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Redefining the Converted Jewish Self: Race, Religion and Israel's Bene Menashe

Egorova, Yulia

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Abstract

The Bene Menashe stem from a number of Christian groups of the Indo-Burmese borderland, some of whom back in the 1950s declared their descent from the Lost Tribes of Israel. In this article, I will use the example of the Bene Menashe migration to Israel to cast analytical light on different ways in which race and religion co-constitute each other in processes of transnational migration. To do so, I will focus on one specific aspect of the Bene Menashe migration—the way the community has to construct and enact their religious affiliation to be able to become Israeli citizens and to be considered part of the Jewish people by their “hosts.” I argue that, in the case of the Bene Menashe, race and religion co-produce each other in ways that reinforce racialized understandings of Judaism and Jewishness, and I suggest that what accounts for this phenomenon is that the opportunities that the Bene Menashe immigrants had in defining their religiosity in Israel were limited by the conditions of their migration, which developed against the backdrop of multiple colonial contexts. [Judaism, Israel, racialization, migration, religion]

Citation

Egorova, Y. (2015). Redefining the Converted Jewish Self: Race, Religion and Israel's Bene Menashe. American Anthropologist, 117(3), 493-505. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12293

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 19, 2015
Online Publication Date Aug 18, 2015
Publication Date Sep 7, 2015
Deposit Date Aug 20, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of the American Anthropological Association
Print ISSN 0002-7294
Electronic ISSN 1548-1433
Publisher American Anthropological Association
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 117
Issue 3
Pages 493-505
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12293

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© 2015 by the American Anthropological Association





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