The first aliyah flight supported by The Fellowship for the Bnei Menashe in India arrived in Israel on April 23, bringing 232 descendants of the displaced Hebrew tribe back to their biblical homeland. Four days later, the second Freedom Flight arrived.
Our President and Global CEO, Yael Eckstein, was at Ben Gurion Airport to greet the 241 olim. Rather than waiting for everyone to disembark, she boarded the plane after it landed so she could greet them.
“This is something that The Fellowship has been doing for years, bringing Jewish people home from all four corners of the earth. And look at this! A whole plane full of Jews who were once part of the Lost Tribe of Manasseh and now, they’re found and coming back to Israel,” she said.
As Yael made her way through the plane, families and elderly passengers sang Am Yisrael Chai. The children she met beamed with joy, waving their small Israeli flags as she welcomed them and their parents home. Many of the olim also had family members who had made aliyah years earlier, and they were reunited during the welcome ceremony after disembarking.
“These are Jews from India who lived in the middle of the mountains secluded – kept their religion, kept their faith, they from the tribe of Manasseh, and they were lost. From the time that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were taken to all four corners of the earth in exile, hoping the Jewish people would disappear. This is testament that God’s Word is forever. We didn’t disappear,” said Yael.
A third Fellowship Freedom Flight is arriving in Israel this week as part of The Fellowship’s larger effort to bring 1,200 Bnei Menashe on aliyah this year.
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
