Last Tuesday, Joan Nathan’s King Solomon’s Table was released. It’s her eighth cookbook, a living historical document with 170 dishes from the Jewish diaspora, ranging from India’s Bene Israel fish curry to Libya’s spicy Arctic char cooked in tomato sauce, or Ahareimi. Nathan has been conducting archive work like King Solomon’s Table for decades. Nathan,…
The Jews of India are the least well-known of all the Jewish communities in the world. They are one of the tiny minorities in the country. The Book of Esther is the first Jewish source to mention Jews in India. It chronicles the Persian monarch’s directives relating to the dispersal of Jews throughout his empire’s…
The evolution of the Bene Israel family in Maharashtra is traced in this study in a transnational setting between the motherland India and the fatherland, Israel, where the majority of the family dwells. The Bene Israel are unique in that they are an Indian Jewish group who follow a monotheistic religion yet are culturally similar…
These two works provide richly illustrated descriptions of the varied and fascinating history of India’s extremely small Jewish populations. Both merely give a cursory mention to the two groups with the longest histories, the Bnei Israel and the Jews of Cochin. Kenneth X. Robbins and Marvin Tokayer’s book Western Jews in India focuses on the…
Mavis Hyman’s family went from Baghdad to Kolkata, India, 200 years ago with a colony of Jewish traders. They are members of the little-known Indian-Baghdadi group, whose cuisines combine Iraqi and Indian ingredients and culinary traditions. Hyman covers the cuisines of her community as well as other Indian Jewish communities, with recipes ranging from spam,…
In my early twenties, I told my mother, “One day, I want to publish a book on our family’s tale.” “Inshallah” – “God willing” – she said, evoking our ancestors’ Arabic. Because my mother uses this word, someone could assume that my family is Muslim. We are, however, Jewish. And for a long time, I…
When I was staying with a cousin in Colaba, Mumbai, for a few days a few years ago, she recommended that I go to the street book vendors. She claimed that I could get books on any subject for dirt cheap. When I inquired about Jewish books, I was instructed to return the next day….
This month, India celebrates 75 years of independence. The country is home to three historic Jewish communities, including Baghdadi Jews, who are Iraqi merchants. They rose to prominence in Mumbai, Calcutta, and other cities where they settled. India is now home to a very small number of people.
A brief look at some of the early Jewish settlements in the Iberian peninsula.