India’s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art, & Life-Cycle

This book documents the vanishing heritage of the relatively unknown Indian Jewish communities: the Bene Israel of Maharashtra, the Cochin Jews of the Malabar coast, and the “Baghdadi” Jews who settled in Bombay and Calcutta. Despite the marked increase in scholarship in Indo-Judaic studies in recent years, the documentation of the diverse traditions of the different Indian Jewish communities remains incomplete. The present volume acquaints readers with the rich culture of India’s Jews, and their contribution to the colourful tapestry of India. With emigration, many of the rituals and life-cycle events peculiar to these communities are being added to the mosaic of their new countries and gradually disappearing in their new diasporas. How long the Jews of India will be able to preserve their ethnic and cultural identities is uncertain. The volume is ground-breaking in many respects. Its focus is interdisciplinary, combining studies by researchers from anthropology, history. Archite