Israel’s latest effort to airlift members of the Bnei Menashe community from northeastern India and grant them citizenship has revived debate over the recognition of Jewish communities around the world, including Kenya’s Kasuku Jews, whose own quest to settle in Israel has faced numerous obstacles.
The Bnei Menashe, who live near India’s borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar, believe they are descendants of Manasseh, one of the Biblical Lost Tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrian Empire in 720 BC. Over the years, thousands have migrated to Israel after undergoing conversion processes recognized by Israeli authorities, and the latest government-backed airlift is expected to bring hundreds more to the Jewish state.
The relocation is being facilitated under Israel’s Law of Return, a 1950 law that grants Jews worldwide the right to immigrate to Israel and automatically acquire citizenship. Individuals who convert to Judaism must have their conversion recognized by the relevant Israeli authorities before qualifying for immigration.
The development has drawn comparisons with the experience of Kenya’s Kasuku Jewish community, based near Nyahururu in Laikipia County.
For decades, members of the Kasuku community have practiced Judaism and expressed a desire to relocate to Israel. In the late 1990s, community leaders reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Nairobi seeking guidance on how they could move to what they consider their spiritual homeland.
However, their aspirations stalled after Israeli authorities declined to recognize their conversion status for immigration purposes.
The issue gained international attention in 2018 when Rabbi Yehudah Kimani, leader of the Kasuku Jews, was denied entry into Israel despite holding a valid visa.
Kimani had travelled to Israel to study at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem but was deported immediately upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport. The then 31-year-old rabbi later described the experience as dehumanizing, saying it made him feel “less than human.”
His deportation sparked controversy within Israel and prompted intervention by the country’s Conservative Jewish Movement, which had sponsored his studies.
Yizhar Hess, then Chief Executive Officer of the movement, accused Israeli authorities of applying double standards.
“I do not believe that the Interior Ministry would have behaved this way toward Jews with any other skin color or who underwent an Orthodox conversion,” Hess said at the time.
The matter eventually reached the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, where the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs summoned officials from the Interior Ministry to explain the decision.
In a prerecorded video statement presented to the committee, Kimani detailed how he had applied for visas and was ultimately deported despite possessing valid travel documents.
During the first hearing, Interior Ministry officials alleged that Kimani had obtained his visa fraudulently by failing to disclose that a previous visa application had been rejected. Representatives of the Conservative Jewish Movement rejected the claim, arguing that they had maintained direct communication with the Israeli Embassy in Nairobi throughout the application process.
At a subsequent hearing, the ministry offered a different explanation, saying Kimani should have applied for a student visa rather than a tourist visa because the purpose of his visit was educational. Critics pointed out that many participants in short-term study programmes routinely enter Israel on tourist visas.
The parliamentary committee ultimately sided with Kimani, directing the Interior Ministry to facilitate the issuance of a future visa that would allow him to pursue his studies in Israel.
The contrasting experiences of India’s Bnei Menashe and Kenya’s Kasuku Jews underscore the complex issues surrounding ancestry, religious conversion, identity and immigration policy in modern Israel.
As hundreds of Bnei Menashe prepare to begin new lives in Israel under the Law of Return, members of Kenya’s small Jewish community continue to hope that they too may one day receive the recognition necessary to make a similar journey.
