By Rav David Lhungdim
The world is a beautiful place if one can grasp and understand that there is a creator who rewards and punishes all creation according to their actions. Still, one needs to focus on one thing to understand the reality of the world, "Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet.
Sometimes it's hard to understand why the communities of Bnei Menashe and their education system are dictated by others and not by themselves. It's intriguing and very challenging why most of the Bnei Menashe community in various parts of the cities where they live, never know how much the govt of Israel spends for their education and curriculum activities.
The answer is simple: new immigrants lack the courage to confront and fight for their rights because they are confronted with a new challenge that they have never faced before, and when someone outside the communities dictates their daily lives, they lack the courage to fight for their rights, making it extremely difficult for the Olim Khadashim as a whole to manage their lifestyle in a new environment where predators lurk everywhere.
Regarding the Bnei Menashe community, another issue that prevents them from fighting for their rights is the Aliyah of Bnei Menashe. While all Bnei Menashe are eager to return to their ancestral homeland, this shouldn't deter us from fighting for our rights; rather, we should instill in our community, whether it be in Israel or India, the value of standing up for our rights and fighting for them to create a strong society. When there is lawlessness, evil takes over a society.
The Israeli government is very welcoming to newcomers and provides them with a lot of facilities; however, if you don't stand up for your rights, predators will wait to take advantage of you. Fortunately, many people are willing to give up their time to assist newcomers.
For instance, we encountered several organizations attempting to assist us when the Bnei Menashe Sderot community was relocated to multiple hotels in Jerusalem. While some organizations only wanted to obtain our list for their purposes, others came to assist us wholeheartedly and without restrictions.
In particular, Yair Katz from (KKL) Keren Kayemeth Le Israel extended us their full support, came to assist us in every manner, and is eager to continue helping even after the war with Hamas is concluded. Together, we established a positive example for the near future, one in which we will collaborate with them while honoring each other's opinions and viewpoints to create a bright future for our younger generation.
Above: volunteers from KKL youth (Keren Kayemeth Le Israel) with Bnei Menashe girls touring Jerusalem and enjoying their activities.
Below: Yair katz who tirelessly work with Bnei Menashe community Sderot in Jerusalem to lift up their morale in times of war.
Our sincere gratitude is extended to Khativat Kehilati, especially to Gai and Eden, senior police officers in Israel. It should be noted that Khativat Kehilati is supporting new immigrants by helping them get jobs in security forces, as many of them encounter difficulties with the police due to their ignorance of Hebrew and their blindness to laws they have never encountered.
Above: Eden with the community of Bnei Menashe Sderot at Grand Court Hotel.
Below: Gai Senior officer in Khativat Kehilati and Eden a female police officer giving lecture to Bnei Menashe to build a bright and better future at Grand court Hotel.
We intend to clear up a lot of the misconceptions that the new immigrants encounter by assigning new immigrants to police in the various locations where the Bnei Menashe group settled.
For this, we applaud Gai and Eden who tirelessly work with the Bnei Menashe community in Israel, Eden came to give a lecture to the Bnei Menashe Community Sderoth to lift their morale and encourage them to strive hard to build a better and bright future for the community.
With the assistance of the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, an ulpan (Hebrew learning) was also established. We are grateful to Moshe Pines for his unwavering support of the Bnei Menashe community and other departments like the education department, the municipality of Jerusalem, the Municipality of Sderot, and social workers. It should be noted, however, that Yafa Yatzkan, a social worker from Jerusalem who is a member of the Bnei Menashe community and married to an Israeli family, played a significant role in establishing the ulpan.
We hope that every new immigrant has success in the future. New immigrants must realize that they should not come to Israel only to receive; instead, they should know how to give back to their nation in every possible way they can, whether it be physically or spiritually.
Thanks to khativat kehilati
Very important for olim khadasim to know their rights
very very interesting indeed every new immigrants should fight for their rights.