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Indian Bnei Menashe Jews miraculously survived Oct. 7. Now they’re fighting wars in Israel and India.
(JTA) — In the 2000s, as the small Israeli town of Sderot endured heavy rocket fire, thousands of residents left the city. Around the same time, a new population began moving in: Bnei Menashe Jews from the northeast Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram.
More than 100 Bnei Menashe families called Sderot their home until Oct. 7. The community was deeply proud of what it created: the first synagogue and beit midrash — or Torah study hall — run exclusively by Bnei Menashe Jews. It was a dream, for many, that began halfway across the world in India.
The dream was interrupted when Hamas terrorists infiltrated many towns and kibbutzes surrounding Gaza. By the end of Oct. 7, 50 civilians in Sderot had been killed, as well as 20 police officers, according to the Times of Israel.
But none of them were Bnei Menashe Jews.
That day, about 40 people gathered at a new synagogue building given to the community by Sderot’s mayor, Alon Davidi, only a few weeks before. Rabbi David Lhungdim recalled feeling rushed by Davidi to begin high holiday services there long before the community felt ready to make the move.
But in the end, the building saved them. The new synagogue, Alfei Menashe, is located to the east of Menachem Begin Road. While Hamas terrorists patrolled that road on Oct. 7, shooting people in the street, in their cars and in their homes, the Bnei Menashe prayed.
“I told them, let’s finish our morning prayer, we have no choice,” Lhundgim said.
After the attacks, “I questioned myself, why was the mayor in a state of hurry? When it was Simchat Torah, everything was clear,” Lhungdim said. “I said, wow, this is a miracle that God gave us … Had we been praying at the old site [a caravan on Natan Elbaz Road, which does not have a bomb shelter], the terrorists would have seen us because they were on the main road and shooting everyone that they see. But because the mayor gave us the new site, we don’t need to cross the main road.”
Rivka Guite, Lhungdim’s sister, and her husband Zevulun had been visiting Guite’s mother for the holiday. Their home, located near the old synagogue where Hamas had been active, was destroyed in a Hamas rocket attack. Nothing could be salvaged from the rubble, Guite said.
But Guite is just thankful to be alive and living in Israel.
“It’s a miracle indeed. I really do not have an explanation for these things,” Guite said through a translation provided by Isaac Thangjom, project director at the Israel-based nonprofit Degel Menashe. “How many of us would have died if the old synagogue had been used?”
Now, most of the Bnei Menashe community in Sderot has been evacuated to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, where they are waiting out the war in refugee hotels. An estimated 200 young Bnei Menashe men have joined the Israeli military’s war effort, Thangjom told JTA. One soldier, Natanel Touthang, was injured by a rocket while on duty at the northern border.
“When I went to the reserves without being called up,” Touthang said, “I did it for my family. It sounds selfish, but I did it for my family.”
From Manipur to Sderot
The Bnei Menashe Jews are said to be descendants of the “lost tribe” of Manasseh, separated from their fellow Israelites after exile over two thousand years ago. They are part of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo ethnic groups that reside in northeastern India, western Myanmar, and southern Bangladesh.
Researchers say the group came to Judaism via Christian missionaries, who introduced them to the Bible in the late 19th century. Bnei Menashe tradition recalls the story of Met Chala, a Christian local tribal leader in Mizoram who was told by God in a dream to return his people to the land of Israel and their true religion: Judaism.
They began immigrating to Israel in the late 1980s with the help of Israeli Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail and his organization Amishav, undergoing formal conversions upon arrival. The immigration process was handed over to the Israeli nonprofit Shavei Israel in 2004, headed by Michael Freund, a former advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both Avichail and Shavei Israel have faced intense criticism and accusations of right-wing political motives from the Israeli left, as new Bnei Menashe immigrants moved to West Bank settlements upon arrival — particularly Kiryat Arba, which today hosts a community of about 700 Bnei Menashe Jews.
Shavei Israel halted that practice over a decade ago following the criticism, but some still move to settlements upon arrival to Israel to be with their families who already live there. Many have also settled in other towns within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
Their settlement in the West Bank and on the border with Gaza has been less a product of political motivation than of convenience and accessibility, said Gideon Elazar, an anthropologist at Bar-Ilan University who researches the Bnei Menashe and other “lost tribes.”
“These were the communities that would accept them,” he said.
New Bnei Menashe immigrants have experienced difficulty learning Hebrew, finding profitable work and assimilating into Israeli society. Some experience discrimination and racism. Last year, Yoel Lhunghal, an 18-year-old Bnei Menashe Jew who had immigrated just a year earlier, was murdered in northern Israel. Though police found no evidence of a racial motive behind the attack, his father believes Yoel was “a victim of racism.”
The case of Lhungdim’s Sderot community is a slightly different story. The 120-family-strong community moved there on their own accord, Lhungdim said. Some came from other areas such as Carmel and Kiryat Arba — both towns where Lhungdim lived before coming to Sderot — and some directly upon arriving from India to join their families. Affordability was a major factor, as costs were lower due to Sderot’s location on the Gaza border. The area also offers work that corresponds with the Bnei Menashe community’s skills, such as fruit and vegetable packing.
Some relocated Bnei Menashe community members seen at a Western Wall tour in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Degel Menashe)
“We want to strengthen Israel, that’s why we go to live in Sderot. And I’m proud to be from Sderot,” Lhungdim told JTA. “As a convert Jew, I would have been ready to sacrifice my life to the Jewish nation.”
Like other Israelis in towns near Gaza who survived the Oct. 7 attacks, the entire Bnei Menashe community in Sderot was relocated to hotels in Jerusalem. The more than 100 families staying there have kept busy by continuing religious education, praying at the Western Wall and enjoying free admission to local museums. Many had never before enjoyed stays at four-star hotels or had the opportunity to spend much time exploring Jerusalem.
But they are still eager to get back to their hometown. Guite and other community members have been making day trips to the south to tend to vegetable fields that have been left abandoned since the evacuation.
“The government is doing so much for us, and of course, we are only too happy to contribute and give something to Israel in forms of service,” Guite said.
The other war in India
Bnei Menashe Jews are now facing war and displacement on two fronts: within Israel, and in Manipur, where an ethnic conflict has been raging for nearly eight months.
There, hundreds of Bnei Menashe Jews are rebuilding their lives in the midst of an ethnic conflict that began in May and has no end in sight. Human rights groups say the ethnic Kukis — the group to which the Bnei Menashe belong — have been targeted by the majority Meiteis in what some have called an “ethnic cleansing.” Many Kukis have been forced out of their local valley, which is now mostly occupied by the Meiteis, to the hills, which have become Kuki territory.
Others have moved to the neighboring Mizoram state, where other Bnei Menashe Jews live.
Unlike in Israel, the hundreds of displaced community members in northeast India have no hope of returning home, as new informal territorial borders based on ethnicity have become the norm. Many are living in newly-built houses with vegetable plots on a picturesque 200-acre piece of land donated by community leader Lalam Hangshing. It has been named “Moaz Tzur,” and Degel Menashe, which advocates for the community, proudly refers to it as India’s first kibbutz.
These Jews have dreamed of immigrating to Israel for more than two decades. Thangjom called the war a “setback” to the process and will lengthen the timeline before the next slate of immigration, but conversations with the government are continuing, he said.
The war in Israel also impacted the amount of aid that Degel Menashe has been able to provide to Bnei Menashe refugees in India, as international Jewish organizations pour money into Israel.
“Since the war started in Israel, I don’t know if I’ll be able to give the same amount of help. But we are approaching our donors,” Thangjom said.
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The post Indian Bnei Menashe Jews miraculously survived Oct. 7. Now they’re fighting wars in Israel and India. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.