The story of the Bene Israel  are seemingly from the ten lost tribes of Israel, who escaped persecution from Greek ruler Antiochus Epihanes in the year 175 BCE. They landed shipwrecked on the shores of Navgaon,now the site of a historic Bene Israel cemetery. They are the oldest and largest group of Indian Jews. Despite the loss of their holy books when they arrived in India, they persevered and continued to observe the sabbath, kept kashrut, celebrate the major festivals, circumcise their sons and held firmly to the vestiges of Jewish observance in dimly-remembered forms for uncounted and uncountable centuries.

The Bene Israelis learned the native Marathi language and adopted local customs. They took up oil pressing and assimilated into the local culture, until they began to resemble the Maratha people in appearance and customs. It wasn’t until the eighteenth and nineteenth century that teachers from Baghdad and Cochin taught them mainstream Judaism. It was then that they were finally able to read the Torah, and build on their Jewish teachings and culture.

By the time of Indian Independence in 1947, the Bene Israeli population stood at about 20,000. When Israel was established in 1948, however, this number dramatically dropped due to the high amount of immigration to the new state. The Bene Israeli community in India now lives primarily in Mumbai, with the population remaining in India only about a thousand.