Bene israel of India : some studies

The Bene Israel are a small community of Jews that have lived for many centuries on the west coast of India, just south of Bombay, in complete isolation from their co-religionists elsewhere. The studies in this volume range over the history, religious evolution, some social and demographic aspects of the life of the community; its reunification with world Jewry since the eighteenth century; and its strong Indian character, in relation to its assimilation in Israel.

The Introduction provides a comprehensive historical account of India's three Jewish communities the Cochinis, the Bene Israel and the Baghdadis - their relations and interactions.

As a result of emigration to Israel and the West, the number of Bene Israel in India has dwindled over the last three decades, but enough remain to provide a continuing demonstration of how a miniscule community, long subject to discrimination and persecution
elsewhere, can live with honour and in complete harmony with its fellow Indians of all communities. Whether or not the Bene Israel community survives as a distinct entity in India hereafter, the significance of its survival for well over a millenium, in spite of its complete isolation as a religious community, will continue to have relevance for the study of both Indian society and Jewish social history.