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Bene Israeli Jews love to tell the story of Sharad Pawar ’s visit to Israel in 1993. “He was given a reception by the Indian community and he started giving a speech in English,” recalls Nissim Moses , who lives in Petah Tiqwa, Israel. “And everyone shouted, ‘No, no, no,’ so he switched to Hindi, and everyone shouted, ‘No, no, no’ so he asked them, ‘What language should I speak?’” Yosef Nowgaonkar, sitting in Pune’s Succath Shelomo Synagogue at Rasta Peth , provides the punchline: “They shouted, ‘Marathi.’”Israel’s Indian-origin Jews – numbering about 85,000 – are fiercely proud of both their Jewish lineage and Marathi heritage. Aden Penkar, a Bene Israeli, moved from Pune to the suburbs of Haifa with his wife and two kids last year. They spent six months learning Hebrew from scratch and assimilating into the new country, while keeping their Maharashtrian identity intact. The Penkars speak Marathi at home, his wife still wears her ‘mangalsutra’ and his tiffin is usually packed with roti-sabzi. “We only watch Hindi and Marathi films on YouTube,” says Penkar, adding that a family favourite is the Marathi comedy film ‘Dhum Dhadaka’.Before the Penkars left, they were part of Pune’s 275-strong Jewish population. At its peak, the community numbered about 20,000 in India. Today, according to the 2011 census, there are about 4,650 Indian Jews – 53% of whom live in Maharashtra. The census figure includes Cochini and Baghdadi Jews though the vast majority is Bene Israelis, who arrived in India over 2000 years ago, settled in villages along the Konkan coast and identified as both Indian and Jewish. So much so that in Bene Israeli synagogues, the Torah is transliterated into Marathi.The exodus began in 1948 after the state of Israel was formed. In 1960, after 8,000 Indian Jews were settled in the ‘Promised Land’, the then Sephardic Chief Rabbi Itzhak Nissim refused to accept the Bene Israelis as Jews and decided that they could not marry other Jews in Israel. “This set in motion from 1960 to 1964, a civil rights struggle between the Indian community and the State of Israel,” writes Joseph Hodes , author of ‘From India to Israel: Identity, Immigration, and the Struggle for Religious Equality’.Eventually, under pressure from both the government and the Israeli people, the rabbinate changed its stance. But the experience of being set apart in Israel after never having experienced persecution in India may be one reason why the older generation, especially, has such fond memories of India.Aviva Miller has lived in Israel for almost 50 years. But she still loves wearing saris, considers Marathi her ‘mother tongue’, and cooks only Indian food at home. “We can’t forget our own culture,” says the 76-year-old, who has published a number of short stories and a Marathi memoir about the difficulties she faced and overcame after arriving in Israel from Bombay.Miller’s short stories were published in ‘Mai Boli’ (roughly translated as ‘Mother Tongue’), a quarterly Marathi magazine, which started out with 500 subscribers in 1987 but is now left with only 200. “The reason is that many Marathi speakers passed away and our new generation does not read or write Marathi,” explains the current editor Noah Massil, who has also authored a number of books in Marathi.A sizable number of Indian Jews, however, still understand Marathi. Mumbai-based Neenah Pezarkar’s Shalom Tours and Travels has taken Marathi ‘natak’ troupes to Israel where they have performed in different cities for close to 2,000 people. In 2010, Suyog Company’s ‘Divasa Tu Ratri Mi’ toured Ramle, Ashdod, Beersheba and Dimona. And in 2015, 1,600 people across three cities came out to watch Bharat Jadhav Entertainment’sPunha Sahi Re Sahi’. Tickets sold for Rs 1900-2300 and Pezarkar’s husband says she would organize more trips if securing visas for the cast wasn’t such a hassle.Though the Indian connection grows more tenuous with each new generation, the youth have embraced Indian food and big fat Indian weddings. The Indian Jewish wedding has a lot of desi trappings, especially the Haldi-Mehendi ceremony where young girls in chaniya cholis and saris sway to the latest Bollywood hits. Indian chain restaurants and ‘thali’ joints have also popped up across the country and Indian provision stores now stock everything from ‘barfi’ to ‘Everest Garam Masala’. According to Nowgaonkar, homesick Punekars even carry Bedekar’s ‘lonche’ back to Israel.Each year on Maharashtra Day, the ‘Mai Boli’ committee organizes a ‘sammelan’ featuring Marathi songs, dramas, dances and food. This year, Marathi stand-up comic Abhay Devare travelled from Satara to perform for 250 people at the sammelan.“Their hearts are still in India,” says Devare about the Bene Israeli community. “I felt like I hadn’t left Maharashtra.”