European painters such as Chagall, Liebermann, Pissarro, and Soutine are often connected with Jewish art. Siona Benjamin, a Bombay-born painter whose work incorporates Jewish, Indian, and American themes, dispels the myth that Jewish art is primarily Western.
A Shipwrecked Ancestry, a Rootless Identity
Benjamin’s forebears, the Bene Israel Jews of India, have had their history questioned. They were supposedly stranded in India while escaping the Assyrians in the seventh century B.C.E. or Antiochus IV Epiphanes 600 years later, according to legend. According to one version of the story, the majority of the immigrants drowned, but a handful managed to swim to safety, where they were welcomed by the local non-Jewish populace. Only the Shema prayer was remembered by the survivors, who had lost their holy books at sea. This society adopted traditions from the native culture since it was cut off from extra-biblical books and Jewish practices.
Source: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/siona-benjamin/
