Zilka Joseph Zilka Joseph’s work is influenced by Indian and Western cultures and by her Bene Israel roots. She was awarded a Zell Fellowship (MFA program) and the Elsie Choy Lee Scholarship (Centre for the Education of Women) from the University of Michigan. She has received many award nominations, honors, participated in literary festivals and readings, and has been featured on…
There is no substitute for eating a dish in its place of origin, preferably made in a home kitchen by hands that hold the muscle memory of thousands of meals. For me, a close second is stumbling across a recipe, trying it out, and feeling transported to a new place by its flavors. The vastness…
India’s Bene Israel Jews The oldest and largest of the three Jewish communities in India. BY SHIRLEY BERRY ISENBERG The Bene Israel have always been the largest of the three Jewish communities in India. (The other two are Cochin and Baghdadi.) In 1838, for example, the total Bene Israel population of India was estimated at 8,000,…
Growing Up Jewish in India is a historical description of India’s major Jewish communities, synagogues, and unique Jewish customs. It traces how Jews arrived in the vast subcontinent at various times and from various locations, both residing in various locations within the larger Indian community and eventually creating a diaspora within the larger Jewish diaspora…
The Kuki-Chin-Mizo people, who live in the Indian state of Mizoram and are traditionally endogamous tribal groups, claim to descend from the ten lost tribes of Israel who were deported by the Assyrians. On 414 individuals from five tribal communities in Mizoram, we examined DNA markers including 15 autosomal microsatellite markers, 5 biallelic and 20…
Trade networks and the destruction of Jerusalem drove Jewish settlers to seek refuge across Europe and Asia two thousand years ago. Kerala, in tropical southwestern India, was home to one of the lesser-known groups. They flourished, eventually reaching in the hundreds and having eight synagogues. Some acquired huge estates and plantations, and many others benefited…
The editor of The Times of India called one of Mumbai’s most powerful merchants, Yusuf K Hamied, in 1992. The editor inquired about Yusuf’s thoughts on the city’s communal rioting, referring to him as a “Muslim leader.” “As an Indian Jew, why aren’t you asking me?” Is it because my first name is Hamied? Yusuf…
The Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Market Road, Ernakulam, Kochi, is cared for solely by Elias (Babu) Josepha. He explores the history of the Malabari (Baghdadi) Jewish community and describes practices that have been passed down unchanged since they arrived in 72 BC. The hamlet is regarded as one of Israel’s ten lost tribes, and it has…
On July 18, 1942, four days before the start of the Great Deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, the residents of its orphanage produced a performance. Janusz Korczak, the orphanage’s famed director, chose the Bengali poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Dak Ghar (The Post Office) for the youngsters. It depicts the narrative of a dying…