Minority report
Time Out visits some of the members of Delhi’s tiny Indian Jewish community. Photographs by Manit Balmiki. Text by Sonam Joshi. Every Friday evening, in a quiet, otherwise inconspicuous building on Humayun Road, Ezekiel Isaac Malekar leads a small group in saying the Shabbat prayers, which mark the beginning of the weekly day of rest for Jews. Malekar is a rabbi at the half-a-century-old Judas Hyam Synagogue, the only one in Delhi. It is a voluntary position that Malekar, a lawyer by training, has held since 1980, when he came to the city from Pune with his family. This three-decade-long stay also makes the Malekars among the oldest residents of the small, often transitory, Indian Jewish community in the city. The community is so tiny that the marriage of Malekar’s daughter Shulamith to Mumbaikar Sharon Pinhas Phalkar last November made headlines as the capital’s first Indian Jewish wedding in 50 years. The rabbi’s siblings and extended family are among a sizeable number of Indian Jews who have migrated to Israel. Malekar, who grew up and studied law in Pune, came to Delhi in 1980 to work in various government organisations – his last stint was at the National Human Rights Commission. “I am an Indian first and a Jew second,” Malekar said. “That’s why I have not migrated to Israel.” This sentiment is echoed by Elizabeth Daniel and her sister Ruby, who attribute their weekly synagogue visits to childhood habit. “You cannot forget where you are born and bred,” Ruby said, “you always go back to your roots.” While Elizabeth came to Delhi for work three decades ago, Ruby and her German husband arrived only a few years ago. Both sisters grew up in Pune, amidst that city’s larger Jewish community, which has now dwindled considerably. According to the Indian government, between 25,000 and 30,000 Indian Jews have migrated to Israel since the late 1940s, the majority in the ’50s and ’60s. There are around 5,000 Jews in India, mostly concentrated around Mumbai. While there are now only seven-eight Indian Jewish families in Delhi, back in 1956, the community was large enough that the Jewish Welfare Association
The Malekars Ezekiel with his wife Diana, son Noel and 85-year-old mother Hannah in their home. The Malekars are Bene-Israelis – the largest and oldest group of Indian Jews – from Maharashtra. According to a common belief, their ancestors were shipwrecked off the Konkan coast around the second century BCE, then settled in local villages. Subsequently, they adopted Indian rituals: marriages are preceded by a haldi ceremony, married women wear a mangalsutra, and Hanukkah is celebrated with the lighting of a candle as well as a menorah. The settlers also took the Marathi names of these villages they settled in. Most of the Malekars’ relatives now live in Israel; Hannah tried living there for a few years but returned to Delhi in 2009.
The Israels Pictured here are Reuben with his wife Rupa, son Raphael, and daughterin-law Rita. “In a way, the Jews of India have been blessed without the discrimination, but have lost their identity to an extent, which is not a bad thing,” Reuben said. “We are Mumbaikars or Dilliwalas.”
built a prayer hall and community centre for its members. This later became the Judas Hyam Synagogue, named after the father of one of the donors. The wellmaintained synagogue houses a 200-year-old Torah and, according to Malekar, attracts over 10,000 visitors annually. “Though we are a small community,” he said, “we can be a vibrant one.” The synagogue’s visitors largely include Jewish expatriates. This cultural intermingling is also evident in Reuben Israel’s family. Israel, who grew up in Bombay, followed his parents to Delhi in 1981 after finishing college. He married outside the community, as has his son Raphael. “There was no special bond to other Jews because I was a Jew, because India has always been home for them. We never felt ghettoised or that we had to stick together,” Israel said. However, the publisher, singer and theatre professional pointed out that he occasionally misses having a support network outside his friends. “You can rely on someone simply by virtue of being from the same community. Jews don’t have that here,” he said. “Most people also don’t know where I come from, or about
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the Jews as a community.” The oldest member of the small Torch bearer Ezekiel Malekar community that does exist, Lieulights the menorah, the traditional tenant-General JFR Jacob, is also candelabrum, during Hannukah its most famous. Best known for last December. In the absence his role as the Chief of Staff of the of a large community, Malekar Indian army’s Eastern Command often reinterprets certain rules, in the 1971 Bangladesh war, the such as allowing men and women 90-year-old bachelor now lives by to sit together during prayers by himself in his apartment. Jacob invoking the matrilineal nature joined the armed forces after the of Judaism, and permitting nonJews to attend prayers. “Jews are outbreak of World War II. “Jewish no exceptions to interfaith love refugees were coming in, and marriages. I am the only rabbi we took some in our home. I was in India who has performed ten angry when I heard about the Nazi atrocities, and so I joined the army to 12 inter-religion weddings,” he said. Malekar has started an [in 1941]” After travelling to Iraq, interfaith studies centre within the Burma and Sumatra, Jacob took synagogue, often inviting students a break to study in the UK, before and friends to attend prayers. joining the Indian Army, later holding the position of the Governor of Goa and Punjab. “We have Purim The joyous Jewish never been discriminated festival Purim begins at sunset against, and so we don’t on February 23 and continues consider ourselves to be until the next evening with fancya minority,” he said “I am dress contests, prayers and feasts an Indian.” commemorating the survival of Jews Visiting hours for the in Persia, thanks to a queen named Judas Hyam Synagogue Esther in the 5th century BCE. Since are 10am-1pm and 4.30both the Jewish and Hindu calendars 6.30pm. Prior appointare lunar, Holi and Purim often fall on the same day. Contact the Judas ment mandatory. To visit, Hyam Synagogue to attend email Ezekiel Isaac Malekar Purim prayers on at eze_malekar@yahoo.co.in Sat Feb 23. or call 98183-17674 .
The Daniels Elizabeth Daniel and her sister Ruby Daniel inside Judas Hyam Synagogue. “When we were younger, people would ask us, who are you Jews? Jo sar main jua hota hai? [The lice on one’s head?],” Elizabeth said. “Now, with the establishment of an embassy and economic relations between the two countries [India and Israel], there is more awareness.”
Lieutenant-General JFR Jacob Jacob was born to a family of Baghdadi Jews, a community which migrated from Iraq to Kolkata in the 19th century. He recalls being brought up in a religious family, but also clarifies his ambivalent attitude towards his faith: “I believe in God, but not really in the paraphernalia of religion”.
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