December 13, 2017, Siona Benjamin is constantly reminded of this. She emigrated to the United States at the age of 26 as a member of Bombay’s Bene Israel community. “When I initially came here, I had my first taste of latkes and matzo ball soup,” she explains.
With a population of 4,000, Bene Israel is the largest of several Jewish communities in India; others can be found in Cochin, Delhi, Calcutta, and other cities. Some may find the historical significance of Indian Jews to be intellectually discordant, but it fits nicely within the Western Civilization narrative. “I have to gently remind people that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization,” Benjamin explains. “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all originated in the Middle East, and Jews lived in India, Pakistan, Iraq, and Spain long before they did in Russia and Poland.”
Benjamin is now a working visual artist based outside of New York. She’s also a two-time Fulbright Scholar who’s studied Jewish Indian communities in both Israel and India. Blue Like Me, her upcoming documentary on this connection, will be released on Amazon next year.
Source: https://www.foodandwine.com/holidays-events/hanukkah/indian-hanukkah-traditions
