Lost Tribes Activists and Group AMISHAV

Nadene Goldfoot                             

Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail of Amishav

 A most important organization I've heard about is                                Amishav.
"Amishav, the Organization on behalf of the Dispersed of Israel, was founded in 1975 with the encouragement of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, head of "Yeshivat Merkaz Harav" in Jerusalem and the spiritual leader of religious zionist Judaism. Rav Kook supported Amishav and encouraged its various activities to his last days."  It was Rabbi Avichail who founded this group.  
            Lost Tribes Activist Rabbi Passes Away at 83

Educator, activist, Ten Tribes researcher, and renowned Jerusalem citizen Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail has passed away.  Rabbi Avichail was identified for many years with efforts to find the descendants of the ten lost tribes. He founded Amishav in 1975 to help Bnei Menashe communities in India, Myanmar (Burma) and Israel. 

Amishav is the one of the organizations helping Bnei Menashe in India, Burma and in Israel. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, the director of Amishav, organizes activities from Jerusalem.  They also have been working on the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.  

I had recently bought Rabbi Avichail's book, THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL and often quote some of his information about the Pashtuns.  The book is just loaded with information.  It's been translated from Hebrew to English.  

Afghanistan Jews 1961
Read: https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/07/jews-that-once-lived-in-afghanistan.html

"After the discovery of the Bnei Menashe community in India, there are other communities around the world that might have Jewish roots (descending from the Ten Lost Tribes) and the aim is to find these groups.
The purpose of this project is to study various communities around the world and find their connection to Judaism."

An older organization that is similar is "Shavei Israel (Hebrew: שבי ישראל‎, Returners of Israel) which is an Israeli-based Jewish organization that encourages people of Jewish descent to strengthen their connection with Israel and the Jewish people. Founded by Michael Freund in 2002, Shavei Israel locates lost Jews and hidden Jewish communities and assists them with returning to their roots and, sometimes, with aliyah (immigration to Israel). The organization’s team is composed of academics, educators and rabbis" with "headquarters in Jerusalem"

"The Shavei Israel organization was founded to help people whose ancestors had become separated from Judaism (including alleged descendants of the Lost tribes of Israel, crypto-Jews, hidden Jews, and Jewish forcibly assimilated under Communist rule,) reconnect with the Jewish people, and in the second decade of this century also became active in helping individuals and groups of converts become part of the mainstream Jewish and Israeli communities. Shavei Israel sponsors rabbis and teachers to work with groups of "lost Jews," provide them the Jewish education and assist them in aliyah if they choose. Its affiliated rabbis are posted in Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, and Sevilla in Spain; Belmonte in northern Portugal, San Nicandro in southern Italy, Brazil, Krakow and Wroclaw in Poland; and in Mizoram and Manipur, in North-East India. In December 2010, Rabbi Shlomo Zelig Avrasin was sent to work with the Subbotnik Jewish communities in Russia, particularly Vysoky..".

                                                       

Bnai Menashe of India now celebrating Purim in Israel

"After suspending the issuance of visas to Bnei Menashe for a few years, in January 2010 the Israeli government announced that the remaining 7,200 Bnei Menashe could make aliyah within a period of 1–2 years after completing conversion at facilities in Nepal. This allowed them to avoid problems with India."

Some of Bnai Menashe are now living in a town in Samaria (of Judea-Samaria)or West Bank called Shavei Shomron .  According to Amishav, the two million members of the Shinlung tribe from the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram are descendants of the tribe of Menashe, which was expelled from Israel by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Members of the tribe reached Assyria, and from there, according to Bnei Menashe tradition, they went to Afghanistan, to Mongolia and then to southern China.

Resource: 
 http://www.bneimenashe.com/Amishav.html
http://kulanu.org/wp-content/uploads/magazines/1993-winter.pdf
http://www.jewishprojects.org/project_e.php?id=16&name=Amishav
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavei_Israel
https://shavei.org/
"https://shavei.org/the-long-journey-home/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/200765
https://kulanu.org/communities/india/coming-home-israel/
http://bechollashon.org/heart/index.php/articles/138

Update: "Shavei Israel" (Formerly known as Amishav)

Michael Freund, Shavei Israel , November 22, 2004