The Bene Israel

We continued our unit of study about the Jews of India yesterday. Just before Purim I had presented an overview of the three major Jewish immigration waves to India, with a focus on Jewish immigration to the southwest coast of India, specifically on the city of Cochin where the largest community of Jews lived before moving to Israel in the 1950's and 1960's.

Yesterday, we took a closer look at the first Jews to arrive in India, who call themselves the Bene Israel (Children of Israel). They do not consider themselves descended from the Tribe of Judah, and thus do not refer to themselves as Jews, but as Israelites.

I shared with the students a YouTube segment about the Bene Israel and their veneration of the Prophet Elijah, whom they believe rescued the 7 couples shipwrecked off the coast of India from whom they believe they are descended. This belief is the foundation of the Malida ceremony, performed by the Bene Israel during all major Jewish holidays and life cycle events. I also shared a very brief YouTube segment depicting a Malida ceremony performed in Israel (hence the chants blessing the Prophet Elijah are all in Hebrew instead of the Marathi language spoken by most of the Bene Israel in India).

We'll be re-enacting the unique Bene Israel wedding ceremony, including the Malida ceremony, on Sunday, March 22nd during second session only. Please be sure to let me know if your child(ren) can join us for the event.

We spent the last 20 minutes of each session yesterday reviewing vocabulary in our Hebrew Through Movement (HTM) program, and introducing new Pesach (Passover) vocabulary. The holiday is less than a month away (the first seder will be held on Friday evening, April 3rd!). Since we only have 4 HTM sessions left before the holiday, I've decided to focus on teaching vocabulary related to the "Mah Nishtana" (the Four Questions asked traditionally by the youngest person at the seder ceremony). Yesterday, I taught the Hebrew words for night/nights (layla/leilot), for leaven (chametz), and matza.  I drew a crescent moon on the white board, and then two crescent moons to symbolize night and nights, and used a plastic prop of a baguette-type bread to symbolize chametz and a plastic prop of a matza. Once most of the students recognized the Hebrew words, I asked individuals to come up and either point to the moon or moons and hold up the bread or matza, as we sang the first question of the "Mah Nishtana." Here is a quick video we took of one of the groups.

 

 

During the coming weekday sessions, we'll review the first question and learn the vocabulary for the second question. Incidentally, the "Mah Nishtana" questions are written in Aramaic, a very close cousin to Hebrew, which means that forms of many of the Hebrew words we've already learned, such as "la'shevet" (sit), "le'echol" (eat), and "kol" (all) appear in the questions.