--- CARMO DCRUZ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > As far as the origin of the Chitpavans is > concerned, one theory suggests that they were light > skinned and light-eyed Jews who came by sea to the > Konkan, following the destruction of the temple in > Jerusalem. I believe that recent Genetic testing > has also proved the origin of the Chitpavans to be > semitic from Palestine. Besides the Chitpawans in > South Konkan, there were other smaller Jewish > communities flourishing along the North Konkan > coast around Bombay. > Mario observes: > I would be skeptical of claims that the Chitpavans descended from Galillean Jews. The last time I checked these Jews were no lighter in complexion than most north-Indians nor did they have light eyes [notwithstanding the bogus northern European look given to Jesus Christ and his immediate family and followers by European artists] > Based on what I have heard from a family of Indian Jews from the Bene Israeli sect which are now found mostly in the Mumbai-Thane area, the original Jews in India left Galilee somewhere around 175 BC before the destruction of the Second Temple, by sea through Yemen and were shipwrecked just south of Mumbai. They assumed local surnames [village name with a "kar" suffix] but did not intermarry with the locals and kept their Jewish traditions. They say there is an ancient Jewish cemetery in a village called Nandgaon. They were "re-discovered" by a Jewish trader named David Rahabi around 1200 AD. > The Jewsish emigration after the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar was not until around 70 AD. and these settled mostly in the Cochin area. Jewish traders also settled in the Cochin area in the 15th Century. Another wave of Baghdadi Jews came to India in the 18th century, escaping from persecution by Daud Pasha. > Perhaps we have some historians or anthropologists among our members who can shed some better light on all this. >
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