Jews of India

You are invited to join the Women of Germantown Jewish Centre (Women of GJC) via Zoom on Sunday, March 27th at 10:00 AM as we learn about the rich and fascinating history of Jewish India dating back to 75 CE and hear about the Jewish delicacies of the 5 distinct Jewish communities in India. This WGJC “Jews Around the World” program is presented by GJC member Dr. Howard Spodek and Esther David of Magen Abraham Synagogue in Ahmedabad, India.

Howard Spodek, a longtime member of GJC, has recently retired from the History Department of Temple University where he focused his research on urban Indian history. He has spent over a decade in Ahmedabad, India, since first visiting in 1964 and is a member of the Magen Abraham synagogue there. Howard regularly attends minyan Dorshei Derekh and has been active, especially in the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Howard received Temple  University’s “Great Teacher” Award in 1993. For several years he helped lead a project with the School District of Philadelphia to revise the understanding and teaching of world history in our Philadelphia schools. Partly as a result of that work he published The World’s History, a college-level textbook that went through five editions, most recently in 2015. The textbook was translated into Chinese by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press. During his tenure at Temple, his research was primarily on urban Indian history. His major publication on this subject is Ahmedabad: Shock City of Twentieth Century India published by Indiana University Press in the USA and Orient Blackswan in India. He has served as executive director of two documentary films: Ahmedabad: the Life of a City in India (1982), available on youtube, and The Urban World: A Case Study in Slum Relocation (2011) available on vimeo at https://vimeo.com/158639745

Esther David, a Jewish Indian author and artist, joins us live from Ahmedabad, India, to tell us more about the history of India’s Jews, especially about the unique cuisines of various Jewish communities across India.  She has received the ‘Sahitya Akademy Award’ for her novels, mostly dealing with the life of the Indian Jewish community, and the National Jewish Book Award, USA. Her book Bene Appetit: The Cuisine of Indian Jews is available in the Little Shop. Esther’s novels are translated in French, Hebrew, Marathi, and Gujarati, She was Chairperson of Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi, Art Critic and Columnist of the Times of India, Ahmedabad edition, and was visiting professor at CEPT University and NIFT Gandhinagar.  She has worked with untrained artists, in what is known as ‘Outsider Art,’ and her works have been exhibited at UNESCO, Paris, and Ahmedabad. She is known for her illustrations and drawings and occasionally exhibits her works in Ahmedabad. She has received the Hadassah Brandeis research award, U.S.A., to document Indian Jews and their cuisine. (www.estherdavid.com)

Questions? Please contact Marilyn Kraut at mkkraut1@gmail.com.