The Unique Identity of the Indian Diaspora in Israel

India has been home to Jewish communities for over two thousand years – and remarkably, those communities lived without any significant experience of antisemitism. When Israel was established as a modern state in 1948, these communities faced a profound choice: stay in the land they had inhabited for millennia, or make aliyah – a return to the Jewish homeland. Most chose to migrate. Today, approximately 85,000 Jews of Indian origin live in Israel, representing a diaspora shaped by three distinct communities: the Bene Israel, the Cochin Jews, and the Baghdadi Jews. Each arrived in Israel carrying a different history, language, and cultural identity – and each has had to navigate what it means to be both Indian and Jewish in a society that had never quite encountered that combination before.

Three communities, three histories 🔗

What makes the Indian Jewish diaspora in Israel especially compelling is that it is not a single, unified group. India’s three historically distinct Jewish communities – the Bene Israel, the Cochin Jews, and the Baghdadi Jews – had little interaction with one another in India. They spoke different languages, lived in different regions, and followed different religious traditions. They carried those differences with them into Israel.

The Bene Israel: Maharashtra’s ancient Jewish community 🔗

The Bene Israel – literally “Sons of Israel” – are the largest of the Indian Jewish communities. According to their own tradition, their ancestors were shipwrecked on the Konkan coast of western India over 2,100 years ago, with seven men and seven women surviving to form the founding families of the community. Over time, they assimilated deeply into Maharashtrian society. They adopted the Marathi language, took up oil-pressing as a trade, and became known locally as Shanivar Telis – “Saturday oil-pressers” – because they refused to work on the Jewish Sabbath. They maintained key Jewish practices like circumcision and dietary laws, but their observance evolved significantly in isolation from the wider Jewish world.

It was only in the 18th century, after contact with Jewish teachers from Cochin and Baghdad, that the Bene Israel reconnected with mainstream Judaism. Their first synagogue in Bombay, “Shaar Rahamim,” was established in 1796. Under British rule, the community thrived – many Bene Israel rose to prominence in the colonial government and the Indian Army. At their peak in 1948, the Bene Israel numbered around 20,000. Since then, the vast majority have migrated to Israel, with only around 5,000 remaining in India today.

The Cochin Jews: Kerala’s ancient trading community 🔗

The Cochin Jews settled in the southwestern state of Kerala, and their roots are claimed to be among the oldest of any Jewish diaspora community. Evidence places this community in and around Cranganore from at least the 5th century CE, though some scholars suggest their presence dates even further back to the time of King Solomon. The Cochin Jews quickly earned the favor of regional rulers and were granted important positions under local leaders, including protections that allowed them to practice Judaism freely for centuries.

The Cochin Jewish community developed a unique language called Judeo-Malayalam – a blend of Hebrew and the Kerala language Malayalam – and maintained rich traditions in music, cooking, and religious observance. When India gained independence in 1947 and Israel was founded in 1948, the overwhelming majority of Cochin Jews chose to emigrate. Most made aliyah and joined the moshavim (agricultural settlements) of Nevatim, Shahar, Yuval, and Mesilat Zion, as well as settling in neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Beersheba, and other Israeli cities.

The Baghdadi Jews: merchants from Iraq and beyond 🔗

The Baghdadi Jews were relative newcomers to India compared to the Bene Israel and Cochin Jews. They began arriving in Indian port cities like Surat and Bombay from Iraq, Syria, Persia, and Afghanistan from the late 18th century onward, fleeing religious persecution in Muslim-majority lands. Despite their smaller numbers – they only settled in Mumbai in the late 18th century – they became extraordinarily influential in Indian commercial life. The Sassoon family, perhaps the most prominent Baghdadi Jewish dynasty, funded the construction of hospitals, schools, libraries, and the famous Gateway of India landmark in Mumbai.

When the time came to leave India, wealthier Baghdadi Jews largely migrated to Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States rather than Israel. Unlike the Bene Israel and Cochin Jews, those Baghdadi Jews who did go to Israel tended not to maintain a distinct communal identity there – they merged instead with the larger Iraqi Jewish population already present in Israel.

Why they left India 🔗

The motivations driving Indian Jews to Israel were notably different from those of Jewish communities fleeing persecution in Europe or the Middle East. The Indian Jews’ motivation to migrate was mostly rooted in a combination of Zionist sentiment, religious feeling, and economic factors – not fear of violence. India had been, historically, one of the most tolerant countries for Jewish communities. There was no Indian Holocaust, no pogroms, no forced conversions.

But Indian independence in 1947 created new anxieties. Many Bene Israel feared that a new nationalism combined with an emphasis on Hindu and Muslim religious identities could affect their social position. For the Cochin Jews, the community was simply too small – and already too scattered – to sustain itself. Between 1948 and 1952, around 2,300 Bene Israel made aliyah to Israel, and major waves of migration from both the Bene Israel and Baghdadi communities continued through the 1950s and 1960s.

Settling in Israel: challenges and protests 🔗

Arriving in Israel did not mean instant belonging. Indian Jews found themselves navigating a society dominated by Ashkenazi Jewish culture – Jews of European origin who shaped the country’s early institutions. Like other non-European Jewish communities, the Bene Israel were placed in a restricted range of occupations at the lower end of the social scale and subjected to the paternalistic attitude of the Ashkenazi elite, which sought to “re-socialize” new arrivals.

The most serious challenge came in the form of a direct attack on the community’s Jewish identity itself. In 1962, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel ruled that before registering a marriage between a Bene Israel Jew and another Jew, the rabbi should investigate the Indian applicant’s lineage for possible non-Jewish descent. This was a deeply painful ruling – it effectively cast doubt on the legitimacy of a community that had maintained its Jewish faith for over two millennia, far from the centers of Jewish scholarship.

The community responded forcefully. Between 1962 and 1964, the Bene Israel organized a series of strikes and demonstrations demanding recognition as “full Jews.” The campaign made international headlines. After a major demonstration in August 1964, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol convened a special session of the Knesset to pass a resolution demanding the removal of every factor producing a feeling of discrimination. That same year, the Chief Rabbinate formally declared the Bene Israel “full Jews in every respect.”

The crisis left a lasting mark. Although the case was resolved in 1964, the insult and self-doubt affected the community and strengthened its internal solidarity, reducing its desire to merge entirely with Israeli society. The episode also became recognized as the first protest by new immigrants in Israel charging the state with racial bias.

Settlement patterns and community life 🔗

Indian Jewish communities in Israel did not disperse randomly – their settlement followed patterns that partly reflected how they were received. The city of Beersheba in southern Israel has the largest concentration of Bene Israel, with a sizable community also in Ramla. Many Bene Israel were settled into development towns in Israel’s periphery during the early years of absorption, rather than in the major cities. They continued to maintain a Judeo-Marathi dialect in some of these communities for generations.

The Cochin Jews followed a different path. The Cochin Jews form a significant majority in the moshavim (agricultural settlements) of Nevatim, Shahar, Yuval, and Mesilat Zion. Settling on cooperative farms allowed them to maintain tight community bonds and preserve cultural traditions more effectively than communities scattered across urban centers. Others settled in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Katamon.

Despite living in close proximity to each other in Israel, the old inter-community tensions from India did not simply evaporate. The Baghdadi Jews had refused to recognize the Bene Israel as Jews during the British colonial period in India, even withholding communal charity from them – a tension that carried historical weight even as both communities adjusted to Israeli life.

Preserving a dual identity 🔗

Successive generations of Indian Jews in Israel have generally moved toward integration into mainstream Israeli society. Successive generations have assimilated into Israel’s diverse population and contribute across fields including the army, management, the arts, sports, and education. Yet the preservation of Indian Jewish cultural heritage remains an active concern, particularly for the Cochin community.

The language of the Cochin Jewish community, Judeo-Malayalam, is at risk of dying out, with older speakers noting that younger, more assimilated generations often have only a partial connection to it. Community-led projects – choirs singing traditional piyyutim (liturgical poems), food delivery services offering traditional Cochini recipes, and social media groups aimed at younger members – represent an active effort to pass these traditions forward. The older generation is eager for the younger generation to get involved, but since most younger Cochin Jews have a mixed background and are assimilated into mainstream Israeli culture, this is sometimes proving a challenge.

The Bene Israel, meanwhile, maintain social and cultural ties transnationally – with family and community members in India, Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom. They operate a new form of the joint family transnationally, keeping Indian Jewish identity alive across borders even as the communities within Israel grow more integrated over time. While the older generation still maintains a deep bond with India, the younger generation has become increasingly assimilated into Israeli society.

A diaspora within a diaspora 🔗

The story of Indian Jews in Israel is, in many ways, the story of a diaspora navigating another diaspora. These communities left a land where they had never faced systematic persecution, carrying with them centuries of cultural memory shaped not just by Jewish tradition but by Indian civilization – its languages, its food, its customs, and its remarkable history of religious coexistence. In Israel, they have had to assert and defend that identity against pressures toward cultural homogenization. Indian Jews have forged a somewhat fluid identity between the East and the Middle East – neither fully absorbed into the dominant Ashkenazi or Mizrahi frameworks, nor entirely separate from them.

What they represent, ultimately, is the breadth of what it means to be Jewish across time and geography – and the quiet complexity of belonging to two ancient civilizations at once.

What do you think? How does the experience of Indian Jews in Israel challenge the idea that a shared religion automatically creates a shared identity? And what does their story reveal about the hidden costs of migration – even when it is chosen freely?

References

1. https://www.indembassyisrael.gov.in/pages?id=xboja&subid=wdLwb
2. https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/IN
3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bene-Israel
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Israel
5. https://jstribune.com/indian-jewish-community-israel/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Jews_in_Israel
7. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jews-of-india/
8. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6917661/jewish/16-Facts-About-the-Jews-of-India.htm
9. https://greenolivetours.com/jews-of-india-the-bene-israel/
10. https://jewsofindia.com/facts-bene-israel-indian-jews/
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_India
12. https://www.heyalma.com/how-the-cochin-jewish-community-in-israel-is-preserving-its-traditions/