Israel allows 899 Indian Jews to immigrate

All of the immigrants will be housed in a private absorption center run by Shavei Israel and will then be settled around the country.

Their immigration to Israel was facilitated by the ruling of the former chief Sephardic Rabbi in 2005 who declared them descendants of Israel amid intense debate over their Jewish ancestry.

Some 274 members of the northeastern Indian Jews arrived in Israel earlier this year.

However, in 2004 Israel's then Interior Minister Avraham Poraz had put a freeze on the immigration of the group raising questions on their Jewishness.