The BRICS TimesIndia’s Bnei Manashe community, living in Manipur and Mizoram, finally begins its journey to Israel under a landmark government-backed immigration operation
Who are the Bnei Manashe, India’s Jewish community?
Deep in India’s northeast, a community has carried a remarkable identity for centuries. The Bnei Manashe, meaning “Sons of Manasseh,” live primarily in Manipur and Mizoram. They believe they descend directly from the biblical tribe of Manasseh one of ancient Israel’s famous lost tribes. Their oral history tells a fascinating story. Over generations, the community migrated through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and China. Through every journey, they quietly held onto certain Jewish practices, including circumcision. By the time they settled in India, Christian missionaries had converted many of them during the colonial period. Yet the sense of Jewish identity never fully left them.
Today, nearly 10,000 Bnei Manashe members live across Mizoram and Manipur. They have spent decades hoping to reconnect with Israel their spiritual homeland. That hope is now becoming a reality in a big way.
Operation Wings of Dawn takes flight
On April 23, 2026, the first flight of what Israel calls Operation Wings of Dawn landed at Ben-Gurion Airport. Around 240 immigrants from India’s Bnei Manashe community stepped onto Israeli soil. Emotional scenes unfolded at the airport. Men walked down a red carpet wearing traditional hand-knitted kippas. Women arrived in customary head coverings. Waiting family members cheered loudly. Many reunions happened right there at the arrival hall, with tears flowing freely.
The operation is a joint effort between Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). The Israeli government approved the plan last November. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Aliyah Minister Ofir Sofer championed the decision together.
“We are making history as we bring the entire Bnei Manashe community to Israel,” Sofer said at the welcome ceremony. “There is no more fitting and moving time to welcome a plane full of olim than right after the State’s 78th Independence Day. Welcome home.”
The scale of this historic immigration plan
This first flight is only the beginning. Two more flights are already scheduled within the next two weeks. Together, the three flights will bring around 600 Bnei Manashe members to Israel in this opening wave. By the end of 2026, Israel plans to bring 1,200 people from the community. The broader goal is even more ambitious. The government wants to relocate all remaining 6,000 Bnei Manashe members from India to Israel by 2030.
The newest arrivals are settling into absorption centers in Nof HaGalil, a northern city overlooking Nazareth. Many are young families who will reunite with relatives already living there from earlier immigration waves.
Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog spoke warmly about the arrivals. “Members of the Bnei Manashe community bring with them unconditional love for the State of Israel,” he said. “Our responsibility is not only to receive, but to accompany, embrace, and create for them a foundation of opportunity, belonging, and future.”
Decades of waiting- a community in limbo
The Bnei Manashe’s journey to Israel did not happen overnight. Immigration began in the late 1980s, when an Israeli rabbi helped the first members make the move. The organisation Shavei Israel later took over the process. It has played a key role in identifying community members and supporting their relocation. Around 4,000 members have immigrated over the past three decades. The most recent arrivals before this operation came in 2020.
Back in India, life had grown increasingly difficult for the community. The region of Manipur saw severe ethnic violence over nearly three years. Clashes between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community killed more than 250 people. Community synagogues suffered damage. Some Bnei Manashe members were displaced from their homes entirely.
For a long time, many in the community had little hope that Israel would move quickly. The November 2025 government decision changed everything. Lawmakers also cited a practical Israeli goal repopulating the north, which had suffered years of rocket fire from Lebanon.
Conversion, citizenship, and a new beginning
Arriving in Israel is only the first step for Bnei Manashe immigrants. Before they can receive Israeli citizenship, each member must go through a formal conversion to Judaism. The Conversion Authority coordinates this process along with the Chief Rabbinate.
Israel’s claim that the Bnei Manashe descend from a lost tribe has faced challenges. Researchers have disputed whether the historical link is verifiable. Still, the Israeli government has embraced the community’s identity and supported their aliyah across multiple administrations.
The operation draws support from several major Jewish and Christian Zionist organisations. The World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Federations of North America, Christians for Israel, and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews all back the effort.
One young Bnei Manashe member named Amos Namte, who moved to Nof HaGalil at age four, came to the airport to welcome a childhood friend. “I’m very excited to see how he’s grown, what he looks like, acts like,” he said. Namte, 17, is finishing high school and plans to join the Israel Defense Forces. He hopes to serve as an Iron Dome operator and potentially move into a combat role. He described his father’s long wish to fight for Israel. “He very much wanted to fight for Israel, because there’s a Jewish state here, because he truly felt attached to this place, even when he was in India,” Namte said.
The arrival of the Bnei Manashe marks more than a policy decision. It represents the closing of a centuries-long journey from the mountains of northeast India, back to a homeland their ancestors once called their own.
