By Howard Flower, ICEJ Aliyah Director

Over the past two decades, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has assisted more than 1,400 members of the Bnei Menashe tribe in northeast India to immigrate to Israel, including 100 newcomers this spring. We are excited to announce that the ICEJ in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel will be part of the next wave of 600 Bnei Menashe scheduled to arrive on three flights in November.

This is one of the most extraordinary homecomings in the history of Israel. The Bnei Menashe, or “Children of Menashe”, trace their lineage to one of the northern ten tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. After a long journey of 2700 years, their time of exile is drawing to an end.

In Sihphir, a village in the green hills of northeast India, candles are lit every Friday evening, and prayers rise in Hebrew. A small synagogue marked by a menorah on its door fills with men wrapped in tallit and women sitting on the other side of a curtain.

After a long migration across Central Asia into remote hillsides in India and Myanmar, the Bnei Menashe still clung to their Israelite heritage. They finally began their return to Israel in modern times, when Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi recognised them as “Sons of Israel” in 2005. Since then, family by family, they have been coming home.

In November 2025, the Israeli government approved Operation Wings of Dawn, aimed at bringing the entire remaining community, roughly 5,800 people, by 2030, with the Jewish Agency managing the process. The mission takes its name from Psalm 139:9, which reminds us that God’s presence reaches even to the far east, where the dawn begins.

This is also an Aliyah of rescue. Ethnic violence between rival tribes in Manipur has also targeted the Bnei Menashe. Synagogues and homes have been burned, and more than 2,000 people displaced. The crisis gave fresh urgency to the work of bringing the remaining Bnei Menashe home.

In every seat on every flight this coming November will be members of a Bnei Menashe family longing for Zion. Here are the stories of three such families.

The Hnamte Family

Simeon Hnamte is 34, and his whole life has been a slow countdown to this year. His grandparents helped build the Sihphir community over three decades ago, when keeping Shabbat in a Mizo village meant explaining yourself to your neighbours. His grandmother Malka left for Kiryat Arba in Judea more than twenty years ago. His aunt Dina has lived in Afula, in the Galilee, since 2006, and his mother Devorah, 62, is already on the manifest for a group this autumn. Simeon serves as chazzan (cantor) for the community and repairs cracked Samsung and Xiaomi phones to provide for his wife Rivka and their three boys: Yehuda (10), Aviram (8), and Osher (4). Their documentation is in its final stages. Osher, the youngest, has special needs that can be properly cared for in Israel.

The Pachuau Family

In 2006, at the age of 27, Yehoshua Pachuau had a brit milah (circumcision ceremony). That same year his brothers Menakhem and Gerson left for a town in the Galilee, where they still live. Yehoshua stayed, married Leah, and raised four children: Eitan (21), Leah (19), BatSheva (16), and Naomi (7). He farms what land he can and takes daily wage work wherever it comes, sometimes far from home for days. Through all of it, he has kept Shabbat and ate kosher. A few passport details are still being sorted out. The family missed the first groups and is praying to make the next.

The Ralte Family

Itzhak Ralte has not stood in the same room as his sister Rina for nearly thirty years. Back in 1998, when he was 18, she already moved to Israel. Since then, he married Zelda, who runs a vegetable stall at the market, and gave birth to Ruth (19), Reuben (17), and Yolina (10). Itzhak drives a bus for a living. His nieces and nephews in Israel are grown adults whom he has never embraced in person. He hopes that will change before the year is out. His daughter Ruth dreams of becoming a pilot, though she has never boarded a plane, because she knows that in Israel, women can fly.

How You Can Help

These three families belong to a larger group preparing to make Aliyah in just a few months. The costs for getting them home includes several flights from northeast India to Tel Aviv, document processing and government coordination, support upon arrival, Hebrew classes, and housing assistance.

Your gift to assist with the Wings of Dawn mission will go directly to helping bring these families and many more home to Israel. Now you know their names: Simeon and Rivka, Yehoshua and Leah, Itzkhak and Zelda. In November, their long wait to return Zion will end. A donation to the ICEJ’s Aliyah and Integration fund helps these and other families have a successful start in the Land of Israel. Please send your best gift today.

Main photo: :  Bnei Menashe men loading a bus for their airport transfer to begin their journey to Israel (Credit: Shavei Israel)