Bene Ephraim

Bnei Ephraim

Total population
(350)
Regions with significant populations
Andhra Pradesh, India
Languages
Telugu, Hebrew
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Tradition  Jews, Indian Jews    Ethnobiology  Indian

Part of a series on
Jews and Judaism
Etymology Who is a Jew? Jewish peoplehood Jewish identity
Religion God in Judaism (names) Principles of faith Mitzvot (613) Halakha Shabbat Holidays Prayer Tzedakah Land of Israel Brit Bar and Bat Mitzvah Marriage Bereavement Philosophy Ethics Kabbalah Customs Synagogue Rabbi
Texts Tanakh (Torah Nevi'im Ketuvim) Talmud (Mishnah Gemara) Rabbinic (Midrash Tosefta) Targum Beit Yosef Mishneh Torah Tur Shulchan Aruch Zohar
Communities Ashkenazim Sephardim Italkim Romaniotes Mizrahim Cochin Bene Israel Beta Israel Related groups Bnei Anusim Lemba Crimean Karaites Krymchaks Samaritans Crypto-Jews Mosaic Arabs Subbotniks
Population Land of Israel Old Yishuv New Yishuv Israeli Jews Europe Austria Belarus Bulgaria Czech Republic Estonia France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Italy Latvia Lithuania Moldova Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain Sweden Ukraine United Kingdom Asia Yemen Iraq Iran Turkey Cyprus Syria Lebanon Uzbekistan Azerbaijan India China Indonesia Vietnam Japan Philippines Africa Morocco Algeria Tunisia Libya Egypt Ethiopia South Africa Zimbabwe North America United States Canada Latin America and Caribbean Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador Guyana Haiti Jamaica Mexico Paraguay Puerto Rico Suriname Uruguay Venezuela Oceania Australia Fiji Guam New Zealand Palau Judaism by country Lists of Jews Historical population comparisons
Denominations Rabbinic Judaism (Ashkenaz, Sephard, Sepharadim) Orthodox Ultra-Orthodox Reform Conservative Karaite Haymanot Secularism Reconstructionist Renewal Humanistic
Culture Minyan Music Religious Secular Wedding Clothing Niddah Pidyon haben Kashrut Shidduch Zeved habat Conversion to Judaism Hiloni Cuisine Israelite Israeli Sephardic Mizrahi Literature Israeli Yiddish American Yiddish Theatre Dance Humour
Languages Hebrew (Biblical) Yiddish Jewish Koine Greek Yevanic Juhuri Shassi Judæo-Iranian Ladino Ghardaïa Sign Bukharian Knaanic Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Arabic
History Timeline Leaders Ancient history Kingdom of Judah Temple in Jerusalem Babylonian captivity Assyrian captivity Yehud Medinata Jerusalem (in Judaism timeline) Hasmonean dynasty Sanhedrin Schisms Pharisees Hellenistic Judaism Jewish–Roman wars History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire Christianity and Judaism Hinduism and Judaism Islamic–Jewish relations Diaspora Middle Ages Golden Age Sabbateans Hasidism Haskalah Emancipation Antisemitism Anti-Judaism Persecution The Holocaust Israel Land of Israel Aliyah Jewish atheism Baal teshuva Arab–Israeli conflict
Politics Politics of Israel Zionism (General Green Labor Neo Religious Revisionist) World Agudath Israel Bundism Feminism Jewish left / right
Category: Jews and Judaism Portal: Judaism WikiProject Judaism

The Bene Ephraim (Hebrew: בני אפריים‎‎) Bnei Ephraim ("Sons of Ephraim"), also called Telugu Jews because they speak Telugu, are a small community living primarily in Kotha Reddy palem, a village outside Chebrolu, Guntur District, and in Machilipatnam, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India, near the delta of the River Krishna. They claim to be descendants of the Tribe of Ephraim, of the Ten Lost Tribes, and since the 1980s have learned to practice modern Judaism.

History

The Bene Ephraim claim descent from the Tribe of Ephraim, and say that they traveled from Israel through western Asia: Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and into China for 1,600 years before arriving in southern India more than 1,000 years ago. They hold a history which they say is similar to that of the shift of Afghan Jews and Persian Jewish, Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, who received recognition in 2005 from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. (The latter people must still go through a formal conversion process to become citizens of Israel.)

During the medieval period they have worked as farm laborers. While practising Judaism, they adopted some Christianity after the arrival of British Baptist missionaries during the early 19th century.

Their leader, Shmuel Yacobi, went to Jerusalem in the 1980s and became convinced they were of Jewish descent. Because of the long period in which the people were not practising Judaism, they did not develop any distinctly identifiable Judæo-Telugu language or dialect. (See Jewish languages.)

Since the 1980s, about fifty families in Kotha Reddy Palem have studied Judaism, learned Hebrew, and built an operating synagogue. They celebrate all Jewish holidays and often use their Torah scroll and read Hebrew.

Today Hebrew is being used as a living language rather than limited to liturgy. The community has been visited over the years by rabbis from the chief rabbinate in Israel to study their Jewish tradition and practices. The Chief Rabbi has to recognise the community as being of Jewish descent. The rabbis have taught today's Judaism and converted many Indian Jews, while some women eventually married to a rabbi family, many married in the past to Jewish people, but not attached to homeland Israel they still must relocate. They have sought recognition from many rabbis around the world. They always practiced their own Caviloth [Oral Traditions and customs] such as: burying the dead, eating cow and beef meat, marriage under Chuppah, observing Shabbat and other Hebrew, Israel and Jewish Festival and maintaining Elders Court System etc.[10].

According to the Washington Times in 2006,

Many think the Bnei Ephraim Jews are trying to escape poverty and that they want to leave this region of Andhra Pradesh where six successive years of drought and crop failure have driven more than 3,000 peasants into debt and to suicide.

Chandra Sekhar Angadi, a social scientist in neighboring Karnataka, said of the Telugu Jews:

They are among the poorest of Jews in the world. They are desperate for the recognition by Israel’s chief rabbinate simply to be guaranteed a passport from that country where they can lead a much better life — away from this life of poverty and hunger

There are certain Oral Traditions among Bene Ephraim: traditions known as Cavilah Traditions. There are about 450 ancient halakhic customs, habits and Hebrew Cultural Elements among them that continued since prehistoric times and Exodus. They shared some of those elements with the Ereb Rab Telugu people. Burying the dead, eating kosher animal meat, marriage under chuppah, burial customs, 7 day purification, bar/bath mitzvah, Hebrew words, sayings and many other usages. The Ereb Rab Telugu people re-made Amaravati as their capital today and the Bene Ephraim are hopeful to find their hidden Torah Scrolls, Hebrew literature and ancient valuables when the Government digs out during constructing the new capital for Andhra Pradesh State[10].

See also

• Andhra Pradesh
• Bnei Menashe
• History of the Jews in India
• Shavei Israel
• [Amaravati Museum]
• [Buddhist Museum, Guntur]
• [Ministry of Communications, Government of India about Cretan origins of Telugu people]
• [History of Andhra Pradesh, Semitic links - Thesis by Dr. T. Bhaskar Rao, A.C. College, Guntur]
• [Telugu Historian Dr. B.S.N. Hanumantha Rao]
• [Manamevaru - History of Telugu People - published by Hebrew Open University Study Center - By Shmuel Yacobi]
• [The Ten Commandments Constitution - Thesis by Dr. Chilaka Abraham submitted to A.N. University, Guntur]

External links

• Francisco, Jason L., "Meet the Telugu Jews of India", Kulanu website
• Sussman, Bonita & Gerald., "India Journal", 2007, Kulanu website
• Indian Jews, Kulanu Website index.

Further reading

• Tudor Parfitt (2002), "The Lemba: An African Judaising Tribe", in Judaising Movements: Studies in the Margins of Judaism, edited by Parfitt, Tudor and Trevisan-Semi, E., London: Routledge Curzon.
• Shmuel Yacobi, THE CULTURAL HERMENEUTICS, an introduction to the cultural translation of the Hebrew Bible among the ancient nations of the Thalmulic Telugu Empire of India.
• Shmuel Yacobi, Manamevaru, Ereb Rab Telugu people and their links with Israel.
• Chilaka Abraham, Ten Commandments Constitution - A Sociological study - A.N. University, Guntur.
• Ministry of Interior, Israel, Rabbi Marvin Tokayer U.S - Letters to Shmuel Yacobi, member of Bene Ephraim Community