Bnei Menashe-Tribe of (Manasses)

Bnei Menashe-Tribe of (Manasses)
Ezekiel 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Rev 7:6 Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
http://www.bneimenashe.com/

"Some Israelis are more willing to give land to Palestinians than to give a warm bed to brothers who left a long time ago," says Esther Thangsom, 24, who came to Israel 18 months ago. "Others go out of their way to welcome us back."
But it doesn't matter whether people make the way home easy or hard, because God helps us," she says in her calm and gentle manner. "We're a patient people. We've waited almost 3,000 years; we can wait a few years longer."
Thangsom is part of a new immigrant community in Israel that now numbers 340. They are known as Bnei Menashe, or Shinlung, names acquired at different stages of their long journey. The first signifies their belief that they're descended from the Israelite tribe. According to their tradition they lived as part of the Hebrew nation till the days of the First Temple, when they fled east from the Assyrian conquerors of 744 B.C.E. and, 400 years later, farther east still from the armies of Alexander the Great, through Tibet and into China. Believing they were the only Jews left, they lived quietly under the Chinese until the Middle Ages. Late in the thirteenth century they were threatened once again-by conversion to Christianity. They fled south to Indochina, where they acquired their second name. For two generations they found refuge in a remote valley of caves; Shinlung means cave dwellers. The Chinese eventually found them, seized their holy parchment (which they believe was the Torah) and drove them into today's Thailand and Burma. From here many migrated into the north Indian provinces of Mizoram and Manipur, where it is estimated 1.25 million to 4 million live today. There are 10,000 actively Jewish Bnei Menashe in 13 towns. Of this number 3,500 have formally converted to Orthodox Judaism.
"We never felt we belonged in India," asserts Ruth Thangsom, 25, Esther's sister. The family comes from Manipur and their features, like those of other Bnei Menashe, are Mongolian. "We felt lost. We don't look like Indians, we don't think like them or identify with them. We were sojourners. We always knew we belonged to the land and people of Israel. In college, when I was studying for my B.A. in English literature, I used to think: What I want more than anything is to be in Israel, where I can live according to the Torah and the mitzvot." "I grew up with a longing to be Jewish and to come to Israel," says Esther, a psychologist who is studying social work. "I used to tell my friends at boarding school in New Delhi: "I'm not Indian. It's a geographical and political mistake that I'm here. One day, I'll live in Israel."
"I've wanted to come to Israel ever since my midteens when I [found out about] Israel," says Shmuel Joram, 38, a draftsman who grew up in Mizoram. Like so many Bnei Menashe he speaks quietly and repectfully, but with determination and conviction. Today Joram, the Thangsom sisters and their brother Yitzhak, 30, an economist, all live in Jerusalem. They have formally converted to Judaism and are citizens. If they don't yet feel Israeli, they have a strong sense of having found their place. "In my heart, I resented undergoing conversion when I feel so utterly Jewish," says Yitzhak with controlled dignity. "But as our path back to our roots was through Christianity, I accept it was necessary."
After the loss of their precious parchment, they nursed a tradition that one day a white man would come to return their holy books. When a Reverend Pettigrew arrived in India from Britain in 1813, ablaze with Baptist fervor and copies of the Christian Bible, the Bnei Menashe believed the prophecy had been fulfilled. Large parts of the book, from Adam and Eve to the Exodus from Egypt, echoed their oral tradition. Within a decade, the whole community was Christian.
"Our grandfather was orphaned young and raised by missionaries," says Yitzhak. "That's how our family became Christian. Our father reversed it. He was a deeply religious man who sought the truth. I remember him giving me a siddur and telling me: Judaism is the true faith."
The way back was shown by a community member who came to be regarded as a modern-day prophet. "His name was Challa Mala," explains Joram. "In the 1950's, he had a vision that the Bnei Menashe were Israelites. His vision ignited the community. They stopped working and began preparing to return to Israel, expecting daily the appearance of the Messiah. A delegation was sent to the Israeli consulate in Calcutta."
This first attempt to return collapsed quickly in the face of opposition from local Indian authorities and Jewish leaders. But a connection had been forged and the Bnei Menashe stayed in touch with Jewish communities in Calcutta and Bombay 600 miles away. Members like the elder Thangsom embraced their Judaism.
"When you find the truth it hits your heart," Joram says. "I remember my father weeping because he had found the true faith."
In the 1970's a group of educated middle-class Bnei Menashe made a formal decision to return to Judaism. They built synagogues, took on Sabbath observance and brit mila. It was shortly after this that Rabbi Eliyahu Avihail first heard of them; one of the many letters they wrote asking for help in coming to Israel was passed along to him. "I was interested, of course," Avihail says. After several attempts he obtained permission to go into Manipur and Mizoram, an area closed because of a border conflict. He also met community representatives in Calcutta and managed to bring two of them to study in Israeli yeshivot, so they could return to India as Jewish teachers.
"The more I got to know the community, the more certain I became that their tradition was true and they were indeed descended from the tribe of Menashe," says Avihail. "Their customs are very close to prerabbinical Judaism. They have songs thousands of years old, with words from the Bible. One is: 'Let us go to Zion!' even though they didn't even know what Zion was. They give their children names unknown in the surrounding Indian community, such as Apram, Yakov, Sinai and Shilo. Among their customs are white garments for the kohen, an altar and animal sacrifices. The kohen will not speak God's name. They have a garment that resembles blue and white tzitziot. The eating of blood is prohibited. They have laws of family purity and follow a lunar calendar. Corpses are seen as impure.
"All this is too close to be coincidence-and too far to have been recently brought to them. These are ancient customs, corrupted over time."
In their scrolls there were strange stories about Adam and Eve, the Flood, Avihail points out. "The Tower of Babel, for example, was built to wage war on God, Who turned the stones to poison, whereupon the builders forgot their language and were dispersed."
Avihail began his long struggle on their behalf. "In 1988 we made a symbolic beginning, converting 24 in Calcutta," he says. "But then as now Israel's interior ministry reaction was: Do you want to submerge Israel with these people? But I persisted, and ended up pleading the case before the Supreme Court. It found in our favor and in 1989 I brought over the first group and settled them in Kfar Etzion."
Avihail's aim is to bring the 10,000 or so Bnei Menashe who are today practicing, if not yet converted, Jews. With every incoming group, however, he faces a major struggle. "In 1993 I brought [some] with the help of the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which paid for the plane," he says. "Days before they were due, a scare story was leaked to the Hebrew press that 'untouchables' were about to flood the country. This delayed their aliya by seven months-and they'd already sold their homes and businesses. I turned to the Lubavitcher rebbe, who was then very sick. 'Should I be doing this?' I asked him. 'Yes!' he said. 'Bring them to Israel!'"
"Israel's Chief Rabbinate has been good to us," says Yitzhak. "They insist on a full Orthodox conversion [bet din and mikve] but I think they go easier on us than on other converts by not making us wait months before being called to the bet din. They recognize our genuine faith. The absorption ministry has also been helpful and is giving [us] temporary resident status so we can live in absorption centers while we study Hebrew and Judaism.
"But the interior ministry is very different. They delayed granting us citizenship for almost a year after the bet din converted us. Their tactics included streams of questions about our conversion, like: How did you step into the mikve? They insisted each of us produce a full genealogical tree. It was only when we threatened to go to the Supreme Court that they gave us our citizenship papers."
Today the Bnei Menashe are scattered throughout the country; they have settled in and are doing well. Some are in higher education, others run small businesses, many live on settlements-Kiryat Arba, Ofra, Beit El, Eilon Moreh and Gush Katif. Most are politically right wing ("We all want peace," says Esther), all are ready to serve in the army, and all, without exception, are religiously observant.
Some are married to English-speakers from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States (Yehoshua Wertheime of Boston, for example, has married into the community); others have married Jews from other Indian communities (like Elisheva Ganteh who married Yehuda Ben Eliayahu, originally from Cochin); but most, like the Thangsoms and Joram, hope to marry within their own community.
"We didn't know all these people in India, but we feel very close," says Ruth. "There's always somewhere to go on Shabbat and festivals and we share one another's weddings and bar mitzvas. There are already sabra Bnei Menashe in the community."
The Thangsoms and Joram are still living and studying in the Nahalat Zvi yeshiva, where they prepared for conversion. "It's home to us," Joram says. "The rosh yeshiva [yeshiva head] totally accepts us 'raw' from India. He carries the spark of holiness within him. I'm planning to stay on for another year. Then I'll think about my career and how to earn money and settle down."
Ruth, too, wants to continue her Jewish studies. "Without learning you miss out on what it takes to be a Jew," she says. "Every Jew needs to find his own path, but you can't find it without knowledge." After full-time study, she'd like to teach.
"You have to be educated in your faith," says Esther. "We'd be missing the point of being in Israel if we didn't know how to connect with God. Being in Israel is not enough. The soul is important, too."
For the remaining Bnei Menashe in India who are interested in living a Jewish life, moving to Israel would be more than enough for the moment. Many enjoy comfortable middle class lives, but their hearts are in their ancestral land. They also faced danger 18 months ago, when their communities in Manipur were attacked by neighbors from the Naya tribe. Two synagogues were burned and several people were killed.
But this isn't why the Bnei Menashe want to come. "They want to live in Israel for the same reasons that we do," says Joram, "the same reasons that any Jew wants to live in his own land. Because it's ours. Because it's home. ("Isaiah 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.)
Bnei Menashe Return to ZionPress Release February 10, 2000 http://www.bneimenashe.com/ Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail
37 Descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel Due to Arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport on Friday After Centuries of Exile, Bnei Menashe Return to Zion. (Manasses) Rev.7:6 Jerusalem An emotional scene is expected at Ben-Gurion airport early Friday as 37 descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel are set to arrive at 6:50 a.m. on EL AL flight #0076 out of Bombay. The new arrivals, members of the Bnei Menashe, are coming to Israel under the auspices of the Jerusalem-based Amishav organization, which is dedicated to locating descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and returning them to the Jewish people. They join an additional 450 Bnei Menashe (children of the Tribe of Manasseh) already residing in the country.
This is an historic moment for the Jewish people, said Amishav founder and chairman Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, who has devoted his life to finding and assisting the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. After a lengthy and difficult separation, the Bnei Menashe are being reunited with the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. Their return to Zion marks the closing of an historical circle, noted Rabbi Avichail, adding, This is a triumph of faith.
The Bnei Menashe arriving in Israel originate from two states in eastern India: Manipur and Mizoram. Members of the Shinlung tribe, they have a rich oral tradition tracing themselves back to the Israelite tribe of Manasseh and continue to practice many uniquely Jewish customs. Approximately 30 years ago, some 3,500 Bnei Menashe decided to formally return to the Jewish people and they began living a fully Jewish life to the best of their ability in accordance with Jewish law.
Two decades ago, Rabbi Avichail learned of the Bnei Menashe through an Indian Jewish acquaintance, and he traveled to India several times to investigate their claims to Jewish ancestry. After careful study of the historical record and consultations with leading rabbinical authorities, Rabbi Avichail concluded there is convincing evidence linking the Bnei Menashe with the Jewish people.
Rabbi Avichail notes, The Bnei Menashe have an ancient tradition handed down orally from generation to generation which speaks of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They circumcise male children on the 8th day after birth in accordance with Jewish tradition. The Bnei Menashe conduct a sacrificial ceremony on an altar reminiscent of the ancient Jewish Temple in which their priest uses the Hebrew name of G-d as it appears in the Torah. In this ceremony, their priest invokes Mount Sinai, Mount Moriah and Mount Zion.
The Bnei Menashe are descended from the Israelite tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. The exiles of Manasseh reached Assyria and from there, according to Bnei Menashe tradition, went to Afghanistan. From Afghanistan they went to the Himalayi (believed to be a reference to the Himalayan mountains), on to Mongolia and from there to southern China. In China, the group was persecuted because of its faith and forced to hide in caves (as a result of which they have come to be known as Shinlung, which means cave covering). Some 500 to 600 years ago, the Shinlung, or Bnei Menashe, began to wander toward their current home located on the border between India and Burma.
Upon arrival in Israel, the Bnei Menashe will engage in full-time study of Judaism and the Hebrew language to reacquaint themselves with the faith of their forefathers. To remove any doubts about their status, the Bnei Menashe undergo formal conversion ceremonies performed by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, upon completion of which they are granted new immigrant status by the Interior Ministry. Next year in Jerusalem Dillard Munsell A Gentile

A site to see, proof of Israel coming home.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html They are going up to mount Zion.

The History of Ethiopian Jews
Introduction
"Once they were kings. A half million strong, they matched their faith with fervor and out-matched the Moslem and Christian tribesmen around them to rule the mountain highlands around Lake Tana. They called themselves Beta Israel—the house of Israel—and used the Torah to guide their prayers and memories of the heights of Jerusalem as they lived in their thatched huts in Ethiopia.
But their neighbors called them Falashas—the alien ones, the invaders. And even three hundred years of rule, even the black features that matched those of all the people around them did not make the Jews of Ethiopia secure governors of their destiny in Africa" ("Falashas: The Forgotten Jews," Baltimore Jewish Times, 9 November 1979).
For centuries, the world Jewish community was not even aware of the existence of the Jewish Community of Ethiopia in the northern province of Gondar. The miracle of Operation Solomon is only now being fully understood; an ancient Jewish community has been brought back from the edge of government-imposed exile and starvation.
But once they were kings. .
History
Christianity spread through the Axum dynasty of Ethiopia in the 4th century CE. By the 7th century, however, Islam had surpassed Christianity and had separated Ethiopia from its Christian African neighbors.
Prior to this, the Beta Israel had enjoyed relative independence through the Middle Ages. Their reign was threatened in the 13th century CE under the Solomonic Empire, and intermittent fighting continuing for the next three centuries with other tribes.
In 1624, the Beta Israel fought what would be their last battle for independent autonomy against Portuguese-backed Ethiopians. A graphic eyewitness account described the battle:
"Falasha men and women fought to the death from the steep heights of their fortress... they threw themselves over the precipice or cut each other's throats rather than be taken prisoner—it was a Falasha Masada. [The rebel leaders] burned all of the Falasha's written history and all of their religious books, it was an attempt to eradicate forever the Judaic memory of Ethiopia" (Righteous Jews Honored by Falasha Supporters, AAEJ Press Release, 1981).
Those Jews captured alive were sold into slavery, forced to be baptized, and denied the right to own land. The independence of the Beta Israel was torn from them just as it was from their Israeli brethren at Masada centuries before.
Modern Contact
The first modern contact with the now oppressed community came in 1769, when Scottish explorer James Bruce stumbled upon them while searching for the source of the Nile River. His estimates at the time placed the Beta Israel population at 100,000, already greatly decreased from an estimate from centuries before of a half-million.
Little additional contact was made with the community, but in 1935 their stability was greatly threatened as the Italian army marched into Ethiopia. Ethiopia's ruler, Emperor Haile Selassie fled his country and actually took refuge in Jerusalem for a short time. Selassie returned to power in 1941, but the situation for the Beta Israel improved little.
In 1947, Ethiopia abstained on the (United Nations partiton Plan) Partition http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/parttoc.html for the British Mandate of Palestine, which reestablished the State of Israel. By 1955, the non-governmental Jewish Agency of Israel had already begun construction of schools and a teacher's seminary for the Beta Israel in Ethiopia.
In 1956, Ethiopia and Israel established consular relations, which were improved in 1961 when the two countries established full diplomatic ties. Positive relations between Israel and Ethiopia existed until 1973, when, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Ethiopia (and 28 African nations) broke diplomatic relations with Israel under the threat of an Arab oil embargo.
The Mengistu Threat
Months later, Emperor Selassie's regime ended in a coup d'etat. Selassie was replaced by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose Marxist-Leninist dictatorship increased the threat to the Beta Israel. During the weeks surrounding Mariam's coup, an estimated 2,500 Jews were killed and 7,000 became homeless.
Soon Mariam instituted a policy of "villagization," relocating millions of peasant farmers onto state-run cooperatives which greatly harmed the Beta Israel by forcing them to "share" their villages—though they were denied the right to own the land—with non-Jewish farmers, resulting in increased levels of anti-Semitism throughout the Gondar Province. According to the Ethiopian government, over 30% of the population had been moved from privately owned farms to cooperatives as of 1989.
After taking office in 1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was eager to facilitate the rescue of Ethiopia's Jews, and so Israel entered into a period of selling arms to the Mariam government in hopes that Ethiopia would allow Jews to leave for Israel. In 1977, Begin asked President Mengistu to allow 200 Ethiopian Jews to leave for Israel aboard an Israeli military jet that had emptied its military cargo and was returning to Israel. Mariam agreed, and that may have been the precursor to the mass exodus of Operation Moses began.
In the early 1980's, Ethiopia forbade the practice of Judaism and the teaching of Hebrew. Numerous members of the Beta Israel were imprisoned on fabricated charges of being "Zionist spies," and Jewish religious leaders, Kesim,(sing. Kes) were harassed and monitored by the government.
The situation remained exceedingly bleak through the early 1980's. Forced conscription at age 12 took many Jewish boys away from their parents, some never to be heard from again. Additionally, with the constant threat of war, famine, and horrendous health conditions (Ethiopia has one of the world's worst infant mortality rates and doctor to patient ratios), the Beta Israel's position became more precarious as time progressed.
The government began to slightly soften its treatment of the Jews, however, during the mid- 1980's when terrible famines wreaked havoc on the economy. Ethiopia was forced to ask Western nations for famine relief, including the United States of America and Israel, allowing them both to exert a modicum of pressure for the release of the Beta Israel.
Over 8,000 Beta Israel came to Israel between 1977 and 1984. But these efforts pale in comparison with the modern exodus that took place during 1984's Operation Moses.
Operations Moses and Joshua
Under a news blackout for security reasons, Operation Moses began on November 18, 1984, and ended six weeks later on January 5, 1985. In that time, almost 8,000 Jews were rescued and brought to Israel.
But the mission was not without problems. Because of news leaks (blamed primarily on a December 6 article in the Washington Jewish Week and full page advertisements placed by the United Jewish Appeal), the mission ended prematurely as Arab nations pressured the Sudanese government to prevent any more Jews from using Sudan to go to Israel. Almost 15,0000 Jews were left behind in Ethiopia.
Thus, by the end of Operation Moses in January 1985, almost two-thirds of the Beta Israel remained in Ethiopia. They were comprised almost entirely of women, young children, and the sick, since only the strongest members of the community were encouraged to make the harrowing trek to Sudan where the airlift actually occurr. In addition, many young boys were encouraged to make the dangerous trek to freedom due to the low age of conscription, often as young as age twelve.
As Babu Yakov, a Beta Israel leader, summed up, "Those who could not flee are elderly, sick, and infants. Those least capable of defending themselves are now facing their enemies alone."
In 1985, then Vice President George Bush arranged a CIA-sponsored follow-up mission to Operation Moses. Operation Joshua brought an additional 800 Beta Israel from Sudan to Israel. But in the following five years, a virtual stalemate occurred in the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry. All efforts on behalf of the Beta Israel fell on the closed ears of the Mariam dictatorship.
Meanwhile, those Jews who did escape during Operation Moses were separated from their loved ones while attempting to adjust to Israeli society. The new arrivals spent between six months and two years in absorption centers learning Hebrew, being retrained for Israel's industrial society, and learning how to live in a modern society (most Ethiopian villages had no running water or electricity). Suicide, all but unheard of in their tukuls in Ethiopia, even claimed a few of the new arrivals due to the anxiety of separation and departure.
Over 1,600 "orphans of circumstance" lived day to day separated from their families, not knowing the fate of their parents, brothers, sisters, and loved ones.
Operation Solomon—The Fulfillment of a Dream
The grim prospect of thousands of Jewish children growing up separated from their parents in Israel almost became a reality. Little could be done to persuade the Mariam government to increase the trickle of Jews leaving Ethiopia in the years between Operations Joshua and Solomon. But in November 1990, Ethiopia and Israel reached an agreement that would allow Ethiopian Jews to move to Israel under the context of family reunification. It soon became clear, however, that Mengistu was willing to allow Ethiopian Jews to leave outside of the guise of reunification. November and December, 1990, showed increased numbers of Ethiopians leaving for Israel. The Ethiopian Jews were finally ready to come home.
In early 1991, Eritrean and Tigrean rebels began a concerted attack on Mengistu forces, meeting with surprising success for the first time since the civil war began in 1975. With the rebel armies advancing each day, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam fled his country in early May. Rebels claimed control of the capital Addis Ababa shortly thereafter, and the situation of the Beta Israel took top priority in Israel. The Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir authorized a special permit for the Israeli airline, El Al, to fly on the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday, May 24, and continuing non-stop for 36 hours, a total of 34 El Al jumbo jets and Hercules C-130s—seats removed to accommodate the maximum number of Ethiopians—began a new chapter in the struggle for the freedom of Ethiopian Jewry.
Operation Solomon, named for the king from whom one of the theories suggest that the Beta Israel draw their lineage, ended almost as quickly as it began. Timing was crucial, since any delay by Israel could have allowed the rebels to hold the Jews as bargaining chips with Israel or the United States. A total of 14,324 Ethiopian Jews were rescued and resettled in Israel, a modern exodus of the grandest design. Operation Solomon rescued twice the number of Jews in Operation Moses and Joshua, in a mere fraction of the time. Though it is too early to predict their impact on Israeli society, the 36,000 Ethiopian Jews now living in Israel (rescue efforts are under way to transport the remaining 2,100 Ethiopians who wish to emigrate to Israel) will play an important role in Israel for generations to come.
Authentic Jews
Because much of the Beta Israel's history is passed orally from generation to generation, we may never truly know their origins. Four main theories exist concerning the beginnings of the Beta Israel community:
1) The Beta Israel may be the lost Israelite tribe of Dan.
2) They may be descendants of Menelik I, son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba.
3) They may be descendants of Ethiopian Christians and pagans who converted to Judaism centuries ago.
4) They may be descendants of Jews who fled Israel for Egypt after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and eventually settled in Ethiopia.
(Excerpted from "Reunify Ethiopian Jewry," World Union of Jewish Students)
Without regard as to which theory may actually be correct (and each theory has its support), the authenticity of the "Jewishness" of the community became an issue.
As early as the 16th century, Egypt's Chief Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Avi Zimra (Radbaz) declared that in Halachic (Jewish legal) issues, the Beta Israel were indeed Jews. In 1855, Daniel ben Hamdya, a member of the Beta Israel, was the first Ethiopian Jew to visit Israel, meeting with a council of rabbis in Jerusalem concerning the authenticity of the Beta Israel. By 1864, almost all leading Jewish authorities, most notably Rabbi Azriel Hildsheimer of Eisenstadt, Germany, accepted the Beta Israel as true Jews. In 1908 the chief rabbis of forty-five countries had heeded Rabbi Hildsheimer's call and officially recognized the Beta Israel as fellow Jews.
In reaffirming the Radbaz's position centuries before, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, stated in 1972, "I have come to the conclusion that Falashas are Jews who must be saved from absorption and assimilation. We are obliged to speed up their immigration to Israel and educate them in the spirit of the holy Torah, making them partners in the building of the Holy Land."
In 1975, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren wrote to the Beta Israel telling them, "You are our brothers, you are our blood and our flesh. You are true Jews." Later that same year the Israeli Interministerial Commission officially recognized the Beta Israel as Jews under Israel's Law of Return, a law designed to aid in Jewish immigration to Israel. The Beta Israel were ready to come home.
Indeed, the Beta Israel were strictly observant in pre-Talmudic Jewish traditions. The women went to the mikvah, or ritual bath, just as observant Jewish women do to this day, and they continue to carry out ancient festivals, such as Seged, that have been passed down through the generations of Beta Israel. The Kesim, or religious leaders, are as widely revered and respected as the great rabbis in each community, passing the Jewish customs through storytelling and maintaining the few Jewish books and Torahs some communities were fortunate enough to have written in the liturgical language of Ge'ez.
Jewish Apathy . . .and its Defeat
The struggle to free the Beta Israel was not fought solely against the Ethiopian government. Much like some timid Jewish leaders during the Holocaust, some recent Jews sought to prevent a shanda fur de goyim (an embarrassment in front of the non-Jews) by not stirring up waves over Ethiopian Jewry.
The history of the Beta Israel's rescue is at times open to debate regarding the heroes of the Ethiopian Jewry movement. As with many struggles to free oppressed Jewry around the world, many advocated and vocalized opposition to those responsible for the lack of action on their behalf. Others, however, argued for a more quiet diplomacy, void of the public demonstrations and arrests that marked the struggle for Soviet Jewry.
Though over 8,000 Beta Israel managed to flee to Israel during his tenure, it was an Israeli official in charge of the Ethiopian Jews' absorption who may best symbolize the insensitivity that an extreme minority of people once held. Yehuda Dominitz who served as Director General of the Jewish Agency's Department of Immigration and Absorption, declared in 1980 that, "[taking] a Falasha (sic) out of his village, it's like taking a fish out of water...I'm not in favor of bringing them [to Israel]." Dominitz also refused to allow his agency to rent buses so Ethiopian Jews in Israel could travel to Jerusalem to observe their ancient holiday of Seged (Dominitz eventually relented, but had the buses take the Beta Israel to Haifa instead of Jerusalem).
Malkah Raymist, a writer for the World Zionist Organization, wrote in 1956 in The Jewish Horizon (of the Hapoel Hamizrachi of America Movement) that, "the reasons [for not bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel] are simple and weighty. On one hand, they are well off where they are, while their development and mental outlook is that of children; they could fall an easy prey of exploitation, if brought here without any preparation. On the other hand, being a backward element, they would be and it would take several years before they could be educated towards a minimum of progressive thinking."
In an American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) press release, the AAEJ quoted its founder, Dr. Graenum Berger, as criticizing those who sought any delay in the rescue of the Beta Israel. Berger declared, "Not when Jews are dying...these revelations show once again that the policy of influencing factions of the government of Israel always have been against the immigration of the Ethiopian Jews. And, the same people who controlled their immigration then are controlling it now. These are the same people who gave instructions to the Israeli Embassy in Ethiopia (1956-1973) not to issue immigration visas to any Jew from Ethiopia."
Berger himself came under criticism for his outspoken remarks concerning the Israeli efforts to rescue the Beta Israel, showing that nobody was immune from the rhetoric surrounding the issue.
(See also) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/falashmura.html
(See also (Law of return) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/Text_of_Law_of_Return.html
From the (Jewish Virtual Library) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/index.html Next Year IN Jerusalem

These people from abraham brought us to Jesus

Why are we there? To take back our land.

Arabs only came to the Land of Israel in large numbers after the Jews returned in the 20th century and started to rebuild the nation, thereby creating economic and employment opportunities for Arab immigrants.
Prior to 1870, when Jews started to return to the Holy Land in large numbers, there were fewer than 100,000 Arabs living in what is today the State of Israel - including Yesha (The Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District). This small number of nomadic, tribal Arabs who lived in the Holy Land before the modern Jewish return never considered themselves to be a separate people or nation.
The Arabs who lived in the Land of Israel were not "Palestinians" but Arabs - part of a huge Arab people with 22 very large independent nations that control one-ninth of the land mass on the planet Earth.
Israel is anything but a mistake, and history shows the justice of Israel's cause. With the exception of the period between the two Jewish Temples between roughly 586 and 516 BCE, Jews ruled this land continuously from approximately 1300 BCE until 68 CE. Since that time, no other government has been based in Israel, no other country has called Jerusalem its capital, and no other people has called this land its home. It is not history that is Israel's enemy but the false narrative of history presented to the World by the Arab Muslims. It is not history that is Israel's enemy, but Arab attempts to wipe out the vestiges of that history, as if destroying all of the Temple artifacts on the Temple Mount will confirm that it was 'always' Haram al-Sharif, that two Jewish Temples never stood there and that Jesus never argued with money changers there.
This country was deserted swampland for much of the period between 68 CE and the beginning of the return of larger numbers of Jews started in 1870. Israel's interior areas were mainly a desert-like wasteland while her coast was a malaria-ridden swamp. But Jews always prayed three times a day that God should gather them in from their diaspora and bring them back to this country. Many Jews attempted to come here on their own. Jews were a majority of the population of Jerusalem in the 19th century, and settled many of the cities of the Galilee as well. In 1844 - when the Land of Israel was controlled by the Turkish Muslims - the Turkish census counted 7,120 Jews and 5,000 Muslims living in Jerusalem. Thus, Jerusalem was already a Jewish city 160 years ago. Until an Arab massacre wiped them out in 1929, there was even a large Jewish community in Hebron, which included a major Talmudical academy, which was transplanted from the village of Slobodka in Lithuania.
Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the Middle East knows that the Jewish claim to Jerusalem is much stronger than the Palestinian claim. Jerusalem is to the Jews what Rome is to the Catholics, but to the Muslims Jerusalem is merely an imperialistic trophy and an excuse for fighting.

Israeli rules for aliyah creates Israelis but not Jews.
One area where the traditional definition of Jew is not followed by the Israeli government is in deciding who qualifies to make aliyah ("immigrate [to Israel]") and acquire citizenship under the Law of Return.
The requirements here differ significantly from the definition of a Jew under halakha, in permitting anyone with only one Jewish grandparent, or as non-Jewish spouses of Jews, to move to Israel. A person with only one Jewish grandparent is presently allowed to make aliyah but that does not confer the status of Jew upon that person according to Jewish law neither in Israel nor anywhere else.
Thus, because the secular Israeli Law of Return functions in far broader terms than would be allowed according to Judaisms's definition of "Who is a Jew?" it is consequently estimated that as a result of the easing of standards, in the past twenty years, about 300,000 avowed non-Jews and even practicing Christians have entered Israel from the former Soviet Union on the basis of claiming to have one Jewish grandparent or by being married to a Jew. The net result has been that Israel has not resolved the question of how such a large group of immigrants who are now Israelis but who are still not Jews should be formally converted to Judaism.
Current Israeli definitions however, specifically excludes Jews who have openly and knowingly converted to a faith other than Judaism. This definition is not the same as that in traditional Jewish law; in some respects it is a deliberately wider, so as to include those non-Jewish relatives of Jews who may have been perceived to be Jewish, and thus faced anti-Semitism, but in other respects it is narrower, as the traditional definition includes apostate Jews
Aliyah (Hebrew: עלייה, "ascent" or "going up") is a term widely used to mean Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel (and since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel). The opposite action, Jewish emigration away from Israel, is called Yerida ("descent"). Next year in Jerusalem!!!

A change for the nations.

I am glad this is in Gods hands and not mine. Written in the book so we gentiles may know that we have life because of their unbelif and soon the land of Israel will be filled with JEWS from all the world and they will have their Kingdom with their King. Can you guess who?

Romans 8:1-11 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 9:1-5 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

Romans 11:11-21 11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! 13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Ezekiel 37: "Dry bones.") 16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Romans11:28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, (After they were cut off.) but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. New King James Version
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. KJV (Proof >They the Jews have come back to their land in unbelief. But soon The spirit from on high will be poured upon them.)

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Jesus will come to them with us.!!!)

Isaiah 32:14-16 14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; 15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. 16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Romans 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Romans11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. KJV (Proof >They the Jews have come back to their land in unbelief. (But soon The spirit from on high will be poured upon them.)

Ezekiel 36:6-10 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen: 7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. 9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: 10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

Zechariah 12:3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, (JESUS) and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

Isaiah 32:20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox (Jew) and the ass.(Gentile) ( A Jewish and Gentile ministry to the world for a thousand years.
"RUTH"> We believe a Moabite Gentile an outcast woman added her blood to the lineage of Jesus Christ. If God received her into the Messianic heritage, He will also adopt us into His Royal Priesthood if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dillard Munsell Bible Study 6:30 Wed.