Re: [nukkad] A Jewish Cemetry

["Ravi Menon" <>]

Thanks Ajay.
Schlumberger Saudi Arabia? Wireline?

:-)

Regards

Ravi


On 2/20/08, Ajay Marath  wrote:
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> An article from Bombay's (Mumbai) Mid-Day newspaper
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> Thane Jews pass the blood test
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> Mumbai tabloid (MID-DAY) By: Manoj Nair
> July 23, 2002
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> Thanks & Regards
> Ajay Marath
>
>
> ---
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It's always a long day... 86400 doesn't fit into a short.
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