Even before clients smell the wonderful aroma of spices drifting from the kitchen, a sign welcoming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes them at a curry eatery in downtown Israel.
Modi's three-day visit to Israel, which begins on Tuesday and...
All India Radio has started its broadcast day with the same music every morning since 1936. The tune is distinctly Indian, with its droning strings and melancholy violin. But it was written by Walter Kaufmann, a Jewish emigrant from...
Julian Futter, a record producer, was given a stack of vintage 78s six years ago. He knew little about them save that they featured music originating from Iraqi Jews.
These songs were ultimately included on the critically acclaimed CD Shbahoth....
"Can you hear it?" Sarah Cohen whispers upstairs in the Paradesi Synagogue during Jewish prayers. Something is happening next door at the Hindu temple."
Indeed, the strange liturgy fusion between this congregation and the one neighboring is difficult to overlook.
"We...
At the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, Cantor Aviva Marer is the cantor. She grew up in Canada with a strong feeling of cultural Indian Judaism, having been born into a family of Bene Israel Jews from India. She enjoys educating...
The folk songs of Kerala of the 14th and 15th centuries bear an uncanny resemblance to the Jewish folk songs of the same period. Traditions of long-standing, which appear in the folk literature of the Jews, persist in these...
Since its composition in 1936, the characteristic melody of All India Radio has been heard by hundreds of millions of people. The tune, based on raga Shivaranjini, was composed by a Czech man, Walter Kaufmann, somewhat unexpectedly. He was...
It may seem hard to believe, but the most ardent audiences and lovers of classical Indian music nowadays may be found in the tiny state of Israel, which is located outside of India (population some 8 million, far less...
For India's Bene Israel "kirtankars," COVID-19 competes with Haman as the villain of the Jewish holiday of Purim this year. For the holiday, the kirtankars, a group of elderly ladies from Mumbai's Jewish community who sing kirtan, or traditional...
It had been a long time since anyone could understand the songs performed by the Nirit Singers of Israel, as the music was in an ancient language not spoken today. But people who witnessed their performance found themselves clapping...