ביקור שורשים בהודו

נתקבל ממר סולומון אייזיק

Finding the Roots - Closing the Circle

From : Isaac Solomon

Subject:  My trip to find the roots.

From many books on Indian Jews we have in our home, our children learned a lot of history. All the same, a lot of questions remained hazy in their minds and the only way to satisfy their curiosity, we thought, was to take them to see our ancestral roots in India.

Questions like, who were our ancestors? Why and when did they come to India? What tribe they belonged to? What circumstances led them to leave the country of their origin? What vicissitudes of fortune they met with when they landed in India?  Why did they adopt the name Bene-Israel? All these and many more questions are not clearly answered even by those learned in history and antiquity. All the same we thought that a tour of some ancestral sights will put the minds of our children to rest, therefore, we took a trip to India.

We carried Haeem Kehimkar's "The History of the Bene Israel of India", and Shirley Berry Isenberg's "India's Bene Israel", with us for references. We visited Panvel, Pen, Chaul (This is where my Shapurkar family comes from), Revdanda, Alibaug and Navgauv. In addition we visited all the Bene Israel synagogues of Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Poona. Let me say at the outset that our trip to Bene Israel ancestral sights in India proved a powerful, unforgettable experience.

After visiting the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in Jacob Circle, the Magen Hassidim Synagogue on Morland Road, Gate of Mercy Synagogue on Samuel Street, Mandvi, Shaare Razon Synagogue in Khadak, Magen David Synagogue in Byculla, Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue in Fort, The Etz Haim Prayer Hall in Umerkhadi, Bene Israel Prayer Halls in Bandra, Thana and Kurla, and Rodef Shalom Synagogue in Byculla we decided to visit the Panvel and pen Synagogues on our way to Navgav cemetery.

We may mention here that some of the above synagogues are now closed. While in Mumbai we also visited Sir Eli Kadoori High School in Mazgaon. The school was previously known as Isralite School because it was to maintain the Jewish character of its students, i.e. Jewish and Hebrew language studies, Saturday holiday, etc. Mr. Haeem Samuel Kehimkar's constant efforts brought about the establishment of this Jewish school un the year 1899 in its present form.

It is believed that Synagogue in Mirchi Galli on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Panvel, has a very special significance for the Indian Jews. The believers say that a prayer in this synagogue fulfills vows for a child, marriage, etc.,After the fulfillment of the vow, people come here to perform a prayer in honor of Eliyahu Hannabi in form of "Malida" The synagogue was dedicated to the Indian Jewish community on 17/5/1849 on the Feast of Shabuot. In Pen we visited Beth Ha Elohim Synagogue which was built in 1863.

The most impressive visit was to the Navgav cemetery in a village about 48 klms. South of Mumbai. we asked the local people to take us to the Bene-Israel cemetery, but they did not know where it was. Then it struck me that our ancestors were known as "Shaniwar Telis" the Saturday Oilman, because they kept their oil pressing machines closed on Saturdays. "Come with us", they said. "Every child knows where the ancient cemetery of Shaniwar Telis' is." It's a large piece of guarded land with the noise of waters breaking on the shore in the background. A monument is erected in the right side corner of the cemetery with the inscription which says that the Indian Jews landed on this coast about 2000 years ago as a result of a shipwreck. From here they spread all over India. Their main occupation was oil pressing and agriculture. It is said that this is the place where then, Hindus, the local residents of Naugav, had built two huge funeral pyres, one for men and the other for women to burn the dead, who had landed on the Navgav coast according to their custom,. Some of these so called dead eere not really dead but numb with cold. when they began to move after they received the heat from fire, these people were taken out of the funeral pyre and cured. They were named "Chit Pavan Brahmins" because they came out alive from the fire.

We took the children to see the ocean beyond where it is believed the ship carrying the Indian Jews from Etz Zion Gaber, near Eilat, in Israel, had capsized. The children were impressed. We live in Eilat and we had come to the spot where our ancestors first landed, thus we had completed the circle.

We then went to see the hoof mark of Eliyahoo Hannabi's horse and the scratch mark of the wheels of his chariot made on hard rock when his horse drawn chariot is believed to have left for heaven. It is very important to know that one of the characteristic of Bene Israel observance throughout the past and into the present is the malida ceremony. The centrality of Prophet Elijan in Bene Israel tradition produced the theory that their ancestors lived in the Holy Land in the time of Elijah, i.e. 8th. century BCE. Before they departed for India from Eretz Israel. It is a practice with Indian Jews to come to this spot in their huge numbers and perform "Malida" in the service of Prophet Elijah.

On the way we saw many villages and how their names tallied with the Sir names of Indian Jews. When the Jews left Israel, about 2000 years ago, after the destruction of the First Temple whose customs and practices they followed, but sometime before the destruction of the Second Temple whose practices they were ignorant about, called themselves "So and so, son of so and so." They did not have Sir names of later dates. In India there was a practice of taking the names of the places the family ancestors came from as the family names. Therefore, the Sir names of Indian Jews are; for example, Shapurkar from the village of Shapur; Divekar, from the village Diva; Rajpurkar from the village of Rajpur; ect., All these villages are on the Konkan Coast of Mumbai, in the vicinity of their shipwreck.

We took the children to see Alibag's Beth El synagogue built in 1848 and Magen Aboth synagogue built un the same year. Then we went see our ancestral home in Chaul where I was born 65 years ago. The house is still intact. It was sold to a non-Jew but the nail marks of Mezuza on the door-post are still distinctly seen and felt. On the top of the front door we had a slate with the Ten Commandments on it. We the children of the house had to read them in the morning after washing ourselves. Only after reading the Ten Commandments we were allowed to take our breakfast. The nail on which we hung the slate was also there. My family came hear three generations ago and bought coconut and beetlenut orchards. Before that they owned property in Ambepur, a village near Chaul. Here we had a synagogue in our home and village people came to pray there when my grandfather and later on father conducted the prayers. After meeting some Jewish people we returned to Mumbai to proceed on our India tour.     

הוכחה ניצחת DNA

כתבה שהתפרסמה ע"י מר שאול ארד, פרובנס בעיתון "ידיעות אחרונות" (7 ימים) בתאריך 14 לחודש יוני 2002

ההיסטוריון הבריטי טיודור פרפיט נודד ברחבי העולם עם ערכת דנ"א ומנסה לאתר את צאצאי עשרת השבטים. פרפיט מצא זהות גנטית מלאה בין קהילת בני ישראל בהודו, יהודי תימן ושבט הלמבה האפריקאי, אבל מפריך את הקשר של יהודי אתיופיה לארץ ישראל. ובכל זאת, כמו שאמר לו בן-גוריון, יהודי הוא מי שחושב את עצמו לכזה ,כן, כולל בני שבט הטוטסי העבריים

התגלית הגדולה של הספר היא אודות קבוצת "בני  ישראל" זוהי כת יהודית שחיה בהודו, וב1948 מנתה כשלושים אלף איש. רוב בני הקהילה עלו לישראל ונתקלו בהתכחשות מצד הממסד הדתי. ב1961 הכריז הרב הספרדי הראשי ש"בני ישראל" אינם רשאים להתחתן עם יהודים, מה שהוביל לתגובה נזעמת בעיתונות ההודית. "בני ישראל" נפגעו, הפגינו ושבתו. ב1964 הם ערכו הפגנה המונית. הכנסת וראש הממשלה, לוי אשכול, ביקשו מהרבנות הראשית להכיר בבני הקהילה כיהודים, וכך היה, היום מרוכזים "בני ישראל" בעיקר בדימונה, לוד ורמלה

קרוביהם חיים ליד בומבי, ליד החוף, ומתפרנסים מייצור שמן. איש לא שמע עליהם עד למאה השמונה עשרה, עד שהם נתגלו על ידי מיסיונרים, שהכריזו עליהם כיהודים. היו להם חדרי תפילה שנקראו מסגד, כמו בערבית ולא היו להם ספרי תורה. אבל היו להם שני דברים: ידע נרחב בחוקי הכשרות בנוגע לדגים, והם ידעו להגיד "שמע ישראל" עם השנים הם נטמעו בחברה היהודית הדתית, החלו ללכת לבית הכנסת ספרדי ולאמץ את מנהגי יהודי ספרד

אבל אני חשבתי שזו קהילה של מוסלמים, שאיבדו את הקשר לאיסלם. הרעיון שהם קשורים לישראל ההיסטורית נראה לי מופרך. רוב החוקרים היו שותפים לדעה הזו. הנחתי ש"בני ישראל" יספקו לנו מקרה טוב למחקר גנטי, אז נסענו למספר קהילות בהודו, ולתדהמתנו גילינו שמקורה של הקבוצה הקטנה הזו בבני מהגרים מהמזרח התיכון. יש להם מאפיינים משותפים ליהודים מזרח-תיכוניים ואף ללמבה

ההיסטוריה של התפשטות יהודים לאירופה ולארצות ערב ידועה בדרך כלל, אבל כעת ברור שהייתה גם תנועה של יהודים דרומה, חלקם הם בני הלמבה ואחרים הם "בני ישראל" של הודו. ל"בני ישראל" היו קשיים עצומים בישראל, והנה כעת אנחנו מספקים להם הוכחה ניצחת שהם יכולים להיחשב כיהודים של ממש

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