For a long time, Cochin Jewish women have sung Jewish songs in both Hebrew and the Malayalam language, which is the language of Kerala, their old home on the Indian coast. The Jewish women in Kerala sang in Hebrew with the men in the synagogue, with their families at the Shabbat table, and other events….
Members of the Bnei Menashe, a group that is said to be from the lost tribes, remarry in a ceremony in Israel. People from the Bnei Menashe community in Northern India who moved to Israel were married on Aug. 5 in an Orthodox group wedding in Israel, and 17 of them married. Because they were…
Who are the Baghdadi Jews? In the late 1800s, Jews from Arab countries and Iran came to India. They are called “Baghdadi Jews.” There were a lot of ‘Baghdadi’ Jews who came from Baghdad, but there were also a lot of Jews who came from Syria, Iran, Yemen, and other places in Iraq. Often, these…
It’s very rare for Indian Jews to have never been persecuted or anti-Semitic in their new country. Thaha Ibrahim, 50, is putting together the belongings of a famous Jewish woman who lived there until a year ago. She is in Jew Town, a small town in the southern Indian state of Kerala. This is how…
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…
INDIA IS PERHAPS the only country in the world where Jews haven’t suffered anti-Semitism from the natives. Judaism was one of the first religions to arrive in India. The first wave came to Kerala following the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of their first temple there by the Babylonians under Nebuchednezzar in 597 BC….
Title: Salaam Shalom: The Jews of India Director: Vanessa C. Laufer Date released: 2001 Country Published: USA Studio: Filmakers Library Description: It is hard to imagine a subject more exotic than the Jews of India. On the Indian subcontinent where Hindus and Muslims dominate, Jews are a much tinier minority than in the West. While it…
Title: The Last Jews of Kerala: The Two Thousand Year History of India’s Forgotten Jewish Community Author: Edna Fernandes Date published: June 1, 2009 Country Published: USA Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Description: Two thousand years ago, trade routes and the fall of Jerusalem took Jewish settlers seeking sanctuary across Europe and Asia. One little-known group settled…
When the State of Israel was established in 1948, waves of Jews from India’s three major centuries-old Jewish communities began to migrate to Israel, eventually resulting in a population of over 80,000 Jews of Indian heritage living in Israel today. Nonetheless, scholars from both Israel and the Indian diaspora have paid limited attention to the…