The people connection 

The people connection 

Context

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accompanied on his visit to India by a large delegation drawn from the defence, cyber, and agricultural sectors; he intends to boost trade, investment, and tourism between the two nations.

Young Israelis visit India in huge numbers each year, forging a stronger acquaintance

This year, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism will spend $5-6 million in India in a bid to boost tourism to Israel. The goal is to have one lakh tourists visiting Israel in 2018.

Once distant

Most Israelis knew little about India until about the mid-1990s

Opening embassy

• India recognised the state of Israel in 1950, and in 1953 permitted it to open a consulate in Mumbai
• Full diplomatic relations were established between India and Israel until 1992 when India opened its embassy in Tel Aviv.

Large invisible Indian Jews in Israel

Though there are many Indian Jews living in Israel – over 80,000 – they have remained a relatively quiet and somewhat “invisible” community

Mizrahi

In Israel, Indian Jews are largely subsumed into the larger “Mizrahi” community of non-white Jews from North Africa and West Asia

Settlements in peripheral towns

Few in Israel know about the Jews of India, their varied histories, and the marked cultural and ethnic distinctions between them. This is largely due to where in Israel the Indian Jews settled, which, for economic and political reasons, was primarily in peripheral towns.

History:

Bene and Cochin Jews from India

• When Jews from India first arrived in the 1940s and ’50s, the darker-skinned Bene Israel and Cochin Jews faced discrimination from the predominantly powerful European (Ashkenazi) Jews.
• The Jews from Cochin settled mostly in “moshavs”, or community farms, in southern Israel. There, they became very successful at flower growing and export
• The Bene Israel Jews from the Konkan were in a range of middle-class, modestly-paying professions
• They settled in smaller towns such as Ashdod, Ramla, and Lod
• In the 1960s, the Bene Israelis fought and won a major case to be fully accepted as Jews.
• Far fewer in numbers were the Baghdadi Jewish arrivals from Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata
• They became part of the much larger Iraqi Jewish community or integrated with other English-speaking immigrants to Israel. In the last few years, about 2000 BneiMenashe Jews from Manipur and Mizoram have made aliyah as well; many of them have been placed in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Strong ties with India

The Indian Jews in Israel have always held strong ties to India

• They celebrate Indian Independence Day and Republic Day, and many of them, especially the Bene Israelis, listen to Indian music and watch Indian films, hold Indian cultural events for community members, and open Indian stores which stock the groceries and spices
• They have formed their own associations, issue their own community publications, and keep their Indian Jewish traditions alive

However, very few Israelis in the past came to know about India from the Indian Jews who lived there.

‘A human bridge’

• Indian Jews were feted during Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Israel last year
• This visit commemorated 25 years of diplomatic ties between the two nations

Young Israelis visit in large numbers

• Netanyahu called the Indian diaspora “a human bridge” between the two nations. I would argue that it is young Israelis who have flocked to India over the last 25 years, and who have come to know India first-hand, who have played a more significant role in familiarising Israelis with India.
• More than 40,000 Israelis visit India each year. For a country with a population of 6.5 million, that is a considerable number. India is now almost an obligatory visit for Israelis after finishing their compulsory army service. They live in the smaller towns and villages of India for as long as their money can last them, and revel in the freedom India offers them after their rigorous term of service.