Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi - the historic Cochin Jewish Synagogue in Jew Town, Kerala, India

About

Welcome to Jews of India

Jews of India is a community project dedicated to educating people about the rich and often overlooked diversity of the Jewish diaspora. Most people picture Ashkenazi Jews when they think of Jewish identity, but today more than 20% of Jews around the world trace their roots to Africa, Asia, South America, India, and other non-European regions. This site is here to change that picture.

Explore the tabs above to discover the history, literature, art, music, food, and communities of the Jews of India. From the ancient Bene Israel of the Konkan coast to the Cochin Jews of Kerala, the Baghdadi Jews of Mumbai and Kolkata, and the Bnei Menashe of Manipur, this is a story that spans thousands of years and deserves to be told. The Jews of India lived peacefully alongside their neighbors for centuries, largely free from persecution, building synagogues, businesses, and communities that still leave traces across the Indian subcontinent today.

How Many Indian Jews Are There?

Estimates vary, but scholars generally put the total number of people of Indian Jewish descent worldwide at between 80,000 and 100,000. The great majority no longer live in India itself — most emigrated to Israel during the 20th century, with smaller numbers settling in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Within India, fewer than 5,000 Jews remain today, a dramatic decline from a peak of approximately 30,000 in the mid-20th century.

Bene Israel

The Bene Israel are the largest Indian Jewish community, originally centered on the Konkan coast of Maharashtra. At their peak in the 1940s they numbered around 20,000 in India. Today the worldwide Bene Israel population is estimated at 70,000 to 75,000, with the majority living in Israel (principally in cities like Lod, Ramla, Beer Sheva, Dimona, and suburban Tel Aviv). Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Bene Israel remain in India, concentrated in Mumbai and Pune.

  • Israel: ~65,000 (primarily Lod, Ramla, Beer Sheva, Tel Aviv suburbs)
  • India (Mumbai & Pune): ~4,000 to 5,000
  • United States, Canada, UK, Australia: ~5,000 combined

Cochin Jews (Kerala Jews / Malabar Jews)

The Cochin Jews, one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, once numbered around 2,500 in Kerala. Today, fewer than 15 to 20 Jews of the Paradesi (White) community remain in Kochi itself, making them one of the smallest Jewish communities on earth. The broader Cochin Jewish diaspora, including both Paradesi and Malabari (Black) Jews, numbers around 7,000 to 8,000 worldwide, primarily in Israel. Most Cochin Jewish families in Israel settled in cooperative farming villages (moshavim) in central Israel, where they continue to maintain their distinct Kerala Jewish traditions.

  • Israel: ~7,000 (primarily in moshavim: Nehalim, Aviezer, Meshar, and Shahar)
  • India (Kochi, Kerala): fewer than 20 (Paradesi community)
  • United States, UK, Australia: ~500 to 1,000 combined

Baghdadi Jews

The Baghdadi Jews of Calcutta and Mumbai were never a large community numerically, but they were enormously influential economically and philanthropically. At their peak in the 1940s they numbered around 7,000 in India. Today, fewer than 25 Jews remain in Kolkata, and a few hundred Baghdadi-origin families remain in Mumbai. The worldwide Baghdadi Jewish diaspora, including those in Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, numbers approximately 10,000 to 15,000.

  • Israel: ~5,000 to 7,000
  • United Kingdom: ~2,000 (especially London)
  • India (Kolkata & Mumbai): fewer than 50
  • United States, Australia, Canada: ~3,000 combined

Bnei Menashe

The Bnei Menashe of Manipur and Mizoram represent a growing community with a unique story. As of the early 2020s, approximately 4,000 to 5,000 have emigrated to Israel under various aliyah programs. An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 remain in northeastern India, continuing to practice Judaism while awaiting immigration or choosing to remain. The community is one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in the world in terms of active religious practice and formal identification.

  • Israel: ~4,000 to 5,000 (primarily in settlements and development towns)
  • India (Manipur & Mizoram): ~7,000 to 10,000

Pune Jews

Pune has historically been a significant Bene Israel center. Today a small community of a few dozen families remains active, maintaining the historic Ohel David (Lal Deval) Synagogue and the Eliahu Hannavi synagogue. Most Pune Jews are counted within the broader Bene Israel figures above.

Where Indian Jews Live Today

The majority of people of Indian Jewish heritage now live in Israel, where they have integrated into Israeli society while maintaining distinct cultural communities. The largest concentrations of Indian Jews in Israel are in:

In India, the remaining Jewish communities are primarily in Mumbai, Pune, Kochi (Cochin), and parts of Manipur and Mizoram.

About the Site Editor

Site editor: Dakotta J. K. Alex (Hebrew name: Ya’akov Malachi), founder of JewsOfIndia.com.

Hi, I’m Dakotta. I was born in Houston, Texas, and I’m a writer, entrepreneur, consultant, and program manager. I created JewsOfIndia.com to help preserve and share the histories, traditions, and living experiences of India’s diverse Jewish communities.

My path into religious education began with a choice between seminary and rabbinical school. I chose seminary and completed a five-year Master of Divinity program at Starr King School for the Ministry, within the Graduate Theological Union. My studies focused on applied and social ethics, Jewish education, Islamic education, and interfaith work. I also studied through The Claremont Colleges, Claremont School of Theology, UC Berkeley, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

During graduate school, I served on Starr King’s curriculum committee, co-founded the Ethics Think Tank at the Graduate Theological Union, helped create Qmunity for LGBTQ theologians, supported international graduate students at UC Berkeley, interned with the San Francisco Ethics Commission, and participated in Berkeley’s Interfaith Student Advisory Board. Through Starr King’s Balazs Scholar Program, I also filmed, produced, and photographed a feature-length documentary, which is available on YouTube.

Professionally, I have worked on projects for organizations including Amazon, Disney, Mozilla, Grindr, the Los Angeles Times, and Booking.com, with work spanning the United States, Europe, and China. I have also published articles in human-resources journals and four books.

Within the Jewish community, I currently moderate Kishur, an LGBTQ Jewish social group in San Francisco. I have also helped organize events with the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Congregation Sherith Israel, and Congregation Emanu-El.

JewsOfIndia.com is a community resource for descendants, researchers, travelers, and anyone interested in the many histories of Jewish life in India. My role is to guide the site, review its material, improve its accuracy, and make these stories easier to discover.

Connect with Jews of India on Facebook, or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Why Jews of India

The history of Indian Jewish communities is rich, layered, and largely unknown to most of the world, including much of the Jewish world itself. These communities built extraordinary lives on the subcontinent over thousands of years, developed their own religious customs and liturgy, spoke their own languages, and left behind synagogues, cemeteries, and traditions that still endure. Their stories deserve to be told in full, not reduced to footnotes.

This site exists to document that history comprehensively, as a resource for researchers, descendants, travelers, and anyone who believes that every chapter of Jewish life is worth preserving. Whether you come to this site as a scholar, a member of one of these communities, or simply someone curious about a corner of history that rarely makes it into mainstream accounts, there is something here for you.

Connect with us on Facebook and LinkedIn.