After his visit to India, he began thinking more broadly about the descendants of Israel and Michael started traveling the world and seeing that the same Jewish customs he observed in Northeastern India were commonly dispersed amongst other peoples throughout the earth.
For these peoples that for generations have been so dedicated to practicing Jewish customs, he saw that no one was reaching out from Israel to these people to strengthen their connection with the Jewish people in the homeland. While Shavei Israel believes this to still be an issue today in Israel, Shavei Israel is helping bring what is often termed as the “Lost Tribes of Israel” home. Shavei Israel’s goal is to strengthen relations between the descendants of Jews and the nation of Israel.
“It is only once I began to work with the Bnei Menashe that I began to study that matter more in depth. I saw that this was an issue that has troubled people for thousands of years. What happened to those tribes what is the end fate of those tribes going to be?”
Michael noted that when most people hear about the ingathering of Jewish exiles they in reality are only thinking of one major tribe returning, the tribe of Judah. He commented that when examining the Biblical Hebrew prophets, it is clear that when the return to Zion is mentioned it is clearly communicated that it is not just Judah that returns but all of the 12 tribes would ultimately come back to the Promised Land of Israel.
Freund said he is not arrogant enough to say that what Shavei Israel is doing is directly fulfilling biblical prophecy in the Hebrew Prophets. However, he did indicate that what is happening with the return of lost Israelis we are clearly witnessing a historical and biblical process beginning to unfold.
“First we had the beginning of the return of the Jewish people, then we had the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the land in 1948. The next logical step is that the extended family of Israel not just the tribe of Judah will also begin their return.”
How are they finding the Lost?
Whenever Shavei Israel approaches a new community, Freund noted that it is very easy to get swept away emotionally and start to find Jews in all kinds of places. He said that what Shavei is doing is not about emotions, but basing their decisions on fact by accessing pertinent evidence that is presented regarding each tribe. Generally the evidence is primarily gathered from four main sources ethnographical, sociological, historical and academic.
“We really try to do our homework and do our best determination as we can about the status of the claims that are made by various communities. It is not always a scientific thing, it isn’t necessarily something that you can prove in a laboratory, it is a matter of taking the pieces of a puzzle as best you can and seeing what the end result looks like.”