New group claims to be lost tribe of Israel
A second group of Indian Jews claiming to be a lost tribe of Israel has emerged, claiming the right to return to their 'homeland', but there are doubts about the motives of the impoverished group.
About 300 Jews living in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh call themselves Bnei Ephraim - children of Ephraim - and believe they are descendants of Ephraim, leader of one of the lost tribes.
Their claim comes a year after northeast India's Bnei Menashe tribe won rabbinical recognition as one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
The Bnei Ephraim's oral tradition is that after wandering through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and China for more than 1,600 years, in around 10th century AD they settled in south India where they still live as farm labourers.
They were forced to live as lowest-caste Hindus before being converted to Christianity by missionaries in the beginning of the 19th century.
In the 1980s, soon after Shamuel Yacobi a leader of the tribe visited Jerusalem, they stopped going to church and built a synagogue in Andhra Pradesh.
'Simply because we lived in a remote area, without any touch with mainstream Jewish societies around the world for long centuries, we had to live as dalits and Christians in India. But now we are sure that Judaism is our original religion and we are one of those lost tribes from Israel,' said Mr Yacobi, a synagogue leader who runs a school to help his community members read and write Hebrew.
British, US and Israeli researchers believe their traditions are authentically Israelite in origin, although the DNA analysis of the tribe members could not confirm their Jewish roots.
However, unlike the Bnei Menashe, Bnei Ephraim Jews have not been recognised as a Biblical lost tribe by Israel as yet.
Many think the Bnei Ephraim Jews are simply trying to escape poverty.
'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,' said Chandra Sekhar Angadi, a professor and social scientist.
