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8/30
2002

84

Author amasses evidence that a living remnant
of a lost biblical tribe has been found.

SANDEE B RAWARS KY
Special to the Jewish News

Don't Forget... The Sheik caters all occasions

Buy one entree get the second
entree 50% off

In Search Of
An Ancient Mystery

Your Children

emergency numbets - keep them safel

has searched the world for remnants of
the Lost Tribes as well as possible
descendants of Marranos who fled the
Inquisition. He has been a key supporter
of the B'nai Menashe, providing Jewish
education on his visits to India, and aid
in their official conversions and aliyah.
Halkin says his new findings don't
make these people "halachically Jewish
in the remotest sense. It may create a
little more sympathy on the part of the
rabbinate for giving them an opportu-
nity to convert," he says.

our thousand miles east of
Sinai, in a remote area in
northern India bordering
Burma and Bangladesh, a
group that calls itself the B'nai Menashe
believes its members are descendants of
the biblical tribe of Manasseh.
In Across the Sabbath River: In Search
of a Lost Tribe of Israel (Houghton
Mifflin; $28), Israeli author Hillel
Halkin asserts the connec-
tion is indeed true —
Colorful Travelogue
"that part of one biblical
The author of Letters to an
tribe did retain its identity
American Jewish Friend, a
for nearly 3,000 years
regular contributor to
while wandering from the
Commentary and the New
Middle East to the jungles
and the distin-
Republic
of Southeast Asia."
guished
translator
of works
A journalist and transla-
by many writers, including
tor, Halkin begins his explo-
A.B. Yehoshua, S.Y. Agnon,
rations as a determined
Sholem Aleichem and
skeptic, and after three trips
Shulamith Hareven, Halkin
to the areas and extensive
made his first Lost Tribes
field research, he shifts to
Part
travelogue,
part
hunting
trip to Asia in
conviction. When asked, in
ethnography,
(.`Across
1998
with
Rabbi Avichail.
the final days of his last visit,
the Sabbath River"
Halkin was under con-
about his certainty that the
tract to do a piece for the
Kuki-Chin-Mizo peoples are posits the discovery of
the descendants of the
New Yorker and although
the Lost Tribe of Manasseh,
lost tribe of Manasseh.
it never ran, his interest
he says that he is 107 per-
was piqued. Upon his
cent certain.
return to Israel, he wrote a book pro-
posal that was sold.
Hoax Or Not?
The narrative is an engaging, intelli-
gent and colorful travelogue, layered
In a recent telephone interview from
with history. As an explorer, Halkin is
his home in Zichron Yaakov, Halkin
ever curious, willing to follow all
says that he's just as positive now.
"Either I was the victim of a colossal potential leads and detours, many of
which prove serendipitous.
hoax, or there really is a historic con-
He seems part Indiana Jones, part
nection. I was willing to consider the
Margaret Mead, as he witnesses enact-
hoax theory, willing to concede that
ments of animal sacrifices, ancient
I'm not that smart. But if you look at
chants, and the retelling of stories
the people and the material that I've
passed down through generations, and
collected, and what their motives
tries to fit together the clues he gathers.
might have been, the likelihood of a
He's also something of a detective
coordinated hoax is zero."
and
a street psychologist, trying to
The group numbers about 5,000 in
understand
local traditions and navi-
two small Indian states, Manipur and
gate sometimes competing agendas.
Mizoram. About 600 of them now live
in Israel, and are fighting for recognition
and immigration rights. Rabbi Eliahu
Inspired By Legend
Avichail, who runs an organization
The book's title is inspired by a leg-
called Amishav: My People Returneth,