Finding lost Jews in Asia: the search for restored authenticity and the rewriting of Zionist history

This chapter focuses on the quest for the Ten Lost Tribes in modern Asia. It reveals the deep connection between early religious proto-Zionist thinking regarding the search for the Lost Tribes in Asia and the activities of present-day religious Zionists among the Bnei Menashe of eastern India. The issue of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and the finding of the remnants of the 2,700-year-old exile raises significant questions regarding the nature and future of Judaism and the Jewish ethnos in the global era, questions that clearly deserve further research. As such, the chapter concludes, the process of acceptance into the larger Jewish community is fraught with many obstacles.