Diaspora Ministry to examine groups with Jewish roots

Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry is establishing a committee to develop relations with groups that have Jewish ancestry or ties.

Such groups include the Bnei Menashe, a community from eastern India that practices Judaism and has seen thousands of its members move to Israel and convert to Orthodox Judaism. Other groups with Jewish ancestry exist in Poland, Spain, South America and elsewhere.

The committee, according to a Monday announcement, will examine whether the ministry should create policies regarding these groups.

“Over the past few years there has been an increasing awareness of large groups of people who are not Jewish by any definition but who have some type of connection to the Jewish people.” said Dvir Kahana, director general of the Diaspora Ministry, in a news release. “Some of these groups want some kind of association with the Jewish people and/or Israel, which raises the question of what ties the government should have with them.”

The committee includes Benjamin Ish-Shalom, chairman of Israel’s Joint Conversion Institute. It will submit its recommendations next year.

Over 3,000 Bnei Menashe, whose members claim Jewish roots but are not considered Jewish according to Jewish law, have immigrated to Israel in the last number of years.

Former Sephardic chief rabbi Shlomo Amar recognized the Bnei Menashe as a Lost Tribe in 2005, although he insisted they undergo conversion to be recognized as Jews.

Unlike other groups with Jewish ancestry making aliyah, whose immigration, absorption and conversion to Judaism was largely organized and funded by the government and the Jewish Agency, the Bnei Menashe’s immigration has been wholly organized and financed by a private organization.

Earlier this year, Interior Minister Silvan Shalom said he’d adopt a “liberal policy” to enable greater immigration and conversion of groups with Jewish ancestry.