It’s funny how all low-IQ groups have these problems.
Forward: The result so far has been a group plagued by absorption and integration difficulties as harrowing as those faced by many previous non-European immigrant groups in Israel — and maybe more so, thanks to their sheer distance from Jewish life until recently, and to the skepticism that still surrounds their claims of a past Jewish connection.
According to Malachi Levinger, the head of the local council of Kiryat Arba, a city in the West Bank where 700 Bnei Menashe have settled, including many placed there by Shavei Israel, at least 73% of the group’s youth are considered at risk.
With their parents mostly absent because of their need to work long hours at low-end jobs, teenagers from the community are prone to alcohol abuse, petty crimes and encounters with the police, said Yoni Nachum, coordinator of Bnei Menashe programs for the local council.
