For India’s Bene Israel “kirtankars,” COVID-19 competes with Haman as the villain of the Jewish holiday of Purim this year. For the holiday, the kirtankars, a group of elderly ladies from Mumbai’s Jewish community who sing kirtan, or traditional devotional songs, planned to perform a kirtan about Queen Esther in the synagogue. However, because of…
It had been a long time since anyone could understand the songs performed by the Nirit Singers of Israel, as the music was in an ancient language not spoken today. But people who witnessed their performance found themselves clapping along to the rhythm anyway. The panel of experts on folk songs was made up of…
After their army service, young Israelis are traveling to India in droves. Many who visit come back home with delightful stories and memories of their time in South Africa. Now, their parents are visiting with tour groups that feature luxurious budgets. They’ve heard so much about India, and now they’re seeing it all firsthand. Air…
Rahel Musleah was born in Calcutta, India, to a family whose lineage can be traced back to Baghdad in the 17th century. This lady is going to lead you on a very interesting tour of Jewish India that incorporates historical facts, stories, memorabilia, and photographs. A story of an Indian Jewish community that incorporates a…
This article examines the Babylonian Jews’ religious music repertory (liturgical and paraliturgical) in the port city of Bombay (now Mumbai) in western India, based mostly on information gathered from informants in the mid-1980s in Bombay and the United Kingdom. 1 Six pieces from the repertory for religio-social occasions in the annual and life cycles –…
This week on the Right Brain Music Podcast, we meet the Om Shalom Trio, a group of musicians who blend Indian, Jewish, and classical music traditions so well that you won’t even know they were ever apart. This is our first joint project with The World Fusion Show, a popular show on community access TV…
Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the music of India’s Jewish community. Indeed, the formation of a close-knit community of Indo-Judaic Studies in academia as a whole roughly paralleled the rise in interest in Indian Jewish music. Sara Manasseh, an ethnomusicologist in the vanguard of this movement, has partnered…
Zubin Mehta is on the phone with an old buddy for the first few minutes of our encounter (who, it turns out, is a grandson of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan). Mr. Mehta’s acquaintance is an Indian Zoroastrian—or Parsi—and the two are planning supper after the maestro and his Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conclude…
Apart from the time-honored rituals of children and adventurous adults screaming and stomping their feet to scare away the evil Haman during readings from the ‘Megillah,’ the congregation will witness a slice of Marathi Jewish history at sundown this Thursday if synagogues in the city are allowed their two-day Purim celebrations — a festival commemorating…
Malayalam Zionist songs, which incorporate melodies and rhetoric from Indian cinema and political music from the twentieth century, are a noteworthy example of Jewish integration and contribution to Kerala’s diverse culture. Kerala Jews composed songs in Malayalam right up until they departed for the newly formed nation of Israel, and ten modern Zionist songs were…