Category: Articles

KOCHI: On Wednesday, Jews from all over the world met in the city for a Jewish conference themed “Jews of India, Jews in India.” The conference, which included Jews from Australia, the United States, England, China, and Israel, as well as Indian communities, focused on the contributions of Jews to India’s growth. The conference on…

The Jewish connection to India is both ancient and modern and when Hinduism and Judaism come together, it gives us a lot of interesting information. As a minority in a country that has welcomed and cared for you, would you take the chance to go back to your home country? Whether or not: Is there…

Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, just returned from a six-day official visit to India, during which the two countries declared a “new era” in bilateral relations. Zubair Ahmed of BBC Hindi visited Israel’s Beersheba to meet a population of Indian-origin Jews who arrived shortly after the country’s founding. Even though Naor Gudekar is 61 years…

The Jewish community in India is one of many communities that have settled in India after migrating from outside the country’s modern territorial borders. What distinguishes the Jews, though, is their ability to integrate into the local culture. A humble appearing structure tucked away in a corner of the high-end Humayun Road in Khan Market,…

It’s that time of year again: Passover, the Jewish holiday commemorating the Exodus, is upon us. Many Passover customs are more or less consistent around the world—avoiding leavened bread, serving matzah and other symbolic meals, recounting essential portions of the Passover narrative—but as these images illustrate, they can vary dramatically in appearance and feel depending…

For the past 2,000 years, the Bene Israel community has lived in India, but unlike the Parsis, the country’s Jews are difficult to recognize. This is partly because Parsi cuisine, customs, and lovable individuals have become part of Mumbai’s allure. The Bene Israelis (Hebrew for “children of Israel”), on the other hand, have assimilated Indian…

The Jewish community in Mumbai clings to centuries of tradition, but their numbers are rapidly shrinking. India’s Mumbai – Although it was once a sizable community, India’s Jewish population has shrunk dramatically, leaving only a small minority who are fighting to preserve their traditions alive. More than 2,000 years ago, the first Jews arrived in…

My research on the movement of Jews from India to Israel since 1948 and their socio-cultural absorption into Israeli society brought me to several interesting works by sociologists, anthropologists, and historians last week when I was reading about Indian Jewry. As a defense studies student, I am well aware of India’s and Israel’s strong military…