Gujarat's Jewish community gets religious minority status

The Gujarat government has granted religious minority status to the Jewish community in the state.

The GR to this effect was issued on July 6 by the state's Department of Social Justice and Empowerment.

"After careful consideration, (the) Gujarat state government hereby resolves to accord religious minority community status to the Jew community living in Gujarat," the GR read.

"As religious minority members professing the faith of Judaism, they shall get the religious minority rights envisaged in the Constitution and various acts and rules of the state government," it stated.

"They shall get benefits of welfare schemes formulated for religious minority communities within the jurisdiction of Gujarat," the GR said.

 

The GR stated that the Jewish community had made a representation to the state government for minority status.

"Gujarat has a small Jewish community with no more than 170 members, a majority of them located in Ahmedabad," Aviv Divekar, secretary of Ahmedabad's Magen Abraham Synagogue, said.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, during his trip to Israel last month, had announced that his government was in the process of granting religious minority status to the community.

Gujarat had also hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his six-day India visit in January this year.