Indiaâ€™s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art, & Life-Cycle

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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 â€œBaghdadiâ€ 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 Indiaâ€™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

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shalva Weil

Shalva Weil, editor of this volume, has specialized in research on the Jews of India for thirty years, since her three-year fieldwork with the Bene Israel community in Lod, Israel. Her publications include an edited volume on Cochin Jews, numerous articles on the Bane Israel, and review essays on the Baghdadi Jews. She has contributed entries on Indian Jewry and the Ten Lost Tribes to several major encyclopedias, has curated and advised on exhibitions on the subject, and in 2002 co-organized a conference on Indo-Judaic studies at Oxford University, UK. She is on the editorial board of several international journals, and is founding Chairperson (with Zubin Mehta as President) of the Israel-India Cultural Association.