Who Are the Jews of India? (review)

T H E J E W I S H QUA R T E R LY RE V I E W, Vol. 94, No. 3 (Summer 2004) 556–562 NATHAN KATZ. Who Are the Jews of India? The S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Pp. xv Ⳮ 205. In the last ten years there has been a proliferation of books about Indian Jews. These include specialized monographs and edited works by Indian, Jewish, and foreign scholars on the three distinct communities: the Bene Israel of western India, the Cochin Jews of Kerala, and the Baghdadi, or Iraqi Jews, of Bombay and Calcutta. There are, in addition, memoirs by Indian Jews themselves. Most of these works have focused on one or, at best, two of the communities. Nathan Katz has now given us, in one relatively short volume, a readable overview of all three communities. (Although he is familiar with them, Katz has opted not to discuss the tribal groups in Northeastern India, the Bnei Menasche, who have claimed Jewish descent.) This book will be a welcome introduction for those readers wishing to know something about the Indian Jews, who could then follow up their interests by reading more specialized works. It could also be used as a text in Jewish history courses that want a global focus, for, as Katz points out, the Jews are not Western but global, ‘‘thus the Jewish experience in India modifies our understanding of Jewishness and of immigrant identity’’ (p. 4). Although their population is microscopic (never exceeding 30,000, a high reached in the early 1950s, and no more than 5,000 now), the Jews of India have managed to maintain their identity. They have never known anti-Semitism from their Indian hosts—a testimony to the basic tolerance of Indian civilization. It is ironic that the one country in which the Jews have not known persecution finds its Jewish population dwindling. Katz’s specialty is comparative religion and he is very well grounded in Indian religions and culture. He understands the importance of legend and myth and introduces the new relationship between those and genetics and DNA. He also tries to look at the Jewish experience in the broader context of the practices and beliefs of their Hindu and Muslim neighbors, as well as in that of normative Judaism. Although scholars may find this approach valuable and enlightening, Indian Jews themselves are sometimes disturbed to find any of their practices related to those of other religions. The Jewish Quarterly Review (Summer 2004) Copyright 䉷 2004 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. All rights reserved. KATZ, WHO ARE THE JEWS OF INDIA?—ROLAND 557 The overarching theme is identity: the chapter titles are ‘‘A Balanced Identity: the Jews of Cochin,’’ ‘‘An Identity Transformed: The Bene Israel ,’’ and ‘‘An Identity Aloof: Baghdadi Jews of the Raj.’’ Katz attempts to demonstrate that communal identity is not fixed but is instead a creative response to dynamic, outside events. He also points out that the experience of all three communities demonstrates that maintaining a Jewish identity is not merely a defense mechanism against a hostile world. Katz sees the Cochin Jews as being firmly rooted in two great civilizations , Indic and Judaic, firmly exemplifying a successfully acculturated identity. He feels that their experience shows how a tiny minority can preserve its religious and cultural identity without either rejecting or being overwhelmed by the larger society. According to Katz, they have neither submerged their Jewishness by assimilating into their host culture nor used their Jewishness as a refuge from a hostile Gentile host society: ‘‘Side-by-side but not submerged, acculturated but not assimilated ’’ (p. 10). This achievement owes much to the tolerance of the Hindu culture of Kerala and to the resourcefulness and creativity of the Cochin Jews. Katz explains three mechanisms by which this took place. First, the Cochin Jews articulated a narrative about themselves filled with motifs that generated status in both the Judaic and Indic worlds. Second, they emulated, thereby affirming, the social hierarchy of Kerala. Third, they borrowed symbolic and ritual motifs from the local Hindu culture, especially those involving asceticism and royalty, and enacted them in their own ritual...