CHURACHANDPUR, INDIA (Reuters) – Abel and Sharon Hangsingh, along with their children and grandkids, waited for the sun to set over their small Buelah Lane colony’s rusted steel roofs. As is customary in the far northeastern states, the sun sets early. They lit two white candles and assembled in front of the flickering light on their modest, folding Sabbath table to sing the weekly Shalom Aleichem by heart, loud childish voices mixed with faltering elderly ones in a language none could comprehend.
They are among thousands of families in this predominantly Christian region of India who has converted to a form of Orthodox Judaism in the last three decades. Even the most fervent converts have succumbed to the demands of life in Manipur, a state plagued by decades of ethnic warfare and slow growth.
Abel Hangsingh’s eldest son, Jeremiah Hangsingh, is known as “Pau” for short. He acquired a heroin addiction 20 years ago, like so many of his generation in this town near Myanmar’s opium-producing nation, and he still fights with it now. Despite this, he never misses Shabbat’s prayer on Fridays.
Source: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/11/orthodox-jews-fromindiaseekasyluminisrael.html
