Taste of Their Own Medicine: Judaism threatens Church in Mizoram, Manipur

Posted April 23, 2005
Deccan Herald
Friday, April 22, 2005
Service Guwahati

Nearly 111 years after its advent in Mizoram and Manipur, Christianity has now waken up to the potent threat that the star of David posed to the Cross in the two north-eastern states.

The Christian theologians and researchers have of late launched a campaign to counter the growing affinity of some Mizos and Kukis (a tribe of Manipur) towards Judaism.

The synagogues in Aizawl and Imphal have a number of regulars since ages. But what have alarmed the Christian scholars in the two states are recent media reports from Jerusalem that a team of Rabbis from Israel would soon land in the region to conduct mass conversions.

“Such mass conversion of people from Christianity to Judaism will destroy the social fabric of both the tribes. It is the need of the hour that we launch a social movement against any such move,” said P C Biaksiama of the Christian Research Centre in Aizawl.

Dr Biaksiama and Rev Chuauthuama of the Aizawl Theological College will take on the proponents of the Mizos’ Jewish descent in a public debate on Friday.

Although almost all Mizos, who earlier practised indigenous faiths, embraced Christianity by mid 1940s, some of them in early 1970s noticed that many of their traditional customs and rituals matched with those of the Jews. This made them believe that their ancestors had been Jews and lived in Israel.

Their belief was later endorsed by Rabbi Eliahu Avichail, an eminent religious leader of Israel, who had set up Amishav, an organisation based in Jerusalem, to trace and help the descendants of Israel’s 10 Lost Tribes to return to the “Holy Land”, a right that the Constitution of Israel has granted to every Jew.

According to the Amishav, now known as ‘Shavei Israel’, the Mizos and Kukis are descendants of the ‘Tribe of Manasseh’, which along with nine other tribes had been exiled from Israel’s northern kingdom after the Assiriyan invasion in 721 BC.

Nearly 7,000 Mizos and Kukis have so far returned to Judaism. They call themselves ‘Bnei Menashe’ or the ‘Sons of Manasseh’. The Amishav has helped nearly 800 of them migrate to Israel. The process was stopped in 2003, as the Interior Ministry of the Government of Israel had doubts over the Bnei Menashes’ claim of Jewish descent.

However, the apex religious body of Israel, the Chief Rabbinate, last month recognised the Bnei Menashes as the descendants of Israel.

But Rev Chuauthuama said the “nonsense” claim of Jewish descent of the Mizos and Kukis was not based on historical or anthropological facts. “There may be some similarities between the customs of any two communities of the world. Some customs of the Mizos may resemble those of the Israelites. But that doesn’t mean that our ancestors were Israelites and Jews,” he said.

“The Church has never been convinced with what they (Bnei Menashes) say. They have never been taken seriously. Theirs is a small community, at least till now,” said Rev Colney of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod.

‘Religious invasion’

But Dr Biaksiama said not only the Church, but also the Centre and state government should now wake up to this “religious and cultural invasion”, as the promise of a “better living standards” in Israel may tempt many more to join the Bnei Menashes.

“The mass conversion by foreign priests will pose a threat not only to social stability in the region, but also to national security. A large number of people will forsake loyalty to the Union of India, as they all will become eligible for a foreign citizenship,” he said.