114 ‘Lost Tribe’ Immigrants Delayed by Coronavirus Finally Reach Israel

A group of 114 immigrants, who were stuck in transit for the past month in New Delhi due to some having coronavirus, finally landed in Israel on Sunday.

The group was part of an emergency airlift arranged by the Jewish Agency and Shavei Israel, with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) serving as a main sponsor of this urgent Aliyah operation, according to Anastasiya Gooding, ICEJ Staff Writer.

The group were made up of Bnei Menashe, which are an ethnolinguistic group in India’s North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram. Aliyah is immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel.

In total, the ICEJ sponsored flights for 131 out of the 274 Bnei Menashe who were brought to Israel over the past month. ICEJ also covered the delayed group’s housing and meals for about one-third of their four-week stay in New Delhi.

ICEJ said the arrival of new olim (immigrants) to Israel is always a very touching and emotional event.

Batya Misao, along with her four children, were among the 114 immigrants who arrived in Israel on Sunday night. ICEJ reported the Aliyah story of this Israelite family is nothing short of a heart-rending journey.

In its report, ICEJ said Batya has been dreaming about making Aliyah to Israel for as long as she can remember. Once she married her husband Samuel and they started a family, the dream grew to include their children – twelve-year-old Ellan, nine-year-old Leah, five-year-old Zohar, and three-year-old Nuriah.

“It is difficult to imagine what a blow this family experienced as they were full of bright hopes when tragedy struck last year,” ICEJ stated.

Samuel died in a devastating car accident. After that, it seemed that all of Batya’s plans, her hopes and dreams, had collapsed overnight.

However, Batya managed to put the pieces of their life back together.

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SOURCE: Assist News Service, Michael Ireland