The Jews of India

Abstract There have been Jewish communities in South Asia for at least 1,000 and perhaps 2,000 years. While in modern India, there are three communities that are well known—the Jews of Cochin (Kochi), the Baghdadis, and the Bene Israel—there are and have historically been a number of smaller groups as well, ranging from communities associated with the Mughal Empire, Ashkenazi Jews fleeing Nazism, and more recently tribal groups such as the Bene Menashe and the Bene Ephraim. Each community has its own history, distinctive features, and relationship with the broader Jewish world and Israel. And each requires specific and unique methods of analysis.