The many varieties of Jewish people throughout the world celebrate Hanukkah (the festival that begins tonight), with each group performing the celebration in different ways. A story recently published by NBC Asian America (December 11) tells the story of the growing population of Indian Jews in New York City, who gather each year to celebrate…
Kolkata: To Esther David, food is a memory. This woman received the Sahitya Akademi award for her writing, and it was for that very reason that she decided to become a writer. Women in the household, cooking together with a group of family members at a large table full of delicious Indian Jewish cuisine. I…
The volume is meant to be a rebuttal to the 1950s dismissal of India’s newly independent country as incapable of producing original and important works of art that could stand with Western ones. It also demonstrates that India was and had been made up of people from other areas, particularly Jews, who coexisted with the…
The Mumbai International Film Festival will broadcast Subha Das Mollick’s film “Dwelling in Travelling.” Are you in need of another reminder of how hospitable India has been to immigrants, and how this openness may reshape a city and a culture? Dwelling in Travelling, a documentary by Shubha Das Mollick, follows the experience of Kolkata’s Jewish…
CHICAGO — Over 400 people attended a joint Hindu-Jewish Festival of Lights in a suburban Chicago synagogue on Sunday, where the two holidays, Hanukkah and Diwali, were commemorated. Temple Beth-El in Northbrook, Illinois, held the event, which included speakers, candle lighting, food from both cultures, dance classes, and the world’s only Indian-Jewish standup comedian. Similar…
In Hebrew, the Jewish people are referred to as am Olam, which can be translated as “a world people,” but means much more. Olam can be translated as “world,” but it is more accurately rendered as “universe” in the sense that it encompasses both space and time. Indeed, during the Protestant Reformation, the word Olam…
Daniel learned Hebrew and the teachings of the faith as a child in Mumbai’s small, close-knit Jewish community. He often led prayers and aided at his local synagogue, where several members of his family served as community leaders, even though he was not officially ordained. That experience came in useful in 1994, when Daniel and…
After being found along the coast of the Konkan, the seven couples decided to stay there and begin a new life. In a strange country, they found themselves alone, but they soon became acquainted with the locals. Over time, they and their descendants spread to 142 villages, where each generation lived in a different village….
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Israel, the concept of a Jewish contribution to Bollywood came to mind. Sulochana, India’s first female superstar; Rose, a popular starlet; Pramila, the first Miss India; Nadira, the “quintessential vamp” who starred in several Raj Kapoor films; Joseph David Penkar, who was also a lyricist and playwright,…
The twin pulls of India and Israel were the focus of a session including Jewish Indian writing. During the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) 2018 at Diggi Palace, Esther David (left), author of Shalom (an Indian Jewish Fiction), speaks with A Sethumadhavan, also known as Sethu (right). One is a member of India’s Bene Israel community,…