December 29, 2013

Israel Integrates Ethnic Groups

By Michael Curtis
These are the times, as Thomas Paine might have said, that try the minds of the ignorant members of the American Studies Association who, in calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions, shrink from the service of academic freedom. Fortunately, these are also the times of glorious triumph as was shown with the arrival at Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv, on December 26, 2013 of 38 members of Bnei Menashe (BM) from the Indian state of Mizoram. This group joins the more than 2,000 other members of Bnei Menashe who came from India and are already living in Israel. The BM provides a remarkable rejoinder to the bigots who categorize Israel as an "apartheid state" but who now have to witness the attempts to absorb an ethnic group. The BM claim to be descendants of Menasseh, son of Joseph, son of Jacob. They regard themselves as one of the ten lost tribes who were exiled from Israel by the Assyrians who invaded the northern kingdom of Israel around 722 B.C. The tribe moved from Assyria...(Read Full Article)