Hinduism in Israel

Hindus are among the religious groups represented in Israel’s foreign-worker and asylum-seeker populations, but the available religious-freedom reports do not give their number separately.[1][8] Organized religious activity includes ISKCON, also known as the Hare Krishna movement.[2] It is a branch of Vaishnava Hinduism centered on devotion to Krishna.[9]

Hindu traditions do not share a single founder or common set of beliefs, and the Vedas are not accepted as scripture by every Hindu tradition.[10] Encounters in Israel have consequently involved several different settings: the activities of a particular religious organization, meetings between Hindu and Jewish religious leaders, and exhibitions presenting Hindu religious art.[11][6][7]

In 2002, Project Interchange brought Hindu and Sikh residents of the United States to Israel in an initiative intended to foster understanding between those religious groups and the Jewish community.[3] The program has also hosted educational seminars in Israel for Muslim and Dharma faith leaders from India and Asia, although the account does not specify the Dharma traditions represented or the dates of those seminars.[12]

Hindu and Jewish religious leaders held summits in New Delhi and Jerusalem in 2007 and 2008.[6] Jewish participants included the then-chief rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, other representatives of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, diaspora rabbis, and scholars of Judaism and religion; Swami Dayananda led the Indian delegation.[6] Hindu participants sought Jewish support in opposing missionary activity and protecting Hindu religious identity, and used the discussions to explain their understanding of one God expressed through the powers of nature.[6]

In September 2016, President Reuven Rivlin hosted Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh leaders from India, Japan, China, Burma, and South Korea to promote interfaith dialogue.[4] A 2024 essay in SAPIR Journal characterized Jewish-Hindu interfaith activity as flourishing and cited summits in New Delhi and Jerusalem as examples of cooperation.[13]

Since the 1995 census, population-by-religion tables have included a “not classified by religion” group encompassing religions not listed separately, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Samaritanism.[5] The combined figures for these religions were approximately 400 people in the 1995 census and 1,200 in the 2008 census; neither figure is a Hindu-only count.[5] The 2025 Jerusalem statistical yearbook places Hindus under “Others,” alongside non-Arab Christians, Buddhists, Samaritans, and people not classified by religion.[14] For household statistics, the household head’s religion is recorded for all members, and the “other” religion category can include people whose religion is unknown or who are unaffiliated.[14]

Broader demographic totals must likewise be distinguished from Hindu population figures.[15][16] One account places Hindus and Buddhists within “Others” and notes that, before the 1995 census, this category was included in the Arab population.[15] It reports that “Others” increased by almost 50,000 during 2021 and had grown faster than any other religious sector since separate publication began in 1995.[15] Another account gives a 2020 total of 465,000, or 5.0 percent of the population, defining the category as non-Arab Christians and people without a religious classification—mostly people of Jewish descent whose mothers were not Jewish, many originating in the former Soviet Union.[16] Immigration increased that group’s representation.[16]

A separate 2023 grouping comprised 554,400 immigrants admitted under the Law of Return who were not classified by religion, included within a “wider Jewish population”; it also was not a count of Hindus.[17] Religious-freedom reporting using midyear 2020 data estimated approximately 330,000 foreign workers and asylum seekers combined, including 98,000 migrant workers with permits, 77,000 non-Palestinian undocumented workers, and 31,000 asylum seekers, an unknown number of whom worked.[8] Reporting for 2022 again estimated approximately 330,000 foreign workers and asylum seekers and listed Hindus among their religious affiliations without separately enumerating them.[8]

ISKCON functioned as a registered nonprofit civil-law organization in the period covered by religious-freedom reporting using 2020 demographic data.[11] It was among groups lacking religious-entity status and a house-of-prayer permit; ISKCON had not applied for such a permit.[11] Weddings conducted by members of the groups described in that passage were not legally recognized, although a civil-wedding option was available.[11] These provisions concerned ISKCON and the other specified groups rather than Hinduism as a whole.[11]

Israel’s religious-recognition framework recognizes Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Baha’i Faith, and the Druze religion, and provides procedures through which religious communities may seek recognition.[1] Recognition can affect taxation of places of worship and religious courts administering personal-status law.[1] The 2023 report states that the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty references the Declaration of Independence, which protects freedom of conscience, faith, religion, and worship regardless of an individual’s religion.[1]

In 2008, Interior Ministry spokesperson Sabine Hadad stated that there was no recognized Hindu community in Israel and that temple construction required, among other things, land and building permits.[18] That statement describes the ministry’s position at the time, rather than establishing present recognition status.[18]

The Israel Museum’s “Body of Faith” exhibition opened in December 2022 under curator Miriam Malachi and presented 14 sculptures of Hindu deities.[7] Most came from New Delhi’s National Museum of India, and eight were being exhibited outside India for the first time.[7] Covering religious art and philosophical traditions developed on the Indian subcontinent between the fourth and 13th centuries CE, the exhibition included a video of ceremonies at a southern Indian Hindu temple to contextualize the objects.[7]

In a 2005 interview with Nathan Katz, the religious-studies scholar discussed Hindu-Jewish theological dialogue and described some Hindu philosophical traditions as recognizing a supreme spirit without qualities, using the term Nirguna.[19] Katz also recalled one swami’s suggestion that Hindus should listen more closely to Jewish religious teachers’ opposition to idolatry; this was a particular leader’s view, not a position attributed to all Hindu traditions.[19]

Indian Jewish heritage is distinct from Hindu religious affiliation: Katz identified the Bene Israel as a Jewish community, while recounting that they had been perceived in India as an oil-pressing Hindu caste.[19] He described Indian influences on some pregnancy and childbirth customs and said distinctive practices were fading with integration into mainstream Jewish life.[19] His contemporary estimate was approximately 60,000 Bene Israel, around 90 percent living in Israel—not a Hindu population estimate.[19]

Whether Hinduism constitutes idolatry was central to the 2007–2008 religious summits.[6] A joint statement signed by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate declared that Hindus worship only the Supreme Being; Indian representatives understood this as removing the charge of idolatry, and Rabbi Daniel Sperber and other rabbis developed arguments supporting that conclusion.[6] The declaration did not settle the question for all halakhic authorities.[6]

Social opposition to ISKCON was examined in a 1992 study comparing responses to Hare Krishna and Jewish teshuvah movements.[2] It situated those responses within religion-state relations, Orthodox Judaism’s near-monopoly in religious services, religious-secular divisions, and the connection between Judaism and Jewish-Israeli identity.[2] It found influential anti-cult activity, particularly by ultra-Orthodox organizations, and negative secular associations involving family separation and losses to the army, economy, and social welfare; responses to teshuvah were more ambiguous than those to ISKCON.[2]

In 2013, NGOs and religious groups objected to an award for the Israeli Center for Victims of Cults, criticizing its anti-missionary and anti-intermarriage activity and its classification of Hare Krishnas and Scientologists as “cults.”[20] After a hearing with the organization’s management, the awarding fund found no new facts warranting withdrawal or a change to the award.[20]