G V Joshi
The Jewish community in the Pune city is thankful for the minority status granted to it after the Government of Maharashtra approved the proposal in the month of June 2016. Senior members of the community said that this would not only give the community not only the recognition, it deserved, but also spread awareness about them and help them to contribute towards the welfare of the community.
In the words of Daniel Penkar, president of the Succath Shelomo Synagogue, “This is a welcome move and there is a general feeling of gratitude and happiness among the members of the community. The Government has done the right thing and it is commendable.” “Jews will now be able to avail all Government schemes and subsidies and scholarships, he further added.
A Synagogue is a Jewish house of worship. It is the Jewish equivalent of a church, mosque or temple.
Jews are now India’s seventh minority group, along with Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis. India is one of the few countries in the world where Jews have never faced any harassment or persecution.
India has approximately 5,000 Jews out of which nearly 2,500 are in Maharashtra. However, according to government authorities, the Government has no official record of the number of Jews in Maharashtra, as there was no special column for Jews in the census form. Many of them were considered as Christians. An accurate census has never been done.
What is a minority? The Constitution of India has used the word ‘minority’ or its plural form in some Articles, 29 to 30 and 350A to 350B, but has not defined it anywhere.
But by a general understanding a minority Group is a subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their lives than members of a dominant or majority group or any section of citizens having a distinct language, script and culture.
According Dr Zoya Hasan, a Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and a member of the National Commission of Minorities, a meaningful conception of minorities should include sections of people who, on account of their non-dominant position in the country as a whole, are targets of discrimination and therefore deserving of special consideration.
While the subject of defining ‘minority’ is under consideration by the Government of India and the supreme court, and whether it is a state subject or central, there is no doubt that Jews in India are a minority , a minute minority in any state or as a country.
The Jews of India are not one singular community. Among themselves they are divided into different communities. Each community has its own culture, background and origin. Each community claims its arrival in India in different ways and times and it is not always clear how they really came to India. As of today, there are a number of Jewish groups in India.
The oldest Indian Jewish community is in Kerala, based in the port city of Cochin. They have been in India for at least 1,000 years if not more.
At the time of independence, there were seven active synagogues in Kerala. Today there is a regular minyan only in the Paradesi Synagogue of Cochin. A minyan is the quorum necessary for public worship among Jews. It is the smallest congregation which is permitted to hold public worship and one made up of ten men.
The world-renowned Paradesi Synagogue was first built in 1568, reconstructed in part and enlarged over the years. The synagogue is situated at the north end of Synagogue Lane, a narrow street lined on both sides with houses that were once Jewish owned and occupied.
Today the Paradesi Synagogue is said to be the oldest functioning Jewish house of prayer not only in South India, but in the whole country, and even the entire British Commonwealth. It is visited by thousands of tourists from India and abroad each year. It is open six days a week, except on Friday afternoons and all day Saturday when it is closed. It is very well maintained.
Chennai Jews: The so-called Spanish and Portuguese Jews, Paradesi Jews and British Jews arrived at Madras during the 16th century. Following expulsion from Iberia (now Spain) in 1492, a few families of Jews eventually made their way to Madras 9 now Chennai) in the 16th century. They maintained trade connections with Europe, and their language skills were useful. Although they spoke Spanish, in India they learned Tamil and Malayalam from the Cochin Jews. They were diamond businessmen.
The Baghdadi Jews consists of Jews from West Asia, mainly from Baghdad and Syria who came in the 19th century as traders and refugees. They settled in Bombay, Calcutta and Pune, They first arrived in Surat which was then the most important port on the West Coast. They spoke Arabic or Persian and English. At one time, there were about 5000 of them, today less than 200, most of them having emigrated to U.K., Australia and Canada.
The Bene Ephraim (also called “Telugu Jews”) are a small group who speak Telugu; their observance of Judaism dates to 1981. The Bnei Menashe are Mizo and Kuki tribesmen in Manipur and Mizoram who are recent converts to Jewish religion.
In addition there are Ashkenazi Jews, who claim Israeli origin – speculated to be one of the lost tribes – and call themselves Bnei Menashe. Each group has active synagogues.
As of today, it is the Bene Israel who predominate the Jews in India. Some say that they came from the ancient kingdom of Israel after they were defeated by the Assyrian king in 722 B.C.E. Some believe that when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed and Jerusalem taken by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. some of the Jews reached the West Coast ofIndia. Oral tradition and probably the most favored one is that they descended from the Jews who fled in 175 B.C.E. from the Syrian-Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, were ship wrecked at Navgaon near the port of chaul on the Konkan Coast.
Seven men and 7 women survived and from there the Bene Israel spread to many of the surrounding villages in the Konkan. Most of the Bene Israel people have surnames ending with ‘’kar’’ identifying with the villages where they resided. There are 142 such surnames. In a new study, it has been revealed that the Bene Israel community in India carries genetic proof of their Jewish roots.
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