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India - Religion - Jews

The history of Jews in India is ancient and complex, spanning over two thousand years. Due to the lack of written records or inscription, the origin and affiliation of Indian Jewish populations with other world populations remain contentious. There are different communities of Jews who have lived or are still residing in various parts of India, including the Bene Israel, Cochin Jews, Baghdadi Jews, and Bnei Menashe. Each of these communities has its own unique history, customs, and traditions. India has had many Jewish communities for around a millennium, and India is a country where the community was not persecuted.

Jewish communities in India are small but active. They continue to celebrate Jewish festivals, maintain synagogues, and contribute to the diverse cultural mosaic of India. The Jews of India represent a rich tapestry of histories, cultures, and traditions. Their communities, though diminished in number, continue to be an integral part of India's diverse religious landscape, exemplifying peaceful coexistence and cultural assimilation. Throughout their long history, the Jewish communities in India have maintained, and enriched their unique heritage and traditions.

• Baghdadi Jews mainly settled in Mumbai and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). They came from the Middle Eastern regions like Iraq and Syria in the 18th and 19th centuries, often for trade. Their lifestyle and traditions were influenced by their Middle Eastern origins. They often engaged in trade and business.

• Bene Israel are primarily found in and around Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Legends suggest they were shipwrecked while escaping persecution in the Galilee in the 2nd century BCE. They are one of the oldest Jewish communities in India. They integrated well into Indian society while maintaining their Jewish traditions. Over time, they also adopted many local customs. At its peak in the late 1940s, the Bombay Jewish community numbered nearly 30,000. Now, fewer than 4,000 remain; most migrated to Israel in the 1950s.

• Bnei Menashe are primarily found in the northeastern states like Mizoram and Manipur. The Bnei Menashe is a community of Kuki and Mizo Jews from Manipur and Mizoram. Its population of some 10,000 is equally divided between Israel and India. People from the community claim that they belong to one of the 12 Lost Tribes of Israel. Ethnographers and geneticists say this claim is highly debatable. Nonetheless, half of the tribe live in Israel, as Jews, and the other in northeast India. They are not ethnically Indian, but a Tibeto-Burmese group called Mizos in the Indian state of Mizoram and Kukis in the neighbouring state of Manipur. They were a traditional tribal society with their own religion, until the British Empire arrived in India’s northeast. Their connection to Judaism was revived in the 20th century. Many have converted or returned to Judaism and maintain a Jewish way of life adapted to the local environment. In the 1970s, a Judaizing movement arose in northeast India. By the 1980s, the Bnei Menashe, or “Children of Menashe,” were influenced by Israeli rabbi Eliyahu Avichayil. Rabbi Avichayil brought groups of them to Israel, where they underwent a formal conversion to Judaism and then became full Israeli citizens. There were around 5,000 Bnei Menashe in Israel by 2023. They faced challenges like immigrants everywhere, but are committed to their return to the land from which they departed, as they believe, millennia ago.The community lives in 14 towns and villages from Sderot in the south to Kiryat Shmona in the north. There are several others living in towns such as Afula, Migdal HaEmek and Tiberias in the Galil and Jezreel valley region. Considering that the total Bnei Menashe population of Israel is barely 5,000, they probably have a higher percentage of youngsters in uniform than most other sections of the population. The number of Bnei Menashe serving in the Israel Defence Forces are unavailable but estimated at between 300 and 400, both active duty and on reserve. Some 300 Bnei Menashe reservists, most in combat units, were called up in the wake of the war with Hamas.

• Cochin Jews (Malabar Jews) are primarily located in Kerala. The identity and arrival time of Jews to Malabar is unknown: some community legends speculate that sailors bringing supplies from Malabar to King Solomon almost 3000 years ago may have founded the first Jewish settlement there, while others suggest that Jews from the land of Israel came to India after the destruction of the first (sixth century BCE) or second (first century CE) Temple or from Majorca in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. The first evidence for a Jewish community in Malabar is much more recent and is dated to the 9th and 11th centuries CE in the form of inscriptions on copper plates granting several privileges to local Jewish and Christian communities by local rulers. In the beginning of the 16th century CE, Sephardi Jews exiled from Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) settled in Cochin, where they formed their own community of Paradesi (“foreign”) Jews, separately from the local Jewish community. This distinction between Paradesi Jews (also labeled “White” Cochin Jews) and native Malabar Jews (labeled by outsiders as “Black” Cochin Jews) was kept for hundreds of years, and Paradesi Jews usually married only within their own community. Many had migrated to India’s financial capital of Mumbai, where they joined other members of the community, mostly Bene Israel Jews and Baghdadi Jews. Other places in India with Jewish residents included Goa and Madras (now Chennai). This community has preserved many ancient Jewish traditions while also embracing local customs. They have contributed to the local culture and economy, particularly in the spice trade.

India houses various synagogues that are a testament to the Jewish presence. These include the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, Kerala, which is the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations. Over the decades, especially after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, there has been significant migration of the Jewish communities from India to Israel. The Jewish population in India has declined due to this migration, but the communities left continue to practice their faith and traditions.

By the end of the 20th century, these groups were proselytized, but as they became familiar with the Bible, some saw parallels with their old religion. They began to believe that Manasia, or Manmasi, their original messiah, was the biblical Manasseh (in Hebrew, Menashe), the son of Joseph. They believed they were descended from the tribe named after him, one of the ten tribes that disappeared after the Assyrian Empire conquered Israel in 722 BCE.

There are approximately 85,000 Jews of Indian origin in Israel. The main waves of immigration into Israel from India took place in the fifties and sixties. The majority is from Maharashtra (Bene Israelis) and relatively smaller numbers from Kerala (Cochini Jews) and Kolkata (Baghdadi Jews). In recent years, some Indian Jews from Mizoram and Manipur (Bnei Menache) have been immigrating to Israel. While the older generation still maintains a deep bonding with India, the younger generation has become increasingly assimilated into Israeli society.

Jewish connection with India goes back to ancient times. Trade, lexical borrowings in Biblical Hebrew from Indian languages, travelogues of explorers and oral traditions of local communities speak of very early connections. The arrival and growth of religions such as Judaism in India and their co-existence with several other religions speak of the possibility of human societies to be open and adaptable to different cultures and times. The older communities, the Bene Israel Jews of Maharashtra and the Cochin Jews of Kerala, and the relatively newer communities of Baghdadi Jews of Mumbai and Kolkata have left everlasting imprints in India’s cultural landscape.

Though the size of the Jewish population in India has always been very small, the Jewish existence in this soil has been remarkable for the religious freedom enjoyed here and the distinct traditions developed within, over centuries, contributing much diversity to the world Jewry. Interestingly today, the two usages of the Hebrew word Hodu, one referring to “India” and another one referring to “Praise God”, are often invoked together to commemorate one of the most benevolent Jewish diasporas of all times.

Apart from the three established groups of Indian Jewry, viz., the Bene Israel, the Cochin Jews and the Baghdadis, there were also European Jews, who had arrived in India from countries like Germany, Austria and Poland during World War II and who lived in the cities of Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. First half of the twentieth century also saw arrival of Jews from Persia, Bukhara and Afghanistan. During their brief period of stay in India, they joined the Baghdadi Indian Jews in social and religious activities and also contributed in individual capacities through various professions and creative endeavors. There are still emerging communities in India today, such as the Bene Ephraim and the Bene Menashe who have rediscovered their own senses of Jewish identities in recent times. A rich variety of legends, tales, rituals, festivals, synagogues, songs, costumes and cuisine bear testimony to these specific strands of Judaism.

Various strands of Jewish thought and experiences, brought in by Jews from different parts of the world have contributed to the diverse Jewish cultural heritage of India. There have been illustrious families of businessmen, Indian nationalists, politicians, physicians, teachers, artists and writers who have made several contributions to the social and cultural life of the country. The Sassoons of Bombay, the Ezras of Calcutta and the Koders of Cochin have played a great role in the economy and industry.

International migrations, particularly to Israel, have further reduced the number of Jews in India to about 5,000 whereas in Israel, the Jewish population of Indian origin have grown to about 80,000.