JEWISH HISTORY: THE JEWS IN INDIA

The largest Jewish community in India is also the most mysterious: the Bene Israel, who lived unknown to the rest of the Jewish world for generations in the Kolaba district of India south of Bombay. The Bene Israel maintain they are descended from a group of Jews – seven men and seven women – who were shipwrecked in the area thousands of years ago. Some believe they are descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel who fled northern Israel in 721 BCE after the Assyrian invasion; others maintain their ancestors fled King Antiochus (the king who oppressed Jews in Israel during the time of the Hanukkah miracle.)

The Bene Israel Jews adopted Hindu names and dress, but kept some of their traditions. Locals called them shaniwar teli, or “Saturday oil pressers” because they refused to work on Shabbat.

In the 1700s, Rabbi David Rahabi – a Jew from the thriving community of Cochin – visited the area and was astounded to find people who claimed to be Jewish – and who seemed to maintain some vestige of Jewish practice, such as saying the Shema prayer. Cochin Jews sent teachers, rabbis, cantors and ritual slaughterers to help them out, and in time the Bene Israel community began to embrace mainstream Jewish practice. Many of the members moved to Bombay and built numerous Bene Israel synagogues there, following the Sephardic liturgy.