ICEJ Welcomes Latest Flight of Bnei Menashe
On Thursday, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem sponsored flights for a group of 50 members of the Bnei Menashe community from India who are making Aliyah to Israel.
They are part of the latest wave of 250 Bnei Menashe arriving in Israel this month in an on-going Aliyah operation spearheaded by Shavei Israel, with supervision by the Chief Rabbinate and other Israeli authorities.
With these latest arrivals, the ICEJ has now sponsored the aliyah flights of 1,000 Bnei Menashe over the past 24 months, including a record 680 this year. The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the Israelite tribe of Manasseh and aspire to come home to the land of Israel after 2,700 years of exile.
About 3,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community are now living in Israel, while another 6,000 are awaiting their turn to immigrate.
Over recent decades, the Christian Embassy has assisted more than 115,000 Jews in making aliyah to Israel—which is roughly 10 percent of those immigrating to Israel during this time.
Most of these new immigrants have come from the former Soviet Union, but it includes Ethiopian Jews, Jews from Western countries, the ‘quiet aliyah’ from sensitive countries, and now the Bnei Menashe from India.
