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Contents: 1. The heritage and legacy of the Jews of India/Shalva Weil. 2. The Jewish presence in Bombay/Sifra Samuel Lentin. 3. In search of India`s synagogues: their architecture and history/Jay A. Waronker. 4. The architecture of the Paradesi Cochin synagogue/Ilana Weil. 5. The marriage customs of the Jewish community of Cochin/Samuel H. Hallegua. 6. The ritual cycle of Cochin Jewish holidays: a Malabari perspective/Galia Hacco. 7. Bene Israel rites and routines/Shalva Weil. 8. Sari-Sutra: Bene Israel costumes/Esther David. 9. The life-cycle of the Baghdadi Jews of India/John and Judy Cooper. 10. The contributions of the Jews of India/Joan Roland. Index.
"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, architecture, and literature with testimonies of members of the Indian Jewish communities. It provides an intercultural perspective to the study of India`s Jews, with both Indian and western viewpoints represented. It also researches several hitherto unexplored areas in the study of India`s Jewish heritage, such as the history of Bene Israel dress, and India`s famous Jewish personalities. Moreover, this is the first comprehensive volume in the growing field of visual studies to appear in India on Indian Jews, which combines scholarship with photographic documentation.
The editor of the volume is an anthropologist, who is a world authority on Indian Jewry. The majority of the contributors are Indian Jews, who emphasize the most significant items in their own community`s heritage; the others are scholars of Indian Jewry and its rich culture. Together, the contributors in this volume portray a wonderful past that lingers on in the surviving communities in India as well as in the dispersed communities who have carried with them to their new homelands their Indian Jewish traditions and culture."
ISBN - 8185026580
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Pages : 124
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