In February, Jewish Voice Ministries International
organized a test to compare genetic samples from
some 100 members of the Igbo group, who claim
ancestral connections to the biblical Israelites,
against a DNA bank of genes collected from Jews.
Shavei Israel, a high-powered Israeli organization
also ramping up their own outreach to the Igbo,
does not welcome the test and sees it as part of
the growing threat Messianic Jews pose to the
Israeli group’s mission.
“So called Messianic Jews are soul-snatchers and
missionaries, who are trying to sell people a false
bill of goods,” said Michael Freund, Shavei’s
founder and chairman. “They try to convince some
of these communities to unwittingly call themselves
Jewish while at the same time believe in the
Christian faith.”
Freund is on his own quest to bring “lost tribe”
communities into the fold of the mainstream
Jewish world. He has settled thousands of Bnei
Menashe, a “lost tribe” from India, in Israel and the
West Bank.
He sees Messianic Jews as competition.
“It’s a market place of ideas out there,” said
Freund. “If the only ones in the marketplace are the
so-called Messianic Jews, than they may very well
succeed in deceiving many members of those
communities into joining their ranks.
in outside groups have both seen an
uptick.
Since 2003, Kulanu, a New York based nonprofit
that supports “isolated and emerging” Jewish
groups has provided financial support and religious
guidance to the Igbo, which has sometimes
involved religious conversions to Judaism. Shavei
Israel, a well-funded Israeli organization that
encourages immigration to the Jewish state, began
sending religious emissaries to Nigeria in 2015.
And last year, Jewish Voice Ministries International
tossed their hat into the ring.
Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah
but still identity as Jewish, despite being rejected
by mainstream Jewish groups. Some Messianic
Jewish organizations, like Jews for Jesus, make it
their mission to “spread the good news” of Jesus
to Jews. Jewish Voice shares this mandate, with a
special focus on seeking out “lost tribe” groups, in
places like Africa.
There are smaller groups and individual actors
involved, too.
For example, the American-based International
Israelite Board of Rabbis, a rabbinical body of
Hebrew Israelites, has also been sending their own
emissaries and providing religious resources to the
Igbo for a number of years. A Messianic Jew
named Kris Shoemaker, who goes by Rabbi
Yehudah ben Shomeyr, travelled to meet the Igbo in
2010 and has written a series of books on “the
Igbo-Israel connection.”
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