Beni Israel

Beni Israel (Sons of Israel), a people of Jewish origin and type, settled for at least a thousand years past in Bombay and other towns, on the W. coast of India. Some of them know Hebrew, but their language is Marathi, and they possess some literature. They observe the Levitical distinctions of clean and unclean food, and keep Jewish feasts including the Sabbath, but seldom intermarry with ordinary Jews or with an inferior class among them, the Kala Israel or black Israel, consisting of half-breeds and the descendants of proselytes.