Indian Jewish Communities

The Bene Israelis

The Bene Israel of India (Jewish community of India) is a small community of Jews that have lived for many centuries on the west coast of India, just south of Mumbai (Bombay), in the Konkan region of Maharashtra.

The Bene Israel (literally meaning Children of Israel) of India is an ancient community that has maintained its cultural heritage, traditions, customs and Jewish faith in the original traditional form that was followed prior to construction First Temple.

In the absence of contacts with the mainstream Jewish community for a considerable length of time the Bene Israel of India could not keep up with the changing Jewish traditions and generation after generation the gap increased further. However, when they were later rediscovered and exposed to the mainstream Judaism, they were still observing several important aspects of traditional biblical form of Jewishness.

It is true, that the Bene Israel adopted or even modified certain customs but this is a universal truth. They had no written form of Torah as it is believed they were cut out from the mainstream prior to its existence.

The India society at large was always extremely tolerant of other faiths and religions thus it was quite easy for the Bene Israelis to practice their unique rituals and traditions. Unlike many parts of the world, Jews have historically lived in India without anti-Semitism from Indians, except for a few incidents during the Portuguese regime in parts under their rule. That was one of the reason that they refrained from Bombay area until it was gifted to British Control as a dowry in 1668. It was then that the Bene-Israeli community started migrating from Konkan region to Bombay.

Some claim that the Bene-Israelis (one of the lost ten tribes) were rediscovered by David Rahabi. He among a few others were mainly instrumental in bringing the Bene-Israel community of India to limelight. Efforts to convert this group to Christianity can also be not ruled out. The point to stress here is that the Bene-Israelis avoided the teachings of the New Testament by the Christian Missionaries and stuck to the religion and faith. At the same time the Hindus converted themselves to Christianity freely and took all the benefits that were offered including employment.

Thanks to the efforts of several Christian missionaries in Bombay Presidency area and in London who provided both secular and religious education, published bible, story books and prayer books in Marathi, the language spoken by the majority of the Bene-Israel. They were careful not to include the Christian values.

The Bene-Israel arrived at Navgaon, in Konkan region, on the west coast of India near the twin rocks of Andheri Undheri when they were struck by a storm in the Arabian sea. All but seven couples survived and the Bene-Israel community is the descendants of those seven couples. The survivors somehow managed to settle in the village and started working in agriculture and oil producing which later on became their main profession. They were nicknamed the shanivar teli ("Saturday oil-pressers") by the local population as they abstained from work on Saturdays which is Jewish Shabbat.

Those who survived adopted the local dress and the local language - "Marathi". They never forgot "Shema Israel" and observed Shabbat, circumcised their sons, celebrated major festivals and kept Kashrut Laws.

It is not important to see who saved their life but how they must have fought for their survival. In Rome do as the Romans & you survive and thus our ancestors kept religion within doors, taught their children and survived by the Grace of G-d.

They were totally unaware of the contemporary Jewish literature, prayer books or any form of religious guidance for more that over thousand years and were dependent on what their parents passed on to them by word of mouth from generation to generation.

In the nineteenth century they started moving to the cities, mainly to Bombay (now called Mumbai) and to other cities among them Pune, Ahmedabad and Karachi which is now part of Pakistan. This was mainly due to the development in transport system and employment opportunities. In cities they became contractors and skilled carpenters and then as they took education in English took positions as clerks, mechanics, draughtsmen etc. Women earned by working as school teachers. There had been Vice Admiral, Governor, Major General and businessmen. They served as officers in the British Indian Army and gained higher positions in Post & Telegraph, Railways, Ports & medical profession. Jews have also held important positions under Indian princes in the past.

Today in India there are less than 5000 Bene Israelis, most of them live in Thane a suburb of Mumbai (Bombay). At their peak in 1951, the Bene Israel numbered 20,000. Since then, most of the Bene Israel Jews have made an aliya to Israel and a few have immigrated to UK, USA, Canada and Australia.

According to Bene Israel tradition a Jewish merchant, David Rahabi, arrived in west India. He was surprised to find this Bene Israel community which followed some Jewish traditions and festivals. He decided to enlighten them with all the Jewish traditions. He chose three men from the Bene Israel community and taught them Talmud and other Jewish books. These three people became to be known as "Kaji" (meaning judge in Arabic) and were religious and social leaders of the Bene Israel community. They performed rites such as marriages, funerals and settled disputes until the synagogues were built. The mother tongue of the Bene Israel, when they first arrrived in India is unkown, but for centuries they have been speaking Marathi.

The first Bene Israel synagogue was built by Samuel Divekar in Bombay in the year 1796. Divekar served as a soldier of the British in India. In the second war of Mysore in south India, he with other British Indian soldiers was captured. The King of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, was a Muslim. He used to execute the captured soldiers, but when his mother heard of the Bene Israel captives, she begged her son to spare the Bene Israel soldiers. After being spared Samuel Divekar decided to thank the Lord by building a synagogue. Later on more synagogues were build by the Bene Israelis in India. Among the synagogues in India, the synagogue in the town of Panvel (near Mumbai) is considered special and sacred where it is believed, prayers are fulfilled.

Though, the Bene Israel have never been a rich community, they have by Indian standards, been ranked as moderately well off.

The Cochini Jews

Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews are came to India as merchants when King Solomon was in power. While others say that they came to Southern India (Kerela) after the destruction of the Second Temple. They settled in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India. Today it is in the state of Kerala and renamed to Kochi in 1996. Kochi was the centre of Indian spice trade for many centuries and was known to the Jews since ages.

There is another group of Jews who also settled in Cochin. They are known as Pardesi(Foreign) Jews. They came to the India from Spain and Portugal during the 15th and 16th centuries when they fled persecution in the wake of the Alhambra Decree expelling Jews from Spain.

Pardesi Jews of Madras traded in spices, diamonds, precious stones and corals. They maintained trade with Europe. They learnt Tamil and Judeo-Malayalam from the Malabar Jews.

The Baghdadi Jews

Baghdadi Jews, also known as Indo-Iraqi Jews, is the traditional name given to the communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East, who settled primarily along the trade routes of ports around the Indian Ocean. They are believed to arrive in India in 1730 as traders in Surat - a city in Gujarat state and later moved to Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkatta (Calcutta) and Pune. They came from Turkey, Persia and Southern Arabia.

The Turkish control over the region deteriorated and the situation of the Jews worsened. An example of this deterioration are the persecutions of Dawud Pasha, which caused many members of the Jewish community, such as David Sassoon to flee. David Sassoon (1792-1864), the founder of the Sassoon dynasty in India, escaped from the persecution of the Pashas and fled to India in 1828 through Bushire in Iran.

The first permanent Baghdadi merchant colony in India was established in 1730 in Surat, after the British East India Company had begun trading with Basra in 1723. Joseph Seemah from Baghdad opened the Surat synagogue and cemetery in 1730.

With the rise of British power in India, Surat declined in importance as British-controlled Calcutta and Bombay became more important in trade. Baghdadi settlement shifted first to Bombay and then principally to Calcutta (the capital of British India). Jewish merchants from Aleppo played an important role in founding the Calcutta Jewish cemetery, which was opened in 1812.

The Sassoons of Bombay and the Ezras of Calcutta, eventually established manufacturing and commercial houses of fabulous wealth. David Sassoon and his sons established many educational, religious and charitable institutions which benefited the city of Mumbai and Pune and also its Jewish community. The Sassoon Synagogues in Mumbai and Pune were built by the Sassoons. In 1861, Sassoon built in Byculla, Mumbai, the Magen David Synagogue and some of the most important cultural and civic institutions, including Hospital, Orphanages, Libraries, Museums, Docks, Schools and charitable organizations. In Pune he built the David Sassoon Hospital, an infirmary and leper asylum, and the Ohel David Synagogue, whose 90 feet spire is a city's landmark.

After Indian independence, there was a continuous migration of Baghdadi Jews to Israel. Many others went to the United States and United Kingdom.

The Bene Menashe

The members of this community claim to be one of the descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes. They are concentrated in the states of Manipur and Mizoram in the North East India.

The Bene Menashe - "Sons of Menasseh" - group in India's North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram; since the late 20th century, they claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel and have adopted the practice of Judaism. In the late 20th century, Israeli Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail of the group Amishav named them Bene Menashe, based on their account of descent from Menasseh.

The Bene Menashe are a small group who started studying and practicing Judaism since the 1970s in a desire to return to what they believe is the religion of their ancestors. close to 3,000 have emigrated to Israel.

In the time of the first temple, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The southern one, known as the Kingdom of Judah, was made up mostly of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi. Most Jews today are descended from the southern kingdom. The northern Kingdom of Israel was made up of the remaining ten tribes. In approximately 721 B.C.E., the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom, exiled the ten tribes living there, and enslaved them in Assyria (present-day Iraq).

in the early 1960s adopted observance of the Jewish Sabbath, holidays, dietary laws and other Jewish customs and traditions which they learned from books. They had no connections with other Jewish groups in the diaspora or in Israel. On May 31, 1972, some Messianic communities founded the Manipur Jewish Organization.

After these people established contacts with other Jewish religious groups in Israel and other countries, they began to practice more traditional Rabbanic Judaism in the 1980s and 1990s. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail is the founder of Amishav, an organization dedicated to finding the Lost Tribes and facilitating aliyah. He investigated this group's claims to Jewish descent in the 1980s. He named the group as Bene Menashe.

Next Shabbat

16th March 2024
06th Adar II 5784

Torah Reading

Parasha: Pekudei
 
Haftara: Melachim I 07:40 - 07:50
 
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