Photo: Jewish copper plate, Cochin, replica 2017. Wikimedia Commons
When Indian Jews emigrated to Israel, they brought their cooking with them, and the result has been a slow but steady influence on Israeli food culture. The Indian Jewish communities in Israel, primarily the Bene Israel from Maharashtra, the Cochin Jews from Kerala, and the Baghdadi Jews from Calcutta and Bombay, have maintained their distinct culinary traditions in their new home while also adapting to the Israeli food environment. The fusion that has emerged, sometimes deliberate and sometimes unconscious, is a fascinating chapter in the ongoing story of Israeli cuisine.
Israeli markets and supermarkets today carry ingredients that would have been unimaginable a generation ago: fresh curry leaves, kokum, black cardamom, fenugreek leaves, and the specific varieties of dried chilies used in South Indian cooking are all available in neighborhoods with significant Indian Jewish populations. Restaurants in cities like Ramla, Lod, and certain neighborhoods of Tel Aviv serve food that is recognizably Indian Jewish rather than generic Israeli, and a new generation of Indian Jewish chefs and food writers is documenting and celebrating this tradition for a wider Israeli audience.
The fusion goes both ways. Indian Jewish cooks in Israel have incorporated Israeli and Middle Eastern ingredients into their cooking, creating dishes that reflect their new home without abandoning their Indian roots. A Bene Israel cook in Ramla might add za’atar to a dish that her grandmother would have seasoned with dried mango powder; a Cochin Jewish baker might use tahini in a sweet preparation that would originally have used sesame paste ground differently. These small adaptations accumulate over generations into something genuinely new.
Food writers and bloggers from Indian Jewish backgrounds have done much to document this culinary fusion and bring it to a wider audience. In Israel, publications like Haaretz and various food magazines have run features on Indian Jewish cooking that introduce the cuisine to readers who may never have encountered it before. In the diaspora, Indian Jewish food writers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are similarly working to record and share a culinary tradition that is at risk of being lost as the generation that grew up in India ages.
The wandering food of India’s Jews, from the Konkan coast to the backwaters of Kerala, from the spice markets of Calcutta to the kitchens of Tel Aviv and beyond, is one of the most compelling stories in world cuisine. It is the story of a people who held onto their identity through their cooking across centuries of migration, adaptation, and reinvention.
Source: Israel-India: Food Wanderings – Jewish-Indian Fusion
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A Living Culinary Heritage
Food has served as one of the most durable carriers of Indian Jewish identity across centuries of diaspora and migration. As communities moved from India to Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, they carried their recipes with them — adjusting for ingredient availability but preserving the essential character of dishes refined over generations.
In the Jewish communities of India, the act of cooking traditional dishes is understood as a form of cultural continuity. It connects the present generation to grandmothers who stood at similar stoves, worked with similar spices, and fed families who observed the same Shabbat and celebrated the same holidays. The kitchen becomes a space of memory and identity, where the full complexity of Indian Jewish experience can be tasted in a single dish.
Preserving the Recipe, Preserving the Culture
The documentation of Indian Jewish recipes has become an urgent priority as the communities that created them continue to shrink. In 1948, before the establishment of the State of Israel, there were an estimated 30,000 Jews living in India. Today, fewer than 5,000 remain, most of them elderly. The younger generations have largely emigrated to Israel, where they maintain some connection to their Indian heritage while integrating into Israeli society.
Cookbooks, food blogs, and community archives have played a crucial role in preserving these recipes. Works like “Bene Appetit: The Cuisine of Indian Jews” and various community-produced recipe collections represent efforts by Indian Jewish families to document their culinary traditions before they are lost. Food writers and ethnographers have also contributed by interviewing elderly community members and recording not just the recipes but the stories and memories surrounding them.
For the Indian Jewish diaspora, cooking these dishes is an act of cultural maintenance — a way of honoring ancestors and transmitting identity to children who may have grown up in Tel Aviv, New York, or London, far from Mumbai, Cochin, or Kolkata where their grandparents lived. The food becomes a bridge between generations and across geographies, carrying the taste of a world that is gradually disappearing but whose flavors refuse to be forgotten.