In 1919, at a public meeting on the subject of Zionism, an Indian Jew named David Erulkar argued that “forming the Jewish nation from peoples who were widely divergent in their civilizations, ways of thinking, and economic conditions…would be to set back the world’s progress by several centuries.” The diversity he felt was threatened is…
This cookbook piqued my interest, and I thought you might be interested. Calcutta, India, released it in 1922. This book was given to me by my father-in-law, a Calcutta Jew. Calcutta’s Jewish community has a rich and colorful history. Over two hundred years ago, they made their home there. Barry scanned and emailed me a…
We recently received two ARCs about twelve-year-old girls whose mothers are Indian and fathers are Jewish, a viewpoint rarely seen in children’s novels. Mira Levenson is a British novelist (Mira in the Present Tense by Sita Brahmachari, Whitman, September 2013) “[With] long, dead-straight black hair and dark brown eyes that, according to my father, sometimes…
Sadia Shepard, an American writer, and filmmaker traveled to India in search of her ancestry and to better understand her history, which is a blend of Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic cultures. She left with 18 diaries full of memories that she compiled into a book. The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten…
Various groups frequently oppose the way specific subjects are presented in school textbooks. Most recently, McGraw-Hill apologized for using the phrase “the Atlantic Slave Trade” to describe slavery in its World Geography textbook: “The Atlantic Slave Trade brought millions of people from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations between the…
There is no doubt that India’s secularism is in jeopardy. Militant Hinduism is still a powerful force, much like extremist Islam. The ongoing bloodshed in Kashmir is an open wound, and Gujarat’s recurrent outbreaks of religious violence, mixed with memories of the 2006 Mumbai attacks, have heightened tensions. Just talk to a Kashmiri Pandit—a Hindu…
Only from the second or European phase in the annals of the India-Jewish alliance can the research of India’s place in Jewish history or the role of Jews in Indian history be set on a firmer foundation and based on more trustworthy data. This period began with the arrival of Europeans in India at the…
The founder of Florida International University’s Program in the Study of Spirituality is retiring, and the classroom will go “mobile” next. After more than 40 years of college teaching, Nathan Katz, who has been with FIU since 1994, will retire on July 31. Katz’s next step will be to lead a 13-day Jewish interest trip…
We published an essay on the Jews of India a few weeks ago, pointing out that the Jews of that vast peninsula have little pride in either their race or their country. Wilfred David, a young English Jew who has spent most of his life in India except for intervals spent at Cambridge and on…
Mavis Hyman’s family went from Baghdad to Kolkata, India, 200 years ago with a colony of Jewish traders. They are members of the little-known Indian-Baghdadi group, whose cuisines combine Iraqi and Indian ingredients and culinary traditions. Hyman covers the cuisines of her community as well as other Indian Jewish communities, with recipes ranging from spam,…