“Wow, the ladies here go to synagogue in saris!” “Does that have a Hindu flavor to it?”
This is a question Nathaniel Jhirad, a 23-year-old Indian Jew of Mumbai’s Bene Israel group, is frequently asked. “You wear skirts; that is not an antique clothing from the Mythical Land of Authentic Judaism!” he wants to say every time.
Jhirad’s dream retort, which he told me over a cup of coffee during my, seemed amusing. But it raises an issue that I’ve come to believe is the single most difficult thing for Western Jews to grasp when visiting India: despite India’s independence from British colonizers 68 years ago, many of us, including Jews, are still colonizing it.
Source: https://www.forward.com/opinion/307081/how-not-to-be-a-jerk-in-jewish-india/
