India’s Bene Israel Jews The oldest and largest of the three Jewish communities in India. BY SHIRLEY BERRY ISENBERG The Bene Israel have always been the largest of the three Jewish communities in India. (The other two are Cochin and Baghdadi.) In 1838, for example, the total Bene Israel population of India was estimated at 8,000,…
Dwitiya Raghavan prepares entire meals based on an intriguing novel about the Bene Israeli community of Danda, Maharashtra, and forges an intimate bond with people she has never met. Books and cuisine both have the power to take me to new places, introduce me to cultures I’d like to learn about, and introduce me to…
This article talks about the Bene Israeli community in Ahmedabad, as well as Jewish identity in India as a whole. When it comes to antisemitism, the Indian Jewish community is thought to be the only one not to have been harmed by it. The history of the Jewish community on the subcontinent goes back more…
Washington D.C., May 11 (ANI): This is how it goes: A new study shows that the Bene Israel community in the western part of India has genetic proof that they are Jewish. They, on the other hand, have always thought of themselves as Jewish. Most people don’t know much about the Bene Israel community before…
What did India’s darkest day look like this year? Tisha B’Av marks the completion of three weeks of abstaining from meat, music, and dancing for the Bene Israel community, as well as for Jews all around the world. But, to commemorate the manna-like presentation of Val to shipwreck survivors — ancestors — in the second…
The office-bearers of the Succoth Shelomo Synagogue are busy persuading the minuscule population of this Jewish community to come forth to celebrate the occasion on January 26 as Republic Day approaches. Despite its diminishing numbers, the Bene Israel community in Pune takes pride in being “Indian” and hoists the tricolor on Republic Day and Independence…
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…
The Bene Israel Jewish community from West India is a unique group of people whose history before the 18th century isn’t very well known. Bene Israel members think they are descendants of Jews, but they don’t know who these ancestors are or when they came to India. Some people think they came in the 8th…
The Bene Israel people are derived from 14 Jewish survivors of a shipwreck on India’s Konkan coast, according to their oral tradition. New York, NY: According to a study, genetic testing has proven what the Bene Israel group in western India has traditionally claimed – that they had Jewish ancestry. “Almost nothing is known about…
In colonial Bombay, this research investigates cultural contact and spread. It investigates the connection between India’s little-known Bene Israel Jewish community and Protestant missionaries, focusing on Hebrew language training. While Cochin Jews taught the Bene Israel Jewish liturgy and customs of worship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Bene Israel learned Hebrew and Biblical…