Your jeep heads perilously down the narrow, winding road through lush, green hills, taking quick hairpin turns that make your stomach drop. In the distance, elephants, tigers, and wild boars roam through the jungles of India. But your destination is much closer to home. You pass through miles of uninhabited land, broken by the occasional cluster of makeshift bamboo homes, until you reach a small building with a Jewish star and an emblem of the State of Israel on the roof. Inside, the familiar sounds of Hebrew ring out from this Indian community, as its members chant from their siddurim. Welcome to Shalom Tzion Beit Knesset--one of 40 synagogues sprinkled throughout Manipur and Mizoram, two states in Northeastern India.

Eastern Lights

How did Judaism spread to this unlikely corner of the world? "Our custom says that we are Bnei Menashe, the Children of Menashe," explains Michael Menashe, who grew up in Manipur, before making aliyah to Israel in 1994 at the age of 21. Michael and the other Bnei Menashe members believe that they are descended from the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten tribes that dwelled in the northern kingdom of Israel during the First Temple period. In 721 B.C.E., the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom and exiled the ten tribes.

According to their tradition, the Bnei Menashe fled east from the Assyrian conquerors. About 400 years later, they went farther east to China to escape the armies of Alexander the Great. To avoid forced conversion to Christianity in the 13th century, they fled south to Indochina, where they hid in a remote valley of caves. The Chinese eventually uncovered their hiding place, seized their holy parchment, believed to be a Torah, and drove them into Thailand and Burma. Many Bnei Menashe migrated northward to the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur.

The Bnei Menashe claim that, throughout their long journey, they retained some Jewish traditions without realizing why: They circumcised their sons on the eighth day, prayed for their return to Zion (even though they didn't know where it was), wore prayer shawls similar to tallitot, followed a lunar calendar, and sang about the Exodus from Egypt.

Then in 1970, after nearly 3,000 years of exile, the Bnei Menashe began exploring their roots. Believing that they were the descendants of the tribe of Menashe, they decided to return to Judaism. They sought Jewish sources, studied, and observed commandments. They built synagogues and observed the Sabbath and holidays as well as they could.

Michael Menashe fondly recalls communal gatherings with family and friends during Hanukkah and Sukkot. Mostly he remembers yearning to be part of the worldwide Jewish community and to make aliyah to Israel. "With all my heart and all my soul I love Israel," he says.

Returning Home

Seeking to be part of the larger Jewish community, Bnei Menashe leaders contacted the State of Israel in the 1970s. That's when Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail first heard of the group. As founder of the Israeli organization Amishav (My People Return), Avichail travels around the world searching for lost communities of Jews who long to return to their roots. Intrigued by the possibility that "lost Jews" resided in India, he journeyed there to investigate in the early '80s.

Since then, Amishav has raised enough money to help build Jewish schools and synagogues for the Bnei Menashe community, which numbers approximately 5,000 people. Today, the Israeli organization Shavei Israel, under the direction of Michael Freund, operates two Jewish educational centers in India for the Bnei Menashe, where community members study Hebrew and Jewish tradition. Last August, Freund traveled to India with an official delegation of Israel's Chief Rabbinate, where they witnessed Jewish life in India.

The modest Bnei Menashe synagogues look different than those in other parts of the world, but the spirit inside is the same. "We don't have enough money for big beautiful synagogues," says Michael Menashe. "But the way we're praying, the way we're reading Torah is the same." After services on Shabbat, the communities there gather for Kiddush and ha'motzi, but instead of challah, they eat chapatti, an Indian flatbread.

Through a group called Kulanu, Jews in America also are lending a helping hand to the Bnei Menashe community. Kulanu means "all of us," explains Kulanu President Jack Zeller. "Our goal is to extend a hand of friendship to those around the globe, like the Bnei Menashe, who are of Jewish origin and who want to return to Judaism."