Session 4 - Jews of India

Session 4 - The Jews of India
Hidden Jewish Communities

Our Euro-Centered (Ashkenazi) Perception of Judaism
Woody Allen Barbara Streisand Fiddler on the Roof
Al Jolson
Matza Ball Soup Bagels & Lox

B’nei Anusim (Crypto Jews)
Beta Israel (Ethiopia)
Jews of Kaifeng (China)
Bnei Menashe (India)
Hidden Jewish Communities Around the World

Questions for Messianic Judaism
1. How is the face of the Jewish community changing?

2. How is Jewish identity changing (i.e. who is a Jew)?

3. What is truly “Jewish” culture?

4. How does this shape the way we “do” Messianic Judaism?

Bene Israel
Jews of Cochin
Jews of Calcutta
Baghdadi Jews
Bnei Menashe
Bene Ephraim
The Hidden Jews of India

Background:
How Jews Ended Up in Persia

Assyrian Exile of Northern Ten Tribes (722 BC)

Babylonian Exile of Judah (586 BC)

Talmudic Academy Pumbedita
Talmudic Academy Sura
Talmudic Academies 200 - 600 AD

Lemba
Beta Israel
Kaifeng
Bnei Menashe
Cochin
Bene Israel
Calcutta
Bene Ephraim
The Silk Route
Bukharian

The Jews of the Cochin
The Malabar Coast

Jews of Cochin
• Oldest Jewish community

• Malabar Jews

• Pardesi Jews

• Kerala Jews

• Malayam speaking Jews
https://www.thefridaytimes.com/jews-of-malabar-1880/
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Cochin Jews." Encyclopedia Britannica, December 16, 2014. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cochin-Jews.

Origins of the Jews
• Oral Tradition: 70 AD, Exiles from Jerusalem

• Historians: 6th - 7th Century AD

• Mentioned in the Cairo Geniza documents

• 12th Century Benjamin of Tudela of Spain mentioned them

• 1341 Cochin established as a trade port

• Drew merchants from Persia and Arabia

• Malabar Pepper trade
https://www.thefridaytimes.com/jews-of-malabar-1880/

Earliest Evidence
• Gravestone dating 1269 AD is the earliest
archaeological evidence of Jewish settlement

• Inscribed in a Kerala Judeo-Indian Dialect

Synagogue in Cochin
• 1344 synagogue established in Cochin

• 1568 Portuguese Jews arrived and built current
synagogue (right)

• 1663 - 1795 Golden Age under the Dutch

• 1800s - British Rule, economic decline in Southeast

• Most moved to Calcutta & Bombay for jobs and trade

Cochin Jews Today
• 1954 — 2,400 moved to Israel

• About 4,000 live in Israel today

• About 200 remain in Kochi (Cochin)
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-cochin-jews-of-kerala/
https://cafedissensus.com/2014/12/31/malayalam-zionist-songs-of-the-kerala-jews-inspiration-from-indian-cinema-and-political-music/

Bene Israel
The Jews of Mumbai

Bene Israel
• Oral Tradition — Followers of El
ij
ah the prophet

• Oral Tradition — Exiles during Antiochus IV

• Oral Tradition — 14 Jews survived a shipwreck

• Historians — 6th Century AD Jewish merchants from
Persia or Arabia arrived by sea

• Community is very Indian, resembling local Indians and
practices Hindu traditions.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-bene-israel/

Bombay Synagogue
• 1796 Sha’ar HaRahamim Synagogue built
https://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/culture/article/unseen-mumbai--shaar-rason-and-shaar-harahamim-17670182

British Rule
• 1817 - Bombay (Mumbai) became HQ for British East
India Company

• Attracted Bene Israel Jews from surrounding villages

• Worked in shipyards for the British

• Became local merchants and business owners

Christian Missionaries
1829

• John Wilson, Church of Scotland

• Hebrew Scholar

• Taught the Bene Israel Hebrew

• Translated Jewish prayer books & the Bible into the
Marathi language

• Established schools for the Bene Israel

• Under British rule they scattered throughout India
https://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/culture/article/unseen-mumbai--shaar-rason-and-shaar-harahamim-17670182

Bene Israel Today
• 1940s — 25,000 Bene Israel in India

• By 1952, 2,300 made aliyah

• Most were required to convert

• 1964 — Israel declared them Jews

• Today — 5,000 in India

• Today — 40,000 in Israel

• Most in Beersheba

Bene Israel Traditions
• No Hanukkah celebration (pre-500 AD)

• Hindu names

• Shabbat, and Kashrut

• Sephardic liturgy (because of the
Portuguese Jews)

• Read a Marathi Bible (Wilson)

• Some Hindu practices

• Sing and Dance Maharashtrian

• Chant the Kirtan

• Pre-weddinug henna ceremony

• Do not believe in reincarnation
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bene-Israel
https://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Bene-Israel-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

DNA Studies
• 2019 — Geneticists con
fi
rmed mixture
of Indian and Jewish Genes

• Dated origins 650 - 1,050 years ago.
https://www.freepressjournal.in/latest-news/indias-bene-israel-community-has-jewish-roots-study

Bnei Menashe
The Lost Tribe of Menasseh?

Bene Menashe
• Members of the Chin Kuki Mizo Burma Tribe

• Speak Tibetan-Burmese

• Assimilated local Burmese ethnic group

• Had autonomous state with its own
fl
ag
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/india-virtual-jewish-history-tour

Theories of Origin
1. Lost Tribe of Menasseh

2. Converted Animist tribe who read their story out of the Bible

3. Descendants of Persian Jews along the silk route
intermarried with local Asian tribes.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/india-virtual-jewish-history-tour

Documented History
• 17th Century from Burma

• Settled around Manipur, India.

• Southeast Asian tribal group

• Part of the Mizo, Kuki, & Chin tribe

• Practiced animism.
https://forward.com/news/israel/343977/indias-jewish-lost-tribe-faces-hard-times-in-israel/

William Pettigrew
1869 - 1943

• 1894 Missionary to Manipur among Hmar

• Converted them to Christianity

• Introduced them to the Scriptures

• Theory: They read their story out of the Bible, particularly
the Passover story. They identi
fi
ed themselves as the
tribe of Menasseh

Cultural Practices
Developed Jewish practices
Celebrated Jewish festivals, shabbat,
Passover, circumcision

Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail
• 1983

• Heard about the group

• Traveled to Manipur

• Taught them Judaism

• Claimed they are lost tribe of Menasseh

• Lobbied State of Israel to admit them

DNA Test Results
• 2003 study of patrilineal genes at Technion in
Haifa, no Mideast DNA

• 2004 study of matrilineal genes at Central
Forensic Science in Calcutta, very tiny traces of
near eastern DNA.

Bhaswar Maity et al. Tracking the Genetic Imprints of Lost Jewish Tribes. Genome Biology. January 2005. DOI:10.1186

Conclusion?
1. Tribe of Menasseh is speculative

2. Any Jewish ancestry inconclusive

3. Some Near East DNA found but only in
matrilineal genes

What agendas drive the search
for “Lost Tribes” among Jews?

1. Messianic Agenda
Stories of the recent discovery and return to Israel of the Bnei Menashe— the
Jews living in India— and the Jews of Cush, or Ethiopia, support the idea that
that Jewish exiles to the north migrated to the “four quarters of the earth”
(Isaiah 11:12), just as the Bible prophesized. And as the Scripture also foretells,
God “will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of
his people.”

International Fellowship of Christians & Jews
https://www.ifcj.org/learn/holy-land-moments/daily-devotionals/the-lost-tribes

2. Financial Agenda
With
fi
nancial help from the generous donations of Christians to The
Fellowship’s On Wings of Eagle ministry. God is bringing back His people to
their homeland!

International Fellowship of Christians & Jews
https://www.ifcj.org/learn/holy-land-moments/daily-devotionals/the-lost-tribes

3. Political Agenda
As the percentage of Jews continues to decline…the day may come when Arab
Israelis could elect more representatives to the Knesset than Jewish Israelis, the
Jewish identity of the State would be in grave doubt. For a country struggling to
fi
nd potential new sources of immigration…groups like the Bene Menashe…
might very well provide the answer.

Michael Freund, Shavei Israel

Session 4 - Jews of India

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Session 4 - Jews of India