In today’s world, what does it mean to be Jewish? This book investigates the Bene Ephraim community of Madiga Dalits from rural Andhra Pradesh, India, who declared their allegiance to the Lost Tribes of Israel towards the end of the twentieth century, shedding new theoretical light on the subject. Yulia Egorova and Shahid Perwez present an engaging and sophisticated ethnographic account of this community, arguing that by embracing Jewish tradition, the Bene Ephraim have expanded traditional definitions of ‘Who is a Jew,’ as well as found a new way to celebrate their Dalit heritage and fight caste inequality. Being Jewish in Andhra Pradesh focuses on village life, but it also visits a wider range of ethnographic sites, such as Israel and the United States, to discuss how the Lost Tribes tradition is still embraced today by groups and organizations that support the Bene Ephraim and other communities who declared Jewish descent in the twentieth century. Egorova and Perwez show how Bene Ephraim’s example can shed light on a wide range of topics in national and international politics, including India’s caste system and social mobility, the Middle East conflict, the language of the ‘war on terror,’ and disputes over Israel’s Law of Return. Scholars of Jewish and South Asian Studies, as well as general readers, will be interested in this work.
