JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ning of the crisis. On Sept. 8, 1952, a statement of the Indian
deputy minister for external affairs, Shri Anil R. Chanda, was
read in answer to a question in the Indian Council of States
in New Delhi, as follows: “The government of India has received
complaints from some Indian Jews who had returned
from Israel that there was discrimination against them on account
of their color. The government has not verified any of
these complaints, and in any event, such individual complaints
do not justify a general statement that there is a color bar in
Israel.” The young generation of Bene Israel has become integrated
into Israel society and found its place in all fields of
Israel life. Their communal attachment is still strong and finds
particular expression at meetings on festivals.
[Naftali Bar-Giora]
As a result of natural increase, the Bene Israel in Israel number
over 50,000. They tend to live in well-defined communities
such as Dimonah, Ashdod, Yeruḥam, Kiryat Gat, and Lydda
(Lod); there are large communities in Ashkelon, Beersheba,
Ramleh, and Kiryat Ata. Many Bene Israel are employed in
the transportation and communications industries as skilled
workers and clerks; others work in the armed forces and police.
More than half the women are employed outside the
home. Social life is organized around the synagogue, which
acts as a community center in each urban settlement. Communal
events are arranged by nearly 30 voluntary associations
around the country; two associations are national and the rest
serve local interests. Activities are conducted in Hebrew, English,
and Marathi, the native tongue of the immigrant generation.
A Marathi quarterly called Mai Bolli has been published
in Israel since 1989. In 1995, the Indian Women’s Organization
celebrated its quartercentary celebration in Lydda.
[Shalva Weil (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: H.S. Kehimkar, History of the Bene Israel
of India (1937); M. Ezekiel, History and Culture of the Bene Israel in
India (1948); R. Reuben, Bene Israel of Bombay (1913); L.I. Rabinowitz,
Far East Mission (1952); N. Bar-Giora, Massa be-Hodu (1953);
W.J. Fischel, Ha-Yehudim be-Hodu (1960); idem, in: Essays… Abba
Hillel Silver (1963), 170–85; S. Strizower, Exotic Jewish Communities
(1962), 48–87; I. Nissim, Benei Yisrael, Piskei Halakhah (1962); B.J.
Israel, Religious Evolution among the Bene Israel of India since 1750
(1963); S. Shellim, Treatise on the Origin and Early History of the Bene
Israel (1963); R. Dafni, Indian Jews in Israel (1969). Add. Bibliography:
S. Samuel, Treatise on the Origin and Early History of the
Bene Israel of Maharashtra State (1963); J.H. Lord, The Jews of India
and the Far East (1907); S. Strizower, The Children of Israel: The Bene
Israel of Bombay (1971); S.B. Isenberg, India’s Bene Israel, A Comprehensive
Inquiry and Sourcebook (1988); J. Roland, The Jewish Community
of India (1998).
BENEI ZION (Heb. ןֹ וּיִצ יֵנְ ּב), moshav in central Israel, in the
southern Sharon, affiliated with Ha-Iḥud ha-Ḥakla’i middleclass
settlements association. It was founded in 1947 by veteran
farmers, who were later joined by immigrants from Poland,
Romania, and North Africa. Its economy was based on citrus
plantations and intensive farming. The moshav is named after
ben-eliezer, binyamin
the B’nai Zion Order of America, which contributed funds toward
the acquisition of the land. In the mid-1990s the population
was approximately 430, increasing to 742 in 2002 after
upscale expansion.
[Efraim Orni]
BEN-ELIEZER, BINYAMIN (Fuad; 1936– ), Israeli military
commander and politician, member of the Eleventh to
Sixteenth Knessets. Ben-Eliezer was born in Basra in Iraq
and immigrated to Israel on his own in 1950, when he was
only 13. During the Six-Day War he served as the deputy to
the Bedouin commander of the Shaked unit in the Southern
Command. During the Yom Kippur War he was deputy commander
of a brigade. In the mid-1970s he was appointed Israel’s
first commander in Southern Lebanon and was in charge
of the opening of the “Good Fence” between Israel and Lebanon
and creating the foundations for the Southern Lebanese
Army under Major Haddad. In 1978 he was appointed military
administrator of Judea and Samaria, a position he held
for close to four years. In that period he participated in the
effort to establish an alternative Palestinian leadership to the
PLO in the form of the village leagues. He left the army in 1982
and for a brief period served as the secretary general of the
ethnic Tami party established by Aharon Abuhazeira. However,
he was recalled to active service by Minister of Defense
Moshe *Arens in 1983 and appointed coordinator of operations
in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. In the course of his military service
Ben-Eliezer graduated from the IDF Command and Staff
Academy and the College for National Security.
After his final discharge from the IDF in 1984 Ben-Eliezer
joined Ezer *Weizman in establishing a new party, Yaḥad,
which was elected to the Eleventh Knesset and joined the
Alignment before the formation of the National Unity Government.
When not serving as a minister, Ben-Eliezer served
on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In
the government formed by Yitzhak *Rabin in 1992, he was appointed
minister of construction and housing, a position he
also held in the government formed by Shimon *Peres after
Rabin’s assassination. During this period he shifted the focus
back to construction within the Green Line. In the government
formed by Ehud *Barak in 1999, he was deputy prime
minister and minister of communications, and after the NRP
resigned from the government also served as minister of construction
and housing. Following Barak’s defeat in the elections
for prime minister held in February 2001 and Labor’s entry
into the government formed by Ariel *Sharon, Ben-Eliezer
was appointed minister of defense but resigned from the government
with the Labor Party in November 2002.
As minister of defense he had to contend with the growing
violence of the Intifada and was in charge of Operation
Defensive Shield in the territories in the spring of 2002. As
the violence escalated he favored the construction of a fence
between Israel and the Palestinian territories, but continued
to believe in a negotiated settlement which would lead to the
establishment of a Palestinian state. Already in June 2001 he
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