The Cochin Jews are a great example of how a small religious-ethnic group can adapt to a larger, more tolerant society for at least a thousand years. It was done by telling a story about a time in history that had elements from both the original and the host religious cultures; by reenacting symbols from…
A history of the Baghdadi Jews–who actually lived in India, not Baghdad. By Joan G. Roland The Persian Gulf port of Basra began to serve as a trading center of the British East India Company in 1760, and it was from Basra–and Baghdad–that many Jews who played an important role in English commerce in the…
Jerusalem: Dozens of Jews who claim to be the descendants of a lost biblical Jewish tribe emigrated to Israel on Monday from their village in northeastern India, celebrating their arrival after a five-year struggle to get in. The Bnei Menashe say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the…
My paper is going to look at Ruby Daniel’s memoir, Ruby of Cochin: An Indian Jewish Woman Remembers, which was published in 2002. I’m going to look at how history and identity are shown in the book. It is important because it is the first memoir “written by a Jewish woman from the Indian community…
Title: Baghdad to Bombay – In the Kitchens of My Cousins Author: Pearl Sofaer Published: May 5, 2008 Publisher: Paper Jam Publishing; First edition (May 5, 2008) ISBN-10: 1888345241 ISBN-13: 978-1888345247 Description: Baghdad to Bombay weaves the threads of a vital family into a rich tapestry of good food and beloved tradition. This tapestry represents…
Title: Dropped from Heaven: Stories Author: Sophie Judah Published: March 27, 2007 Publisher: Schocken; First Edition edition (March 27, 2007) ISBN-10: 0805242481 ISBN-13: 978-0805242485 Description: A marvelous fiction debut–a collection of richly told, deeply moving stories about everyday life within a community of Indian Jews as its ancient culture confronts the modern world. In the…
By: Ezra James Nollet Published: April 25th, 2012 The stories in this column are translations by Mr. Nollet from Die Juden In Der Welt (The Jews in the World) by Mark Wischnitzer, a long out-of-print book published more than seven decades ago in Germany. The book examines Jewish communities, one country at a time, as…
The Jewesses of Bollywood were small, but they had a lot of power. Bollywood, which is a term used to describe the Indian film industry, makes more than a thousand movies a year that are seen by 3 billion people around the world. Many people who see this art don’t know that Jewish women were…
At 73 years old, Israel made a promise to the Indian Jews that it didn’t keep. It told them they could come back to the land of promise but then changed its mind. Sometimes, the consequences can be heart-wrenching. When a new state of Israel was set up after the Second World War in 1948,…
Background The journey of Jesus(as) to India, Kashmir and Afghanistan in search of the lost tribes of Israel is strongly supported by Biblical, historical and traditional literature. Some inhabitants of these areas have called themselves ‘Beni Israel’ from time immemorial, and take pride in being of Israelite origin. Historical evidence supporting the journey of the…