Not to be confused with Bani Isra'il, Beta Israel, or B'nai Israel.
Bene Israel
בני ישראל (Hebrew) बेने इस्राएल (Marathi)
Bene Israel wedding
Regions with significant populations
Israel
60,000[citation needed]
India
>5,000[citation needed]
Languages
Hebrew, Marathi,[1] English[2][3]
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Cochin Jews and other Mizrahim
The Bene Israel (lit.'Sons of Israel'), also referred to as the "Shanivar Teli" (lit.'Saturday oil-presser')[4][5][6] or "Native Jew" caste,[7] are a community of Jews in India. It has been suggested[8] that they are the descendants of one of the Ten Lost Tribes via their ancestors who had settled there centuries ago. Starting in the second half of the 18th century,[9] after they were taught about normative Sephardi Judaism,[10][11] they migrated from villages in the Konkan region[12][9] where they had previously lived[13] to nearby cities throughout British India—primarily to Mumbai[8] where their first synagogue opened in 1796[9][14][15] but also to Pune, Ahmedabad, and Karachi (now in Pakistan),[16] where they gained prominent positions within the British colonial government and the Indian Army.
In the early part of the 20th century, many Bene Israel became active in the Indian film industry as actresses/actors, producers, and directors. With Indian independence in 1947 followed by the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, many Bene Israel, including those who had arrived in India after their exodus from newly-independent Pakistan, soon immigrated to the State of Israel, the United States, as well as Canada, and other Commonwealth countries. Emigration from India (mostly to Israel but also to the UK, the US, Canada and Australia) reduced the approximate population there from a peak of 20,000 in 1951 to 16,000 in 1961 and 5,500 in 1971, after which the emigration greatly declined.[17]
^Benjamin J. Israel, The Jews of India, Centre for Jewish and Inter-faith Studies, Jewish Welfare Association, New Delhi, 1982, p. 25: "What the mother tongue of the Bene Israel was when they came to India is unknown. But for centuries it has been Marathi"
^Roland, Joan G. (2018). Jewish Communities of India: Identity in a Colonial Era. Routledge. ISBN 9781351309820.
^"Bene Israel | people".
^Waldman, Yedael Y.; Biddanda, Arjun; Davidson, Natalie R.; Billing-Ross, Paul; Dubrovsky, Maya; Campbell, Christopher L.; Oddoux, Carole; Friedman, Eitan; Atzmon, Gil; Halperin, Eran; Ostrer, Harry; Keinan, Alon (24 March 2016). "The Genetics of Bene Israel from India Reveals Both Substantial Jewish and Indian Ancestry". PLOS ONE. 11 (3): e0152056. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1152056W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152056. PMC 4806850. PMID 27010569.
^Fischel, Walter (1970). "Bombay in Jewish History in the Light of New Documents from the Indian Archives". Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research. 38/39: 119–144. doi:10.2307/3622356. JSTOR 3622356.
^ abWeil, Shalva. "Bombay (Present day Mumbai)". In Stillman, Norman A. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. doi:10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_COM_0004450.
^ abc"The Jewish Community of Mumbai". ANU Museum. The foundation of a permanent Jewish settlement in Mumbai was laid in the second half of the 18th century by the Bene Israel who gradually moved from their villages in the Konkan region to Mumbai. Their first synagogue in Mumbai was built (1796) on the initiative of S.E. Divekar.
^Benjamin J. Israel, The Jews of India, Centre for Jewish and Inter-faith Studies, Jewish Welfare Association, New Delhi, 1982, p. 29: "While the present Orthodox Bene Israel ritual conforms to the Sephardi prayer books, there is one peculiarity which is unique to the Bene Israel,... the malida ceremony. On every occasion for thanksgiving a special home service is held, the central feature of which is the singing of a hymn... commemorating the prophet Elijah... followed by the recital of blessings over a concoction of parched rice, shredded coconut, raisins and spices... partaken of by all present, with fruit of at least two kinds.")
^Solomon Grayzel, A History of the Jews, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Filadélfia, 1968, p. 744: "their Jewish religion has been entirely restored, and they observe it in orthodox fashion, according to the Spanish ritual"
^Weil, Shalva (1981). The Jews from the Konkan: the Bene Israel Community of India. Tel-Aviv: Beth Hatefutsoth.
^Benjamin J. Israel, The Jews of India, Centre for Jewish and Inter-faith Studies, Jewish Welfare Association, New Delhi, 1982, p. 21: "At the opening of the eighteenth century the Bene Israel were almost wholly concentrated in a small coastal strip of about 1,000 square miles slightly to the south of Bombay."
^Madnick, Shulie (25 March 2021). "Why do the Jews of India call Passover 'The holiday of the covered clay pot with the sour liquid'?". The Forward.
^Benjamin J. Israel, The Jews of India, Centre for Jewish and Inter-faith Studies, Jewish Welfare Association, New Delhi, 1982, p. 27
^Weil, Shalva (2008). "The Jews of Pakistan". In Erlich, M. Avrum (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora. Santa Barbara, USA: ABC CLIO.
^Benjamin J. Israel, The Jews of India, Centre for Jewish and Inter-faith Studies, Jewish Welfare Association, New Delhi, 1982, p. 11
The BeneIsrael (lit. 'Sons of Israel'), also referred to as the "Shanivar Teli" (lit. 'Saturday oil-presser') or "Native Jew" caste, are a community...
India that were not under Portuguese control. The Main branch of Native BeneIsrael Community is said to be arrived at Konkan Coast in ancient times they...
BeneIsrael of Maharashtra and other parts of British India and the Bnei Menashe of Manipur and Mizoram. Since the formation of modern state Israel in...
Israelite group. The BeneIsrael claim a lineage to the kohanim, descendants of Aaron. According to BeneIsrael tradition, the BeneIsrael arrived in India...
practice modern Judaism. The Bene Ephraim claim descent from the Tribe of Ephraim, and say that they traveled from Israel through western Asia: Persia...
viz Cochin, BeneIsrael (of Bombay and its environs), Calcutta, and New Delhi, communications between the Jews of Cochin and the BeneIsrael community were...
country's three distinct Jewish groups—the ancient Cochin Jews, and BeneIsrael communities as well as the more recent Baghdadi Jews. The Jews in India...
Look up bene in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Bene may refer to: Bene AG, a European office furniture product and services company BeneIsrael ("Sons...
the beginning of the 20th century, mostly comprising Iranian Jews and BeneIsrael (Indian Jews); a substantial Jewish community lived in Rawalpindi, and...
heritage with the Indian Jews in Israel, the country's Pakistani Jews are mainly identified as having belonged to the BeneIsrael, a community of the Jewish...
Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq (Hebrew: בְּנֵי בְּרַק (audio)) is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv...
towards the BeneIsrael and to Russian immigrants to Israel during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Beta Israel were required...
(BeneIsrael – Sons of Israel) started emigrating to the newly created country of Israel in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The number of BeneIsrael remaining...
now reside in Israel. The community spoke Judeo-Malayalam language. BeneIsrael are the Jews of Mumbai, most of whom now reside in Israel. The community...
and modern Italians. Some studies show that the BeneIsrael and Cochin Jews of India, and the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, while very closely resembling the...
on the Lemba and Bene-Israel. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-37474-3. Genetics, History, and Identity: The Case of the BeneIsrael and the Lemba, Springer...
well as many smaller Jewish communities, such as the Beta Israel, the Cochin Jews, the BeneIsrael, and the Karaite Jews, among others. Likewise, over 25%...
The demographics of Israel, monitored by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, encompass various attributes that define the nation's populace. Since...
authorities in Israel were accused by articles in the Indian press of racism in relation to Jews of Indian ancestry (called BeneIsrael). In the case that...
The history of ancient Israel and Judah spans from the early appearance of the Israelites in Canaan's hill country during the late second millenium BCE...
is the language of BeneIsrael – Indian Jews from the Konkan region of the state of Maharashtra in India. They migrated to Israel beginning in 1948, when...
Alibag and its surrounding villages are the historic hinterlands of BeneIsrael Jews. According to Indian Jewish historian Esther David, Jews arrived...
Jews such as the BeneIsrael, Bnei Menashe, Cochin Jews, and Bene Ephraim; the Romaniotes of Greece; the Italian Jews ("Italkim" or "Bené Roma"); the Teimanim...