From Upland Southeast Asia to the Israeli Periphery: The Conversion and Immigration of the Bene Menashe

Originally known as the Kuki-Chin-Mizu, or Shinlong and most commonly referred to today as the Bene Menashe (sons of Menashe), originating from the Eastern Indian states of Mizuram and Manipur. Based on fieldwork conducted primarily among the Bene Menashe community Israel, this lecture  deals with the ways in which the group's history of culture loss and social marginalization are reflected in their assimilation into mainstream Jewish and Israeli society. In particular I examine the ways in which the  Bene Menashe's background as recent coverts to Judaism from East Asia, play a central role in the ongoing negotiation between cultural preservation and assimilation. Thus, efforts to integrate into contemporary Israeli society and strategies of culutral preservation contrast with the drive of Israeli cultural agents to emphasize the group's lost tribal heritage, simultaneously emphasizing and discarding their previous ethnic identity.