(Shavei Israel release) Ten Bnei Menashe couples, all of whom immigrated to Israel from Mizoram, India, in February, married at Shavei Israel’s absorption center in Kfar Hasidim on Sunday, April 2, under Jewish law in the wake of their formal conversion.

The 10 couples were among 102 new immigrants who arrived in Israel last month thanks to the Jerusalem-based nonprofit Shavei Israel. They all hail from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, which borders Burma and Bangladesh and is home to the second-largest concentration of Bnei Menashe in India after that of the state of Manipur. The new immigrants all plan to settle in Nazareth Illit, Israel, which already has a flourishing Bnei Menashe community, after they leave Kfar Hasidim.

“After realizing their dream of making aliyah and returning to the Jewish people, the 10 Bnei Menashe couples now have an additional reason to celebrate,” said Shavei Israel Founder and Chairman Michael Freund. “They have now been remarried in a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony, which symbolizes the new lives they are building here in the Jewish state. We wish them a hearty mazel tov and much joy, health and success here in Israel.”

The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire. So far, some 3,000 Bnei Menashe have made aliyah thanks to Shavei Israel, including more than 1,100 in the past four years. Some 7,000 Bnei Menashe remain in India waiting for the chance to return home to Zion.

Shavei Israel reaches out to and assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people. It works with various groups around the world, such as the Bnei Anousim (“Marranos”) of Spain, Portugal and South America, the Subbotnik Jews of Russia and the “Hidden Jews” of Poland from the time of the Holocaust. The organization also engages in the absorption of new olim in Israel, including providing assistance with housing, employment and professional training.