HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF BENE ISRAEL IN BOMBAY AND KONKAN: Their Synagogues and Prayer Halls
HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE BENE ISRAEL IN BOMBAY AND KONKAN by Professor Shaul Sapir
New Historical Geography of the Bene Israel
A new book, Historical Geography of the Bene Israel in Bombay and the Konkan by Professor Shaul Sapir, focuses on the towns and villages where the Bene Israel settled, and on the synagogues and prayer halls built by the community in Bombay and the Konkan.
The historiography of India’s Jews as documented by this book consists of three independent and clearly defined communities, each with their own distinct lifestyle and religious, cultural and communal characteristics. (This book does not cover two other Jewish communities in India – the Bene Ephraim of Andhra Pradesh and the B’nei Menashe of Manipal and Manipur).
The ancestors of the Bene Israel, strangers to India’s sub-continent, brought with them Jewish traditions and religious practices, kept a diligent oral tradition over the generations. They also developed meaningful Jewish customs of their own. One example is the Malida ceremony, a thanksgiving ceremony held in the Synagogue or at home, for special occasions.
It was toward the second half of the 18th Century that the Bene Israel began arriving on the island and living in Bombay. The independence of India on the one hand, and the establishment of the State of Israel on the other, saw a significant decline of the Bene Israel community. Their population dropped from an estimated 20,000 to only a few thousand.
Shaul Sapir is Professor of Historical Geography at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (HUJI).
Born in Bombay, Prof. Shaul Sapir lived in India for the first years of his life. He always felt a great affection for his city of birth and upon visiting India years later, he renewed his bond with the vibrant, colourful, bustling metropolis. Fascinated by the magnificent examples of architecture, regal causeways and public spaces, blending in with the colours and smells and endless noise and teeming humanity, he decided to travel and research his own roots and the history of this amazing city at the hub of this compelling country.