Rahel Musleah was born in Calcutta, India, to a family whose lineage can be traced back to Baghdad in the 17th century. This lady is going to lead you on a very interesting tour of Jewish India that incorporates historical facts, stories, memorabilia, and photographs. A story of an Indian Jewish community that incorporates a…
THE NATION’S CAPITAL: Because their relatives in Delhi fell ill with a disease called Covid and were kept in quarantine, more than 100 Jews from Manipur have had to postpone their plans to move to Israel. “It’s a fantastic opportunity,” 40-year-old Soizagin told the Times of India as he prepared to abandon his Indian citizenship….
Thousands of Bnei Menashe began returning to their ancestral country in northeast India in the 1980s. Approximately 6,000 more people are on their way to join them. Rut, 28, Dina, 21, and Avigail, 13, three Lhanghal sisters from northeast India, moved to Israel on January 3, the place their forefathers were forced to flee 27…
“I’ve been quietly crying for months whenever the prospect of leaving my home and family occurred to me. The desire to return to the sacred place, however, is too strong.” One of the 228 Jews who left Manipur on Sunday to permanently reside in Israel is Nemchin Touthang, a 57-year-old Jew from the Churachandpur area….
Erusha Newman is certain of three things: she is Indian, she is Jewish, and she eats food only Indian Jews eat. Beyond that, the specifics get hazy. Newman is one of only a few dozen known Bene Israel residents in the Chicago region, one of India’s five native Jewish communities. She is the group’s designated…
A. I’ve been interested in the Jewish communities in India for over a decade. There are several, each with its history and experience, spread across India from Mumbai and Surat to Kolkata, Manipur, Cochin, and Andhra Pradesh. While I was in Mumbai, I did a lot of reading and study about the Bene Israeli Jews…
With apologies to Charles Dickens, I’d like to tell you about A Tale of Two Cities: West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Ramla, Israel, whose Rotary clubs just signed an “Agreement for Partnership.” They have now been designated as sister clubs. Geebee Thimotheose of the West Bloomfield Rotary Club says, “Our comparable sentiments regarding the beneficial influence…
The Cochinis, the Bene Israel, and the Baghdadis are the three primary Jewish communities in India, each with its origins and peculiarities. They have not been persecuted, but their numbers are dwindling owing to emigration to Israel and other countries. Cochin Jews maintained economic and religious relations with Middle Eastern Jewish communities, although emigration to…
On Sunday, June 23, Mahatma Moses’ Comedy Caravan will perform two hilarious, yet very different acts at the Firehouse Arts Center. Samson Koletkar, an Indian-Jewish stand-up comedian, and his special guests deliver a barrage of clean and intelligent comedy, complete with bizarre stories about growing up Jewish in India, becoming an American citizen, and adopting…
The Jews of Cochin, India, combine two cultures in their city on the Malabar coast, much like a nice kosher dish. The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India (University of South Carolina Press; 352 pages; $39.95) by Nathan Katz, a professor of religious studies at the University of South Florida, and Ellen…