Sadia Shepard was raised as a Muslim. Her grandma turned out to be Jewish, which is unusual in India. Sadia traveled to India in search of her ancestors' Jewish tribe, the Bene Israel, to learn more about her roots.
In the 1930s and 1940s, India's leaders were faced with a new and urgent task: welcoming Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Europe. During the Holocaust, 5,000 Jews fled to India, a safe refuge. It was important in saving their...
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"If being the final flicker of the Jewish light in Kolkata is our fate, then so be it."
Kolkata is often regarded as one of India's most beautiful...
For years, Muslims in Kolkata, India's West Bengal state capital, have looked after the city's three Jewish temples. As many as 600 Jews lived in Kolkata at one time. The congregation now has just over a dozen members, according...
In and around Mumbai live nearly 5000 members of an ancient Indian Jewish community with unique customs and culture. In recent centuries their story spans the eras of the British Raj, the independence movement, Zionism and the development of...
A very important non-Jewish community that had an impact on the Bene Israel was the Christian missionaries. In the eighteenth century many Christian missionaries came to India. Some of them had anthropological interest in India. They began with their...
doing mitzvot and maasim tovim to bring the geula