Sharad Pawar’s visit to Israel in 1993 is a favorite story among Bene Israeli Jews. Nissim Moses, who resides in Petah Tiqwa, Israel, says that “he was given a reception by the Indian community and he started giving a speech in English.” “And everyone screamed, ‘No, no, no,’ so he switched to Hindi, and everyone screamed, ‘No, no, no,’ so he asked them, ‘What language should I speak?'” The joke comes from Yosef Nowgaonkar, who is sitting in Pune’s Succath Shelomo Synagogue near Rasta Peth: “They yelled, ‘Marathi!'”
The 85,000 Indian-origin Jews in Israel are strongly proud of both their Jewish pedigree and their Marathi ethnicity. Last year, Aden Penkar, a Bene Israeli, relocated from Pune to the Haifa suburbs with his wife and two children. They spent six months learning Hebrew from the ground up and adapting to their new country while maintaining their Maharashtrian identity. At home, the Penkars speak Marathi, his wife still wears her mangal sutra,’ and his tiffin is generally full of roti-sabzi. “We just watch Hindi and Marathi films on YouTube,” says Penkar, who adds that the Marathi comedy film ‘Dhum Dhadaka’ is a family favorite.
