Re:[nukkad] A Jewish Cemetry

[Ajay Marath <>]

An article from Bombay's (Mumbai) Mid-Day newspaper




Thane Jews pass the blood test




Mumbai tabloid (MID-DAY) By: Manoj Nair
July 23, 2002

The news that recent DNA tests have linked India s Bene Israel Jewish 
community to the patriarch Moses has delighted the small Jewish 
community in Thane.

For hundreds of years, the Bene Israel (meaning Children of Israel), 
now largely concentrated in and around Thane had fought Western 
prejudice that denied them their claim as descendants of one of 
Israel s 12 lost tribes. Now the Jews of Thane, home to 2,000 or 40 
per cent of India s Jewry, can hold their head high among the rest of 
the Jewish community.

We were not treated like true Jews. We have always fought for that 
recognition. Now science has proved that we are descendants of the 
Cohanim or hereditary priests. This will improve our status in the 
Jewish community, says Ezra Moses, honorary secretary and trustee of 
Thane s Shaar Hashamaim or Gate of Heaven synagogue.

According to Bene Israel folklore, a group of Jews fleeing Jerusalem 
to escape prosecution by Persians in 175 BC were shipwrecked near 
Nagaon on the Konkan Coast. However, these claims were treated with 
scepticism outside India and in Israel, where the majority of the 
Bene Israel now lives, having migrated there after formation of Israel.

The fleeing Jews were headed towards India because they had traded 
with India earlier. The survivors started a new life with help of 
local Kolis. This was the origin of the Bene Israel. But our claims 
had been the subject of debate. Now the DNA tests have confirmed our 
claims, says Rachel Gadkar, a retired schoolteacher who recently 
published a book in Marathi called Bharatiya Bene Israel , that 
traces the origins of her community.

For some time now, Jews of Thane have seen researchers coming from 
the West to study their origins. The current finding that the Bene 
Israel carry Moses s genes is the result of a research project that 
started seven years ago. The Jews of Thane are planning to write to 
London s School of Oriental and African Studies for a copy of the 
research papers. Sixty-six-year old Phinas Bamnolkar, the hazan or 
cantor at the Thane synagogue says, It was always our claim that we 
are descendants of Moses. Our claim has now been scientifically proved.

One of the reasons the Bene Israel had to fight to be recognised as 
real Jews was the absence of Jewish religious infrastructure in their 
community, said Moses. For instance, we do not have a Yeshiva or a 
religious school where young Jews can learn to become rabbis 
(priests). So for centuries when we were cut off from the rest of the 
Jewish community worldwide, we did not have rabbis. It is only 
recently that we have rabbis who have trained abroad, he said.

But despite the absence of trained religious heads, the community has 
held itself together, relying on religious books translated into 
Marathi from Hebrew by lay scholars.

In Thane, the dwindling community (every year, five to eight families 
migrate to Israel) is at its vibrant best. While the other dwindling 
Jewish communities in India struggle to muster up the minyan or 
mandatory quorum of 10 adults required for a full prayer on Saturday, 
the Jewish Sabbath, Thane s synagogue overflows with the faithful on 
festival days.

The interior of the synagogue has been recently renovated with funds 
from the community. A mikvah or a bath for purification rituals has 
been built in the synagogue and last month, the community got the 
square outside the synagogue named as Synagogue Chowk.

For the Jews of Thane, the naming of the road junction, a decade-old 
demand, is one more recognition of their 500-year-old history in 
Thane. In fact, the suburb is dotted with reminders of the community 
s presence. Agiary Lane s official name is Balaji Musaji (Benjamin 
Moses) Umerdekar Lane. Umerdekar was Chhatrapati Shivaji s trusted 
subedar mukadam.



Thanks & Regards
Ajay Marath


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