Aizawl: A total of 103 Jews from Mizoram, who claim to be descendents of the Israeli tribe of Bnei Menashe, left Aizawl for Israel on Thursday.
Another batch of 100 people will leave for Israel on Friday, sources in the Shavei Hebrew Centre said.
The Bnei Menashe (children of Menashe) claim descent from the tribe of Mannassceh, one of 10 tribes exiled from Israel by the Assyrians over 2,700 years ago.
“There are around 1,000 Jews in Mizoram who wish to go to Israel, Jeremiah Hnamte, a leader of local Jews said. A total 218 people were cleared but five of them could not travel due to sickness and other problems. Rabbi Hanoch Avizidik will lead the second batch,” he said.
Avizidik had performed 'mikveh', a Jewish ritual, for the 218 people and formally converted them to Judaism at Zuangtui after he and another rabbi arrived in the state on October 4.
Miachel Freund, a leader of the organisation that seeks out the lost tribes of Israel, claimed that country's interior and absorption ministry has approved their homecoming.
Earlier, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, head of the rabbinical court, had announced the recognition of the Bnei Menashe – a Mizo ethnic community living in Mizoram and Manipur – as descendants of the Israeli tribe.
The rabbinical court is the highest decision-making authority to determine who are the lost tribes of Israel.
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