The Bene Israel of India and the Politics of Jewish Identity

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Bene Israel community in Mumbai, a remnant of a once thriving Jewish population decimated in part because of emigration to Israel. I argue that the Bene Israel, who have been maligned because of their dark skin colour and borrowed customs, primarily from Hinduism, constitute a way of being Jewish that consciously rejects authoritarian and rabbinic hegemony. They constitute a ‘third,’ hybrid kind of space signifying that the borders of Jewish identity are permeable and flexible. They are therefore a prime example of the possibilities within Judaism not limited to a prescribed, and circumscribed system of belief and practice but a living testament to cultural and religious multiplicity.