If, as I argued in Chapter 2, diasporic South Asian writers tend to associate Jewishness with the past and to transform Jewish characters into a haunting presence, their representations are inextricably linked with the narration and understanding of Indian Jews in other disciplines like journalism and history. In Edna Fernandes’s The Last Jews of Kerala…
While traveling through India in 2017, a friend from Assam, India’s northeastern state, told me about the Lost Tribe Jewish settlements in Mizoram, a neighboring state. I was curious and wanted to learn more after growing up in a Jewish family without ever fully embracing the faith of my observant parents. I quickly found that…
Raghunath Jew temple (also known as Thakurbari) stands out among the old temples in the Kashijora Pargana for its seventeenth-century sculpture and culture. This is an ancient temple dedicated to Goddess Rama-Sita. With its ancient constructions and sculpture in its walls and columns, the temple is one of a kind. Every year on Dashera, a…
It is true that a significant number of Indian Jews have emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom since 1947, but the reasons for this population decline remain controversial. The literary works that have emerged from the Indian Jewish community, including fiction, drama, poetry, and young adult literature, tell many…
Many people, regardless of religion or ethnicity, are drawn to the Middle East because of the dramatic shifts taking place there. The use of social media, education, and entertainment are helping to unite disparate communities. Is it possible to use comedy, which is traditionally seen as “light” entertainment, as a diplomatic tool? After launching a…
In Indian films during the 1920s and 1930s, Hindu and Muslim women were uncommon. Women showing their bodies to strangers on-screen was frowned upon and regarded as taboo. Male actors are more likely to play female roles than female actors. Men in saris played women in early 20th-century silent films, which featured all-male casts. To…
More than 250 Jews from the Bnei Menashe community in northern India, including infants and the elderly, arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Tuesday to begin a new life in Israel. One hundred and fifty of them are couples, twenty-four are singles, and four are newborns. There are 50 families, 24 singles, four children under…
In the Indian city of Bombay, a small Jewish community is learning to cope with its declining population. As most young Jews have relocated to Israel, the community’s numbers are rapidly declining. However, removing a 2000-year-old Jewish connection is difficult for the older generation of Jews. They continue to live in the shadow of the…
CA – 13 FEBRUARY 2018 (THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.) At the California Lutheran University, an artist who was raised Jewish but attended Catholic and Zoroastrian schools in predominantly Hindu and Muslim India will share her art, lead a painting workshop, and show a documentary about her life. The William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art on the…