The Jewish DNA dilemma
The Deccan Herald Monday
November 11, 2002 Title:
‘Indian group in Israel in
a fix to prove identity’ article and ‘The Muslim News’
website http://www.muslomnews.co.uk/news/news.php?
article=3808 published all skeptical news about the Bene
Manasseh community of Northeast India regarding their
Jewish DNA tests and results. One should be careful to
say ‘Jewish DNA’ because of many biblical as well religious
facts. Those who are familiar with the Hebrew Bible
might know that the word ‘mithyehadim’ 17> appeared only one time in the entire Tanach. It says –
and many peoples of the earth became Jews because fear of
Jews had seized them. In Hebrew it says – meamme ha’aretz
mithyehadim.
This situation tragically described
that many nations or Goim became Jews out of fear. But the
Bene Manasseh of North India and the Bene Ephraim of South
India became Jews willingly. And they rejected the idea of
proving their Jewish identity through the DNA tests. Their
traditional claims that they belonged to the ancient
Manasseh and Ephraim tribes of Israel must be viewed
separately. Those who are living in Israel as Israelites or
Jews whether observing Judaism or not traditionally claim
their Jewishness through their birth certificates and not
through the DNA tests. Some of them know that they were the
descendants of mithyehadim converts. Others knew that they
are Judaizers and not Jews at all.
The website
http://www.findarticles.com covered the history of both
Judaizing movements and tales of lost Jews in the
article ‘Wandering Jews and their genes’ written by Hillel
Halkin. The article said – Judaizers are groups of non-Jews
who have adopted Jewish practices and beliefs, sometimes
without significant contact with other Jews. These
Judaizers secretly planned to replace Israel with their
messianic Judaism and fill Israel with the Christians who
call themselves as messianic Jews. There are hundreds of
websites that promote this kind of Judaizing ideas right in
Israel secretly working to accomplish their replacement
theological goals. One can easily find these messianic
websites by going to any search engine. These sites show
that there are many messianic Jewish congregations in
Israel. A local language Telugu Christian Newspaper article
announced that the South Indian Telugu Christian workers in
Israel had established a Christian congregation in Israel.
The government of Israel has no time to deal with
the messianic replacement theological goals. Moreover
Israel does not know the seriousness of the replacement
theology. Someday Israel will become spiritual Israel with
the messianic Jewish government and join hands with the
Christians, Christian Arabs and Palestinians and with all
Judaizers who say they love Israel and pray for Israel. The
messianic Judaizers and the Palestinians are keeping the
Israeli government busy by magnifying and showing the
problem of security as number one so that they could work
their replacement theology un-noticed. The DNA tests are
good to check the fake ones who really work for the
destruction of Israel with their replacement theology.
There are true friends of Israel among the nations who
truly believe that the one living God of Israel would kick
her enemies out of Israel and give her peace among the
nations. The Bene Ephraim communities of South India had
studied the present situation of Israel and appealed the
world Jewry to immediately consider the idea of Eretz
Ephraim for the diaspora communities to unconditionally
support Israel as a sister nation in the UN. The members of
the Bene Ephraim Communities see this as the immediate need
for Middle East peace and the world peace at large. The DNA
tests are good to eliminate the fakes but some times hinder
the work of the Bene Ephraim communities. They had
contacted the world Jewry and Isrraeli and American
tourists. They had launched the website also. The Muslims
of south India and UK had published their views and news
about the DNA dilemma regarding the Indian Jews in their
website and in the local language daily newspapers.
The website http://www.eretzephraim.com that
promoted this idea of establishing Eretz Ephraim had been
removed by the state police for security reasons. But the
members of the Bene Ephraim communities still promote their
idea of establishing Eretz Ephraim as a sister nation to
support Israel. The simple fact of the matter according to
their site is: Israel is neither a religion nor a race but
a nation and a Jew is a Jew who religiously, socially,
secularly, culturally or politically sticks to the Tanach
heritage without any references to the New Testament or
Koran.
Those who see the Tanach through the
nationalistic perspective get the answers. Those who view
Tanach through a religious perspective get nothing but
confusion. The one living God of Israel is not a religion
but the creator of nations. He will certain create Eretz
Ephraim. This is the content in that website. The Lashkar-e-
Toiba terrorists observed these ideas and activities of the
Bene Ephraim communities and attempted to kill the Jewish
families in south India. The terrorists were arrested. But
the local Muslims and their leaders told the government
that they had no connections with any terrorists. But the
Institution on Religion and Public Policy Washington DC had
noticed the terrorist attack in their article on September
8, 2004 with the title ‘Let it be known we are Jewish.
These members are still appealing to the world Jewry to
form Eretz Ephraim.