Israel gives nod to citizenship of NE Messianic Jews

Imphal, Jun 23 : People from the North East India region (majority of them are from the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group) professing Messianic Jews faith, who were once denied citizenship in Israel on the ground of being ‘converted’ can now apply for Israeli citizenship as per the green signal coming from the authority of Israel recently after several years of its struggle for it.

Disclosing this information, the United Messianic Youth Council (UMYC), India, the apex body of the Messianic in India headquartered at New Lambulane in Imphal East on Sunday said that in April 2008 the Supreme Court of Israel has entitled Messianic Jews to Israel citizenship according to the Law of Return, overturning a previous ruling fifteen years back.Fifteen years ago, it may be mentioned, the Court rejected a petition by Messianic Jews “who demanded to be recognised as Jews so as to automatically receive Israeli citizenship according to the Law of the Return’ citing that Messianic Jews had converted and therefore they were no longer Jewish.

Since then the state of Israel has refused to grant all requests for citizenship as per the Law of the Return to Messianic Jews.

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Israel ” the judgment which is available with Newmai News Network ” has on April 16 this year overturned its previous ruling and ruled that Messianic Jews can get the Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return as per a petition filed by the US based United Messianic Jews Congregation.

The court ruling comes after several petitioning by the Messianic Jews immigrants to Israel High Court after the Interior Ministry refused to grant them new immigrant status and citizenship according to the Law of Return. Messianic Jews are now entitled to Israeli citizenship if a person’s father is a Jew, according to a precedent-setting ruling handed down two months back by the Court.

The Israeli law defines a Jew as ”a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another region”.

It may be mentioned that, there are sizeable people in the North Eastern region of India following the Messianic Jews faith particularly among the Chin-Kuki-Mizo communities.

A number of people professing Judaism sect have been migrating to Israel every year.

However, the Messianic Jews ” precisely known as Jewish-Christians ” were denied citizenship by the Israeli government though direct Judaism followers from any country of the world were access citizenship.

The Messianics are now entitled to receive equal treatment under Israeli Law of Return.

An elated UMYC general secretary PK Thomas said that the judgment is like a dream come true and expressed hope that the decision will surely bring unity and it will act as a cementing piece towards peace and unity among the Messianic Jews living in this part of the globe.

The Messianic Jews faith had first been making its presence felt in 1975 in the state of Manipur.

It made its first contact with the Israeli government in the early part of 1980s under the leadership of Rabbi H Reuben, says G Lienboi, an evangelist working with the UMYC, while interacting with NNN on Sunday in Imphal.

Since its inception, the Council has submitted three representations to the Israel government for the recognition of the followers as Jews, he said and added that on April 1, 2005, Solomon Amar, Chief Rabbi of Israel appended official recognition of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo communities of the North East India as the Manashe (lost tribe) of Israel.

There are around 10,000 members of the Messianic Jews in Manipur alone, Lienboi claimed.

He further claimed that apart from followers from the Chin-Kuki-Mizo tribes, it has also followers of the faith from some villages in Tamenglong district, belonging to the Zeliangrong tribe of the state.

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