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, far more than the combined numbers of Baghdadi and Cochin Jews. For generations they lived as a distinct endogamous group in rural villages, some of them in remote areas, throughout the Kolaba District of Maharashtra State. Traditionally, the Bene Israel worked in sesame-oil pressing; they also farmed their land, peddled produce, and worked as skilled carpenters.
Because the Bene Israel families were scattered among many villages, community life in Kolaba District was extremely limited, and group prayer and Jewish rituals took place in the home. The community’s religious observance was based on biblical Judaism: they celebrated Jewish holidays related to the
Bible; the
Sabbath was strictly observed; all male children were circumcised eight days after birth; and the first Hebrew verse of the
Shema was recited on all occasions for prayer.
Initially, the Bene Israel had no Torah scrolls, prayer books, or synagogues, nor were they familiar with rabbinic Judaism or the details of
halakhah. They were guided by three Bene Israel religious leaders called
kazis, who traveled from village to village in order to officiate at all rites of passage.
Origins of the Community
According to the community’s own oral tradition, they are descended from “seven couples from a country to the north,” the sole survivors of a shipwreck off the Konkan coast near Navagaon (about 48 km south of Bombay).
Ever since the early 19th century, Christian missionaries and Jews (non-Bene Israel as well as Bene Israel) have offered diverse suggestions to explain the community’s origins. For example, the centrality of the
prophet Elijah in Bene Israel tradition produced the theory that their ancestors lived in the Holy Land in the time of Elijah (eighth century BCE) and that the “country to the north” was actually Israel.
Other theories have these ancestors tarrying in Persia or Yemen before ending up, shipwrecked, on the Konkan coast. Dating of their arrival in the Konkan ranges anywhere from the eighth century BCE to the sixth century CE.
The Bene Israel Community in Bombay
In 1674, the British East India Company moved its headquarters to the islands of Bombay (Mumbai). By the mid-18th century, Bombay had developed into a metropolis with a bustling port city, attracting thousands of Indians from the countryside, including hundreds of Bene Israel.
Although most of the community remained in the villages, many Bene Israel were tempted by the opportunities in Bombay for employment and education. Others moved to the city in order to enlist in the “Native Forces” of the
British East India Company‘s (and later the British Government’s) Military Services. The relative proportion of enlistment, of decorations for bravery, and of promotion to the highest ranks possible for Native Forces was extremely high among the Bene Israel, given the size of their total population.
In Bombay, Bene Israel worked mainly in construction, in the shipyards, and as carpenters. Here, they were introduced to new techniques and new kinds of tools. Because an oil-pressing monopoly already existed in the city, they did not pursue their traditional occupation.
In 1796, the first Bene Israel synagogue, Sha’ar haRahamim, was founded in Bombay.
Thanks to the Missionaries
India’s Bene Israel are unique among Diaspora communities because it was a Christian missionary who created — albeit unintentionally — a firm basis for the Bene Israel community’s entry into mainstream Jewry.
The British did not allow missionaries into British territories in India until 1813, but soon thereafter European and American Christian missions were established with headquarters in Bombay. The Reverend John Wilson of the Church of Scotland (later of the Free Church of Scotland) arrived in India in 1829 and worked with the Indians of Bombay and Kolaba District until his death in 1875. He was a scholar, an erudite writer, and one of the founders of Bombay University (1857).
Wilson introduced Hebrew as a subject for matriculation and for higher education. He saw in the Bene Israel the biblical “remnant of Israel.” It was Wilson who wrote, in 1838, the first serious account of the Bene Israel and their customs. Already in 1832, he wrote and published in Bombay
The Rudiments of Hebrew Grammar in Marathi, “intended for the benefit of the Native Israelites.”
Using Wilson’s book of Hebrew-Marathi grammar as a first step, some pupils became very proficient in Hebrew. In due course, they themselves became teachers of Hebrew, not only in Wilson’s schools but also at the college and university level. These Bene Israel scholars published Marathi translations of classic Hebrew texts, Jewish prayer books, rabbinical commentaries, and sermons. Each Hebrew text was accompanied by a parallel translation into Marathi, for the first time giving the Bene Israel access to a wide range of Jewish texts.
In addition, Bene Israel studied the English language and secular subjects in Wilson’s schools, which opened up a whole new world of knowledge. Most important, their literacy in Hebrew and in English enabled them to communicate and maintain contact with mainstream Jewry.
It is remarkable that during a century of concentrated efforts to convert Bene Israel to Christianity, the various missions met with almost no success at all. In 1854, after Rev. Wilson had been in India for 25 years, he wrote “… the labours of the Bombay Missions have not yet been blessed to the conversion of any of their number.”
(full article online)
The oldest and largest of the three Jewish communities in India.
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