Items related to India's Bene Israel: A Comprehensive Inquiry and...
- PublisherJudah L Magnes Museum
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0943376270
- ISBN 13 9780943376271
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages443
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India's Bene Israel. A Comprehensive Inquiry and Sourcebook
Published by
Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley
(1988)
ISBN 10: 0943376270
ISBN 13: 9780943376271
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Hardcover
First Edition
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: vg. First American edition. Quarto. XXII, 443pp. Decorative dust jacket over brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Publisher's device on title page. Scarce and fascinating work on the Indian Jewish community, the Bene Israel. Profusely illustrated with three folding maps, twenty b/w photographic reproductions of portraits and views, and various tables throughout. Contains nine appendices, glossary of Jewish terms, bibliography and index at rear. Dustjacket and binding with minor wear. On the Bene Israel: The Bene-Israel claimed to be descendants of the ten tribes of Israel who were shipwrecked off the west coast of India, near Nawgaon on the Konkan Coast in the second Century B.C.E. Only seven couples survived and their offspring were cut off from other Jewish communities for centuries (Sadok Masliyah, 1994). They were Jews who escaped persecution in Galilee in the Second century BCE. They maintained the practices of Jewish Dietary laws, circumcision and observance of Sabbath as a day of rest. In the 18th century they were discovered by traders from Baghdad and at that time they were practicing just a few outward forms of Judaism. However, different theories suggest they arrived from Palestine, Yemen, Persia, Babylon. Assimilation: The Indian caste system enabled the Bene-Israel to blend into the Indian Society without losing their own distinctive Jewish character. The caste system in India served to keep this Jewish group intact as the caste system did not allow intermarriage with other castes. Thus the Bene-Israelis were not totally assimilated into the Hindu society. (Sadok Masliyah, 1994) The community seemed to have eroded through emigration to Israel during the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's. In Israel a number of them prospered but faced sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant discrimination and had to eventually fight a political battle to be recognized as Jews in instances of marriages with other ethnic groups. (Frank Conlon 1994) The Bene-Israel community is found in Israel in cities such as Ashdod, Lod, Ramle, Beersheba. The Orthodox Chief Rabbinate of Israel decreed in 1962 that marriage with the Bene Israel was permitted, and the Israeli prime minister issued a statement in 1964 that the government of Israel regards them as Jews in every respect. Seller Inventory # 53264
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