Between 1858 and 1917, the opium trade was legal in China. The trade-in of this addictive, highly crippling narcotic drug was heavily dominated by Jewish entrepreneurs who had immigrated to China from India. Even though they were engaged in a legitimate business, they were subjected to harsh criticism, especially from missionaries. Anti-opium organizations, fueled by…
Nissim Ezekiel’s poem “Night of the Scorpion” will always be remembered fondly by generations of Indian school students, particularly those from the ICSE stream. The poem’s multiple themes of good against evil, superstition versus reason, and love conquering everything ( “My mother just said/Thank God the scorpion picked on me/And spared my children”) were not…
On the music of Yahudi, Bimal Roy’s unexpected Bollywood historical about the persecution of Jews in ancient Rome, the dulcet ring of the oud is impossible to miss. The background score, produced by Shankar and Jaikishan, has a slightly Middle Eastern flavor to it, and the adaptable Arabian stringed instrument is frequently used to express…
The city’s Jewish community claims that laws intended to be resurrected under minority status are only on paper and have yet to be enforced in the state. On June 24, one year ago, Maharashtra’s Jews adopted minority status in the hopes of gaining broader recognition and better opportunities in society. Although the provision has been…
The Cochin Jews may have existed on the fertile Malabar Coast of southwest India for two millennia. This tropical region is now Kerala, a modern Indian state named after the kera, or coconut palm tree, which is so important to the state’s landscape and economy. While there were once thousands of Jews in Malabar, only…
Malayalam-speaking Jews from the Kochi (formerly Cochin) area of Kerala, situated along the Malabar Coast of southwestern India, are known as Cochin Jews, Cochini, or Kerala Jews. The Paradesis (White Jews), Malabaris (Black Jews), and Meshuchrarim (Meshuchrarim) were three caste-like classes of Cochin Jews (Brown Jews). Just about 50 Cochin Jews remained on the Malabar…
Recent attention has centered on the Indians of the Bnei Menashe who have just arrived in Israel, but there is an older Indian group that has been here since the nation was founded. Which way you look at it, Cochin’s Jewish culture is an ancient one. The Jews of the city of Cochin in southwest…
JERUSALEM: A brief handwritten letter by Mahatma Gandhi 80-years-ago on the same day World War II broke out, wishing the “afflicted (Jewish) people” a “era of peace”, has been unveiled for the first time by the National Library of Israel. Gandhi wrote the letter to the Head of the Bombay Zionist Association (BZA) A E…
Sunday, February 21, 2021 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM Sisterhood collaborates with six other Sisterhoods to deliver Rahel Musleah’s intriguing discussion and presentation. Rahel Musleah is a journalist, novelist, singer, speaker, and educator who has won numerous awards. Rahel is the seventh generation of a Calcutta family that can be traced back to Baghdad in…
Sunday, February 21 at 12:00 PM “Jews and Muslims in India and Pakistan: Their Attitudes Towards Each Other” is a book about the attitudes of Jews and Muslims in India and Pakistan. Dr. Navras Aafreedi is an Assistant Professor at Presidency University in Kolkata, India, and a Research Fellow at ISGAP. Source: https://www.isgap.org/event/2021/02/jews-and-muslims-in-india-and-pakistan-their-attitudes-toward-each-other/