Edot: The Bene Israel of India

We have been studying about the Jews of India over the past few weeks, focusing our attention specifically on the oldest of the three waves of Jewish immigrants to the country - the Bene Israel. Scholars of this group of Jews cannot specifically pinpoint the date of their arrival to the southwest coast of India, but there is a general consensus that they were likely refugees from the Babylonian Conquest of Judea in 586 B.C.E., who escaped to Egypt, then likely made their way east on trade routes to India. (The other two waves of Jewish immigration to India, in order, were the Baghdadi Jews, who followed the spice routes from Mesopotamia to India about 2,000 years ago, and Sephardi Jews, refugees from Spain after the Expulsion of Jews from that country in 1492, who made their way to Turkey and eventually, again as traders, to India.)

The Bene Israel is one of the most unique Jewish Diaspora communities (Edot) in the world, certainly very different from the Ashkenazi edot of Russia and Poland which we recently studied. What makes them especially unique among Jewish communities of the world is their veneration of the Prophet Elijah. They believe they are descended from 7 couples, the only survivors of an ancient Israelite ship, wrecked off the coast of southwest India, and rescued by Elijah the Prophet (Eliyahu Ha'Navi in Hebrew). Every family and community celebration (Jewish holidays and life cycle events) is preceded by what they call a "Malida" ceremony, praising Elijah and asking him to intercede on their behalf with God.

YouTube has some interesting links relating to the history of the community and to this Malida ceremony. I shared the following links with the students:

The Bene Israel and Indian Jewish Malida Ceremony

We learned that most of the Bene Israel and other Indian Jews moved to the State of Israel during the 1950's, and very few left in India. We also learned that they protected their homes from evil spirits by making prints of their right hands using henna dye on the walls of their homes. These hand prints often had the evil eye imprinted in the middle of the palm, and around the hand prints they often drew symbolic representations of what the general Indian population around them considered to be good luck charms - the peacock, the lotus flower, and the elephant. As with every Jewish community, they borrowed from the culture around them, but gave what they borrowed a "Jewish twist." Along with the peacock, lotus flower and elephant, they drew ancient Jewish symbols. Interestingly, non-Jewish Indians who bought the homes of the Jews leaving for Israel never removed the hand prints and Jewish symbols on the walls.

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, our Edot students made hand imprints (on paper instead of the walls, and with finger paints instead of henna dye), drawing the good luck and Jewish symbols around the hand print. (They're hanging in Room 202, which is now probably one of the safest places to be in Lafayette if you're worried about evil spirits!)