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‘Lost’ Indian Jews Come to Israel Despite Skepticism Over Ties to Faith

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‘Lost’ Indian Jews Come to Israel Despite Skepticism Over Ties to Faith

Even though a Kassam rocket had just landed across the street, David Lhundgim smiled as he entered his residence in this besieged village on the Gaza border.

Lhundgim, who was born in the rural areas of northeast India, had been in Sderot since 2007, and he appeared to be well-adjusted in at least one way: he didn’t flinch when he heard explosives burst outside.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/lost-tribe-indian-jews-home-in-israel-1.5276348?fbclid=IwAR3KHGMFVtv5itOJNZ0mX2dba578DRvrmjRZdxlUe_X_4rzJXsUS39TquFA

The Indian-Jewish Chicken Recipe You’re Going to Crave

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The Indian-Jewish Chicken Recipe You’re Going to Crave

(JTA via The Nosher) — There is no alternative for consuming a dish in its original location, especially in a home kitchen by hands with thousands of dinners under their belts. For me, coming across a recipe, trying it out, and being transported to a new world by its flavors comes in a close second. The expanse of the Jewish diaspora has given us a plethora of unique culinary fusions, and I especially enjoy learning about Jewish food from India, where Jewish communities trace back hundreds of years.

The Cochin Jews of Kerala in South India, the Bene Israel Jews of India’s West Coast and Mumbai, and the Jews of Kolkata in East India are three separate Jewish Indian tribes that have been mostly isolated from one another (formerly known as Calcutta). Claudia Roden explains how Shalom Cohen of Aleppo was the first recorded Jew to settle in Kolkata in 1798 in her book The Book of Jewish Food. Syrian and Iraqi Jews soon followed, establishing a flourishing community in which they worked as merchants and traders and coexisted peacefully with their neighbors. When India attained independence in 1947, and then again in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, things changed; anti-Semitism intensified as Jews became identified with colonial British power. During this time, the majority of Kolkata’s Jews emigrated to Israel, the United States, England, and Australia. Kolkata’s once-thriving Jewish Indian community has all but vanished.

Source: https://www.jmoreliving.com/2018/03/06/indian-jewish-chicken-recipe-youre-going-crave/

How the Hebrew and Hindu Are Connected – World Spiritual History (Abraham, Brahmin)(Kosher, Ayurveda)

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The mystery surrounding Abraham’s concubine Keturah’s sons who were transported to the East is briefly explained in this impromptu movie. This little-known relationship is offered a brief exposition through comparative explanation — especially about diet/Ayurveda and antique paintings/photographs.

The lost Jews of Churachandpur

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The lost Jews of Churachandpur

A group of Kukis wants to travel to Israel, claiming to be the Bnei Menashe, one of Israel’s ten lost tribes. They won’t be able to do so unless they formally accept Judaism. Prafulla Das explores the perplexing situation of people split between a tumultuous past and an uncertain future.

Avihu Singsit, a 70-year-old native of Manipur’s Churachandpur district, is looking forward to moving to Israel. He says, “I’ve been waiting to go to the holy country that God picked for my forefathers.” He is one of Manipur’s tens of thousands of indigenous people who want to flee India for Israel.

Singsit and others began practicing Judaism in Manipur in the 1970s, after learning that they were the Bnei Menashe (Hebrew for “sons of Manasseh”), descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the ten “lost tribes of Israel” deported by the Assyrian empire more than 2,700 years ago.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/the-lost-jews-of-churachandpur/article21244204.ece

How One Writer Started a Cookbook and Discovered Her Indian Jewish Heritage

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How One Writer Started a Cookbook and Discovered Her Indian Jewish Heritage

It wasn’t until Nandita Godbole began researching her family’s history that she realized how little she knew about her past.

“We used to visit my father’s parents a couple of times a year when I was a kid in India… “[My grandmother’s] ethnicity was never truly discussed,” Godbole, a cuisine writer who has published two cookbooks, told NBC News. “Because I didn’t know anything about her, I began to think about her. [I] was probably around ten years old when she died, and you don’t think about life and death and everything at that age.”

Godbole would eventually learn that her grandmother was born into the Bene Israel, one of India’s oldest Jewish communities, and converted to Hinduism in the 1930s when she married her grandfather.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/how-one-writer-started-cookbook-discovered-her-indian-jewish-heritage-n698436

Jews who lived in Kerala but left for Israel ensure their heritage lives on

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Jews who lived in Kerala but left for Israel ensure their heritage lives on

After living and prospering in India from ancient times, the Jews of Cochin immigrated to Israel in the 1950s. They established a synagogue and museum in the Nevatim community a few decades after settling in Israel.

Other Indian Jewish communities in Israel, such as the Bene Israel and Baghdadi Jews, are also interested in showcasing their history and are currently in talks to extend the museum in Nevatim. The Jews of Cochin who speak Malayalam, or Malabari, claim to have escaped the Roman invasion and destruction of the Second Temple. When they arrived, they were greeted by the local Maharaja.

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/jews-who-lived-in-kerala-but-left-for-israel-ensure-their-heritage-lives-on-119041201250_1.html

Bene Israel of Mumbai, India

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Bene Israel of Mumbai, India

The Bene Israel are arguably the world’s only Jewish community that has never faced anti-Semitism. For two thousand years, they lived in peace with their Indian neighbors, free to practice Judaism and grow as a society. The Bene Israel were thoroughly assimilated into Indian society while maintaining a distinct sense of self; nonetheless, they were cut off from the mainstream of Judaism for generations. The Israeli Rabbinate recognized Bene Israel as “complete Jews in every regard” in 1964, completing the process of reunification with international Jewry.

Some Bene Israel claim to be descended from Israel’s “lost” 10 tribes. According to Biblical history, the Assyrian King Shalmaneser and subsequent rulers exiled these 10 tribes, which founded the Kingdom of Israel, from their capital, Samaria, beginning in the year 722 BCE. Others among the Bene Israel claim that their forefathers fled Israel by water in 175 BCE, during Antiochus Epiphanes’ reign (before the events that led to the festival of Chanukkah).

According to legend, the Bene Israel’s progenitors were shipwrecked and washed ashore on the Konkan coast, south of Bombay, during their journey from the Kingdom of Israel. Seven men and seven women survived the massacre and buried their dead near the settlement of Nawgaon, which later became the Bene Israel cemetery.

Source: https://www.anumuseum.org.il/bene-israel-mumbai-india/

Jews, the lost tribe of Indian Cinema

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Jews, the lost tribe of Indian Cinema

Bollywood appears to be losing a legacy – its Indian Jewish patrons – at a time when it is reaching out to many countries.

Their contribution to the Hindi film industry, particularly during the silent era before independence, was significant, but it is now virtually forgotten – save in academic circles.

Not surprising, given that the number of Jews in India, which are divided into three primary lineages (Cochinis, Baghdadis, and Bene Israelis), has decreased from 30,000 in 1948 to around 5,500 now, despite having lived in the country for almost 2,000 years.

It was prohibited for Hindu and Muslim women from “respectable” families to play leading roles when India began producing films in the early twentieth century.

“Because of their significantly more Westernized upbringing, the Jewish community was more permissive when it came to performing in movies, especially by women,” Jonathan Samuel Solomon, founder chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, told the agency.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/jews-the-lost-tribe-of-indian-cinema/story-aEvvveyYjk78gzU4YCELOL.html

Book Review: Indian heritage and its Jewish influences

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Book Review: Indian heritage and its Jewish influences

The Nazis staged the largest art theft in history from 1933 until 1945. Many of the works plundered from Jewish art patrons are now housed in major museums, raising troubling considerations. Few people realize that numerous European Jews, notably those fleeing Hitler and Fascist Europe, were instrumental in the development of Indian art in the early twentieth century. The involvement of Jews in the formation of the Indian National Art Project, which attempted to connect India to its past and drew on its rich Indian customs and artistic legacy, is explored in Jews and the Indian National Art Project.

Kenneth X Robbins and Marvin Tokayer highlight a crucial point: there was never a “hermetically sealed quest for purity” to invent and create “Indian” modern art. Even though the movement included Indian artists, scholars, critics, and supporters, it was always an outward-looking endeavor. Maharaji Sayaji Rao III Gaekwad of Baroda, the Tagores and the Bengal School of Art, and the J J School of Art and the Progressive Artists’ Group of Bombay, as it was then known, were all key actors in this movement.

With its visual delight of bright works of art and photographs, this one-of-a-kind book illustrates the vital roles played by numerous European Jews in this artistic blooming.

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/book-review-a-book-on-indian-heritage-and-its-jewish-influences-114121900598_1.html

Jews: A Minority Group’s Contribution to India’s Freedom Struggle

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Jews: A Minority Group’s Contribution to India’s Freedom Struggle

In other words, Jews openly supported the INC’s goals for a secular and democratic India while opposing British authority.

This article was written by one of The Quint’s members. Our membership program gives those who aren’t full-time journalists or frequent contributors the opportunity to be published on The Quint in our unique ‘Member’s Opinion’ area, among other things. Any reader of The Quint can become a member of our organization. Join today and email us your stories at membership@thequint.com.

In India, Judaism has been practiced for over eight centuries. Jews have been able to successfully assimilate into mainstream Indian society while maintaining their distinct Jewish identity during this time period. Although nothing is known about the society until the 18th century, records reveal that they lived in Western India and coexisted peacefully with the region’s dominant religious groups, Hindus and Muslims.

Source: https://www.thequint.com/my-report/members-opinion/how-jews-a-tiny-minority-contributed-so-much-to-indian-independence