Who Are the Jews of India?

Katz, Nathan

doi:10.1525/california/9780520213234.001.0001

Cited by 48 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…They emerged relatively recently, and in many cases their 'starting points' did not involve documented 'genealogical' connections with other Jewish people. However, at the same time, they 2 For a detailed discussion of the Jewish communities of India, including Bene Israel, see Isenberg 1998, Katz 2000, Roland 1999, Katz et al 2007, Weil 2002 was not its outcome.…”

Section: Bene Ephraim and The History Of Judaising Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Old Memories, New Histories: (Re)discovering the Past of Jewish Dalits

Egorova¹,

Perwez

2012

History and Anthropology

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Section: Bene Ephraim and The History Of Judaising Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Old Memories, New Histories: (Re)discovering the Past of Jewish Dalits

Egorova¹,

Perwez

2012

History and Anthropology

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“…At the beginning of the 21 st century, approximately 50,000 members lived in Israel, whereas about 5,000 remained in India, mainly in Mumbai [2]. Oral history among Bene Israel holds that they are descendants of Jews whose ship wrecked on the Konkan shore, with only seven men and seven women surviving [2,3,5]. The exact timing of this event, as well as the origin and identity of the survivors, are not part of this oral history.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The exact timing of this event, as well as the origin and identity of the survivors, are not part of this oral history. Some date it around two millennia ago [2], whereas others suggest a specific date and origin: around 175 BCE, where the survivors were Jews living in the northern parts of the land of Israel that left their homes during the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes [5]. Adding to the vagueness of Bene Israel origin is the fact that a similar story of seven surviving couples is found in the oral histories of other Indian populations [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some date it around two millennia ago [2], whereas others suggest a specific date and origin: around 175 BCE, where the survivors were Jews living in the northern parts of the land of Israel that left their homes during the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes [5]. Adding to the vagueness of Bene Israel origin is the fact that a similar story of seven surviving couples is found in the oral histories of other Indian populations [2,3]. Others suggest that the ancestors of Bene Israel arrived to India earlier -as early as the 8 th century BCE -or later -from Yemen, during the first millennium CE or from Southern Arabia or Persia in the 5 th or 6 th century CE [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The genetics of Bene Israel from India reveals both substantial Jewish and Indian ancestry

Waldman

Biddanda

Davidson

et al. 2015

Preprint

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The Bene Israel Jewish community from West India is a unique population whose history before the 18 th century remains largely unknown. Bene Israel members consider themselves as descendants of Jews, yet the identity of Jewish ancestors and their arrival time to India are unknown, with speculations on arrival time varying between the 8th century BCE and the 6th century CE. Here, we characterize the genetic history of Bene Israel by collecting and genotyping 18 Bene Israel individuals. Combining with 486 individuals from 41 other Jewish, Indian and Pakistani populations, and additional individuals from worldwide populations, we conducted comprehensive genome-wide analyses based on F ST , principal component analysis, ADMIXTURE, identity-by-descent sharing, admixture linkage disequilibrium decay, haplotype sharing and allele sharing autocorrelation decay, as well as contrasted patterns between the X chromosome and the autosomes. The genetics of Bene Israel individuals resemble local Indian populations, while at the same time constituting a clearly separated and unique population in India. They are unique among Indian and Pakistani populations we analyzed in sharing considerable genetic ancestry with other Jewish populations. Putting together the results from all analyses point to Bene Israel being an admixed population with both Jewish and Indian ancestry, with the genetic contribution of each of these ancestral populations being substantial. The admixture took place in the last millennium, about 19-33 generations ago. It involved Middle-Eastern Jews and was sex-biased, with more male Jewish and local female contribution. It was followed by a population bottleneck and high endogamy, which can lead to increased prevalence of recessive diseases in this population. This study provides an example of how genetic analysis advances our knowledge of human history in cases where other disciplines lack the relevant data to do so.

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“…Every scholar of global Jewish history admits that, in India at least, Jews never encountered the slightest trace of anti-Semitism. 'Indian Jews lived', Nathan Katz writes, 'as all Jews should have been allowed to live: free, proud, observant, creative and prosperous, self-realized, full contributors to the host country' (Katz 2000). Yet, in the aftermath of the creation of Israel, there was an exodus of Indian Jews to the new Jewish state.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The politics of culture and knowledge after postcolonialism: Nine theses (and a prologue)

Lal

2012

Continuum

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Who Are the Jews of India?

Cited by 48 publications

References 0 publications

Old Memories, New Histories: (Re)discovering the Past of Jewish Dalits

Old Memories, New Histories: (Re)discovering the Past of Jewish Dalits

The genetics of Bene Israel from India reveals both substantial Jewish and Indian ancestry

The politics of culture and knowledge after postcolonialism: Nine theses (and a prologue)

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