A new book written in the native languages of the Bnei Menashe will enable many members of the lost tribe to celebrate Chanukah for the first time. The Bnei Menashe of northeastern India will have an added reason to celebrate this week with the release of a new book on the laws and customs of…
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Article: 1,000 Jews cannot be wrong
Descendants of centuries-old Jewish community in China’s Kaifeng rediscover Jewish heritage after near complete assimilation in local community In Chinese terms, the city of Kaifeng, about 500 miles southwest of Beijing, is reminiscent of the Israeli city of Hadera: The number of its residents is 700,000 – as opposed to Beijing’s 15 million or Shanghai’s…
Indian Jewish Couple Reunite in Israel After Seven Years
Jerusalem: A group of Bnei Menashe Jews from Manipur moved to the Jewish state, where they were reunited with an Indian couple who had been apart for more than seven years since their engagement. She had to wait for more than seven years to see him again because the government under then Prime Minister Ehud…
India’s Jewish Silent Film Stars and the Power of the Outsider
As a child, I thought I was the only Indian Jew in the world. This made me feel like an ethnic unicorn when I was growing up in mostly white and Christian southern Maine. When I learned that Jews came in all colors and from all over the world, including India, I gave up being…
Indian Jews have overly South Asian ancestry: study
Jewish communities can be found all over the world. A study by scientists at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and other places found that the Indian Jewish community is “overwhelmingly” South Asian, with a “very small” amount of Middle Eastern genes. To find out where Indian Jewish populations came from and…
Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art features Native American art exhibit
In a new show at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, Karen York, the museum’s director of collections and exhibitions, talks to people about how the two groups have a lot in common, like their traditions and how they live in the same places. ‘Ancient Ways: Modern Forms,’ a show of Native American art,…
Baghdadi Jew from Kolkata, India, publishes first novel
GREATER NOIDA, INDIA — The release of the only work of fiction by a member of Kolkata’s Baghdadi Jewish community on June 19, 2013, was momentous. Kolkata’s Jewish community was the last to arrive in India and the first to depart, but the Baghdadis made substantial contributions to the city’s cultural and commercial life during…
Jewish Communities of India
Even though the Bene Israel community of western India, the Baghdadi Jews of Bombay and Calcutta, and the Cochin Jews of the Malabar Coast make up a small percentage of the Indian population, their long-term stay in a different society has always piqued people’s interest. Although India may be the only country in the world…
The Baghdadi Jews in India
This book looks at how the Baghdadi Jewish community changed dramatically overtime during their stay in India from the end of the 18th century until they moved on to Indian diasporas in Israel and English-speaking countries around the world after India became independent in 1947. Chapters on schools, institutions, and culture show how Baghdadis in…
Article: Jewish graves vandalized in India freely
Headstones of old Jewish graves smashed, remains disinterred, thrown into river in town of Panvel, where few dozen Jews still live. Majority of community moved to Israel. Yonatan Kandalar, whose grandparents are buried there, shocked to see destruction, disrespect during visit Yonatan Kandalar’s private heritage trip to the city in which he was born in…