Jerusalem Letter
No. 101 15 April 1988
THE LAST JEWS IN INDIA AND BURMA
Nathan Katz and Ellen S. Goldberg
End of the Indian Diaspora / Jews of Cochin / The Bene Israel /
Mughal Courtiers / Portuguese Marranos / Baghdadi Jews / Jews in
Burma / India's Ashkenazim / Tribal Jews / Issues Facing Indian
Jewry Today
The End of the Indian Diaspora
One Shabbat in July 1987, for the first time since the synagogue
was built 419 years ago, there was no minyan in the fabled
Paradesi Synagogue of Cochin. Since the beginning of 1987, the
population of Jew Town, once about 300, has diminished from 33 to
29 due to immigration to Israel. Similar forlorn scenarios are
being repeated throughout India.
The one remaining Jewish family in North Parur, Kerala, bravely
keeps the synagogue's ner tamid (eternal light) burning and
gathers each Shabbat for informal prayers. In Puna's best known
landmark, the Ohel David Synagogue built by David Sassoon, the
Sefer Torah is no longer read for lack of a hazan. In "the
grandest synagogue in the East," the Maghen David of Calcutta, a
few old Jews of Baghdadi extraction gather weekly; sometimes
there is a minyan, sometimes not. The roof leaks badly at
Bombay's Maghen David and there is no one to see to its repair.
Only two Sifrei Torah remain in Rangoon's Musmeah Yeshua
Synagogue where there were once 126 scrolls.
Of the more than 25,000 Jews in India at independence, perhaps
5-6,000 remain, and many of them are highly assimilated Bene
Israel in Bombay. Jewish life has become all but impossible. The
vast community matza bakeries of Bombay and Calcutta have been
all but silenced. The glorious Jewish community of Cochin has
now been reduced to a few old homes along Synagogue Lane, and
many of the unique observances of the Cochinis can no longer be
continued. The Director of the Bombay office of the Jewish
Agency lives in Israel; there is not enough for him to do in
India to warrant full-time residence.
In this exotic corner of the diaspora, a realm in which Jews
lived for millennia in freedom and dignity, bathed in the
affection of their Hindu brethren, India was the most hospitable
of homes, a nation which has been host for six distinct Jewish
communities: the ancient and celebrated Cochinim, the
once-forgotten Bene Israel, the courtiers of the Mughal emperors,
Portuguese Marranos, the commercially and industrially prominent
Baghdadis, the scattered Ashkenazim, and today's tribal Jews of
the far northeast.
The Jews of Cochin
The oldest Indian Jewish community is in the southwesternmost
state, Kerala, centered in the quaint port city of Cochin. They
have been in India for at least 1,000 years; medieval Muslim and
Jewish travelers wrote of their high status and favor of the
Maharajahs. More likely, they have been there nearly 2,000
years, perhaps from the destruction of the Second Temple as their
tradition holds. The third-century Bishop of Caesaria, Eusebius,
wrote of an Aramaic copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew which had
been seen in India a hundred years before him. The earliest
settlements may even have dated from King Solomon's time, since
such luxury items as ivory, peacocks and linen were imported from
India during his reign.
At the time of independence, there were seven active synagogues
in the princely State of Cochin and one in the State of
Travancore: three in Cochin, two in Ernakulam, and one each in
Parur, Chendamangalam and Mala.
Today there is a regular minyan only in the Paradesi Synagogue of
Cochin. The 1568 synagogue, the oldest in the British
Commonwealth, is beautifully maintained, even if the community's
cemetery has deteriorated. Plans have been made for the
Archaeological Survey of India to convert the synagogue into a
museum when the remaining few Jews have gone. The Thekumbagam
Synagogue (1647), about 100 meters south along Synagogue Lane,
was demolished in the early 1970s, and the Kadavumbagam (1539),
several hundred meters farther south, is a warehouse.
Ernakulam now has three Jewish families -- the Eliases, Nehemias
and Abrahams -- about 20 people all told; there were once about
1,000. The Kadavumbagam Synagogue (1200) is in reasonably good
repair. It was closed in 1972 and is now a flower nursery; its
spirit lives on at Moshav Nevatim, near Beersheba, where its
Sifrei Torah -- including one with a solid gold case -- have been
installed. The Thekumbagam Synagogue (1580) is a Jewish-owned
poultry farm.
The Simon family clings tenaciously to its beloved synagogue
(originally built in 1164, rebuilt in 1616) in the town of North
Parur, where once around 1,000 Jews lived. Esther Simon tends
the ner tamid in the dilapidated building, and the family recites
prayers there each Shabbat. For Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,
relatives from nearby Alwaye join them and form a minyan. Said
Esther Simon, matriarch of the family, "We have only three things
now: the house, this synagogue and the cemetery. It's very
difficult to live here now."
The nearby towns of Mala and Chendamangalam have no Jews left;
both synagogues are terribly run down. The Mala Synagogue (1597)
was donated to the town council of elders for use as a community
center by the Jewish community when they moved to Israel en masse
in 1952. In Chendamangalam, the 1614 synagogue stands empty, its
magnificent carved, wooden ark -- an unsurpassed example of
Kerala Jewish art -- silently decaying, its prayer books strewn
about, and a fine parchment Torah scroll awaiting rescue from
oblivion.
Sattu Koder is the scholarly, octogenerian leader of the
community and President of the South India Jewish Association.
The 29 Jews of the Paradesi community and perhaps another 30
scattered throughout Kerala are all that remain of the 2,500
prior to mass aliya.
The Bene Israel
Second in antiquity but by far the largest community is the Bene
Israel of Bombay and environs. These were the most "Hinduized"
of India's Jews. Cut off from world Jewry for centuries, they
forgot their Hebrew -- except for the Shema -- and adopted such
Hindu practices as abstention from meat-eating and banning widow
remarriage. They did not recognize the term "Jew" and formed the
shanwar teli or "Saturday oil-presser" caste, so-called because of
their abjuring work on Shabbat. They held firmly to the vestiges
of Jewish observance, however, and practiced circumcision on the
eighth day, kept kashrut and celebrated most Jewish festivals in
dimly-remembered forms for uncounted and uncountable centuries.
As Bombay grew into a major industrial and commercial center
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many Bene Israel
moved there from the neighboring countryside of the Konkan coast.
With a tradition of military and government service, they settled
in such diverse cities as Puna, the monsoon capital of the old
Bombay Presidency; Ahmedabad, India's second leading textile
center in Gujerat state; Karachi, the Sindh's leading seaport,
now in Pakistan; Delhi, the capital since 1912; Calcutta, the old
capital and home to thousands of Baghdadi Jewish industrialists
and traders; and Rangoon, a major seaport, now capital of Burma.
In each of these cities, they built synagogues and have left a
distinguished mark of service to Indian society.
Before aliya to Israel, there were 20,000 Bene Israel in India;
now there are 4-5,000, mostly in Bombay, with communities in
Puna, Ahmedabad, and New Delhi, and individuals scattered
throughout India.
Jewish life in Bombay is rooted in its synagogues: Shaar
ha-Rahamim (1796); Shaare Rason (1840); Tifereth Israel (1886);
Etz Haeem Prayer Hall (1888); Maghen Hassidim (1904); Kurla Bene
Israel Prayer Hall (1946); and India's only Reform congregation,
Rodef Shalom (1925). Nearby is Shaar Hashamaim in Thane (1879).
Around the Konkan region are Maghen Aboth in Alibag (1842); Beth
El in Panvel (1849); and Beth Ha-Elohim in Pen (1863).
There is a proliferation of Jewish organizations in Bombay -- on
paper at least. Most really do not function. For example, the
Jewish Club does little more than sponsor card
games for its largely
non-Jewish membership. However, ORT maintains schools for 125
boys in Mazagaon and 80 girls in Worli, and its energetic young
director, Ralph Jhirad, makes it a community focal point. The
unofficial spokespersons for the community include Professor
Nissim Ezekiel, the celebrated poet; Moses Sultoon, trustee of
the Sassoon Trusts; Sophy Kelly, headmistress of the Hill Grange
School; I.S. Abraham, senior Times of India writer; and attorney
Shellim Samuel. The Consulate of Israel is also present.
Puna is the most active of the satellite Bene Israel
communities. We do not know the origin of the settlement; Bene
Israel were soldiers for the Puna-based armies of Shivaji, the
great Maratha leader of the seventeenth century. The first known
Bene Israel of Puna was Subedar Abraham David Charikar, who was
appointed Superintendent of Police in 1863. A prayer hall was
established fifteen years later, and the Succath Shelomo
Synagogue was built in 1921. With about 150 members, the
synagogue is active, especially on Friday nights, and a warm
Jewish spirit fills the modest building. The community has an
active Jewish Welfare Association (founded 1971), a small Jewish
library, a Puna Jewish Youth Group and a modest newsletter,
Mikhtav Shelanu. Hebrew and Jewish education is offered at the
synagogue's Sunday school, the teacher being Professor S.B. David
of the biology department of Puna University. There is an old
Jewish neighborhood near the synagogue, Rasta Peth and Nana Peth,
but community members who can afford it prefer more spacious
homes scattered throughout the expansive city. Despite the
demise of the traditional Jewish neighborhood, the Puna community
remains cohesive and active.
Ahmedabad, in Gujerat state, is India's second textile city,
located to the north of Bombay. It, too, attracted Bene Israel
civil servants, military personnel, railway workers and traders
as early as 1848 when Dr. Abraham Benjamin Erulkar, who had been
assigned to the government hospital, settled there with his
family, converting his home into a prayer hall in 1850. The
community built the art deco-style Maghen Abraham Synagogue in
1934. Located opposite a Zoroastrian temple in a poor, Muslim
section of town, the synagogue is architecturally striking but
neglected. Prayer services are held twice on Shabbat and on
festivals. Once numbering more than 2,000, the 300 Jews who
remain in Ahmedabad are spread around the city. many are
involved in education, especially much sought-after English
medium education. According to R.M. Best, headmaster of the Best
Schools, the preeminence of Jewish-run schools in Ahmedabad
emerged since Indian independence and was part of the general
trend towards indigenization of Indian institutions. Prior to
independence, English-medium education was firmly in Christian
missionary hands. Whether run by foreigners or Indians,
Christian missions have always been suspect in India as tools of
foreign domination. However, many Indians were -- and are --
caught in the conflict between seeking the best education for
their children and avoiding alien religious indoctrination. Jews
began to move into the education field soon after independence,
and Hindu, Jaina and Muslim students flocked to them. Gradually,
standards at the seven Jewish-run schools of Ahmedabad matched
those at the mission schools and today the missionaries have been
displaced by Jews.
Early in the twentieth century, Bene Israel moved to the new
British capital at New Delhi. While there had been
Persian-speaking Jews in Delhi during Mughal times, and the tomb
of one of them -- Sarmad, near the Juma Masjud, is a significant
Muslim pilgrimage site -- there is no evidence that they
overlapped the arrival of the Bene Israel. In 1956 the community
built the modest Judah Hyam Prayer Hall; before that time prayers
were said in a rented house in the Bara Tooti section of town.
The New Delhi community has always been small, and even today a
minyan is regularly obtained only with the participation of
Jewish diplomats and tourists. There is an active Jewish Welfare
Board and a Centre for Jewish and Inter-Faith Studies, which has
published some pamphlets on Indian Judaism and holds classes in
Hebrew and Jewish studies. It is also a venue for various
community organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish. There are about
eight Bene Israel families in New Delhi today; nevertheless, the
Jewish community there is active and visible and here are
services in the synagogue every Friday evening and on holy days
and festivals.
Ezra Kolet, President of the Indian Council of Jewry, is the
leader of the New Delhi community, the community's hazan and
frequent liaison between India's Jews and the government of
India. For years he has attempted to move the Indian bureaucracy
to grant visas to Israeli citizens of Indian origin with a
minimum of delay, a thankless task which has met with moderate
success at best. A retired senior civil servant and accomplished
violinist, Kolet founded the Delhi Symphony Orchestra in 1964.
Mughal Courtiers
Persian speaking Jews
from Afghanistan and Iran came with the Ghaznavad, Ghori and
Mughal invasions of Mahmud (11th century), Muhammad (12th
century) and Babur (16th century). The most obscure of Indian
Jews, they were traders and courtiers of the Mughals. Jewish
advisors at the Court of Akbar the Great in Agra played a
significant role in Akbar's liberal religious policies and built
a synagogue there. In Delhi, one Jew was tutor to the Crown
Prince, Dara Shukah; the teacher and student were later
assassinated by Aurangzeb when he usurped the throne. Jews
traded freely in Kashmir, the Punjab, and throughout the Mughal
Empire.
Portuguese Marranos
It is likely that no one will ever know the extent to which
Marranos, principally from Portugal, settled in India in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but it is clear that some
did, accompanying the Portuguese colonizing and trading fleets.
The earliest Jewish, or at least Marrano, settlements in Bombay
date from Portuguese times in the mid-sixteenth century.
Unfortunately, by the very nature of their situation, they left
us traces and are known to us only through scattered references.
Baghdadi Jews
Arabic-speaking Jews came to India as traders in the wake of the
Portuguese, Dutch and British. These "Baghdadis," as they came
to be known, especially the Sassoons of Bombay and the Ezras of
Calcutta, eventually established manufacturing and commercial
houses of fabulous wealth.
They first settled in Surat, in the Sindh, during the seventeenth
century, where there were 95 Jewish families and a synagogue soon
thereafter. However, as Bombay rose to replace Surat as west
India's leading port and commercial center, Jewish attention was
directed there. The Syrian Suleiman ibn Ya'qub was the first
prominent Arabic-speaking Jewish businessman of the city, his
activities spanning the period from 1795 to 1833. However, it
was the arrival of the Baghdadi merchant, industrialist and
financier David Sassoon (1792-1864) in 1833 that heralded the
remarkable sojourn of the Baghdadi Jewish community of Bombay.
The Sassoon family, "the Rothschilds of the East," played a major
role in the industrialization of Bombay, and Jews provided the
city with three of its mayors, professors in its university and
producers and stars for its film industry.
During its heyday, Bombay had several Jewish newspapers (in
Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew, Marathi and English), a Jewish publishing
industry, Zionist and community organizations. The Sassoons
built two beautiful synagogues to serve the Baghdadi community:
Maghen David (1863) in Byculla and Kenesseth Eliyahu (1883) in
Fort, both of which usually manage to obtain a Shabbat minyan
today. By 1950 there were nearly 20,000 Jews in Bombay, but
immigration to Israel, America, Britain, Australia and Canada
have drastically reduced those numbers. Of the Baghdadi
community, around 200 remain.
As did many upper-class Bombayites, David Sassoon established a
summer home in Puna, a hill town 120 miles east which served as
capital of the Bombay Presidency during the monsoon. The
best-known landmark in Puna is the 90-foot tower of the red brick
Ohel David Synagogue (1863), known locally as Lal Deval, "red
temple." Sassoon's impressive mausoleum is found in the
synagogue's courtyard. Only a handful of Baghdadis remain in
Puna, mostly middle-class merchants living in the Cantonment
area. The magnificent synagogue more often than not fails to
attain a minyan, even on Shabbat, and no member of the community
is qualified to read the Torah.
The Calcutta community was founded by Shalom Obaidah ha-Kohen
(1762-1836), who arrived there from Surat in 1798. His
commercial interests took him from the Punjab to Dacca across the
great Gangetic plain of northern India, and small Jewish trading
outposts -- often including a prayer hall and a cemetery --
sprang up in his footsteps from Lucknow to Darjeeling. The
fortunes of the Baghdadi families began with the opium trade to
China and gradually reached all phases of industry and commerce.
The leadership of Calcutta Jewry was held by the Cohen and Ezra
families, the latter ranking among the city's most prominent
industrial and commercial houses.
The city has three synagogues located within a few paces of each
other in China Bazar: Neveh Shalom (1831), Beth El (1856) and the
magnificent Maghen David (1884). The three obtain a minyan on a
rotating basis, using paid congregants. Two small synagogues,
since closed, were founded in 1897 and 1924 in the fashionable
Park Street area as Jews moved there from China Bazar. Calcutta
has had Jewish schools, a religious court, a matza board,
charitable and burial associations, a Jewish hospital, several
newspapers, a publisher since 1840 and Zionist groups.
Calcutta has had three Jewish sheriffs, and Jews have provided
Bengal's first female attorney, several scholars -- both secular
and religious -- and journalists, writers, musicians and
sportsmen. The most famous Calcutta Jew of recent times is
Lt.-Gen. Jack Frederick Ralph Jacob who commanded Indian forces
on the eastern front during the 1971 war which led to the
establishment of Bangladesh. Before the Second World War there
were 3,800 Jews in Calcutta, a number which grew to more than
5,000 with the influx of Jewish refugees from Rangoon; now there
are around 120. Jewish visitors are welcomed by the Nahoum
family -- one need only drop by at Nahoum's Bakery in New Market.
Jews in Burma
Bene Israel and even some Cochinim followed the trail of
prosperity to Calcutta and even beyond, to Rangoon, where another
major Jewish community grew up. The first Jew known to settle in
Burma was one Solomon Gabirol, probably a Bene Israel, who served
as a commissar in King Alaungpaya's army. The community itself
dates from the early nineteenth century when Baghdadis from
Calcutta pursued their opium-based fortunes eastward, stopping in
Rangoon en route to Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Saigon, Manila,
Tokyo, Hongkong and Shanghai.
It was not until the 1870s, however, that a sufficient
number of Jews was concentrated in Rangoon to form a proper
community, and they built the beautiful Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue
in 1896. The community once had 126 Sifrei Torah, a Talmud
Torah, a Zionist group and numerous charitable and communal
organizations. A second synagogue, Beth El, was opened in 1932,
and some 700 graves are found in the well-kept cemetery on 91st
Street. Satellite communities developed in Mandalay (where there
remain a few Jews and a cemetery), Maymo, Moulmein, Bassein,
Akyab and Toungyi. Bassein even had a Jewish mayor, a Mr.
Raphael, as did Rangoon, one David Sophaer during the 1930s.
The community was virtually destroyed when the Japanese,
suspicious of Jews as potential British sympathizers, conquered
Burma, driving most of Burma's 1,200 Jews to Calcutta. About 500
returned after the war, and Burmese Judaism enjoyed a brief
flowering after independence and the establishment of cordial
Israeli-Burmese relations, which were based on the warm
friendship between Prime Ministers David Ben-Gurion and U Nu.
When Ne Win launched a successful coup in 1962, the position of
minorities in Burma generally deteriorated, as did the nation's
economy, and most Jews left.
Today there are but a handful of Jews and half-Jews in Rangoon.
The synagogue is beautifully maintained through the efforts of
Jack Samuels, the community's leader, even though the last
regular Shabbat service was held as far back as 1965. While open
for all festivals, a minyan is obtained only with assistance from
Israeli, American and Canadian diplomats and tourists during the
High Holy days. Sadly, the Burmese interlude for Jews has
already passed into history.
India's Ashkenazim
The Ashkenazim were the smallest and shortest-lived group of Jews
in India. Never forming separate communities, Ashkenazi
contributions to India were made by individuals such as Walter
Mordechai Haffkine (1860-1930), the developer of the anti-cholera
vaccine. A medical research institute bearing his name
flourishes in Bombay today. As temporary home to about 2,000
refugees from Nazi Germany, India benefitted from an influx of
Jewish physicians who attached themselves to the various
communities of their co-religionists in India's major cities.
Tribal Jews
The most mysterious of India's Jews are also the most
controversial. Several Chin-kuki tribal groups in the
northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and
Nagaland, the western Burmese Chin state and Bangladesh's
Chittagong hill tracts claim to be descendents of the tribe of
Menashe. According to them, they came from China and lost their
religion during centuries of wanderings through remote Asia. A
curious religious revival has emerged among them involving dreams
and revelations about their history and a return to their "true
identity." Living in remote and conflict-ridden tribal areas,
they are as inaccessible as they are tantalizing.
There are an estimated 4,300 Jewish tribals in India, with more
in Burma and Bangladesh. No one knows quite what to make of
these tribals, animists until the last generation, nor what to do
about their claims to Jewish identity and their aspiration to
immigrate to Israel. Several groups, especially Jerusalem-based
Amishav, have made efforts to reintroduce them to Jewish
observance, and some have undergone Orthodox conversion. The
Israeli ambassador to Burma, Itiel Pann, is sympathetic to their
cause, but the Israel government recently denied visitor visas to
a delegation of Indian tribals.
Issues Facing Indian Jewry Today
The most significant issue confronting India's Jews is the poor
relationship between India and Israel. India extended diplomatic
recognition to Israel in the early 1950s and allowed Israel to
establish a consulate in Bombay. But relations never developed
to the expected exchange of ambassadors. Indeed, a pro-Arab
policy has become so embedded in the Indian government that not
even the sympathetic Janatha government led by Morarji Desai in
the late 1970s was able to reverse this trend.
Indian Jews feel ambivalent; they want foreign Jews to appreciate
that India's policies are not antisemitic, but reflect such
factors as the importance of the Arab world for India's foreign
trade, the political views of its 80,000,000 Muslim citizens, and
its aspirations to Third World leadership. On the other hand,
the Indian bureaucracy can be remarkably petty in its day-to-day
operations, often to the detriment of Jewish concerns. For
example, Israelis of Indian origin have a difficult time
obtaining visas to visit their homeland.
Indian Jews are well aware that their government's anti-Israel
policies do not reflect popular sentiment, especially among the
Hindu majority. For example, when the Israeli tennis team were
refused visas to participate in the Davis Cup competitions in New
Delhi in 1987, a groundswell of pro-Israel opinion emerged in the
press, leading India to relent and allow the match to be held,
although this year India has announced that it will not send its
team for a scheduled Davis Cup round in Tel Aviv.
Indian Jews are closely following the rise of Hindu
fundamentalism in such organizations as the Shiv Sena of
Maharashtra, the Janatha Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Many see in these movements allies; they reason that while a
secular Indian government has been hostile to Zionism, perhaps a
more Hindu one would not be -- and these organizations propose
precisely to "Hinduize" India. The affinities between Hindus and
Jews go beyond their shared perception of a Muslim adversary, and
while secularism has been in the interest of Jews in most nations
of exile, it may be that the Indian case is a notable exception.
An issue which concerns foreign Jews visiting India is the rescue
of prayer books, ritual objects and Torah scrolls which are being
ravaged by a tropical climate and neglect. Books which are
salvageable should be brought to Israel where they could be put to
use; others should be buried. Many Indian ritual objects, carved
arks especially, are unique in the Jewish world. Deserted
synagogues contain unenumerated treasures which shall soon be
lost forever unless their rescue is prompt.
Another issue concerns the Jewish status of the tribals. Until
recently, they were welcomed as quasi-Jews for training by ORT,
but for whatever reasons a new policy has been adopted, one which
treats them like any other Gentiles. While the question of their
Jewish ancestry, in all likelihood, will never be resolved, it
remains to be determined how to interpret their claims and
whether to make a serious effort to afford them with the
conversion they desire, along with prayer books, prayer shawls,
Sifrei Torah and, ultimately, immigration to Israel. The Indian
press, incidentally, treats Israel's refusing them visas as an
instance of Israeli racism and anti-Indianism.
The Bene Israel community of Bombay is faced with the question of
assimilation. There are no specific data, but estimates of
intermarriage run to about 50 percent. Often the Gentile spouse
is converted by a committee of Bene Israel elders, but the status
of these conversions is questionable. Related to this issue is
the generally poor state of Jewish education among the Bene
Israel. They had been more or less dependent upon Cochinim --
and to a lesser degree, Baghdadis -- as teachers, shohatim and
hazanim. Now they perform many of these functions themselves,
but knowledge and facilities are sparse. The twin questions of
assimilation and education, aspects of the generally increasing
secularization of Indian society, threaten the continued
existence of the community.
Our generation will likely witness the extinction of Indian
Jewry. This makes study and collecting imperative. There is
much to be learned from an ancient Jewish community which never
experienced persecution. For one thing, the commonly-held view
of Zionism as simple a response to persecution is called into
question by the case of India, where Zionism was embraced despite
the affection and hospitality of the host nation. For another,
the independent Jewish principality at Cranganore lies buried
beneath a thin layer of earth, awaiting archaeological
examination. There remain manuscripts in Jewish homes throughout
India containing a wealth of poetry, hymns, and Kabbalistic
tracts which have never been analyzed or studies, just as there
are Jewish artifacts desperately in need of rescue and transfer
to museums in Israel and America.
* * *
Dr. Nathan Katz is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at
the University of South Florida. Ellen S. Goldberg is a writer,
photographer and editor. The couple is working on a book about
the Cochin Jews, based on a year's stay there supported by a
Fulbright research grant, 1986-87.
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