The Domari people are Gypsies, originally from India, who came to the Middle East over 500 years ago. They left India about 100 years before the Romani Gypsies left from the same area and headed for Europe, and in many respects can be considered cousins. Today there are about 2.2 million Domari Gypsies living throughout the Middle East, about 15,000 of whom live in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem, with roughly 4,000 in the Palestinian Territories.
THE ORIGINS OF THE DOMARI PEOPLE
The name “Dom” comes from a Sanskrit word डोम, (Doma) which refers to a sub-group of the Dalit caste, who primarily made a living by singing and music. Like Romani Gypsies, the Domari people have been known historically as traveling musicians and dancers, with their own language, beliefs, and traditions. Most Domari living in Israel today have converted to a diluted form of either Christianity or Islam, but their historical roots still differentiate Domari beliefs and culture. For this reason, they are not embraced as “Palestinian”, nor are they accepted in Jewish Israeli culture. The Domari have “fallen between the chairs” as the Hebrew saying goes. They suffer social exclusion in Israel which in turn has led to poverty and the disadvantages experienced by marginalized communities.
In the Domari language, Dom means man, but in Arabic they are called nawari, which means Gypsy, and comes with somewhat negative connotations. Unlike the Romani of Europe however, the Domari of Jerusalem are proud to call themselves Gypsies, and claim the label with all its rich heritage. The word “Gypsy” comes from the word “Egyptian” perhaps because of the darker skin, but there may be more to it than that.
Some believe both the Gypsy peoples may once have been related to one of the ten tribes of Israel, since both the Domari and Romani Gypsies were never fully embraced even in India.
They were considered different, and set themselves apart. Moreover we know from Josephus that the people of Israel also battled the misconception that they came from Egypt, presumably because of the Exodus. In his Antiquities of the Jews II, Ch VII,4, Josephus goes to great pains to explain that the twelve tribes originally came from Mesopotamia, not Egypt: “I think it necessary to mention those names; that I may disprove such as believe that we came originally not out of Mesopotamia, but are Egyptians. Now Jacob had twelve sons…”
There are other factors such as culture specific hygiene codes and referral to others not of their ethnicity as “gorja”, the constant persecution, even being lumped together with the Jews as victims of the Holocaust, and the reputation of wanderers. It’s impossible to know for sure. The history of the Domari has not been documented and mostly relies upon conjecture and folklore.
Jennifer Peterson recounts the stories told to her by Muhammad Deeb Sleem, the mukhtar, or head of the Jerusalem Gypsy community about where they believe they came from.
One origin tale describes the transfer of Gypsies from India to Persia, and then their eventual movement to the Levant. “This particular legend has a well-established oral and written tradition, being recorded first by the tenth century Persian historian Hamza Isfahani,” she writes. In this legend, the king of Iran heard of the Domari people, so sent a letter to the ruler of northern India, and asked him to send a few families of Gypsies that he’d heard about, who dance and sing. However, ultimately the inability of the Domari to learn agriculture despite his best efforts to educate them, and to leave behind their culture of dancing and singing eventually infuriated the king, who then pushed them from Iran over to the Levant where they are today.
Another legend describes the Dom as “Arabs who fled to India in the wake of a blood feud between the two Dom tribes”. Peterson explains, “This story then merges with the above legend, when Sleem says the Gypsies later returned to Arab lands with Salah Al Din’s army. While there seems to be very little historical truth to this tale, the story indicates a need to reconcile the Indian origin of the Gypsies with their long-established Arab identity.”
Truth seems less important than a satisfying story with these legends weaving together folklore that gives the Dom roots among the Arab peoples of the Middle East while blending somehow with their Indian origins.
The Gypsies of Jerusalem, like Gypsies elsewhere, have their own distinct community and customs, separate from the rest of society, and they want to keep it that way.
A FORGOTTEN PEOPLE OF THE HIGHWAY
The Dom also have their own language, although that is in danger of dying out. Only 20 percent of adult Dom spoke the Domari language at home and in daily interaction back in 1999, and the younger generation could not speak the language fluently. This prompted Sleem to compile a dictionary of Domari words along with Gypsy legends, so they are not lost and forgotten.
“We are a people inseparable from the [Palestinian] people. We’ve been here for hundreds of years. [But] it’s a very lost community, it’s very forgotten,” says Amoun Sleem, head of the Domari Center in Jerusalem.
In general, the Domari try to stay out of politics. This is a survival mechanism common to Gypsies around the world, according to Kati Katz, a professor of Social Work at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
Not getting in the conflict, claiming neutrality, and trying to survive,” is how she says Gypsies around the world preserve their way of life as minorities. Amoun concurs. “We aren’t taking a particular position on the conflict, but just like the Palestinian people, we are affected by the situation,” she says.
Amoun has gratefully received help from ministries like ours who serve the Domari community in a variety of ways. She has established after school clubs, computer training, job opportunities and language classes, particularly for women and children in the community, and many believers have gone to lend a hand.
Our partners have also been sharing the Gospel with the Domari people in different contexts, and those seeds are now starting to grow and bear fruit.
The presence of the Domari in Israel and the Middle East brings them into the geography of Isaiah 19’s highway. However, even India was once part of the Assyrian empire, and is mentioned in the very first verse in the Book of Esther which describes the Persian Empire stretching from India to Ethiopia.
Now as part of the Isaiah 19 vision we want to help serve this precious people group who have been left out too long. God sees them, loves them, and invites them to the table. For years they have remained an unreached people, but who knows, perhaps God has brought them to Israel for such a time as this?
PRAYER POINTS
▫️Pray for God to open hearts, minds, and bring light and salvation to the Domari people in Israel
▫️Pray for the blessing of all those involved in serving the Domari people, and for fruit
▫️Pray for key “men of peace” in the community to find Jesus
- Dr. Rama Sharma, Bhangi, Scavenger in Indian Society: Marginality, Identity, and Politicization of the Community (M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1995) p.126
“The traditional officiating functionary was a woman of Dom caste, a caste of drummers, considered to be of lower ritual status than that of the Bhangis. Doms have beaten drums at the marriages of caste Hindus too, but the high caste marriage ceremony itself is entirely the prerogative of the Brahmin priest and drums are not beaten during the ceremony. As no Brahmin priest would officiate at Bhangi marriages, the Dom woman appears to have taken over the ceremony, too. Around the sacramental fire, the couple would take seven rounds (four to seven rounds for upper caste Hindus) marked by singing and drum-beating by the Dom female.” - Jennifer Peterson, The Last Migration? Jerusalem’s Gypsy Community
