Local legend says that when the first Jews of India arrived by ship on the Konkan coast of India, they were accompanied by Prophet Elijah. Escaping persecution in the Galilee, it is believed to be thanks to Elijah that the Jewish families survived a shipwreck and subsequently settled in the region. 2,100 years later, locals…
Gabe Weinstein, a staff writer at the school, took the pictures in the gallery above while he was in India this fall. We’re still at least an hour away from Hampi in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The moon will still be up for at least that long. At Dudu Falafel, it could…
VADODARA: Gujarat’s unique Jewish heritage – the Israeli Kabrastan at Nizampura – is expected to get some permanent face-lift after years of yearning. Israel’s consul general in India Orna Sagiv will be visiting the Jewish cemetery on Thursday. This is the fist visit by an Israeli official at the Jewish cemetery which has some of…
Joyce Shankaran with friends and family in Bombay (L to R): Ruth Varsulkar, Joyce’s niece; Esther Talkar, Joyce’s friend; Elizabeth Abraham, Joyce’s mother; Joyce; Anu, Joyce’s daughter. The “Baghdadis,” referring to Jews coming mainly from Baghdad, Basra and Aleppo, but also from other Arabic speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire, arrived in India in the…
Chabad’s Rabbi Shimon Freundlich marks Chanucah at the Great Wall of China near Beijing Erica Lyons runs Asia’s brand-new Jewish magazine, Asian Jewish Life, from a small office in central Hong Kong. It is the region’s “Jewish cultural headquarters”, she jokes with her office mate, a journalist who presides over Hong Kong’s Jewish Film Festival….
A Hudson wedding unites a couple and their Indian and Jewish traditions HUDSON — It was a typical romance: The couple, now in their mid 20s, met at Tufts University, where they lived in the same dorm. They fell in love. And on a sultry Saturday in July, with families and friends in attendance, they…
This story is really going to irritate some people. An Israeli, Tzvi MiSinai, has accepted upon himself the mission of investigating the Jewish roots of the Palestinians. He believes that many Palestinians have Jewish ancestors: “In our search for the lost Ten Tribes in India and Afghanistan, we seem to have forgotten to look for…
A ritual for Rosh Hashanah that goes far beyond dipping apples in honey. When it comes to Rosh Hashanah, families of Sephardic and Mizrahi origin–like mine from Calcutta, India–have a secret to share with the rest of the Jewish world: a distinctive New Year’s seder far beyond apples dipped in honey. On the first night…
Jewish-Indian author, sculptor and art critic, Esther David writes in English and Gujarati. Her novels include The Walled City (Syracuse University Press, 2002); The Book of Esther (Penguin Global, 2003); The Book of Rachel (Penguin Global, 2007) and Shalom India Housing Society (Feminist Press, 2009). Her work has also been featured in anthologies that include…
When Tzvi Khaute landed at Tel Aviv for the first time, he wanted to kiss the earth. Alas, the modern airport was all tarmac and stone, so he kissed the first soil he came across, in a flowerpot. Thousands of diaspora Jews from around the world make aliyah — the migration to Israel — every…