An immigrant from Mizoram waits at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. (AFP)

Mumbai, Nov. 26: Gabi Yoram, 14, and his mother have crossed over 3,000 miles by train to reach Mumbai to catch their plane to Israel. They had never before left their hamlet in Mizoram.

“We have travelled for over 2,700 years and it’s time to go home,” says 66-year-old Benjamin, Gabi’s neighbour.

A week after 50 members of the 6,000-strong Bnei Menashe community of the Northeast emigrated to Israel, another 168 are waiting in Mumbai for visas and tickets to “return” to the Promised Land.

The community, which claims Jewish ancestry, has been living in the villages of Mizoram and Manipur apparently for almost three millennia.

In the past, over 1,800 Bnei Menashe have travelled to Israel in small groups on tourist visas, converted to Judaism and stayed on in a deal reached between Jewish groups and Tel Aviv. Most have been settled on the West Bank.

The current group of 218, however, was converted to Judaism in May 2005 by a team sent by Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi, Shlomo Amar. They will stay in the northern Israeli towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth, both targets of Hizbollah rockets this year.

The Bnei Menashe’s enthusiasm for Israel is not matched by the Ben Israelis of Mumbai, most of whom are from Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

“Many of us are taken on short visits by the government to give us a taste of Israel. We know what life one can expect there. Some go; others who have more at stake here don’t,” says Ellis Solomon Talkar, 54, whose siblings live in Ba’er Sheva.

“You are taught Hebrew, given food and shelter for six months and later a dole of about 500 shekels to start with plus 300 shekels more for each child. It is too little and most Indian Jews end up doing menial or clerical jobs.”

Many, like his co-volunteer Asher at the Gate of Mercy synagogue in the crowded Masjid Bunder area, have returned to India, “unable to adjust”.

But Gabi and his mother, who tilled a small patch of land till early this month, are thrilled at their chance. Gabi’s two elder brothers are already in Israel. His father, who died last year, is buried in Mizoram. “My brothers say the government there will take care of us,” Gabi says proudly. He doesn’t know the upkeep is only for six months.

“After that they will have to find a job for themselves,” says Daniel Samuel, head of the Tel Aviv-run Jewish Agency, which, along with an organisation called Shavei Israel, facilitates the emigration of Indian Jews to Israel.