Category: Bene Israel

The Bene Israel history is documented not just in my DNA, but in the stories, we have told about the community. I am in fourth grade and we are working on a geography project in class. This assignment gives us a week to complete a folder of research and photos on any particular country of…

An upcoming presentation focuses on the various food and cultural traditions that characterize the community, such as the ‘na’rale halwa’ made during the Jewish new year and the ‘malida’, a traditional celebratory staple. Lately, Pezarkar, 27, is hard at work preparing a detailed lecture about the Bene Israeli community, their food, and customs, for an…

Daniel learned Hebrew and the teachings of the faith as a child in Mumbai’s small, close-knit Jewish community. He often led prayers and aided at his local synagogue, where several members of his family served as community leaders, even though he was not officially ordained. That experience came in useful in 1994, when Daniel and…