Tuesday, May 14, 2024
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Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives During My Fulbright

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Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives During My Fulbright

I am a Mumbai-born painter who now resides in the United States. My work depicts my upbringing as a Jew in India, which is largely Hindu and Muslim. In my art, I create a mosaic inspired by both Indian/Persian miniature paintings and illuminated manuscripts, combining imagery from my history with the position I perform in America today.

The terrorist attack in Mumbai on November 26–29, 2008, was a slaughter of both Indian residents and foreign visitors. Six people, including the Rabbi and his wife, were slain when the Chabad house in Mumbai, a Jewish outreach facility featuring an educational site, a synagogue, and a guesthouse, was attacked. These attacks alerted the world (or acted as a reminder in some circumstances) to the existence of a small but ancient population of Indian Jews who had lived on the Indian subcontinent for over 2000 years.

I was deeply disappointed by the lack of media and news coverage as a Bene Israel Jew growing up in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim town in the heart of Mumbai. Some of my American friends were perplexed and asked numerous questions. “Did Jews initially settle in India when the Chabad house was founded?” “If not, how did the Jewish population in the area look? “Does that make sense?” This conversation with my buddies sparked the idea for my Fulbright application.

Source: https://cies.org/article/weaving-indian-jewish-narratives-during-my-fulbright

The Jews of India

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The Jews of India

From ancient times, the history of Judaism has been intertwined with the experiences of the Jewish Diaspora. The concept that God will deliver the Jews back to the Promised Land if they obey his laws and uphold the covenant has been strengthened by the first exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt to the land of Israel. Since the Babylonians destroyed the first temple and forced the Jews to flee to Babylon, the Jewish community has placed a greater emphasis on written writings, particularly the Torah, which was written down in 538 B.C. but not completed until 586 B.C. The capacity of the Jewish people to live in various cultures and nations while maintaining their Jewish identity despite adopting certain Gentile cultural elements makes the study of the Jewish people even more fascinating. The founding of the state of Israel brought an end to the Jews’ existence as a nation without a state, allowing them to finally move to Israel and live in the Promised Land.

The experiences of Ashkenazi Jews with European roots and Sephardic Jews with Middle Eastern origins are essential to the study of the Jewish Diaspora. The study of the Jewish Diaspora in India is a neglected subject in India, owing in part to their tiny numbers. Because of the shared Abrahamic faiths, Jewish ideas and concepts have had a significant effect on the formation of both Islam and Christianity. Because of these preconceived thoughts and attitudes, a love-hate relationship has developed between Jews residing in the Middle East and Europe. Because of a distinct relationship of respect, tolerance, and coexistence that emerged from the contact between India’s Hindu civilization and the Judaic civilization, the history of the Jewish Diaspora in India can be said to be unique. This study will skim over this relationship, focusing on the many types of Jewish communities in India, their arrival, culture, acculturation, and practices, and their eventual departure to Israel after the 1950s.

Source: https://www.csueastbay.edu/philosophy/reflections/2009/contents/kart-prad.html

Jewish Indian women elders spearhead revival of Purim musical tradition

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Jewish Indian women elders spearhead revival of Purim musical tradition

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 devotional songs, planned to perform a kirtan about Queen Esther in the synagogue. However, because of the epidemic, most places of worship are closed, the women’s performance has been canceled.

Kirtans are Hindu devotional music-inspired traditional storytelling melodies. Bene Israel’s songs are in the local Marathi language and contain Hebrew words. They exalt renowned Hebrew Bible personalities like Joseph, Moses, David, and Elijah. “Esther Ranichi Katha,” or the story of Queen Esther who saved the Jews, is the one the women had intended to present this week.

“Due to an increase in Covid cases, religious worship has been limited. At the synagogue, we’ll probably have five to 10 people — not even a minyan [prayer quorum]. And the women, who are generally in their 70s and 80s, are afraid to leave their homes to travel,” said Elijah Jacob, a former Joint Distribution Committee director in India.

He remarked of the kirtankars, or kirtan singers, “It’s a shame because they were so anxious to do their recital.”

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-indian-women-elders-spearhead-revival-of-purim-musical-tradition/

Painting Pictures of India’s Jews

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Painting Pictures of India’s Jews

I spent a day in Montclair, New Jersey with Siona Benjamin last month while researching a piece for The Forward about Indian Jewish cuisine. Benjamin, a home cook who grew up in Mumbai’s Jewish community, explained how to create a traditional Shabbat coconut stew and maida, a sweet rice and coconut dish made in honor of the Prophet Elijah by Indian Jews. But, as is often the case when I cook in other people’s kitchens, I learned a lot more than just about cooking.

Benjamin’s house is awash with art, particularly her technicolor paintings and multimedia works that combine Jewish and Indian imagery. Her work has been exhibited around the United States, Europe, and Asia, and she holds two MFAs in painting and theatrical set design. She is inspired by “ancient styles of painting, like Indian/Persian miniatures, Byzantine icons, and Jewish and Christian illuminated manuscripts.”

On a Fulbright grant, Benjamin traveled to India in 2011 to interview, photograph, and document the lives of more than 70 of Mumbai’s last 5,000 Jews. She turned these stories into a gorgeous set of gigantic photo collage paintings titled “FACES: Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives” when she returned home.

Source: https://www.forward.com/schmooze/194239/painting-pictures-of-indias-jews/

Making Aliyah: Why 6,000 Jews from Manipur want to emigrate to Israel

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Making Aliyah: Why 6,000 Jews from Manipur want to emigrate to Israel

Imphal: On December 15, 250 Indian Jews from Manipur and Mizoram arrived in Israel as part of the Bnei Menashe group. After a two-and-a-half-year wait, they became the first to arrive in the Jewish state.

The Bnei Menashe are thought to be descendants of the Manasseh tribe, one of Israel’s ten lost tribes who were deported by the Assyrian Empire some 27 centuries ago.

More than 4,000 Bnei Menashe have already made Aliyah and relocated to Israel, according to Shavei Israel statistics, a non-profit organization that supports Jewish immigration to Israel. Another 6,500 Bnei Menashe are still living in India’s northeast, hoping to return to their ancient homeland.

Source: https://www.eastmojo.com/news/2020/12/31/making-aliyah-why-6000-jews-from-manipur-want-to-emigrate-to-israel/

New Documentary Chronicles Jewish Contributions to Indian Cinema

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Danny Ben-Moshe, a documentary filmmaker, focuses on India’s Jewish community and their contributions to Indian cinema. Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema is his most recent project. The documentary is light and airy, with music, dance, and melodrama, which were popular at the time. It was difficult for him to find archival footage because so little of it has been preserved, but he works around these limitations with skill, managing to keep the audience’s attention with interesting insights, interviews with living descendants, and interviews with movie personalities. The film was recently screened at the Jewish Film Festival in San Francisco.

Since the Mogul dynasty, Jews have lived in India and have successfully integrated into the country’s culture. They arrived as merchants and gradually established themselves in the country. Some of them had fled Baghdad and the surrounding nations because of persecution. In a secular republic, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Christians coexisted. Jewish synagogues can be found all over India, but the most prominent is in Cochin, in the south.

Cinema arrived in India well over a century ago, but there were no performers prepared to appear on camera in those early years because it was a profession frowned upon by Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. Men took on the roles of both male and female characters. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Jewish women with a more open culture stepped in to save the day and were warmly accepted; with their western appearance and attitudes, they dominated the silver screen.

Source: https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/new-documentary-chronicles-jewish-contributions-indian-cinema

Humor From the World’s Only Indian-Jewish Comedian

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Humor From the World’s Only Indian-Jewish Comedian

On Sunday, June 23, Mahatma Moses’ Comedy Caravan will perform two hilarious, yet very different acts at the Firehouse Arts Center. Samson Koletkar, an Indian-Jewish stand-up comedian, and his special guests deliver a barrage of clean and intelligent comedy, complete with bizarre stories about growing up Jewish in India, becoming an American citizen, and adopting his younger child.

Samson was named to BookMyShow’s top ten list of “10 Best Indian-Origin Comedians of the Last Decade” and was the 2015 International Society of Humor Studies Comedy Competition Winner. He is the creator of the Desi Comedy Fest and has appeared on NBC, CBS, NPR, and NDTV.

5:00 p.m. a.m. a.m. a.m The Comedy Caravan of Mahatma Moses (in Marathi). Samson Koletkar aka Mahatma Moses performs a stand-up comedy event in Marathi. Abhay Paranjape, Meg David, Shruti Nimkar, and Adwait Paranjpe will be joining him. This performance lasts two hours and fifteen minutes, with one 15-minute interval. NOTE: The Marathi show will have different content than the English show.

Source: https://www.independentnews.com/culture/humor-from-the-world-s-only-indian-jewish-comedian/article_c5ab9842-8d72-11e9-9d4a-3f436229e2d3.html

India’s Jew Town only has a few Jews left, but traditions and landmarks remain

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India’s Jew Town only has a few Jews left, but traditions and landmarks remain

(JTA) — KOCHI, India — Today, a stroll along this seaside city’s “Jew street” will reveal lively Kasmiri businesses offering Persian antiques, pashmina shawls, and traditional Islamic handicrafts – a sharp contrast to the neighborhood’s heyday, when every household was Jewish.

“In Jew Town, there are only two people left. Shalva Weil, a senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Seymour Fox School of Education and a major authority on the Jewish communities of India, said, “One extremely old, who spends most of her time in Los Angeles, and one other.”

Only a handful of elderly Jews remain in a metropolis of 677,000, where the Jewish population formerly numbered around 3,000 people at its peak in the 1950s. According to Weil, there is no longer any community in Kochi.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/indias-jew-town-only-has-a-few-jews-left-but-traditions-and-landmarks-remain/

A recent book One Heart. Two Worlds: The Story of the Jews of Kochi presents the stories of a community that arrived on Kerala shores in 1000 CE

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A recent book One Heart. Two Worlds: The Story of the Jews of Kochi presents the stories of a community that arrived on Kerala shores in 1000 CE

It’s the month of March 1984. When Sarah Cohen and Ellen S Goldberg were at the Cochin Paradesi Synagogue, Cohen overheard temple prayers next door. “We can hear their prayers, and they can hear us,” adds Cohen, who is now known as Kochi’s “grand dame of the Jews.” In his book Who Are The Jews of India? (2000), Nathan Katz, an expert on Indian Jewish communities, uses this story to illustrate the lives of Cochin Jews in their new hometown. “They were entirely Indian and fully Jewish at the same time. They were able to strike a delicate balance between their own identity and their neighbors’ Hindu, Christian, and Muslim cultures,” says Katz.

The stories of a community that came on Kerala coastlines around 1000 CE are told in the book One Heart. Two Worlds: The Story of the Jews of Kochi (Stark World, Rs 2,500). The experiences are told through “handwritten song journals, memoirs, kosher recipes, Hebrew plays, and synagogue rituals,” according to KS Mathew, a scholar, and historian, and Yamini Nair, a creative director, and writer.

They arrived as traders with diamonds and wealth, which helped them earn favor with the rulers of the period, and their knowledge of European languages aided them in war and trade. Persecution in other nations drove the Jews to seek a haven in Kerala, where they could work and follow their religion without fear of persecution.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/one-heart-two-worlds-book-on-jews-of-kochi-5809704/

Jews discuss contributions to India

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Jews discuss contributions to India

KOCHI: On Wednesday, Jews from all over the world met in the city for a Jewish conference themed “Jews of India, Jews in India.” The conference, which included Jews from Australia, the United States, England, China, and Israel, as well as Indian communities, focused on the contributions of Jews to India’s growth.

The conference on Willingdon Island also served as a networking opportunity for Jews and those interested in the community’s history.

Kenneth Robbins, a Washington, DC-based independent scholar, spoke about Jews who played important roles in India’s history and development. “General Jacob, a Bangladesh war hero, was Jewish. W M Haffkine, a bacteriologist for whom India issued a commemorative stamp, was also a member of the community. In addition, Jews created some statues in India. Another Jew, Walter Kaufman, is responsible for the theme of AIR “Robbins said. Sulochana, a prominent actress in the 1920s, was also a Jew, he added.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/jews-discuss-contributions-to-india/articleshow/67461151.cms

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