Five hundred and twenty-five Bnei Menashe Jews who made aliyah to Israel from India over the past year are getting ready for Rosh Hashanah and have for the first time eating a dish that, while new to many of them, is an iconic staple of Jewish communities around the world: Gefilte fish.
The dish, traditionally associated with Ashkenazi Jews but adopted by Jews worldwide, is commonly eaten on Jewish holidays, and Rosh Hashanah is no exception.
Shavei Israel, an organization that has lobbied for Bnei Menashe Jews to make aliyah for the past 20 years, had presented the new olim with the dish at their absorption center in Achziv.
Some of them enjoyed the taste of gefilte fish, while others politely referred to the traditional dish as an "acquired taste."
“After 2,700 years of exile, the descendants of the Bnei Menashe are finally returning to their ancestral homeland,” Shavei Israel founder and chairman Michael Freund said in a statement.
“There is no better time for them to begin their new lives in the land of their ancestors than the beginning of the Jewish New Year. The history of this special community, which preserved its connection to the people of Israel and the Land of Israel down through the generations, is exciting and inspiring, and I would like to wish each of them a Shanah Tova U'metuka, a good and sweet New Year, for the first time in their ancestral homeland.”
Bnei Menashe Jews claim to descend from the Tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire. Residing in India, the community continues to practice Judaism, including practices like Shabbat and kashrut.
So far, Shavei Israel has helped 4,500 Bnei Menashe Jews make aliyah, with 6,000 still in India hoping to one day follow.