By Howard Flower

The Aliyah of the Bnei Menashe continues this spring with a third charter flight from India, bringing a total of 600 New Olim to Israel. Thanks to your generous donation, ICEJ is a significant partner of the Jewish Agency for Israel in this amazing exodus.

The name “Operation Wings of Dawn” is found in Psalm 139:9 and reminds us of the divine presence that reaches even to the uttermost parts of the East, where the dawn begins. For the passengers — the members of the Bnei Menashe community from northeastern India — these urgent charter flights are the latest chapter in an odyssey stretching back 2,700 years, an exile that is finally beginning to end, fulfilling the promise of Isaiah 43:5, where God says he will bring His children from the east.

The Bnei Menashe trace their ancestry to the tribe of Manasseh, one of the ten northern tribes of Israel deported by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE. According to their oral history, the tribe wandered eastward through Persia and Afghanistan, eventually settling in China, where legend says an emperor confiscated their Torah scroll. A prophecy arose that a white man would one day restore their sacred text. When British missionaries arrived in the late nineteenth century with Bibles, many believed the promise was fulfilled and were drawn to Christianity. Yet a determined minority preserved pre-Christian traditions in secret: circumcision on the eighth day, dietary laws resembling kashrut, a rest day akin to the Sabbath and a harvest song called the Sikpui Hla. It recounts a sea parting, a pillar of cloud and fire and water from the rock; echoes of the Exodus surviving in total isolation from any Jewish community.

This remarkable human story carries profound biblical resonance. The Bible records two distinct captivities: Israel exiled to Assyria and Judah to Babylon. Yet the prophets foretold a future, unified return of all twelve tribes. Isaiah 11:11–12 declares that the Lord will “extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant … and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” The phrase “a second time” points beyond the historical return from Babylon. Ezekiel 37 vividly describes two sticks — one for Judah, one for Joseph/Ephraim — being joined into one, a prophecy of reunited nationhood that found only partial fulfilment in the ancient restoration and awaits the future completion that has begun before our eyes.

For centuries, the literal return of the ten lost tribes seemed impossible. Today, the ingathering of Judah — the modern Jewish people — is a defining miracle of our era. The simultaneous reappearance and Aliyah of descendants like the Bnei Menashe add a compelling layer. Biblical prophecy presents this reunification as a signpost heralding the Messianic age: a divine gathering that precedes the Davidic king, a spiritual renewal that will follow the physical return and a healed unity necessary for final redemption. As the name “Wings of Dawn” suggests, these returning sons and daughters have travelled from the ends of the earth. Their homecoming is not merely a humanitarian triumph — it is, for many, a tangible unfolding of promises made millennia ago, and the final chapter is now being written.

This Aliyah is also an Aliyah of rescue. Ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur has devastated the Bnei Menashe, who are ethnically Kuki. Synagogues and homes have been burned and over 2,000 displaced. Targeted with antisemitic chants, the community’s crisis accelerated Israel’s “Operation Wings of Dawn,” aiming to bring the remaining 5,000 members by 2030. ICEJ is committed to assisting this rescue.

The 2020s brought new urgency. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted emergency airlifts, and in 2023, ethnic violence in Manipur killed a community member and destroyed a synagogue. After the October 7 Hamas massacre, more than 200 recent immigrants were called up for combat within weeks, rising to around 300 by late 2024, many serving in elite units. The cost was heartbreaking as two Staff Sergeants fell fighting for Israel. Their sacrifices underscored the community’s deep integration into Israeli society.

In November 2025, the Israeli government responded with “Operation Wings of Dawn,” a historic decision to bring the entire remaining community — approximately 5,800 individuals — by 2030, with the Jewish Agency managing the process. The initial 2026 flights have turned an ancient oral promise into a modern reality.

 The name “Wings of the Dawn” is so fitting because it transforms the idea of fleeing danger into a spiritual and hopeful exodus: it represents a swift rescue from a place of violence and persecution to a place of destiny and refuge.

You can be a part of this historic exodus from the East by donation.

Please watch our special Bnei Menashe Homecoming video:

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