Kesher Talk

Burmese days - "that boy is our last hope": I love reading about Jewish life in obscure places, but this New York Times story takes the cake. It turns out that, before the Japanese occupation in World War II, Burma (now known as Myanmar) had some 2500 Jews. Times have changed.

"Of the remaining 20 Jews who live scattered around Myanmar today, only one young man is likely to marry here, but he will have to travel abroad to find a Jewish wife to carry on his family line. This last hope for the Jews of Myanmar is Sammy Samuels, 22, a bright and talkative student who already carries on his shoulders the burden of his heritage."

UPDATE: Another cohort of Jews near Myanmar, 100 of them, just made Aliyah. "They call themselves the Bnei Menashe, descendants of Menashe, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. ... There they will join 500-odd members of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo tribe who have done Aliyah... since it was discovered that they are the children of Menashe.

"This batch of Bnei Menashe are sponsored by their relatives who are already in Israel," Lemuel Henkhogen Haokip, general secretary of the Bnei Menashe Council (BMC) told The Pioneer. (link courtesy of Joe Katzman via the Kolkata Libertarian)

posted by Howard @ 7/23/2002 09:46:53 AM