Apart from geography and language, nothing seems to bind India's five dwindling Jewish communities — other than prayer and food in Hebrew.
East of the Hooghley River in the Indian city of Kolkata lies Barabazar, a wholesale market dating back to the 18th century. Everything – from spices, clothes and electronics to salvaged doors and second-hand furniture – is traded here. In this bustling network of roads, at the corner of Brabourne Road and Canning Street, sits the majestic Red David Synagogue. Adjacent to it is the oldest surviving synagogue in the city, the Neveh Shalom Synagogue.
Built in the late 19th century in the Italian Renaissance style, with bright brick finishes, beige trims, arches and minarets, the Red David is striking. Inside, checkered floors, ornate columns, gleaming chandeliers and stained glass windows create an unforgettable image. However, the synagogue is mostly empty and there is hardly any religious activity.
Kolkata is home to the Jews of Baghdad, who once owned five synagogues. There are not enough minyans (the liturgical purpose requires at least [10] male Jews). Magen David and the smaller Beth El Synagogue on nearby Pollock Street are listed as protected monuments and renovated in 2017 by the Archaeological Survey of India. Today, they are tourist destinations and open to strange tourists.
The story of the disappearance of the Jewish population echoes elsewhere in India. Esther David's new book, Bene Appetit: The Cuisine of Indian Jews, seeks to preserve the culinary traditions of these declining communities. According to David, Jews are believed to have first arrived in India about 2,000 years ago. Since then, until two centuries ago, waves of Jewish immigrants have continued to come here from all over the world to flee persecution and find better livelihoods. Once they landed, they settled in different corners of the country.
The largest group is the Bene Israel Jewish community, spread across Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat; Malabar or Cochin Jews can be found in Kerala. Jews from Baghdad settled in Kolkata; Bene Ephraim Jews near Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh; and Bnei Menashe Jews in Manipur and Mizoram. By 1940, an estimated 50,000 Jews were making India their home. But the number of widespread emigration to Israel in the 1950s gradually decreased, and it is estimated that fewer than 5,000 remain.
For Indian Jews, Sabbath rituals can include pancakes and grape sherbet
Predictably, they are integrated into the local community and adapt to the influence of the local language and cooking. So much so that every community is now different. No two people speak the same language, and most of their food is very different. However, some overlap remains: all five communities continue to pray in Hebrew and all adhere to dietary laws — including not mixing dairy and meat, not eating pork, not eating shellfish, and not eating scaleless fish — which is the basis of religion.
"Indian Jews' food has regional influence, but [although kosher cuisine elsewhere usually contains elements of meat] their staple food is fish [with scales] and rice," David explains, noting that Indian Jews used coconut milk or fruit to avoid mixing dairy products with meat. "Because kosher meat isn't always available, many of them follow a vegetarian diet," she adds. The recipe does list many meat dishes, but these are occasionally cooked on special and festive occasions.
Other unique tweaks david points out, including the replacement of challah with chapatis (unleavened bread) – a care not to cook or spread ghee as is usually done in India, if eaten with meat – and the use of homemade grape juice/sherbet at Sabbath ceremonies due to the unavailability of kosher.
David, an award-winning writer and artist from the Jewish community of Bene Israel, admits she has only a momentary interest in food. One of her previous works, The Book of Rachel, has a protagonist who turns to cooking, and each chapter begins with a Jewish recipe. However, David never paid attention to a cookbook. Meeting sources in alibaug town (outside of Mumbai, and Bene Israel's hometown) changed everything. The aroma and taste of dishes made from her source bring her back to her childhood and unlock long-forgotten memories. Hence the first line of Bene Appetit: "Food is memory".
However, the exact moment of deciding to write a recipe for Indian Kosher cuisine took place far from home in Paris, where she cooked Bene Israel kosher dishes when one of her novels was released and began to consider documenting Indian Kosher countries. Back home, she engages with the community, travels and meets people, and collects their recipes. Work made progress online when the pandemic hit, and the book was published in 2021.
India's five main Jewish communities are spread around different corners of the country
The arc in the food story of each of the five communities is a historical factor. In Kolkata, a change in cuisine may have occurred shortly after Iraqi Jewish immigrants arrived and discovered Indian spices. Author Sonal Ved, in her book Whose Satsuma is What Exactly? Stories of where "Indian" food really came from say that when they arrived in the 1800s, they probably only knew ingredients like chili peppers and garlic. When they found the rest, it "sparked a whole new mix of Jewish cuisine, which included arook (meaning "veined" in Hebrew and Arabic), rice balls flavored with garam masala; pantras, pancakes with beef stuffing sprinkled with turmeric, ginger and garam masala; Hanse mukhmura, a duck-based dish made with almonds, raisins, bay leaves, tamarind sauce and ginger root; and aloo-m-kalla murgi, chicken stew with potatoes. ”
At the other end of the country, Mattancherry is a small place south of Kochi on the Kerala coast, home to the Jewish Town, with several streets mixed with shops selling antiques, spices, knick-knick-knacks and local handicrafts, dotted with cafes and restaurants. At the end of Synagogue Alley is the 17th-century Paradesi (foreign) synagogue, consisting of a sloping tile roof, tiles with a blue and white wicker pattern, Belgian chandeliers, Jewish symbols, and four volumes of the Law.
Outside, the humid coastal air carries the aroma of spices, something that Kerala has always been rich in. As a trading community, malabar Jews sensed an opportunity and eventually took control of the local spice trade. Not surprisingly, today's Marabali Jewish cuisine exudes a flavor of spice and is blended with coconut milk, an important part of traditional Kerala cuisine, which goes well with the Jewish diet. Here you will find Malabar Jews eating delicious curries made with fish, chicken and vegetables, as well as sambhar (lentil and vegetable gravy) eaten with rice. There are also appam (rice funnel), meen pollichathu (green curry fish), kosher curry fish, coconut curry chicken, and pudding and payasam (a kind of porridge) for coconut milk. An unusual dish is pastels, similar to a meat pie, stuffed with ground chicken.
In western India, the home of Israeli Jews in Beni, the local influence is evident. Poha (beaten rice) is a familiar Maharashtra staple used to make breakfast and snacks, but also plays an important role in local kosher food. Poha is washed and mixed with grated coconuts, a series of dried and nuts, and chopped seasonal fruits to form an integral part of malida ( the thanksgiving ritual of the local Jewish people ) . But there are also some unusual dishes, such as chik-cha-halwa, an iconic Bene Israeli sweet made by reducing wheat extract and coconut milk.
Bini Israeli Jews added Maharashtra staple foods to their diets, such as the use of poha in malida rituals
On the east coast of India, The Machilipatnam, a port town in The Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, and several other nearby rural towns are home to The Jews of Benefarin, who number only 50. Andhra's fiery food (Andhra Pradesh is india's largest chili pepper) enters the local Kosher cuisine, with spicy curries accompanied by local Andhra dishes that conform to Jewish traditions such as tamarind rice, lemon rice, Indian Birjani, gongula chicken (rich hibiscus leaves), sambar, chutney and sweets called bobbatlu (a flat, round wheat envelope filled with sweet lentils).
In northeastern India, the Jews of Bnei Menashe in Manipur and Mizoram rely on rice — a local staple that is eaten at everything including breakfast — and condiments cooked with fiery red or green peppers in local customs. These dishes include bamboo boiled fish, bamboo shoot sauce, a variety of vegetables including taro stir-fry and mustard greens, otenga (a dish made from elephant apples), rice puris (fried puffed bread), and even egg chutney and pudding for rice made with local black rice.
This is both surprising and exhilarating. Indian Jews are united by their food heritage
In addition to recipes, David's book records how Jews in each region celebrated Jewish holidays and traditions (Sabbath, Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, etc.) and employed cultural aspects of local communities such as mehendi (traditional henna designs painted on the hands and legs of brides — and other women — at Hindu weddings) and wearing sarees and bracelets.
For David, who traveled from one neighborhood to another and faced linguistic and geographical differences, what stood out most was the similarity.
"It's both surprising and exhilarating," she said. "Indian Jews are united by their food heritage."