The Bene Israel Jews of India

Today, we focused our attention on the second and largest wave of Jewish immigration to India, that of the Bene Israel. We viewed a YouTube video about them, which shares the filmmaker's belief that they were descendants of the Tribe of Zebulon, one of the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel," which was part of the Kingdom of Israel before its conquest by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C.E.. To this day, members of the Bene Israel insist that they are not "Yehoodeem" (Judeans), but rather are "Israel" (i.e. descended from the Kingdom of Israel). The Bene Israel themselves believe they are descended from 7 couples who were rescued from a shipwreck off the coast of India by none other than Elijah the Prophet, and to this day they venerate the Prophet in the midst of all their holiday and life cycle ceremonies.

Once we had viewed the video about the Bene Israel, I shared another YouTube video which shows members of the Bene Israel participating in a Malida ceremony, which is the ceremony that venerates the Prophet Elijah. Once the students had seen the ceremony, and understood the meaning behind it, we prepared the poha rice dish used during the ceremony, which is also called "Malida." I used a very simple form of the recipe:

Pour 1 cup of the Poha rice flakes into a bowl, then pour enough cold water over the flakes to cover them completely. Wait 4 minutes, then drain the flakes of as much water as possible. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes and 1 tsp. of cardemom spice to the flakes, and stir carefully until all the ingredients are absorbed into the flakes.

We then spooned the mixture into the middle of a paper plate onto which I had put apples, pears, bananas, dates and oranges.

Then it was time for us to "re-enact" the Malida Ceremony itself:

 During the coming week day sessions, we'll be learning about, and re-creating, a Bene Israel amulet which can be found on the walls of Bene Israel homes in India to this day.