Bene Appetit: The Lifestyle and Cuisine of Jews Across the Country

The Jewish community in India comprises a tiny but important part of the population. There are around five thousand Jews and five Jewish communities in India, but they are fast diminishing in number. Bene Appetit offers a holistic portrait of this little-known community – read an excerpt!

There are about five thousand Jews and five Jewish communities in India, but they are fast diminishing in number. Till 1940 there were about 50,000 Jews in India. But soon after the independence of Israel, during the 1950s, many Jewish families emigrated back there and to other Western countries. They often return to India, and are seen in the synagogues of Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Alibaug during weddings, bar mitzvahs and Yom Kippur.

I had planned this journey to discover the food traditions of these communities. Traditional Indian Jewish food is a dying art.

The Bene Israel Jewish community is the largest in India. They live in western India – in Mumbai and its environs, as well as in Alibaug and its surroundings in Raigad district, Maharashtra; and in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Rajpipla and Palanpur in Gujarat.

Then there are the Cochin Jews in Kochi and its environs in Kerala; the Baghdadi Jews in Kolkata, West Bengal; the Bene Ephraim Jews in Vijayawada and its environs and in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. In the Northeast, we have the Bnei Menashe Jews in Aizawl, Mizoram, and in Imphal and Churachandpur, Manipur.

All these communities have different ways of following the dietary law in their food habits, yet there is a common thread, which links each community to the other.

The strict dietary law referred to above is of not mixing dairy products with meat dishes. Indian Jews also have fish with scales. Pork is taboo. They prefer to end their meals with fruit or betel leaf and betel nut. And, as a substitute to dairy products, they use coconut milk to make curries, sweets and other recipes.

Indian Jews have thorough knowledge about the animals they can and cannot eat. There is always a Jewish elder, known as shohet, in each community, who knows the law of kosher to slaughter animals. As kosher meat is not easily available in India, a majority of Indian Jews are vegetarians and have a variety of dairy-based foods with their meals.

Most Jewish communities live around seashores, lakes and rivers and have a preference for fish and rice. Many of the members took to the urban way of life and moved to cities; before that they were farmers who owned paddy fields, along with coconut and banana plantations. The Bene Israel Jews were known to be oilpressers.

During this journey, I had to deal with the languages spoken in various regions – Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Malayalam in Kochi, Bengali in Kolkata, Mizo and Manipuri in northeast India and Marathi in western India. I had to find interpreters in almost all areas, as I can only speak English, Hindi and Gujarati. It is important to mention that while most Indian Jews speak English, along with the regional languages, they say their prayers in Hebrew.

Looking back, I noticed that the Jews of these five regions have different facial characteristics. When I photographed them, they became like a kaleidoscopic collage of contrasts, yet a common thread bonded them together – their belief in the Jewish traditions, rites, rituals, their lifestyle and the dietary law.

I also discovered that almost all Jewish communities observe the Shabbath with handmade flatbread or chapatti or bread bought from a bakery, a bowl of salt and homemade grape sherbet for Shabbath prayers, followed by a sumptuous meal.

I noted that today, most Indian Jews rarely make traditional dishes for festivals or even the Shabbath. I hope that this book will inspire all generations of Indian Jews to return to their roots.