Shavei Israel Publishes First Edition of Kuki-Hebrew Siddur for the Bnei Menashe

Jerusalem-based nonprofit Shavei Israel has announced the release of a new and improved version of the very first Kuki-Hebrew siddur, a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers, which the organization first published seven years ago.

“Shavei Israel is proud to be reissuing the first-ever Hebrew-Kuki Siddur,” says Rabbi and founder of Shavei Israel, Michael Freund. “When a person prays from a Siddur, he connects with his Creator and with the Jewish tradition. Publishing the siddur is part of our ongoing efforts to reach the Bnei Menashe of northeast India and assist them in their journey to reconnect with the Jewish people, 2700 years after exile.”

The updated siddur, which is intended to be used all year round, is aimed at assisting members of the Bnei Menashe community both in India and Israel. It contains a special letter of blessing from Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and the original Hebrew text according to the Sephardic rite along with a phonetic transliteration and annotations in the Kuki language.

The Kuki language and its various dialects are a branch of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages that are spoken in the northeastern part of India where the Bnei Menashe community resides, as well as in eastern Bangladesh and western Burma. 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. From the efforts of Shavei Israel, there are now more than 5,000 Bnei Menashe living in Israel.

Shavei Israel is a nonprofit organization founded by Freund, who immigrated to Israel from the U.S. with the objective of reaching out to “lost” and “hidden” Jews globally to reconnect them with other Jewish people and the State of Israel. Currently, Shavei Israel is active in more than a dozen countries, from Poland to Peru.

Michael Freund is a graduate of Princeton University and received his MBA from Columbia University. As a rabbi and devout member of the Jewish community, he founded Shavei Israel in Jerusalem. His group assists hidden Jewish communities to return to Zion. He served as Deputy Communications Director to Binyamin Netanyahu and is a syndicated columnist for the Jerusalem Post where he contributes his column, “Fundamentally Freund.”

For more news and information about Shavei Israel, please visit their website at https://www.shavei.org/

To learn more about Michael Freund, please visit his Linkedin profile.