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Bene Israel
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| Encyclopedia of Judaism: Bene Israel |
("Children of Israel"). Indian Jews from the Konkan coast of Maharashtra. The Bene Israel claim that they are members of "lost" tribes that reached India as long ago as 175 BCE (see Tribes, Ten Lost). According to their tradition, their ancestors were shipwrecked off the Konkan coast and lost all their holy books; they only remembered the Shema. They lived among the Hindus and adopted several of their customs. When discovered by a Jewish outsider, David Rahabi, possibly in the 18th century, they observed the Sabbath, dietary laws, circumcision, and many of the Jewish festivals, but had no synagogue. Navyacha San or the New Year was only celebrated for one day; the rationale for several Jewish fast days appeared to have been forgotten; and ḥanukkah was unknown since it occurred after the Bene Israel departure from Erets Israel.
From 1750 onward, the Bene Israel embarked upon a process of adjusting to mainstream Judaism. Several factors contributed to their religious revival. They gradually moved from the Konkan villages to Bombay and other cities as their involvement with the British Raj increased. Their first synagogue, named "Gate of Mercy," was established in Bombay in 1796. The Bene Israel were also assisted in their religious life by Cochin Jews from the Malabar coast, who acted as cantors, ritual slaughterers, and teachers. In the second half of the 19th century, the Bene Israel of Bombay were joined by Jews from Baghdad, who served as a reference model of normative Judaism. Paradoxically, the arrival of Christian missionaries in the Konkan from 1810 promoted the Bene Israel rapprochement with world Jewry by introducing them to the Hebrew Bible and other religious texts in Marathi translation.
The Bene Israel population increased from 6,000 in the 1830s to 20,000 in 1948. After the British withdrew from India in 1947 and the State of Israel's establishment in 1948, the Bene Israel began emigrating to Israel with the active encouragement of the Jewish Agency. By 1960, it became clear that certain rabbis in Israel would not marry Bene Israel to other Israelis on halakhic grounds, alleging that there were doubts concerning their Jewishness. In 1962, the Chief Rabbinate issued directives instructing marriage registrars to examine the descent of Bene Israel wishing to marry other Jews. Between 1962 and 1964, the Bene Israel organized a series of strikes and demonstrations involving the whole community to demand recognition as "full Jews." In 1964, the Chief Rabbinate withdrew its halakhic objections and declared the Bene Israel "full Jews in every respect." During the 1970s there were still cases of individual rabbis refusing to marry Bene Israel. The situation was resolved in 1982, when the two Chief Rabbis, Shlomo Goren and Ovadiah Yosef, issued a directive to marriage registrars reaffirming that the Bene Israel were "Jews in every respect."
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Bene Israel |
Bene Israel or Beni Israel (both: bā'nē) [Heb.,=sons of Israel], Jewish community of India, living mostly in and near Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Many thousands of others have settled in Israel since 1948. According to their own legend, they are descended from Jews who fled persecutions in Palestine in the 2d cent. B.C. Some scholars believe, however, that they are descended either from Babylonian Jews who migrated for reasons of trade or from Yemenite Jews who fled the persecutions of Mohammad; the latter hypothesis would explain the use of the name Bene Israel, which is found in the Qur'an as a favorable reference to Jews. The Bene Israel are referred to in the travel accounts of Benjamin of Tudela (10th cent.) and Marco Polo (13th cent). When the Bene Israel were rediscovered by Westerners in the late 18th cent. their customs were substantially like those of the Hindus except that they kept the Sabbath and several Jewish festivals and circumcised boys on the eighth day after birth. Wealthy Jews established schools to instruct the Bene Israel in Hebrew and Judaism, and in time their religious practices became similar to those of Jews throughout the world.
Bibliography
See S. Strizower, The Bene Israel of Bombay (1971).
| Wikipedia: Bene Israel |
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| Total population |
|---|
| 1830s: 6,000 (est.) 1900: 10,000 (est.) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Israel 60,000 (est.) Mumbai area 4000 (est.) |
| Languages |
|
Traditionally, Judæo-Marathi a form of Marathi; those in Israel, mostly Hebrew |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
The Bene Israel (Hebrew: בני ישראל, "Sons of Israel") are a group of Jews who migrated in the nineteenth century from west Maharashtra to the nearby Indian cities, primarily Mumbai, but also to Pune, Ahmedabad, and Karachi (Karachi later became a part of Pakistan). Prior to these waves of emigrations and to this day, the Bene Israel formed the largest sector of the subcontinent's Jewish population, and constitute the bulk of those sometimes referred to as Pakistani Jews. The native language of the Bene Israel is Judæo-Marathi, a form of Marathi. Most Bene Israel have now emigrated to Israel.
Contents |
History
The traditions of the Bene Israel community trace their descent to Jews who escaped persecution in Galilee in the 2nd century B.C.E. The Bene Israel resemble the non-Jewish Maratha people in appearance and customs, which indicates some intermarriage between Jews and Indians. The Bene Israel, however, maintained the practices of Jewish dietary laws, circumcision and observation of Sabbath as a day of rest.
The Bene Israel believe their ancestors were oil pressers (seven men and an unknown number of women) in the Galilee and that they are descended from survivors of a shipwreck. In the 18th Century they were "rediscovered" by traders from Baghdad. At that time the Bene Israel were practicing just a few outward forms of Judaism (which is how they were recognized) but had no scholars of their own. Teachers from Baghdad and Cochin taught them mainstream Judaism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Jewish merchants from Europe traveled to India in the medieval period for purposes of trade, but it is not clear whether they formed permanent settlements in south Asia. The first reliable evidence of Jews living in India comes from the early 11th century. It is certain that the first Jewish settlements were centered along the western coast. Abraham ibn Daud's 12th century reference to Jews of India is unfortunately vague, and we do not have further references to Indian Jews until several centuries later.
Under British hegemony, many Bene Israel rose to prominence because their religion classified them as "Anglo-Indian." They were not affected by racially-discriminatory policies, and as such were able to gain higher, better paying posts in the British army when compared with their non-Jewish neighbors. Many Bene Israel rose high enough that when the British left India in 1947, they felt that they stood to lose more than they could possibly gain under Indian independence. As such, most immigrated to Israel.[1]
It is estimated that there were 6,000 Bene Israel in the 1830s, 10,000 at the turn of the century, and in 1948—their peak in India—they numbered 20,000. [1] Since that time, their population in India has decreased through emigration (mostly to Israel) to under 5,000.
In 1964 the Israeli Rabbinate declared that the Bene Israel are "full Jews in every respect."
The Bene Israel claim a lineage to the Cohanim, the Israelite priestly class, which claims descent from Aaron, the brother of Moses. In 2002, a DNA test confirmed that the Bene Israel share the same heredity as the Cohanim.[2][3]
Famous Bene Israel
- Dr. Erulkar, (Physician of Mohandas Gandhi)
- Nissim Ezekiel, Poet
- Sophie Judah, Writer
- Carmit Delman, Writer
- Sadia Shepard, Writer
- Dr Nathan Malachi Aston, Educationist
- [Colonel Gabriel Ashton], Israeli Police - Former Commander of the West Bank
- Brigadier David Abraham, Indian Army
- Major General Jonathan Reuben Samson, Indian Army
- Lt General Jacobs, Indian Army
Film Industry
- David Abraham Cheulkar, actor
- David, actor (recently settled in Britain)
- Ruby Myers (known as Sulochana), actress
- Florence Ezekiel (popular known as Nadira), actress
- Bunny Reuben, noted film journalist
- Susan Solomon (known as Firoza Begum), actress
- Pearl Padamsee, actress
See also
External links
- Joseph Jacobs and Joseph Ezekiel, Beni-Israel, in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)
- Shalva Weil, The Bene Israel of India on the site of The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora at Tel Aviv University.
- Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Sadia Shepard from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Jews in India: Bene Israel
- Jews of India - Includes a Photo Gallery & a Forum
- Jews in Pakistan. An article by Prof. Adil Najam of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
References
- ^ Joan G. Roland, Jews in British India: Identity in a Colonial Era, Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989, 34-35.
Further reading
- India's Bene Israel: A Comprehensive Inquiry and Sourcebook Isenberg, Shirley Berry; Berkeley: Judah L. Magnes Museum, 1988
- The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home Shepard, Sadia; Penguin Press, 2008
- The Book of Esther: Esther, David; Penguin Global, 2003
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