I have decided to write my second column about Diaspora, drawing on the lessons of Jewish history. Diaspora is something that will be familiar to the Indian community. Indeed today India has the largest Diaspora in the world. Figures released last year showed that 15.6 million people who were born in India now live outside that country. The last census, in 2011, showed that the Indian community, numbering 1.4 million, is the largest ethnic community in the UK, and what a spectacular contribution it makes to different facets of life here. Indians and Jews both understand what Diaspora is.
The Jewish people lived outside Israel for 2000 years. The Bible tells of the Jewish people’s struggles to reach the promised land of Israel. Eventually they get there but it is conquered, latterly by the Romans in the year 70 CE. The Jews are dispersed from the country at that point. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans and the only remaining part was the Western Wall (to this day the holiest religious site in the world for Jews).
Jews were exiled from Israel, and settled and moved around many countries, mostly in Europe, the Middle East and America. They came to England in the eleventh century but following persecution, they were expelled by the King in 1290 (they were to return in the mid-seventeenth century). There was also a small flourishing community in Spain, which lived alongside Muslim and Christian communities in the so-called "Golden Age" but this again had a sad ending, with expulsion in 1492. Similar evictions of Jewish communities occurred from France in 1306, Austria in 1421, Portugal in 1497 and many parts of Germany between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Jews were expelled from almost every European society where they lived.
They also had challenging lives in other parts of the world, with some notable exceptions such as India (although the numbers there were always relatively tiny).
Against this background of a beleaguered community, how did the Jewish spirit survive intact? How did a people without their land keep going in the Diaspora? Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi, refers to this remarkable achievement in a rhetorical question: "How probable is it that this tiny people, the Jewish people, numbering less than one-fifth of one percent of the population of the world, should have outlived the world's greatest empires -- the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans?"
I think the answer to these questions have resonance today, for the Indian communities in the UK, and beyond. I would like to point to four key factors.
First, Jews relied on education. In different societies, they appreciated the importance of religious and secular learning. They built schools (which can be traced to the time of Ezra, fifth century BCE) and teachers were respected and celebrated. However difficult the host society made life for them, knowledge was portable and could open up new opportunities. It was a way of standing out from the crowd.
Secondly, the Jews of the Diaspora believed in the importance of family across the generations. The family was the building bloc of communities, investing in the young and caring for the elderly. This is something that Jews still hold dear and of course Indian communities also excel at.
Third, the customs and rituals of the Jewish religion brought them together. It was once famously said that "rather than the Jews keeping the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept the Jews." Judaism provided a heritage and tradition which enabled a strong identity to be passed down from generation to generation.
Fourth, Jewish culture and language helped to sustain communities. Whether through music, theatre, food or other areas, Jews maintained a distinct cultural life. In European societies, they often spoke "Yiddish" (a mixture of Hebrew and German) and in some oriental societies, they spoke "Ladino."
So for a variety of reasons the Jewish people survived in the Diaspora. It was not until 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel, that Jews had their own homeland. Many Jews went there in the twentieth century for idealistic reasons or to build a new life, though some were settled in Diaspora countries and stayed put.
Nowadays, there are slightly more Jews in the Diaspora (around 8 million) than Israel (around 6 million). Famously, someone once quipped that the entire Jewish population of the world is less than the statistical error in the Chinese census. Israel is fast catching up. In 2013, it became the country with the largest Jewish population, overtaking the USA. Some Jews in the Diaspora, feeling an idealistic pull as well as push factors such as rising anti-Semitism, have migrated there.
But as a proud British Jew, I think it’s important that the Diaspora stays strong. Britain – and many countries – have been enriched by their Jewish populations – as they have been by their Indian communities. Indians and Jews in the UK, and elsewhere, have shown how to integrate without assimilating. Long may this continue.
Zaki Cooper is on the Advisory Council of the Indian Jewish Association.
