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Passport to Peoplehood: India
Immerse yourself in India’s colorful Jewish history, and learn new ways to approach the ancient story of Shavuot.
Slideshows
India Slideshow
Discover the Jewish history of India.
• India Slideshow Script (PDF)
• India Educator Background (PDF)
Shavuot Slideshow
What can Shavuot teach us about celebrating difference?
• Shavuot Slideshow Script (PDF)
• Shavuot Educator Background (PDF)
Recipes
Indian Dal
This everyday Indian food is a great addition to a weeknight rotation.
Indian Cardamom Kheer
Use this rich, flavorful rice pudding as an opportunity to discuss cooking across cultures.
Majadra
Versions of Majadra are eaten across India, Ethiopia, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Art Projects
Seven Species Window Hangings
Sukkot was once a harvest pilgrimage holiday. Celebrate the traditional Seven Species of Israel with easy-to-make stained “glass” art. Includes printable stencils.
Baruchim Haba’im Rangoli
Combine the Israeli tradition of welcoming signs, “Baruch Haba’im,” with Rangoli, an Indian art form, to create art that emphasizes Jewish hospitality.
Worksheet
India & Welcoming Worksheet
Being welcomed by their neighbors helped define the Indian Jewish community and their perception of themselves. What does it mean to welcome a stranger into your community? How can we use the Jewish concept of hachnasat orchim (welcoming guests) to view welcoming as an active process, and how can we use this in the future to make everyone in our community feel included?
Articles about Indian Jews
A selection of articles from our Jewish Diversity Archive, the world’s largest online archive of material about ethnically and racially diverse Jews. Explore the archive >
Sunil Khilnani, The New York Times, 08/07/2020
By comparing white supremacy in the U.S. to the caste system in India, her new book at once illuminates and collapses a complex history.
Penny Schwartz, JTA, 08/03/2020
When it came to chanting Torah, Rabbi Ezekiel Nissim Musleah was in a class by himself.
PJ Grisar, Forward, 05/20/2020
Leah Franqui is stranded in her hometown of Philadelphia and missing her life in Mumbai.
Philissa Craer, JTA, 03/31/2020
Few people have any great solutions for this difficult moment in human history, but Sudeep Agarwala is one of them.
Ruth Abusch-Magder and Eddna Samuel, Jewish&, 02/04/2020
"Malida" ceremony involves prayer and offerings of fruit and nuts.
Surinder Jain, NewsGram Desk, 09/18/2019
Hindus have been the most tolerant and accepting of people fleeing their homelands.
TMN Staff, The News Minute, 09/11/2019
There were two synagogues in Mattancherry – one belonged to the white Jews while the oldest one belonged to the Black Jews.
Nidheesh M.K., The Mint, 09/09/2019
The passing away of Sarah Cohen, 96, marks the end of a chapter in Kochi’s 2,000-year-old tale of multiculturalism.
Humans of Hillel, Hillel International, 09/03/2019
Humans of Hillel highlights the identities of Jewish college students. Learn from students about why Hillel is meaningful to their Jewish identities.
Briana Trujillo, Religion News Service, 08/07/2019
The Jews in this region of Kerala go by different names: Paradesi, Malabari, Baghdadi, Cochin, Indian. But time is quietly claiming this ancient community.
Kveller Staff, Kveller, 05/28/2019
Team Be'chol Lashon, Jewish&, 05/16/2019
Charting a path of connection and adventure
Ruth Abusch-Magder, Jewish&, 02/19/2019
Recipes for Indian Jewish Brunch
Team Be'chol Lashon, Jewish &, 12/17/2018
A memoir of an American Jewish Indian adoptee.
Eddna Samuel, Jewish&, 11/29/2018
An Indian Jew shares her Hanukkah traditions
Ejaz Naqvi, Patheos, 09/24/2018
These Jews and Muslims are leading by example and prove that peace is not just a pipe dream by giving hope to rest of us striving for interfaith harmony.
JNS, The Cleveland Jewish News, 08/22/2018
Highlighting JDC involvement in repairing after the Kerala flood.
Rachel Beck, Jewish&, 07/19/2018
An Indian orphan finds a home in a Jewish family and community
JTA, The Times of Israel, 07/10/2018
Gujarat becomes third state to recognize Jews, which entitles them to a raft of welfare benefits for religious minority communities
Ruth Abusch Magder, Jewish&, 03/20/2018
A recipe for making Indian Passover Seder treat
Joanne Palmer, New Jersey Jewish Standard, 09/25/2017
Indian, Jew, Yiddish-speaker, Tamil-speaker, linguist, professor – Meylekh Viswanath of Teaneck is, does, and thinks about it all.
Rakesh Jah, Inuth, 09/20/2017
There are around 6000 Jews in the country who are busy protecting the last remnants of Jewish heritage
Nandita Godbole, Atlanta Jewish Times, 09/19/2017
Nandita Godbole is an Indian origin food writer and cookbook author, living in Roswell for nearly 12 years now. She was raised Hindu but has Jewish roots as well. In her upcoming book, "Not For You: Family Narratives of Denial & Comfort Foods", she discusses some of the influences of a mixed faith marriage in the early and mid 20th century, in rural India, on a young family, and how some of the hurt was perpetuated through time.
Eliana Rudee, Breaking Israel News, 09/18/2017
"And in that day, a great ram’s horn shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship Hashem on the holy mount, in Yerushalayim.” Isaiah 27:13 (The Israel Bible™)
Shulie Madnick, Forward, 09/17/2017
On the morning of Rosh Hashanah Eve 2016, I met Sharona Hayeems, a local Indian Jewish caterer, at her home in Dadar, a neighborhood in Mumbai where some of the remaining 4,500 Indian Jews in India still live. I was there to spend some time watching her cook for Rosh Hashanah. Read more: https://forward.com/food/382673/how-a-mumbai-cook-prepares-for-rosh-hashanah/
Jawed Naqvi, The Asian Age, 07/12/2017
Baghdadi Jews mostly ran major businesses all over India, under Hindu patronage and under Muslim rule.
Outlook Team, Outlook, 07/05/2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gifted his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu replicas of two sets of relics from Kerala, regarded as key artifacts of the long Jewish history in India.
Danny Ben-Moshe, Jewish&, 06/28/2017
A filmaker’s journey to uncover the story of Jews in Bollywood.
Ellen Barry, The New York Times, 01/02/2017
India’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday that candidates for political office cannot appeal to voters on the basis of religion, caste, community or language, arguing that India’s Constitution enshrines its elections as fundamentally secular.
Vandana Kalra, The Indian Express, 12/27/2016
Artist, whose father migrated to Israel from Kerala at age of six, is showcasing that journey, and those of others before him, at the Kochi Biennale.
Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 10/03/2016
Needel focuses on the Jews of Mumbai, explaining how they have created a “finely balanced and unique Indo-Judaic identity through a demonstrative cultural and religious inclusions of their Indian neighbors.”
Mira Jacob, BuzzFeed, 06/08/2015
"Are white people afraid of brown people?"
Jael Silliman, Business Standard, 12/20/2014
An exquisitely illustrated book documents the seminal role European Jews played in the flowering of India's modern art movement in the early 20th century, demonstrating how outside impulses and influence.
Noreen Daniel, Jewish&, 10/12/2014
I was born and raised in a traditional Jewish family in India.
Leah Koenig, Forward.com, 03/12/2014
In 2011, Sonia Benjamin traveled to India on a Fulbright scholarship to interview, photograph, and document the lives of more than 70 of Mumbai’s remaining 5,000 Jews. Back at home, she transformed these stories into a stunning collection of oversized photo collage paintings called “FACES: Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives.”
Marjorie Ingall, Tablet, 06/10/2013
Offering an Indian twist on the Great Flood, The Enduring Ark finds universal themes in a biblical tale that resonates today.
Jael Silliman, Scroll.in, 11/07/2017
A new book examines the community’s heritage and origins through a series of stunning photographs.
Lishai Peel, The J., 09/29/2020
I came to associate India as a place full of ghosts, lost children, deep faith, and unfinished stories.