One of my fellow students in the Integrated Media Arts MFA program at Hunter College, Jonas Pariente, is in India this year to document a remarkable Jewish community, Bene Israel. The community has been in continuous residence for over 2,000 years and is believed to be the oldest of its kind in India. They claim descendence from 14 Palestinian Jews who came to India after their ship was wrecked in 175 B.C.E. Not surprisingly, Bene Israel’s connection to Jewish traditions and practices became attenuated over the centuries. In the 1700s, British missionaries discovered them and reported on the community’s observance of three basic Jewish practices: circumcision, observing Saturday as a day of rest and the recitation of a portion of “Shema Israel.”

Write the filmmakers, “Disconnected from the rest of the Jewish world, the Bene Israel developed…a unique religious syncretism, rooted in primitive Judaism and influenced by the surrounding Hindus and Muslims.” (See www.nextyearinmumbai.com) In recent times, Bene Israel has found both its Jewishness and its Indian roots in jeopardy, as a series of external Jewish influences, internal Indian prejudices and various geopolitical upheavals have challenged them to consider emigration to Israel and / or practicing a more accepted form of Judaism at the expense of their Indian identity. On the other hand, the connection of Bene Israel to the global Jewish community could bring benefits as well as change. Read about the community and the filming process.