Soon after the establishment of the State of Israel, thousands of Bene-Israel immigrated there. They settled all over the country, mixing with the local Jewish population and with Jewish immigrants from other countries. Before long the problem of intermarriage arose.
The problem did not have its origin in Israel. It had existed already in the Diaspora. Wherever Bene-Israel and other Jews lived in proximity to each other, the problem of intermarriage was bound to arise sooner or later. However, while in the Diaspora, the question of intermarriage with the Bene-Israel had been a local Jewish problem only, affecting mainly the Jewish communities of India, in Israel the question was to become a national problem agitating Israeli as well as world Jewry. Thousands of Bene-Israel had left India, which had been their home for many centuries, to join fellow-Jews from all over the world in the rebuilding of Zion. Were the Bene-Israel to be regarded as second-class Jews? Were barriers to be erected between them and their brother-Jews in Zion?
The decision of permitting the Bene-Israel to intermarry rested with the Israel Chief Rabbinate, the sole authority in matters of Jewish marriages in the State. What were the questions facing the Chief Rabbinate in arriving at a solution?
Granted that they were Jews, there was no doubt that for a long period they had been ignorant of Jewish religious law. Was it not possible that some of them had married non-Jewish women, who had not been properly received into the Jewish faith? Under Jewish law, the offspring of such women could not be regarded as Jews. Was it not also possible that, being ignorant of Jewish religious law, they might have contracted marriages with blood relations forbidden under Jewish law, or that divorcees might have remarried without giving obtained a religiously valid bill of divorcement (Get). According to Jewish law the offspring of such marriages were illegitimate and ineligible for marriage to Jews.
The Chief Rabbinate studied the records and documents relating to the history of the Bene-Israel, examined previous rabbinic decisions regarding intermarriage with them – including decisions by the late Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Isaac Herzog and Rabbi Ben Zion Ouziel, permitting intermarriage – and met with the elders and leaders of the Bene-Israel community in Israel to question them on their religious practices.
In the autumn of 1961, the Chief Rabbinate announced its decision: There was no doubt as to the Jewishness of the Bene-Israel, and consequently intermarriage with them was permitted. At the same time, however, the Chief Rabbinate issued directives to marriage registrars that in the case of each individual application from a Bene-Israel for intermarriage with other Jews, the registrar should investigate the background of the applicant with a view of ascertaining whether there were in his lineage marriages contrary to Jewish law. If there had been,
The Bene-Israel protested against the directives as discriminatory. Defenders of the directives would point out that these rules were in fact not limited to Bene-Israel individuals, for a registrar would make similar investigations in the case of any other individual, if he had reason to suspect that there had been unlawful marriages in his family. The Bene-Israel were not satisfied. Their protests mounted, eventually turning into demonstrations and strikes. Matters came to a head in the summer of 1964.
The Israeli Government discussed the issue. The Knesset met in special session and adopted a resolution calling on the Chief Rabbinate to find a way of removing the causes of any feeling of discrimination among the Bene-Israel. The resolution also declared that the Knesset viewed the Bene-Israel as Jews in all respects, including matters of personal status, without qualification and with the same rights as all other Jews.
While the country was astir with the protests from the Bene-Israel, the Chief Rabbinate sought for a solution which would satisfy Halachic requirements and at the same time pacify the Bene-Israel. Several days after the adoption of the Knesset resolution, the Chief Rabbinate announced that any special reference to the Bene-Israel would be deleted from the directives, which would be broadened to apply to any one concerning the ritual purity of whose family-status any suspicion or doubt arises.
The announcement of the Chief Rabbinate finally resolved the problem.
From the Introduction to the Haggadah of the Bene Israel of India published by the Diskin Orphan Home in 1968