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An idea of inclusive India

A book of essays captures the Jewish diaspora's experience of philo-Semitism in the country

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Growing Up Jewish in India
Chintan Girish Modi
5 min read Last Updated : Jul 08 2022 | 11:37 PM IST
The relationship between India and Israel is often examined through a political lens, but it might be equally important to study it using a cultural and civilisational lens. This approach can expand our understanding of why these countries are on good terms with each other. The ideological affinities between Zionism and Hindutva offer only a partial view of the picture.

“Indian Jews have historically lived across diverse parts of the Indian subcontinent over the centuries without experiencing the sort of anti-Semitism that has been so common in many other parts of the world,” writes Ori Z Soltes in an anthology of essays titled Growing Up Jewish in India. He is a professor at the Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Georgetown University, and former director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. Both these institutions are located in Washington DC.

Soltes adds, “The general lack of hostility and persecution may be understood in part as a cultural phenomenon, but also as a function of the nature of Hinduism, by far the dominant religion across India, and its embrace of diverse perspectives regarding how, specifically, one might understand and address divinity.” He makes his case by highlighting the plurality of possibilities available to Hindus in terms of which deity they might want to worship.

In the foreword, Ralphy Jhirad, founder and managing trustee of the Bene Israel Heritage Museum and Genealogical Research Centre in Mumbai, seems to echo Soltes when he notes that Indian Jews have experienced “Philo-Semitism rather than the anti-Semitism that many Jewish communities across the Diaspora have faced”. This simply means that Jews have been able to practise their traditions and celebrate their heritage without persecution.

If you think that Jhirad and Soltes are exaggerating, read Esther David’s non-fiction book, Bene Appétit: The Cuisine of Indian Jews. The author discusses how Indian Jews observe the “strict dietary law of kosher” by infusing traditional recipes with local ingredients. You might also want to read Zilka Joseph’s poetry collection, In Our Beautiful Bones. She was born in Mumbai, and lived in Kolkata before moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States where she is based now. She was raised as an Indian Jew but is not religious.

Soltes, who has written three essays for this book apart from the introduction, draws attention to the multiple origin stories that explain the history of Jewish presence in India. He writes, “Jews arrived in the Indian subcontinent in several distinct waves at distinct if – in some cases – debated times, and from distinct and diverse places – a layered diaspora from within the Jewish Diaspora.” The depth of research in this book is eye-opening.

Read it to learn about the Marathi-speaking Bene Israel in the Konkan region, the Cochini Jews of Kerala who speak Judeo-Malayalam, the Marrano Jews in Goa, the Bene Ephraim people of Andhra Pradesh who speak Telugu, Mizo and Kuki tribals from Manipur and Mizoram who converted to Judaism and became the Bene Menashe, and the Arabic-speaking Baghdadi Jews who arrived in Surat and settled in Bombay, Calcutta and Pune.

While this diversity within a small minority is mind-boggling, it is crucial to acknowledge that a large number of Indian Jews migrated after the state of Israel was created in 1948. This was shortly after the British left India and it became an independent nation-state. When the Jewish population in India declined, a large number of Bene Israel synagogues fell into disuse. Even the ones that were “important centres of religious, social and communal life” were often served by a hazan (cantor), not an ordained rabbi. The hazan also served as the shohet (kosher slaughterer), mohel (ritual circumciser), and sopher (scribe).

Orna Eliyahu-Oron, a Seattle-based art historian and ceramic artist who was born in Israel and raised by parents who migrated from Ernakulam in the 1950s, has written a chapter on the synagogues and cultural heritage of Cochini Jews in Kerala. Her co-author is Barbara C Johnson, professor emerita from Ithaca College, who lived for four years in south India in the 1960s in order to conduct long-term research on the Jews of Kerala. Johnson has also written a book on Malayalam songs preserved and performed by Kerala Jewish women. This chapter reinforces how Jewish communities have absorbed regional influences not only in the matter of cuisine but also art and architecture, and the use of ritual objects in worship.

Jael Silliman, former associate professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa, who is now an independent scholar and writer, has written a chapter on the synagogues of the Baghdadi Jews of Kolkata. These buildings often feature on the itineraries of tourists, photographers, and those who enjoy heritage walks, but there are very few Jews in the city.

Silliman writes, “The Calcutta Jews were so attached to their synagogues that there was a plan to transport Magen David brick-by-brick to Jerusalem. Calcutta Jews living abroad had met with Teddy Kolek, then Mayor of Jerusalem, to find a suitable site in which to locate it.” The plan was shot down by the few Jews actually living in Kolkata. They got the synagogue registered with the Archaeological Survey of India to “ensure that it could never be moved”.

Erica Lyons, who chairs the Hong Kong Jewish Historical Society, has written a fascinating chapter tracing connections between the Jews of India and China. She writes, “The founders of Hong Kong’s Jewish community, like Shanghai’s, were the Sassoons, Baghdadi Jews expanding their trading empire from India.” The book also looks closely at the work of Siona Benjamin, a Bene Israel artist who grew up in Mumbai and is now located in the US. Her art is a celebration not only of Judaism but of the entire gamut of influences that inspire her – Kali, Krishna, Bollywood, Amar Chitra Katha comics, and Persian miniature painting. 
BOOK DETAILS

Title: Growing Up Jewish in India

Editor: Ori Z Soltes

Publisher: Niyogi Books

Pages: 320

Price: Rs 1,500

Topics :BOOK REVIEW

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