The 240 new arrivals landed at Ben Gurion Airport as part of Operation “Wings of Dawn,” a joint initiative led by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption and the Jewish Agency. The effort aims to facilitate the immigration of roughly 6,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community, many of whom identify as descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel.

The Bnei Menashe are an ethnic group from northeast India’s Mizoram and Manipur regions that has preserved its Jewish identity,. Rising ethnic tensions in their home region prompted efforts to bring them to Israel. Photo by Gideon Markowicz/TPS-IL

The newcomers were welcomed in a ceremony attended by senior Israeli officials, including Minister of Immigration and Absorption Ofir Sofer.

“We are making history when we bring the entire Bnei Menashe community to Israel,” Sofer said. “There is no more appropriate and exciting time to welcome a planeload of immigrants just after the country’s 78th Independence Day. Welcome back home.”

The arrival is the first of three flights scheduled over the next two weeks, which together are expected to bring around 600 immigrants from the community. Over the longer term, Israeli authorities plan to bring approximately 1,200 additional members of the Bnei Menashe by the end of 2026, with the full relocation of the remaining community targeted for completion by 2030.

Over the past two decades, about 4,000 Bnei Menashe have already immigrated to Israel under earlier government decisions. The current initiative is intended to complete that process, with a particular emphasis on family reunification.

Israeli authorities plan to bring approximately 1,200 additional members of the Bnei Menashe by the end of 2026, with the full relocation of the remaining community targeted for completion by 2030. Photo by Gideon Markowicz/TPS-IL

Many of those arriving were young families who are expected to begin their integration process in the northern city of Nof HaGalil, where they will reunite with relatives who immigrated in previous years.

After the government approved the plan to reunite the families in November, Nof HaGalil Mayor Ronen Plot told The Press Service of Israel in November that his city was ready to welcome the next wave of Indian Jews.

“Nof HaGalil has the ability to absorb everyone,” Plot told TPS-IL. “The largest Bnei Menashe community in Israel lives here, about 1,500 people. They were absorbed in an amazing way — working, participating in the education system, running synagogues. They have become an inseparable part of our landscape, and the absorption was very successful.”

The Bnei Menashe — literally, “Sons of Manasseh” — are an ethnic group from northeast India’s Mizoram and Manipur regions that has preserved its Jewish identity, including observing the Sabbath and holidays, keeping kosher, and following the laws of family purity. Rising ethnic tensions in their home region prompted efforts to bring them to Israel.

They claim descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, exiled by the Assyrian Empire more than 2,700 years ago.

Tradition holds that the Jews of India first arrived in the region during the holiday of Tu B’Shevat after surviving a shipwreck around 2,000 years ago. According to legend, the Prophet Elijah appeared to them, promising that they would prosper in India and that their descendants would eventually return to the Land of Israel.

Israel’s Indian-origin community numbers roughly 10,000 to 15,000 people, with the Bnei Menashe making up the largest and fastest-growing segment. Older communities include the Bene Israel from Mumbai and the Cochin Jews from Kerala.

From JNS