Jewishness in India

I remember "Nahoum," a hoary pastry shop tucked away in the din and bustle of Kolkata's "New Market." Later, much later, I learnt that the proprietor of "Nahoum" (a Professor of mine at the University told me the name is a derivative of "Noam") was Jewish. 

I learnt a bit more about the Jewish thread, its inception and its continuity, albeit in a state of great attenuation in both Kolkata and in India at large, from an English tutor in Kolkata. 

The tutor was a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (the "World Wide Hindu Organization") official and secretly confided in his students the Hindu fondness for the Jewish population of India--the latter helped them in firming their position against the Muslims, thereby affirming my belief in the proverb that "an enemy's enemy is a friend."

I was delighted to see the video that documents a discovery of Jewish food in India. The fact of a strong tradition of Jewish cuisine, hybridized into something else as evidenced by the video, and the presence of the remains of a synagogue, both in the beautiful city of Cochin, doesn't surprise me.

If you want to get a deeper idea of the Jewish strain in the coastal city of Cochin, go straight to Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land.