85. Origins of the Jews of India (Jewish History Lab)
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- čas přidán 4. 09. 2021
- Brief overview of the major Jewish communities of India in historical perspective.
Recommended Reading:
Nathan Katz and Ellen S. Goldberg, The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India www.google.com/books/edition/...
Orpa Slapak, The Jews of India: A Story of Three Communities www.google.com/books/edition/...
Images from these books and Wikimedia Commons
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New online course: A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz!
Selected videos, quizzes, discussion groups. Register here: henryabramson.com/course/a-th...
Thanks Dr. Henry! My cousin married a Jewish Bene -Israel girl from Mumbai. The synagogue in Mumbai where they married is magnificent.
Fascinating!
@@HenryAbramsonPhD czcams.com/video/SZ80_4p6uFQ/video.html
Hi. Would you please tell us , What is the history behind your name Rama lamma gramma ?
Shalom & Namaste to my Jewish brothers & sisters🙏🏼.
As an Indian, this is fascinating. Hindus & Jews are really great friends.
Namaste from a fellow Hindu and Indian, I don't think Jews share the same sort of enthusiasm for us/Hindus !
I'm from Kochi and the synagogue is right next to my home.
My dad studied with Jewish freinds in school back then. Now the last Jew passed away a few years ago.
Are you referring Sarah Cohen who had an embroidery stitching shop near Synagogue
Thank you! Particularly interesting for me as we came to Cochin 3 years ago for a wedding--of my Jewish nephew to a Hindi Cochin woman. Very happy occasion, beautiful ceremony (to which was added, at the bride's family's invitation, our ''Seven Blessings''--which those of us from Israel read in Hebrew, while our USA cousins read in English translation.
During the dancing the next evening, the musicians played the hora to our surprise--and 10 of us started dancing--quickly joined by Indian co-celebrants!
Touching reactions everywhere about Israel and their own Jewish community--who many said they missed! So many also expressed a love of and interest in Israel. There is a lot of communication and cooperation in many fields: medicine, manufacturing, and much more.
My own neighborhood in Israel has several Cochin familys--I used to enjoy seeing the grandmother in her pretty saris. The younger gereration has stayed in touch with old friends; one neighbor still getting her Indian spices from her old neighbors.
Before COVID, many young Israelis visited Cochin to see where their families had lived for so long. We visited the one synagogue in Fort Cochin, the old city; there had been many more.
She must be a Jew from Cochin which your nephew married not hindi. Hindi is a language.
I have seen some hindu men married to Jewish women though.
This gives me an idea where Deuteronomy 30:4 states "If your dispersed will be at the ends of heaven..." And now you are teaching me about all these areas. Just how far the dispersed have gone. From China to India and wherever you are taking us next. Thanks for your research!
So glad you appreciate it!
Gaspar da Gama is an interesting individual. He is actually Ashkenazi. His family was from Poland, and made Aliyah to Israel when he was young. Once they reached Israel, they found life a little difficult, and his father moved to Egypt for work. When he became a man he got involved in the trade between Egypt and the Indian coast.
When Vasco da Gama found him he baptized him (whether this was by force or not is unknown). Gaspar ended up going to Portugal with Vasco, and then moved to Brazil.
It's quite a life for someone living back in the last decade of the 1400s.
India and China were the only countries without antisemitism.
Fascinating! I always have been curious about the Bene Israel community in India. My interest in movies kind of led me to this particular group of Jews. Brilliant people indeed! I'd love to know more. Thank you Rabbi. This was truly very interesting! It is indeed true that they had very much blended-in with the Marathi culture. They speak Marathi, cook Maharashtrian and they even have Marathi Surnames.
Dr. Abramson, the Jews known as Sepharadim (from Morocco all the way to India, and now of course scattered all over the world) are so named because they follow the rulings of Maran the Beit Yosef, who was from Spain. Thanks for your clear and concise lectures on the various Jewish communities outside of the standard Ashkenazi history!
Just discovered your channel and I'm hooked. This is a real treasure trove, thank you for publishing!
I once read a little kuntress at the Moriah Bookstore in the old city, opposite the kotel, about the text of the Ashkenazi sefer Torah, how it was widely divergent for many hundreds of years, and how it was eventually reconstituted by process of "aharei rabim lehatos", upon which point it was shown to diverge from the yemenite text in only 9 places. I'd love to see your treatment of that topic
As well, I'd be tickled to see a review of the history of Jewish music.
Shanna Tova, a gut gebentched yohr
Welcome to the channel!
@@HenryAbramsonPhD There was some interest recently in Pakistan for the Jewish population here.. There is a Jewish cemetery and there used to be a synagogue in old city area. There is a also a Jew who is quite active on social media and recently we have seen some videos of Jews praying in a private place in Karachi. Then there are some Messianic Jews in Rawalpindi but I don't think you would consider then Jews in the traditional sense
@@HenryAbramsonPhD czcams.com/video/DzYKtcROf_o/video.html
@@HenryAbramsonPhD czcams.com/video/5_XhfnPBoKE/video.html
@@HenryAbramsonPhD czcams.com/video/E-9pShw9PgM/video.html
Thank you, very interesting. waiting for part 2 !!
The Indian Subcontinent also valuable produced spices which were needed in the Beis HaMikdash ( Temple) services. Eg is Kinnamon or Cinnamon which were only found in the southern coast of Sri Lanka in the ancient times. I also heard an archaeologist saying the Old Brahmi text , beleived to be used in the region in ancient times is similar to the semitic text ( verification needed) . So there may be much ancient trade and economic connections between Canaan ( Or Eretz Israel) and Indian Subcontinent.
Kochi, previously known as Cochin, is known for its ancient Jews Street. The state of Kerala, where Kochi is located, is one of the most prosperous and literate States in India. And the legend is that God Almighty prospered the state because it welcomed the Jews!
The state is also full of converted radical Islamists and Christians who attack hindus.
@@bablubaban008 True that. But Jews and Hindus are great friends.
Christianity & Islam are too focused on proselytizing people so they can get a bit violent. Islam more so than Christianity.
Last line is not true,there is no such legend
@@worldisone8282 Now there is 😀 Just needed 1 supporting and 1 opposing and it is ratified.
Thank you. Looking forward to Part II . . .
I love this little piece of history. Thank you for this video.
Shalom. The indigenous rice leaves prayer reminders, curtains and writings are really lovely. So are hand embroidered grape and corn tapestries in prayer rooms and homes.
Grateful for your information . Very informative Thank you
Todah Rabah. So interesting and informative.
Fascinating lecture! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! I appreciate your feedback!
Absolutely fascinating. I'm a Syriac Christian from Kerala and I've recently watched on the news the discovery of a Jewish tombstones in someone's backyard while he was landscaping and that's when I found out Kerala had Jewish people. Ofcourse today all the Jews have left for Israel and almost noone is left.
The Koder family had a lot of business in Kochi and they owned the first electricity distribution company in Cochin which might be the pioneer electricity company in India or atleast in South India.
Gtreat lecture about history of jews in India.Your history freak from Puerto Rico.
My understanding is that the primary Cochin Jewish culture was brought by post exile Jews and early Christian Jewish converts who settled in India. They married local women who converted into the Jewish faith and merged elements of Jewish, Christian and local faiths and created a unique culture. Later "Sephardic" settlers, appalled by their practices, brought rabbis from the Middle East to instruct the Cochin in more mainline Jewish beliefs. At that point both the Cochin and the Sephardim became separate endogenous communities. Two groups in one place but totally apart.
They all r converted jews just like converted Christians and muslims in india. Nothing to do with local women.
Outstanding Rabino! I am surprised you did not cover the B'nei Menasha who today conduct aliyah and are serving in the IDF.
amazing videos. thank you
The ancient Syrian Christian in kerala has lots of similarities with Jewish customs and other Israeli food to this day with little differences
Thank you I have a Canadian Indian Jew who migrated to Canada in the 1960’s
Eagerly anticipating....
Very interesting. Two details in the Malabar Jewish history are of interest, being inter-religious or cross-religious in origin and in character. The lighting of the lamps at sunset, usually from another oil lamp with a cotton wick and displayed at the main door entrance of a home; the fixing of the paddy stalk on the door: both are Hindu rituals. I have often asked my Jewish friends if there might have been a local Malabar Talmud, dealing with so many new and different dietary adjustments (almost certainly no beef), but the community was always very small. Many thanks.
Fascinating commentary. I came to know about Jews in India, just now.
thank you for sharing this knowledge
lots of love from india
In your last lesson, I started to understand my connection to Han Chinese DNA but now I think I am understanding the Punjabi DNA also. Thank you.
All your lectures are very intellectual and highly informative. Iam watching this clip from India near Cochin and it gives a very good glimpse of Indian Jewery.
Please cover Beni-Manasahe of North east India and Jews of Bukhara. During mogul invasion of India in 1527 AD King Babur came from Samarkand (Uzbekistan) to India and used for the first time Gun Power which laid the foundation to the mogul dynasty in India.
In this campaign the Lost tribes of Israel was also a part of Babur's army.
If you have more information please make a lecture on Bukharan Jews of 16th Century.
Sridhar Devadoss
India
Dear Dr, Abramson, I've been searching through your lectures which I have listened to over the past month or so but in vain. You spoke of a practice used in the past that involved one of the interlocutors reminding another when they were departing from ethical standards in word of deed. What was the name of that practice? And if you remember, in which lecture did you discuss it?
Great work
Thanks
I'm Indonesian, descent of Cochin Jews. Thanks for this lecture!! 🎉🎉🎉
proud to be bene israel (:
shana tova brothers and sisters
I'm not bene Israel, but am jewish. I love our people. No matter how far we ended up across the world, we all stayed the nation of Israel together.
@@iosoi3145 2nd home land india😊
@@AmanDixit1994 I love India ❤️
You are cute
To those commenting paganism , it is polythesim. As an educated Indian and historian, paganism has multiple gods and it relates to nature
Fascinating!
The Copper Plate inscription is of Tamil vatteluttu (The western dialect of Old Tamil spoken in the southwestern Malabar Coast of India was known as Malanaadu Tamil/Malabar Tamil (Meaning the Tamil of the hilly region/the Tamil of Malabar) since the ancient Sangam period (300 BCE - 300 CE). Due to the geographical separation of the Malabar Coast from Tamil Nadu, and the presence of Western Ghats mountain ranges in between these two geographical regions, the dialect of Tamil spoken in the territory of the western Malabar Coast of the ancient Chera kingdom was different from that spoken in the Tamil-mainland).
Thanks for contributing
No
Both tamil & Malayalam used Vattezhuth witting those are Malayalam copper plates
@@sankarie3687 It's hard to digest for you people, don't you know Malayalam itself was derived from Tamil Vattezhtu Language, it was a Tamil King Cheran who was ruling entire present Kerala, earlier there was no Kerala it was part of Tamilzhagam
@@sureshpalani1777 Thank YHVH that those days are over.
Very fascinating indeed! I did not know there were such Jewish communities in India. You said e.g. very little about the food those Jews in India were enjoying?
India Jewish almost lived in 15thousand ,
Sir you Missed the large Jewish Community of Bene Meneshe of Manipur in India
Thank you ❤️😊 from nalanda india
thank you ...the most commonly european or sepharidic jews are portrayed in media...little is known about the other jews around the world...again thank for enlightening us.
Dr Abramson there was a Jewish community in Ceylon and traces of Jewish famlies still claim to be Jewish
Do you know of the English war poet (first world war) Siegfried Sassoon? He was a grandson of David Sassoon and his father was disinherited for marrying someone who was not Jewish. His friendship with WIlfred Owen helped to change the nature of Owen's poetry to what we know today.
Sassoon family are an illustrious family of the ancient Jewish community of Baghdad in Iraq.
Starting in the 1800s a branch of the Sassoon family started living in India and Britain.
The first Jewish copper plate found from kerala date back to 379 CE before 4th century written in Vattezhuth Malayalam script! Other is Tharissapalli Syriac Copper plate written in early 9th or 8th century also in Vattezhuth! But a Malayalam script found from Edakal cave was written in Tamil Brahmi Script dating back to early 4 or 3rd century! As it contains two modern Malayalam words I (ഇ This) & Pazhama (പഴമ old)!
Recent archaeology found at Tamil nadu: keezadi.. world's First oldest building construction..
I kept waiting to hear you say someting about intermarriage, and the custom of matrilineal descent, but you didn't mention it. Can you comment on that ?
3:25 Why "ironically"?
Gaspar da Gama was from Goa.
He climbed aboard Vasco da Gama's ship at Ilha de Anjediva off the coast of Goa.
Please do not write us out of history.
Conversos also require to be included in the video or Dr. Abrahamson should make a seperate video about us.
what about the bene eprahim from andhra pradesh story?
🇮🇳❤️🇮🇱
Why didn’t you talk about Saint Thomas Christians who were judaizers.
It's only a brief video, not meant to be exhaustive. See the text references for more details.
There's a family name Ballenberger from Chec. Republic or Bavaria. Seen on Jewish graves and family of rabbi.but then they seem to be in Germany and migrate to America after converting to lutheran. Some were in Ohio, Florida and south part of America also Michigan....they arrived using their title of rabbi. Then started churches and called themselves pastors....was it common for Jews to convert to lutheran? And many researching family history will think they are German when they are actually Jewish?
Well I never knew that
Your comment regarding tolerance of various pagan groups and Jews is interesting, My last job before coming to Israel had an diverse set of employees. Most were younger than me and into all sorts of pagan beliefs and backgrounds and yes they were very tolerant and interested in Jews. For instance they believe that Hashem exists and call him the God of the Gods.
Love from India🇮🇳❤️🇮🇱
Jabu my favourite rabbi
Don't call it pagan. It sounds mean.
Why called a politheism a pagan belief. It’s a derogatory term. I would say it’s more inclusive way of living.
I respect monotheism polytheism as well as atheism. Let’s be human first.
SHANÁ TOVÁ... OMEN VE OMEN 🌈😇🙏
What comes first;
One Being
Or
One Being a Jew?
Dr. Henry, i love your lectures and listen to them whenever i need information on a specific era in either levant or jewish life. But please do not call hindus pagan or call (ancient) india pagan. It kinda implies we do not have a true faith and are subject for prostelization. Our faith is just different. Our one above all is not much different. I think the confusion is in the word "god" and maybe a little colonial racism. There are some interesting theories on the theological links between vedic hinduism and israelite judaism.
how can you talk about indian jews and not talk about the benei menashe?
Are you benei Menashe
@@gauravdhamija7108 no
@@yurishosan ok..oh men I run a pharma company in india 🇮🇳. I'll have a business meeting in tel aviv. I was hoping to meet some indian jews there
Sir I want to come in Jews religion please help me
Vattelettu not Malayalam.. it's Tamil. Malayalam language comes under Tamil.
Tamil comes under Loony.
It's not paganism
God bless ISRAEL. its my dream to visit ISRAEL one day. Excellent and Exhaustive Research . From Cochin Kerala.
Cochin Jews who returned to the ancient Jewish homeland (Israel) started a small village in modern day Israel in 1954. The name of the village is 'Nevatim'.
@@christofferraby4712 Thank you for the information 🙏🙏🙏. God bless you.
Hinduism is not Pagan (Vs Monotheistic) , we believe in One Omnipotence (universal belief), Many Avatars (take your pick) and No God also. However our strongest belief is DUTY or "DHARMA".
Therefore tolerance to other Religions is inbuilt as there are many paths to the SAME ONE GOD.
For Instance: Tolerance got us our Finest Battle victory, the Liberation of Bangladesh with 3 minority ARMY Generals. A Jew, A Sikh & a Parsi (an Iranian minority).
Maj Gen (later Lt Gen) JFR Jakob, Chief of Staff, Eastern Command.....A Jew
Lt Gen AS Aurora, GOC, Eastern Command.....A Sikh
Gen Sam Manekshaw (later Field Marshall), COAS, Indian Army....A Parsi
This is India.
@Dutta, As a MAlayalee,please learn History terms, stop being ignornant.
@@j.varghese6886 Explain clearly. Comment is wishy washy?? And also linkage to Malayalee?? God, poorly written comment
@@dabasisdutta God,poorly written. ...check you grammar
Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. In historical terms, it's the belief in multiple gods. The professor was categorizing in historical terms;however, you seem to get offended. Then, you go off the subject by adding tolerance. This is why you need to learn history and its terms.
Plus, I thought you were Malayalee
Abrahamic religions came much after Hindu religion. The word Pagan so emphatically used by narrator seems typical of western narrative. 🙄
Its very obvious the reason indian jews look like Indians, Indonesian jews look like Indonesians and Chinese jews like chinese is for the same reason islam spread to this regions which was through arab and persian traders organically creating their own quarters/hubs and marrying locals in this regions and their jewish male brethren in the same trade business were no different, thats is undeniable fact. So this jews are jewish through paternal line initially(50%+50) and after that fully indigenous on maternal side every generation afterwards which will erase the paternal blood to almost to 0%
היהודים מאוד אוהבים את זה מכיוון שהעם שאלוהים ברא הוא עם מיוחד לאלוהים
Shalom brother I am india I am not Jews ‘so I am a Hindu family מדי פעם זה מרגיש כאילו יהודי הרקע שלנו אני עכשיו נוצרי בתשובה במשפחתי
Namaste, Dr Abramson. Your research is very impressive indeed. In fact, India is the only country with no known instances of anti-Semitism and that's because of a very basic tenet of Hinduism.
Technically, Hindus are Henotheistic - which means that we accept all paths to the divine as valid paths - including our own historic Charvaka philosophy which was essentially atheistic. I may have my personal path but that does not make yours any less valid.
If one ignores the recent politically motivated right wing shift, Hindus have always been essentially pluralistic. The sheer diversity under the umbrella of Hinduism is mind boggling and I doubt that it can ever be fully documented.
Even when we say "namaste", it translates to "I bow to (the divinity in) you" - and it comes from the belief that every person is basically a manifestation of the divine. That being the case, the whole world becomes one's own kin.
Leviticus 21:1,7,14 KJV
[1] And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people:
[7] They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.
[14] A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife.
I personally think Jews has to stop leeching on Hungarian,Ugar,MacAr,MakAr ,MagYar …for yes Árpád,Béla,Géza,OrBan,Báni,Hán,Ján,Kán,Ábrám,Ábra….has meaning in Hungarian Aka Ugarit,Ugar and BUgar languages including ÉL which is the basis for the Biblical the same can’t be told for Jews and Jewish language since the words Jev came from the mutation of the word H Éber and H Ebrei to J Evrei to J changing to H and vice versa just as B to V hence the Jewish movement is later movement whose purpose was to change GaLs culture and identity meaning to EVanGelise since this notion came from so called Greeks.
Hence to argue that somehow GaLilee is Jewish and not GaL is same lie as branding Ugar and Ugarit and Rovás Írás to be somehow Jewish.
One can’t talk about Jewish Garden of Eden since like the word say Garden was Eden (Edinburgh,ÓdinBurgh….).
Hence like the lies of Vladimir the Great who’s name was actually Valdemar the Great a Danish king from the tribe of Dan just as the Tribe of Gad is of Goth,Gott,God….which like everything else is clear evidence of identity thief’s adopting a identity that has absolutely no meaning in they own language or has any connection to they culture or history since like in the case of Maccabean Aka MaC Abbey has not much to do with Jews Aka Greeks who simply converted GaLs.
:-) :-) :-) you must be eating a lot of funny mushrooms!
@@WF2U There is something called facts including vocabularies like Hungarian that every Hungarian understands and so interpretation of words doesn't need Greek-Jewish Jewnanistani A Rabbinic divination to put some nonessense meaning in to the words and identities they want to be associated with.
I am not Jewish-Greek Jewropean and I haven't eaten some "Magic" 🍄 which obviously you have some experience with for I haven't even heard about them.
I understand Hungarian better than you, you're totally mixed up trying to apply Hungarian vocabulary to other languages. Since I'm totally trilingual and also understand several other languages from the Romance and Germanic families of languages, have a good understanding of Arabic of several dialects, and several other languages from that family, besides having education in linguistics, you're not going to feed that nonsense to me.
Just because you're Hungarian, I won't give you the honor of replying to you in one of my favorite languages, because your total ignorance doesn't deserve it, and Hungarian doesn't deserve of being abused to communicate with you in it.
@@WF2U Well if you would be a Hungarian they would understand that these like others are actually HunGerian words.
EL is accepted to be Ugarit and not Jewish and again Ugar, HonGri, VenGri, WanGer...is another names for Hungarians where EL is fundamental part of the Hungarian language as ÉL,ÉLET,LÉLEK, LÉLEKZET ...which again explains many things in Bible which Greek-Jewis or others can't in they language.
It also accepted that Biblical ISRAELITE stories are linked with so called Hyksos aka rulers of foreign lands or Shepherd (Shepherd aka Sheep Herders which Jews mutated in to Shephardic word and made it meaningless) and the Fortified city they established in Egypt was called Avaris which as A Város in Hungarian means The city .
I have seen many depiction of APIS BULL in Egypt that clearly depicts Hungarian Grey cattle something that Jews-Greeks didn't had by default since they where a Mediterranean SeaPeople who adopted various alphabets, stories, identities...from people in to who's lands they have introduded which is why they have not Pastoral, warrior, tribal culture .
@@hondacbrification Ilyen baromságokat csak egy elmebeteg vagy drogos egyén írhat. Segítséget kellene keresned! Egyébként fertelmes a helyesírásod angolul!
Pagan? I don’t believe you meant to be derogatory, but perhaps you should rethink the use of the word with regards to Hinduism.
At the end of the World, on the Left סוף העולם שמאלה -- is a colorful, interesting comedy about an Indian family who makes Aliyah in the late 60's and end up in a dusty border town filled with Moroccans. (2004) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_Left_at_the_End_of_the_World