JEWS: THE INDIAN ENVOI?

 

 

In the North Eastern pocket of India lies the small, predominantly Christian state of Mizoram, where a handful of the Jews dream of returning to the Promised Land. On the southern coast of the country, in Cochin in God’s own country, a minuscule community of the same faith strives for survival. As Israel sets about to celebrate Jerusalem Day on May 16, TSI looks at the tale of India’s Jews, seeking a return to their promised land – Israel – but lost in the quagmire of bureaucracy, theology and politics.

Judaism is one of the world’s oldest faiths, but hasn’t exactly spread far and wide. All Jews in the world have the right to return to the ‘Promised Land’ i.e. Israel under Israel’s Law of Return. Jews across the world are believed to be from the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were exiled by the Assyrians 2700 years back. One such set of descendants is believed to inhabit the tiny state of Mizoram. About 5,000 members of the B’nei Menashe tribe in the state claim that they are descendants of one of those legendary tribes. According to legend, their Jewish roots go back more than 1,000 years to China from where the tribe travelled through Thailand, towards Myanmar and India and some settled in Mizoram and its capital city Aizawl. The tribe was Christian like almost everyone else in Mizoram, before a stunning revelation in 1952, when a local headman claimed that he had a vision, wherein God told him that they are the lost tribe. His claim, scoffed at by the majority, created a stir nonetheless and some believers actually decided to set off for the Promised Land though they only got as far as Assam. It was in 1983 that the legend of the B’nei Menashe gathered steam, and support. During that year, the relatives of one of those early trekkers chose to go to Israel where she met an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, Eliyahu Avichayil. His Amishav organization is involved in tracing the descendants of lost tribes worldwide and expressed interest in her story. In the late 1980s, the Amishav started converting the members of the tribe and sponsoring their Aliyah (immigration to Israel). The B’nei Menashe claim remained a highly disputed one, to the extent that Israeli authorities were concerned that they were only seeking a better life. Matters took an interesting turn with the recent pronouncement of Shlomo Amar, Sephardic (oriental) Chief Rabbi in Jerusalem (in March 2005) that members of the B’nei Menashe tribe were descendants of ancient Israelites. Naturally, the conversions gathered pace and the promise of a return to the Holy Land was lapped up after the conclusion from what the rabbi termed ‘detailed investigations’, even as some Israeli scholars who mapped the genetic links claimed that they lacked scientific basis – their DNA did not quite match that of the Jews. But the tribe remains defiant and many of them dream of answering the call and reaching Israel soon.

Meanwhile, the other pocket of Jews in India also find themselves marginalized, as they remain nothing but a tourist attraction in Cochin. The five century old Jewish Synagogue in Mattancherry stands testimony to the great Indian tradition of tolerance. The Hindu Chera King, Bhaskara Ravivarman II, had extended a warm welcome to them in 70 CE (1,930 years back). Jews had been coming to Kerala since as early as 700 BC for trade. After they were dispossessed by neighbouring princes, who accused them of tampering with the pepper trade, they fled to Cochin and took refuge under the local king, who granted them a site for their own town, now called Jew Street. Resplendent in its architecture, the synagogue has been designated as a heritage monument. Though most of them migrated to Israel after its independence in 1948, only about 30-50 remain, depending on whose figures one believes.

Samuel Hallegua, whose family came to Cochin in 1592, is the chief warden at the Mattancherry synagogue and is appalled at the state of affairs of the city’s Jews. He despises the tourism department of the state for having ‘ignored the sentiment that a Synagogue is meant for worship’ and making the holiest place of worship a tourist trap. Open to tourists on all days except Sabbath and Jewish holidays, Hallegua bitterly recalls the disregard of the visitors: “One day, a batch of tourists came scantly dressed. We observe strict dress code in synagogues.” “Another day,” he laments, “tourists were talking as if the prayer hall was a market place.’ The chief warden was also incensed when the State officials called him for a meeting on Sabbath day. “How can you fix a meeting on our prayer day?” he demanded. The ignorance of these nuances of Judaism is also responsible for the Jewish community dwindling in India today. Hallegua puts matters into perspective, “Judaism is not a faith. One has to live it. Only people with genuine faith can join it.” One wonders if his wisdom will ever be appreciated. The next time you go to Cochin, Jew Street would still be there, but a Jew on the street might be very difficult to find.

The sentiment is starkly different at the Gate of Mercy synagogue in Mumbai that stands as the second oldest Jewish institutions in the country (it was built in 1796). The Bene Israel faction of the fading Jewish community in India is among the oldest settlers in the city, who still follow Jewish customs and do not experience any discriminating attitude at all. Benjamin Joseph, a former school teacher says, “Though a minority, Jews have co-existed with the Hindus in India since centuries. My roots lie in India, where else?” As Samuel Hallegua’s points out that the exodus to Israel has slowed and in Mumbai, the community has started showing signs of an increase, there is still hope for the last Jews of India. A scarred past

According to Judaism, they came into existence because of the Covenant between God and Abraham in 2000 B.C. It is one of the oldest religions in the world that rests authority in sacred texts and traditions.

Interestingly, there are more Jews in the US than in their native state of Israel, though the latter remains the only country where Judaism is majority religion. One of the wealthiest ethno-religious communities in the world, Jews have been persecuted and discriminated against for over two millennia, ever since Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroyed King Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC. Intolerant kings have since then periodically succeeded in whipping up sentiments against Jews worldwide. This culminated in the horrific Holocaust of WWII, perpetrated by the Nazis, in which 6 million Jews were exterminated in concentration camps in about a decade. The antipathy toward Jews has undergone a sea change since then. Though much of the world was witness to what weathered in Lebanon last summer...