Beit Yaakov: India

Episode 6 of the series introduces India’s Beit Yaakov community. Legend has it that some members of the ten banished tribes who had been expelled from Israel, found a new home for themselves in India’s Kashmir Valley where they kept practising their Jewish faith and customs, that is until they were forced to convert to Islam. Members of the community – all of whom reside in a small village north of Madras, believe that they are descendants of the Ephraim tribe. In a small shack that functions as the local synagogue, they all congregate to pray and study the scriptures, despite the harsh conditions, discrimination, sense of exclusion, and abject poverty.