A Tel Aviv University study discovered genetic evidence to support the allegation that the Bene Israel minority in India has Jewish roots.
The research was published in the journal ‘PLoS One.’ It examined the genomes of 18 members of the Bene Israel community and discovered that they were of Jewish and Indian origin. The group descended from a few Jewish shipwreck survivors on the Indian coast up to 2,000 years ago, according to Bene Israel tradition.
The Bene Israel are a people who inhabit the Konkan region of India’s west coast. From a community that formerly numbered as many as 20,000 people, only a few thousand people remain now. Since the state’s founding in 1948, Israel has absorbed the majority of it.
In a news release, the study’s first author, Yedael Waldman, noted, “Beyond vague oral history and hypotheses, there has been no independent support for Bene Israel claims of Jewish lineage, claims that have remained buried in folklore.” “We discovered that while Bene Israel folks are genetically similar to local Indian communities, they form a distinct and distinct group in India.”
