation, in particular, speaks English, has at least a high-school education, and is technologically literate.
