To be or not to be a real Jew, in the American imagination - An Excerpt

To be or not to be a real Jew, in the American imagination
By Jay Michaelson, The Forward


American Jews of a certain class and culture have the scene engraved in their memories: Woody Allen's Alvy Singer in "Annie Hall" at Annie's goyish parents' house, suddenly seen through their eyes as a Hasid, in a long black coat and peyes.

It's a hilarious moment: Allen imagining how he is seen by non-Jews, giving us a great sight gag and, of course, capturing in just a few seconds of film the great anxiety of American Jews that we are "too Jewish," notwithstanding all our best efforts to assimilate.

I wonder, though, how many of us share the unstated assumption of the "Annie Hall" gag: that to be Hasidic is "really Jewish," to be secular is not really Jewish, and everything else lies somewhere in between. How often has our culture set up "Fiddler on the Roof" as an imagined Jewish ideal: real Jews in a real shtetl, practicing real Jewish traditions for the real Jewish God. Never mind that all these were creatures of fiction: what is most authentically Jewish, many of us believe, is the old-time religion (a non-Jewish term) of black hats and the Pale.

Arguably, a similar trope crops up in this year's "A Serious Man," which begins with an extended scene of a possible demonic possession, set in the shtetl and performed in Yiddish. As the film cuts to Minnesota from Eastern Europe, the sense of dislocation is palpable.

It?s not, of course, that we want to be the shtetl Jews of Anatevka - only that we continue to see them as the "real" ones, and the rest of us, well, as a kind of hybridization, or adaptation. Thus there persists in the American Jewish imagination an anxiety of inauthenticity - that someone, somewhere, is the real Jew, but I?m not it.

The myth of authenticity, however, has got to go.

First, of course, it's not historically accurate. Traditional Jews didn't wear long black coats until the 18th century (notwithstanding some recent, and absurd, images of Moses crossing the Red Sea in a fur-lined shtrayml).

Moreover, until the advent of modernity, the notion that if you were "really" religious, you would dress anachronistically, simply did not arise in Jewish thought.

Distinctive dress, modest dress, visible signs like the yarmulke, sure - but never the idea that to be "real" was to be so radically other from one?s own place and time. In fact, with only a few exceptions, everything that we think of as "really Jewish" came along at a particular place and time, because of particular historical circumstances, and was never universally shared (by Sephardim, for example).

More importantly, however, the entire notion of authenticity is a false projection of particular historical quirks onto an imagined ideal of "realness" that artificially freezes culture, and thus spells its demise. The truth is that there is no single authentic Jewishness.

Like any living culture, Jewish culture (and religion) evolves over time in order to remain vibrant. Of course, there are certain core values, myths and cultural traits that remain relatively constant. But bagels, bookishness and bar mitzvahs all evolved historically; none is more "really Jewish" than sushi, sports or a Sweet 16.

Orthodox fidelity to the law, anxieties of dislocation, reformist rationalization - all arose along the way. Even the ultra-Orthodox maxim that "innovation is forbidden by Torah" is, of course, a 19th-century innovation. To imagine that cultural forms must remain static to be authentic is to doom a culture to obsolescence.

It is also, of course, to privilege some cultural forms over others. Why bagels and not jahnoon? Why Joseph Caro's legalistic Shulchan Aruch but not his radical, mystical "Maggid Mesharim"? And for that matter, why a white male rabbi over an African-American female one? Anytime we claim that one cultural form is more authentic than another, we are replicating privilege and marginalization.

And worst of all, by ossifying and reifying a fake authenticity as "the real thing," we actually undermine the attempt to create true authenticity on the part of progressive Jews.

Meaningful authenticity isn't about an old religious form or a Yiddish pun (please, enough with cutesy invocations of "gelt" and "schlep"). It's when a religious, literary or cultural form - old, new or alt-neu - speaks to the depths of what it is to be human.

If a guitar-playing, meditating female rabbi resonates more with the souls of her followers than does a nigun-singing, Talmud-learning male one, she is the more authentic spiritual leader. If ecstatic prayer speaks to and from the spirit more than a supposedly consistent rationalism, then it, too, is more authentic, notwithstanding the howls of the secularist. Authenticity isn't about form, it's about getting to what matters.

For progressive Judaism to succeed, it must jettison the myth of authenticity based on some "real" forms that some "real" Jews really believe in and replace it with a personalized notion of authenticity measured by integrity and individual coherence.

Is my Buddhist-Judaism less authentic than someone else?s more carefully patrolled boundaries of permissibility? Quite the contrary: It is more authentic, because it is more faithful to the truth of my experience. Not preference, not whim - but carefully considered internal coherence.

Those who prefer traditional forms sometimes deride innovations as "compromises". Yet, which is the more objectionable compromise: bending the rules to eat hot food on nonkosher plates, or clinging to a ritual form that may no longer hold any meaning, is historical in its origin and may actively impede other ethical values (such as connecting with people of other faiths)?

Likewise, sometimes traditional forms are derided as intellectual compromises by those who insist on a more rigorous secularism. But which is the real compromise: admitting the irrational desire to pray, or maintaining some pseudo-intellectual purity that cuts off the heart despite the soul?

Progressive Jews don't do what they do to compromise the authenticity of Judaism; they do it to maintain it. Sure, plenty of lazy Jews simply indulge their laziness, whether as ritual wafflers, ethical slobs or intellectual weaklings.

But for those who care about living an authentic life, values shift because of consideration, not spinelessness. To say "This works for me" can, indeed, be a summary denial of responsibility. But to say so meaningfully, based on discernment and introspection, is a mark of integrity.

The myth of authenticity, in contrast, is an abdication of introspection and personal responsibility. Thanks, but I'm not religious. Thanks, but I'm Orthodox. Thanks, but I don't need to think any further. It's a lot easier to say "This is real Judaism, and I do/don't practice it" than to look closely at what form might work to do the important stuff (afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted) for you.

Obviously, newer Jewish forms are not intrinsically superior to older ones; the books of the Bible have endured precisely because they continue to speak to so many people, despite the gulf in history and culture. And to be sure, the ancientness of these texts is part of their power: They bind us to history in a way that newer books cannot. But this power is not because of some imagined authenticity, or some unbroken connection between us and biblical Israelites who, after all, imagined that the world was a small, flat place, had no concept of medicine or industrialization, had notions about nation, ethnicity and gender that hopefully would have no place in contemporary society.

No, Biblical Israelites are not the real Jews. Neither are Hasidim, 20th-century modernists, neurotic New York psychoanalysts, Moroccan saints, angst-ridden intellectuals, High Reformers or anyone else.

Real Jews are all of the above - and the rest of us who take Jewishness seriously, in one form or another.

Real Jews speak with Southern accents, keep one day of yomtov (the holiday), hike in the wilderness, eat shrimp, intermarry, become ba'alei teshuvah, do karate, are bisexual, are neoconservative. Real Jews are the ones who make Judaism real for themselves.

In the past few years, there?s been a fair amount of attention to novelty Jews. Yuri Foreman, for example, is both a rabbinical student and a boxing champion. What?! Matisyahu is a Hasid and a pop star. What?! The media love those interrobangs (the ?! symbol), but behind every one is an implicit assumption that Jews are supposed to be one way and not another. Boxing rabbis, lesbian rabbis, "Adventure Rabbis" and yoga-teacher rabbis - these images are foreign, funny or weird to some people, because the word "rabbi" still conjures up a very particular image: usually male, nebbishy and bearded. (Not that there?s anything wrong with that - I'm all three.)

But that image is just a form. Indeed, when I read about Jewish farmers, Jewish Sufis and Jewish pro wrestlers, I think, good for the Jews.

I'm generally reluctant to praise one culture over another, but if there is one distinctive feature I love about Jewish culture, it's how, in our many diasporas, we have amalgamated so many contradictions, oblique angles and diverse perspectives on how it is to be human.

Granted, that pattern also leads to Jewish mobsters, Jewish financial shysters and Jewish arms merchants, but Jewish crooks aren't bad because they?re inauthentic; they're bad because they're bad. The basic principles of change, growth and evolution are what has kept us going these thousands of years, as much as the basic bedrock values that remain more or less constant. For Jews, even more than for others, change is authenticity.

So let's get used to slippery slopes, murky swamps and the many other geographies of blending and uncertainty. Whether or not Jews have traveled here before, they are where we live today. Finding authenticity without is ahistorical and self-defeating. Finding it within is holy

The Other Side Of Me

Adopted Christian Name ............Real Jewish Name

Joey Adams ....................................... Joseph Abramowitz

Eddie Albert ........................................Eddie Heimberger

Woody Allen...................................... Allen Konigsberg

Lauren Bacall ..................................... Betty Joan Perske

Jack Benny ........................................ Benny Kubelsky

Milton Berle ...................................... Milton Berlinger

Ernest Borgnine ..................................Effron Borgnine

George Burns .................................... Nathan Birnbaum

Joan Blondell...................................... Rosebud Blustein

Joyce Brothers ...................................Joyce Bauer

Mel Brooks ....................................... Melvin Kaminsky

Joey Bishop ...................................... Joey Gottlieb

Charles Bronson ................................ Charles Buchinsky

Rona Barrett .......................................Rona Burnstein

Cyd Chrisse .......................................Tula Finklea

Tony Curtis (daughter is Jamie Lee Curtis)........ Bernhard Schwartz

Joan Crawford ................................... Lucille Le Sueur

Dyan Cannon ..................................... Samile Diane Friesen

Kirk Douglas (son is Michael Douglas) .......... Issur Danilovich Demsky

Bob Dylan ...........................................Robert Zimmerman

Rodney Dangerfield ............................Jacob Cohen

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. ........................ Douglas Ullman

Joel Grey (father of Jennifer Grey)................... Joel Katz

Zsa Zsa Gabor ....................................Sara Gabor

John Garfield ...................................... Julius Garfinkle

Judy Garland ....................................... Frances Gumm

Paulette Goddard ................................ Pauline Levee

Eydie Gorme........................................ Edith Gormezano

Elliott Gould ........................................Elliott Goldstein

Cary Grant ......................................... Larry Leach

Lorne Green ........................................Chaim Leibowiz

Judy Holliday ....................................... Judith Tuvim

Leslie Howard ...................................... Leslie Stainer

Buddy Hackett ..................................... Leonard Hacker

Jill St. John ........................................... Jill Oppenheim

Danny Kaye........................................... David Kaminsky

Alan King .............................................. Irwin Kniberg

Larry King...............................................Larry Zeiger

Tina Louise.............................................Tina Blacker

Ann Landers (Abigail Van Buren is her sister) .........Esther Friedman

Dorothy Lamour ................................... Dorothy Kaumeyer

Miehael Landon .................................... Mike Orowitz

Steve Lawrence .................................... Sidney Leibowitz

Hal Linden............................................. Hal Lipshitz

Jerry Lewis ........................................... Joseph Levitch

Karl Maiden ..........................................Maiden Sekulovitch

Paul Muni ..............................................Muni Weisenfreund

Ethel Merman ....................................... Ethel Zimmerman

Jan Murray ........................................... Murray Janofsky

Walter Matthau ..................................... Walter Matasschanskayasky

Lilly Palmer ........................................... Maria Peiser

Jan Peerce............................................. Jacob Pincus Perelmuth

Roberta Peters...................................... Roberta Peterman

Eleanor Parker...................................... Ellen Friedlob

Joan Rivers ...........................................Joan Molinsky

Tony Randall ....................................... Leonard Rosenberg

Edward G. Robinson ........................... Emmanuel Goldberg

Dinah Shore ......................................... Francis Rose Shore

Shelly Winters ...................................... Shirley Schrift

Gene Wilder.......................................... Eugene Silverstein

Winona Ryder....................................... Laura Horowitz

Jewish History In Singapore

Maghain Aboth Synagogue - Photo by Oxymanus

The Virtual Jewish History Tour
Singapore
By Elihai Braun


Community Beginnings

In 1819, the Sultan of Johore permitted English businessman Sir Stamford Raffles and the East Indian Company to establish a trading post in Singapore. At the time, Singapore was a small, swampy fishing village on the Malay Peninsula. Nevertheless, with grand prospects ahead, several Jewish traders from Baghdad migrated to Singapore and established the highly successful trade center Change Alley.

In 1824, the Sultan ceded the 200 square mile area to Great Britain, and in 1830, according to historical records, the Jewish population totaled nine Jewish traders living in Singapore. In 1840, the wealthy Sephardic Sassoon family established business interests in Singapore, and the Jewish population soon increased. The Jewish community managed to build a 40-person synagogue on a street still called "Synagogue Street." By local custom, the Jews were allowed to travel by rickshaw on the Sabbath.

The Jewish population, mostly Sephardim, migrated mainly from Baghdad and other communities in the Near East. The new community also included Sephardim from Persia and Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe, searching for both religious freedom and economic opportunity. Some went first to Malaysia, and then on to Singapore when Malaysia did not offer the freedoms and opportunities they had originally sought. The Orthodox Singapore community was small but tight-knit, strengthened by religious bonds, common geographic origins, and years of close marriages.
The Maghain Aboth and the Chesed El Synagogues

By 1879, the community population totaled of 172 members, 116 males and 56 females. With the steady increase in population, the 40-person ‘Synagogue Street’ synagogue was clearly no longer suitable. On April 4, 1878, the new Maghain Aboth Synagogue on Waterloo Street was consecrated. It was a single story building, but an upper gallery for women was added later. Even today, the synagogue counts both Sephardim and Ashkenazim among its members.

Menasseh Meyer, supposedly the richest Jew in Asia, contributed funds to build the new synagogue. He had arrived in Singapore at age 15, poor but ambitious, and eventually owned nearly half of Singapore's property. He grew wealthy as a real estate dealer and as a trader of opium, legal under British rule. Some Jews of the Maghain Aboth Synagogue bear nameplates for Menasseh Meyer and his son Rueben Menasseh (it was the practice for the eldest son to inherit his father's first name as a surname). The Queen knighted Menasseh Meyer for raising the cultural level of the city.

A 1904 argument with a fellow member of the Maghain Aboth Synagogue led Sir Menasseh Meyer to build his own private synagogue, Chesed El, in 1905. To obtain the minimum ten men required for communal prayer, Menasseh Meyer employed “Minyan Men.” But in 1920, his Minyan Men went on strike, demanding higher salaries and rickshaw fare for their daily services. The Chesed El Synagogue was built on the grounds of Meyer's luxurious residence on Oxley Rise, and is architecturally magnificent. The deep green trees that surround the structure accent the traditionally designed white exterior of the building. Impressive doorways, windows, and pillars complement the white marble floor, and the gold motifs add to its beauty.

In 1905, when the Chesed El Synagogue was built, there were roughly 500 Jews in Singapore. The community numbered close to 600 Jews in 1911, and 832 Jews in 1931. The 1931 census also indicated that there was a significant Arab population as well, which together with the Jews, were the largest property owners in the city.
World War II and Today

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, there were 1,000 Jews in Singapore, most of whom were interned by the Japanese during the war. They were forced to wear armbands and medallions with the word Jews inscribed on them; the men had to till the fields. After the war, many of the Jews left for Australia, England, the United States, and Israel.

The former president of the Jewish community, David Marshall, stayed in Singapore. He was born in 1908 to a Baghdad-Persian Jewish family and studied law in England before he joined the British Army as a volunteer and traveled to Singapore. When the British granted Singapore partial independence in 1955, Marshall was appointed as the first Chief Minister. But when Great Britain denied Singapore full sovereignty, David Marshall, Singapore's "Father of Independence," resigned from his post in protest. Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963, but withdrew two years later and became independent. After full sovereignty was finally attained, he was elected to the legislature and later served as Singapore's ambassador to several European countries.

Today, Singapore is approximately 80% ethnic Chinese, 15% ethnic Malay, and 5% ethnic Indian. The Jewish population numbers around 300. Anti-Semitism in Singapore does not exist. Religious life at the Maghain Aboth and Chesed El Synagogues is active, with daily services, adult education, and other community activities. A Jewish community center offers Sunday school for youngsters. The annually elected Jewish Welfare Board, created after World War II, manages community affairs.

In 1968, a trade agreement was signed between Israel and Singapore, and in May 1969, diplomatic relations were formally established. The two countries signed a trade agreement in 1970.

In 2004, it was revealed that the Singaporean army, which is considered one of the strongest in southeast Asia, was initially set up by Israel. In December 1965, an Israeli military delegation headed by Major General Ya'akov Elazari arrived in Singapore under a veil of secrecy and started to build the various branches of the armed forces there. Since then, security ties between the two countries have strengthened, and Singapore is now considered one of the biggest customers for Israeli arms and weapons systems. Singapore's founding father and prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, asked Israel to help establish his country's army almost immediately after Singapore received independence from Malaysia in August 1965. He had earlier requested help from India and Egypt, but they turned him down.

The Israeli delegation consisted of six officers, who were divided into two teams. One, headed by Elazari, set up the defense and internal security ministries, while the other, headed by Maj. Gen. Yehuda Golan, established the military infrastructure. They followed the model of the IDF, with a standing army and reserves. The officers also served as instructors in the Singapore army's first basic training courses and its first course for officers, both commissioned and noncommissioned. The members of the delegation that went to Singapore were trained by the late cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi, who wrote the blueprint for Singapore's armed forces.

The Last Jews In India & Burma - an excerpt

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.

Singapore's Jews Experience Cultural Rebirth

The Magen Abeith Synagogue located at Waterloo Street

Singapore's Jews Experience Cultural Rebirth

By Tamar Runyan - Mar 6, 2008

The Jews of the tiny Asian nation of Singapore have been eating more kosher chicken lately, thanks to the opening last June of a restaurant located on the premises of their community's newly built Jacob Ballas Centre.

Under the supervision of Singapore's Jewish Welfare Board, the community has as its spiritual leader Rabbi Mordechai Abergel, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary who arrived in 1994. A trained ritual slaughterer, one of Abergel's many responsibilities is to ensure that the hundreds who patronize the Awafi kosher restaurant have plenty of fowl.

"Since we opened the restaurant, kosher food consumption has experienced quite a sharp increase," says the rabbi. "I am slaughtering a lot more chicken than I used to."

His wife, Simcha Abergel, explains that the establishment - which serves Middle Eastern, Italian, Chinese and Indian cuisine and caters to locals and tourists alike - is just another sign of a revival in the densely populated city's 1,000-strong Jewish community.

"Both the new and old generations are becoming more observant of their heritage," she says.

The Maghain Aboth Synagogue operates under the auspices of the state-recognized Jewish Welfare Board. It was founded in 1878 and draws between 50 and 100 people for its weekly Shabbat services.

The city's Ganenu Learning Centre, which was founded by the Abergels in 1996, is another of the many aspects fueling the revival. Two ritual baths, an old aged home, an established rabbinical program, a fully booked social community calendar, a Hebrew school, adult learning program, and Jewish burial society, round out the community's offerings.

Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical student Mendy Kotlarsky gives a Torah class to Jewish businessmen in Singapore.
The Abergels - who are assisted by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Netanel and Odelia Rivni - are especially proud of the preschool. When it opened, only four students attended; today, its roster boasts 77 pupils.

"Ganenu helps young ones get their initial Jewish introduction," says Simcha Abergel. "This education becomes the first step towards a fulfilling Jewish life."

And with all the government permits in place, work is now on to open a primary school in August.

"We're going to start with one class, and then add a grade each year for the first few years" says Abergel, a member of the committee overseeing the preschool and the community's other educational activities.

For the adults, Mordechai Abergel and the Jewish Welfare Board run the Gesher Program, which brings in speakers from all over the world, including Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain; Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, a noted Talmudist and scholar from Jerusalem; and Rabbi Manis Friedman, founder of the Bais Chana network of programs for women.

"We're in the midst of a tremendous revival," proclaims Abergel. "And with the continuous support of the Jewish Welfare Board and the commitment of our community members, I am sure that each year will bring something new and make us grow from strength to strength."

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SINGAPORE, republic; major entrepôt of S.E. Asia, formerly a British crown colony. The first Jews to settle there were of Baghdadi origin, mainly from India, who migrated to Singapore in 1840 when the*Sassoon family established business interests. Prayers were first held in a house in the street still known as "Synagogue Street." The Maghain Aboth synagogue was opened in 1878; it possessed a number of Torah scrolls in beaten silver cases brought from Baghdad. Another synagogue, Chased El, was built in 1904 by Sir Manasseh Meyer, reputed to be the richest Jew in the Far East. He also endowed a talmud torah. Local custom sanctioned conveyance to synagogue by rickshaw on Sabbath. The community remained largely Sephardi, but Ashkenazi immigrants from England, the Netherlands, China, Russia, and Germany also settled there. Most engaged in business and the professions. The community continued to be highly prosperous and important out of all proportion to its size. The 1931 census records that the 832 Jews and larger number of Arab residents were the largest house property owners in the city. There were over 1,500 Jewish inhabitants by 1939. Many were interned by the Japanese during World War II, and a number subsequently immigrated to Australia, England, the United States, and Israel. Apart from their contribution to commerce, Jews have taken a considerable part in political life and in 1955David S. *Marshall became the first chief minister of the republic. The community is represented by the Jewish Welfare Board which publishes a monthly bulletin. There exist two synagogues with one officiating rabbi; social activities center in the Menorah Club. The community numbered approximately 450 in 1968. In the early 21st century the community numbered 300, many of them expatriate Israelis and American and British Jews. There was a rabbi and Sabbath services were held at the Waterloo Road and Maghain Aboth synagogues (Sephardi). The expatriates founded the United Hebrew Congregation. Sunday school classes were held for children and the community had a quarterly publication, Shalom. The community center was a focus of Jewish life and there was also an old age home.

[Percy S. Gourgey /Tudor Parfitt (2nd ed.)]
Relations with Israel

From the beginning of the 1960s, trade relations began to develop between Singapore and Israel. Israeli experts extended technical aid to Singapore, while a number of mutual visits were made by ministers, public figures, and senior officials. In 1968 a trade agreement was signed by the two countries and an Israeli trade mission opened in Singapore. In May 1969 diplomatic relations were established, and in July the Israeli ambassador presented his credentials. Technical cooperation included the dispatch of Israeli advisers to the Singapore army. In 1970 the two countries signed an aviation agreement. The Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (SIIRD) was established in 1997 to promote, facilitate, and support joint industrial R&D projects between Singaporean and Israeli hightech companies. The Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore and the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Israel are the two cooperating government agencies responsible for the research and development support fund.

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Last update - 16:42 01/04/2008
Where the Jews speak Singlish
By Simon Clement Seroussi and Tal Trachtman


This experience begins with an attempt by the Interdisciplinary Center, Herziliya, to offer its international students a chance to have the same trite semester abroad opportunity as all the other American universities it presumes to compete with. After a short-lived debate, we decided to give this Far East-business a shot.

Flight itinerary is as follows: Tel Aviv, Paris, Hong Kong and finally after 72 hours of traveling, Flight 2812 lands in the small island of Singapore, nestled between two of the largest Muslim countries in the world, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Demographically the South East Asian Island is made up of indigenous Malays with a large Chinese majority, including both Indians and Arabs. Singapore is your average "advanced economy," flaunting bars, restaurants, skyscrapers and leading universities, and while it is no U.S.of A, its got it all. And to our surprise, a vibrant, affluent and budding Jewish community.

Keeping Jewish tradition is an understatement
The first Shabbat in Singapore revealed a large and beautiful synagogue, a brand-new Jewish center, offering Talmud Torah classes and even a "Gan" (kindergarten) for the youngest generation. Surprisingly, this close-knit Jewish community is made up of Ashkenazi American-expatriates, Israeli military experts and their families, constituting a significant Jewish community in the heart of an Asian country. So yes, Jews are, in fact, everywhere.

While this matter created some food-for-thought, even more astonishing was the community's "vatikim" (the so-called seniors of the community, or those families who have been on the island the longest). They are, by any definition, Singaporean Jews.

They hold a Singaporean passport, their kids go to public schools with ethnic Chinese and Malay children, they serve in the army and they even speak singlish with a perfect accent (singlish is not the name of an Adam Sandler movie, but a mix of English and different Chinese dialect widely used in Singapore).

They are neither the sons of the lost tribe or Chinese converts rather, Iraqi Jews who emigrated to Singapore more than 150 years ago. They first settled in Singapore as merchants when the city became a trading post in Southeast Asia in 1819. Since then, the community has expanded from just a couple of families before the First World War to more than 150 families to date.

Upholding Stereotypes
While the rest of the Jewish community arrived from the US, Australia and Israel, the once-Iraqi, now-Singaporean Jews are an integral part of Singapore?s society. These Jews are known to head the South East Asian branch of world-renown corporations, like Gap, for example, or own local chains of banks, coffee shops and night clubs.

In this region, Jewish lawyers are viewed as unbeatable and are amongst the most successful on the island. Additionally, they have amiable relations with the country's political leaders.

"Bring more Jews to Singapore, they are beneficial to this island," exclaims the president of Singapore as he pays respect to the rabbis and heads of the most important families in his yearly visit to the synagogue.

Among these families, the Benjamin family is one that remarkably stands out. The family's generosity has greatly contributed to the building of the synagogue, as well as the Jewish center and is involved in organizing community events. While they are one of the wealthier families, they pride themselves not on this fact, but rather on their ability to have retained their culture and language throughout the years.

Why eat Chili crab when you can go to Baghdad?
Burekas, tebeet, cuba furbul, Arisa, Kutchre - one Iraqi dish after the other - the Benjamin family epitomizes hospitality. Even in the extreme East, thousands of kilometers away from any other important Jewish community, the Singaporean Jews manage to keep their spicy Judaism alive, literally.

Beyond indulging in the food, the great company and the close-to-home feeling guaranteed by each meal, we witnessed how incredible this community really was. They speak Hebrew and Arabic, they have not intermarried, the Benjamins and other families like them, do Judaism by the book.
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IN LIGHTER VEIN -

Chinese Jews (Dialect humor)

NB: this reads best out loud.

Two old Jewish gentlemen were having lunch in a Chinese restaurant, and the conversation turned to the status of Jewish communities around the world.

They discussed the plight of Soviet Jewry, and how the break-up of the USSR was making emigration to Israel easier for those Jews. They chatted about Ethiopian Jews, and whether they were "really" Jewish, considering the differences in their religious practices from that of the Orthodox sect.

They even discussed the problem of intermarriage in American Jews.

Eventually, since they were in a Chinese establishment, the conversation turned to the status of Jews in Asia. One of the gentlemen was certain that there had been a thriving community of Jews in Beijing - and probably still was; but, the other was equally certain that Jews had intermarried in China to the point where they had completely assimilated. Their discussion became quite heated.

Hearing the raised voices, their waiter hurried over. "Food OK?" he asked.

"The meal is fine," replied one of the Jews, "but we were arguing about Chinese Jews. Do you have any?"

The waiter thought for a moment. "Don't know," he admitted. "Ask cook." And he vanished into the kitchen.

After a few minutes, he reappeared, frowning. "So sorry," he began. "Cook say no Chinese Jews."

Before either Jew could say anything, the waiter smiled and continued: "Cook say we have apple juice and tomato juice."

Israeli Scholar Disputes Founding Myth - Excerpt

Israeli Scholar Disputes Founding Myth
Morgan Strong

April 12, 2009

The founding narrative of the modern State of Israel was born from the words of Moses in the Old Testament, that God granted the land of Israel to the Jewish people and that it was to be theirs for all time.

Then, there was the story of the Diaspora – that after Jewish uprisings against the Romans in the First and Second centuries A.D., the Jews were exiled from the land of Israel and dispersed throughout the Western world. They often were isolated from European populations, suffered persecution, and ultimately were marked for extermination in the Nazi Holocaust.

Finally after centuries of praying for a return to Israel, the Jews achieved this goal by defeating the Arab armies in Palestine and establishing Israel in 1948. This narrative – spanning more than three millennia – is the singular, elemental and sustaining claim of the State of Israel as a Jewish nation.

But a new book by Israeli scholar Shlomo Sand challenges this narrative, claiming that – beyond the religious question of whether God really spoke to Moses – the Roman-era Diaspora did not happen at all or at least not as commonly understood.

In When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, Dr. Sand, an expert on European history at the University of Tel Aviv, says the Diaspora was largely a myth – that the Jews were never exiled en masse from the Holy Land and that many European Jewish populations converted to the faith centuries later.

Thus, Sand argues, many of today’s Israelis who emigrated from Europe after World War II have little or no genealogical connection to the land. According to Sand’s historical analysis, they are descendents of European converts, principally from the Kingdom of the Khazars in eastern Russia, who embraced Judaism in the Eighth Century, A.D.

The descendants of the Khazars then were driven from their native lands by invasion and conquest and – through migration – created the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe, Sands writes. Similarly, he argues that the Jews of Spain came from the conversion of Berber tribes from northern Africa that later migrated into Europe.

The Zionist Narrative

Sand, himself a European Jew born in 1946 to Holocaust survivors in Austria, argues that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews because they shared a common religion, not because they possessed a direct lineage to the ancient tribes of Israel.

However, at the turn of the 20th Century, Sand asserts, Zionist Jews began assembling a national history to justify creation of a Jewish state by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion and that they had primogeniture over the territory that had become known as Palestine.

The Zionists also invented the idea that Jews living in exile were obligated to return to the Promised Land, a concept that had been foreign to Judaism, Sand states.

Like almost everything in the Middle East, this new scholarship is fraught with powerful religious, historical and political implications. If Sand’s thesis is correct, it would suggest that many of the Palestinian Arabs have a far more substantial claim to the lands of Israel than do many European Jews who arrived there asserting a God-given claim.

Indeed, Sand theorizes that many Jews, who remained in Judea after Roman legions crushed the last uprising in 136 A.D., eventually converted to Christianity or Islam, meaning that the Palestinians who have been crowded into Gaza or concentrated in the West Bank might be direct descendants of Jews from the Roman era.

Despite the political implications of Sand’s book, it has not faced what might be expected: a withering assault from right-wing Israelis. The criticism has focused mostly on Sand’s credentials as an expert on European history, not ancient Middle Eastern history, a point that Sand readily acknowledges.

One critic, Israel Bartal, dean of humanities at the Hebrew University, attacked Sand’s credentials and called Sand’s thesis "baseless," but disagreed mostly over Sand’s assertion that the Diaspora story was created as an intentional myth by Zionists seeking to fabricate a direct genealogical connection between many of the world’s Jews and Israel.

"Although the myth of an exile from the Jewish homeland (Palestine) does exist in popular Israeli culture, it is negligible in serious Jewish historical discussions," Bartal wrote in the newspaper Haaretz. "Important groups in the Jewish national movement expressed reservations regarding this myth or denied it completely. …

"The kind of political intervention Sand is talking about, namely, a deliberate program designed to make Israelis forget the true biological origins of the Jews of Poland and Russia or a directive for the promotion of the story of the Jews' exile from their homeland is pure fantasy."

In other words, Bartal, like some other critics, is not so much disputing Sand’s historical claims about the Diaspora or the origins of Eastern European Jews, as he is contesting Sand’s notion that Zionists concocted a false history for a cynical political purpose.

But there can be no doubt that the story of the Diaspora has played a key role in the founding of Israel and that the appeal of this powerful narrative has helped the Jewish state generate sympathy around the world, especially in the United States.

"After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people remained faithful to it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom," reads the preamble to the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Reality from Mythology

In January 2009, as the Israeli army bombarded Palestinians in Gaza in retaliation for rockets fired into southern Israel, the world got an ugly glimpse of what can result when historical myths are allowed to drive wedges between people who otherwise might have a great deal in common.

After the conflict ended – with some 1,400 Palestinians dead, including many children and other non-combatants – the Israeli government investigated alleged war crimes by its army and heard testimony from Israeli troops that extremist Rabbis had proclaimed the invasion a holy war.

The troops said the Rabbis brought them booklets and articles declaring: "We are the Jewish people. We came to this land by a miracle. God brought us back to this land, and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."

In his book – and in an interview with Haaretz about his book – Sand challenged this core myth. In the interview, he said:

"I started looking in research studies about the exile from the land - a constitutive event in Jewish history, almost like the Holocaust. But to my astonishment I discovered that it has no literature. The reason is that no one exiled the people of the country.

"The Romans did not exile peoples and they could not have done so even if they had wanted to. They did not have trains and trucks to deport entire populations. That kind of logistics did not exist until the 20th Century. From this, in effect, the whole book was born: in the realization that Judaic society was not dispersed and was not exiled."

The True Descendants

Asked if he was saying that the true descendants of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah are the Palestinians, Sand responded:

"No population remains pure over a period of thousands of years. But the chances that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Judaic people are much greater than the chances that you or I are its descendents.

"The first Zionists, up until the Arab Revolt [1936-1939], knew that there had been no exiling, and that the Palestinians were descended from the inhabitants of the land. They knew that farmers don't leave until they are expelled.

"Even Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, wrote in 1929 that, 'the vast majority of the peasant farmers do not have their origins in the Arab conquerors, but rather, before then, in the Jewish farmers who were numerous and a majority in the building of the land.'"

Sand argues further that the Jewish people never existed as a "nation race" but were rather an ethnic mix of disparate peoples who adopted the Jewish religion over a great period of time. Sand dismisses the Zionist argument that the Jews were an isolated and seminal ethnic group that was targeted for dispersal by the Romans.

Although ruthless in putting down challenges to their rule, the Romans allowed subjects in their occupied territories a great many freedoms, including freedom to practice religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly.

Thousands of Jews served in the Roman legions, and there was a sizable Jewish community in Rome itself. Three Jewish descendants of Herod the Great, the Jewish Emperor of Jerusalem, served in the Roman Senate.

Jewish dietary laws were respected under Roman law, as well as the right not to work on the Sabbath. Jewish slaves – 1,000 carried to Italy by Emperor Titus after crushing the first Jewish rebellion in 70 A.D. – were bought and set free by Jewish families already long settled into Roman society.

After the final Jewish rebellion, the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-136 A.D., historians say the Romans placed restrictions on Jews entering Jerusalem, which caused other areas, such as Galilee in northern Palestine, to become centers of Jewish learning. But there is little or no evidence of a mass forced relocation.

Sand says the Diaspora was originally a Christian myth that depicted the event as divine punishment imposed on the Jews for having rejected the Christian gospel.

Genetic Evidence

There has been no serious rebuttal to Sand’s book, which has been a bestseller in Israel and Europe – and which is expected to be released in the United States within the year. But there were earlier genetic studies attempting to demonstrate an unbroken line of descent among Ashkenazi Jews in Europe from the Hebrew tribes of Israel.

In a genetic study published by the United States National Academy of Sciences, the Y chromosomes of Ashkenazi, Roman, North African, Kurdish, Near Eastern, Yemenite, and Ethiopian Jews were compared with 16 non-Jewish groups from similar geographic locations. It found that despite long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level.

Although the study also demonstrated that 20 percent of the Ashkenazim carry Eastern European gene markers consistent with the Khazars, the results seemed to show that the Ashkenazim were descended from a common Mid-Eastern population and suggested that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora.

However, a monumental genetic study entitled, "The Journey of Man," undertaken in 2002 by Dr. Spencer Wells, a geneticist from Stanford University, demonstrated that virtually all Europeans males carry the same genetic markers found within the male population of the Middle East on the Y chromosomes.

That is simply because the migration of human beings began in Africa and coursed its way through the Middle East and onward, stretching over millions of years. In short, we are all pretty much the same.

Obsessive Delusion

Despite the lack of conclusive scientific or historical evidence, the Diaspora narrative proved to be a compelling story, much like the Biblical rendition of the Exodus from Egypt, which historians and archeologists also have questioned in recent years.

It is certainly true that all nations use myths and legend for sustenance; some tales are based on fact, others are convenient self-serving contrivances.

However, when myth and legend argue for excess, when they demand a racial, ethnic or religious purity to the exclusion of others – so that some prophecy can be fulfilled or some national goal achieved – reason and justice can give way to extremism and cruelty.

The motive for creating the state of Israel was to provide respite for the Jews of Europe after World War II, but that worthy cause has now been contorted into an obsessive delusion about an Israeli right to mistreat and persecute Palestinians.

When right-wing Israeli Rabbis speak of driving non-Jews out of the land that God supposedly gave to the Israelites and their descendants, these Rabbis may be speaking with full faith, but faith is by definition an unshakable belief in something that taken by itself cannot be proven.

This faith – or delusion – also is drawing in the rest of the world. The bloody war in Iraq is an appendage to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as is the dangerous rise of Islamic fundamentalism across the region.

There is also now the irony that modern Israel was established by Jews of European origin, many of whom may be ethnically unconnected to Palestine.

Another cruel aspect of this irony is that the descendants of the ancient Israelites may include many Palestinians, who are genetically indistinct from the Sephardic Jews who were, like the Palestinians, original and indigenous inhabitants of this ancient land.

Yasir Arafat told me quite often that the Israelis are really cousins of the Palestinians. He may have been wrong; they are more likely brothers and sisters.

Morgan Strong is a former professor of Middle Eastern history, and was an advisor to CBS News "60 Minutes" on the Middle East.

Similarities between Jews and Muslims

Similarities between Jews and Muslims

1. We worship the same God
2. We are descendents of Abraham
3. Our Males are circumcised according to Abrahamic law
4. Both cultures are of Semitic origin
5. Jerusalem is our Holy City
6. We stress good works over faith.
7. We share many advances in medicine; philosophy; law; literature and poetry.
8. There are extremists and peacemakers on both sides.


Similarities over differences

Much has been written about the differences between Jews and Muslims: a lot less about the similarities between us.

Jews, Muslims and Christians have a lot more in common than we care to sometimes admit.

We share belief in the same one God.
The originator of our religions and cultures is
the same person: Abraham.
Jews, Muslims and Christians - are regarded as Abrahamic religions.
We share one same holy place: The Temple Mount (the Rock) is where Abraham brought his son to sacrifice him. Adam was buried there. Solomon built a great temple there. Jesus prayed there. Mohammad ascended there. (Source: Bruce Feiler Abraham)

There are many common aspects between Islam and Judaism. As Islam developed it gradually became the major religion closest to Judaism. As opposed to Christianity which originated from interaction between ancient Greek and Hebrew cultures, Judaism is similar to Islam in its fundamental religious outlook, structure, jurisprudence and practice. (Source: http://rabbidavidrosen.net/)

There are many traditions within Islam originating from traditions within the Hebrew Bible or from post-biblical Jewish traditions. These practices are known collectively as the Isra'iliyat. (Source: http://post.queensu.ca/~jjl/islam.html

Arabs in Israel

20% of today's Israeli population is Muslim. The inhabitants live together with their Jewish counterparts peacefully. The majority of Muslim citizens of Israel are descendants of the 150,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained within the State of Israel after the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Many Arab citizens of Israel have continued to identify themselves as Palestinian and hold ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as to residents of occupied East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1980. (Source: Question of Palestine: Jerusalem. United Nations. http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/qpal/index.html)

Steps forward - Jews In Iran

Iran contains the most number of Jews among Muslim countries and Uzbekistan and Turkey have the next ranks. Iran's Jewish community is officially recognized as a religious minority group by the government, and they are allocated one seat in the Iranian Parliament. Maurice Motamed has been the Jewish MP since 2000, and was re-elected again in 2004. In 2000, former Jewish MP Manuchehr Eliasi estimated that at that time there were still 30-35,000 Jews in Iran, other sources put the figure as low as 20-25,000. (Source: Bahá'í Association http://www.uga.edu/bahai/News/021600.html)

Muslim Israeli Cabinet Minister

On January 28th, 2007 the Israeli government has voted to appoint its first-ever Muslim cabinet minister. The Labour Party's Galeb Magadla becomes minister without portfolio in the coalition government of Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. Magadla told Israeli Army Radio following the vote that the move would help Israel's Arab citizens identify more strongly with the Jewish state. He said: "The first step has been taken and this has given Israeli Arabs a feeling of belonging." (Source: aljazeera.net)

Holy scripture

Islam and Judaism share the idea of a revealed Scripture. Even though they differ over the precise text and its interpretations, the Hebrew Torah and the Muslim Qur'an share a lot of narrative as well as injunctions. From this, they share many other fundamental religious concepts such as the belief in a day of Divine Judgment as well as believing in the afterlife, Heaven and Hell.

Muslims commonly refer to Jews (and Christians) as fellow "People of the Book": people who follow the same general teachings in relation to the worship of the one God worshipped by Abraham.

As Islam developed it became, by far, the major religion closest to Judaism.

Religious law

Judaism and Islam are unique in having systems of religious law based on oral tradition which can over-ride the written laws and which does not distinguish between holy and secular spheres. In Islam the laws are called Sharia, In Judaism they are known as Halakha. Both Judaism and Islam consider the study the study of religious law to be a form of worship and an end in itself. (Source: Encyclopedia Judaica)

The most obvious common practice is the statement of the absolute unity of God which Muslims observe in their five times daily prayers (Salah), and Jews state at least twice (Shema Yisrael). The two Faiths also share the central practices of fasting and charity, as well as dietary laws and other aspects of ritual purity.

Judaism and Islam have strict dietary laws, with lawful food being called Kosher in Judaism and Halal in Islam. Both religions prohibit the consumption of pork. Halal restrictions can be seen as a subset of the Kashrut dietary laws, so many kosher foods are considered halal; especially in the case of meat, which Islam prescribes must be slaughtered in the name of God.

Both Judaism and Islam have a generally negative stance on homosexuality and on human sexuality outside of marriage. Both prescribe circumcision for males as a symbol of dedication to the religion.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_Judaism#_note-10)

Jewish Origins

Judaism's origins-along with those of the ancestral Abrahamic religion-are obscure. The only source generally agreed by all to be canonical that bears on that question is the Genesis book of the Hebrew Bible, which according to Rabbinic tradition was written by G-d and received by Moses after the Exodus from Egypt, sometime in the 2nd millennium BCE. According to Genesis, the principles of Judaism were revealed gradually to a line of patriarchs from Adam to Jacob (also called Israel); however the Judaic religion was only established when Moses received the Commandments on Mount Sinai, and with the organization of its priesthood and institution of its temple services.

All the Abrahamic religions are related to or even derived from Judaism as practiced in ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah prior to the Babylonian Exile, at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE.

Beginning in 7th century CE

Islam originated in the 7th century, in the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina. Although not a dissident branch of either Judaism or Christianity, Muslims believe it to be a continuation and replacement for them.

The historical interaction of Islam and Judaism started in the 7th century CE with the origin and spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. Because Islam and Judaism share a common origin in the Middle East through Abraham, both are considered Abrahamic religions. There are many shared aspects between Judaism and Islam. Because of this, as well as through the influence of Muslim culture and philosophy on practitioners of Judaism within the Islamic world, there has been considerable and continued physical, theological, and political overlap between the two faiths in the subsequent 1,400 years.

Semites

Ancient Hebrew and Arab people are generally classified as Semitic peoples, a concept derived from Biblical accounts of the origins of the cultures known to the ancient Hebrews. Those closest to them in culture and language were generally deemed to be descended from their forefather Shem. Enemies were often said to be descendants of his cursed brother Ham. Due to the similarities between Hebrew and Arabic as Semitic languages, many Muslim and Jewish terms are similar including the words for peace: salam and shalom. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_Judaism#_note-6)

Muhammad

According to Islamic holy texts, Muhammad preached that the pagan Arabs should abandon polytheism and accept Abrahamic monotheism, the belief in the one God. The Qur'an states that Muhammad's teachings were the completion of revelations given to prophets throughout the ages. Islam has taken many traits from Judaism (as well as Christianity), such as common prophets who are revered in both faiths such as Moses and Abraham.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are known as "Abrahamic religions". The firstborn son of Abraham, Ishmael, Muslims consider Father of the Arabs. Abraham's second son Isaac is called Father of the Hebrews. In the Jewish tradition Abraham is called Avraham Avinu or "Abraham, our Father". For Muslims, he is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Muhammad through Ishmael.

Islam affirms that Moses (Musa) was given a revelation, the Torah, which Muslims call Tawrat in Arabic, and believed to be the word of God (Allah). However, they also believe that this original revelation was modified over time by certain scribes and preachers. According to Islamic belief, the present Jewish scriptures were no longer the original divine revelations given to Moses. Muslims believe the Qur'an is the final revelation from God and a completion of the previous revelations.

Middle Ages

Jews have often lived in predominantly Islamic nations. During the Middle Ages as the Islamic state expanded out of the Arabian Peninsula, large numbers of Jews came under Muslim rule. There was general improvement in the conditions of Jews as Islamic law commands that Jews should be judged by Jewish laws, and that synagogues are to be protected. In the Iberian Peninsula, under Muslim rule, Jews were able to make great advances in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry and philology. (Source: Cowling (2005), p. 265)

Medieval Islamic civilization developed into its most productive period between the years 900 and 1200, and Jewish civilization in the Islamic world followed suit. During this period, some of the greatest works of Jewish philosophy, grammar, law, philology, and lexicography were written, in parallel with great advances in these fields in the Islamic world.

Jewish poetry in Hebrew found a renaissance during this period as well, and its meters, styles, and contents parallel those of its Muslim Arabic counterpart. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in Spain, where Jewish civilization flourished along with the flowering of the Islamic and secular sciences and culture throughout the region, known in Arabic as al-Andalus.

The relatively open society of al-Andalus was reversed and then ended by the coming of North African armies to help defend against the Spanish Christians, who were pushing the Muslims southward from their strongholds in the north. Jews were highly restricted under the Islamist Berber regimes and eventually began moving northward to newly conquered Christian areas where, for the time being, they were treated better. (Source: http://rabbidavidrosen.net/)

The Ottoman Empire had served as a refuge for Jews who had been expelled from Western Europe, especially after the fall of Muslim Spain in 1492. This was also the case for the Maghreb in North Africa, where a Jewish quarter (Mellah), was installed in most large Arabian cities. At the time Jews were driven out of Western Europe fleeing the Christian Inquisition, most notably the Alhambra decree. The Alhambra Decree was issued in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), following the final triumph over the Moors after the fall of Granada. The decree ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Spain and its territories and possessions by July 31, 1492 (Tisha B'Av).

Philosophy

The 12th century saw the apotheosis of pure philosophy. This supreme exaltation of philosophy was due, in great measure, to Ghazali (1058-1111) among the Arabs, and to Judah ha-Levi (1140) among the Jews. Like Ghazali, Judah ha-Levi took upon himself to free religion from the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this end wrote the Kuzari, in which he sought to discredit all schools of philosophy alike.

The Jewish philosopher Maimonides endeavored to harmonize the philosophy of Aristotle with Judaism; and to this end he composed his immortal work, Dalalat al-airin (Guide for the Perplexed)-known better under its Hebrew title Moreh Nevuchim-which served for many centuries as the subject of discussion and comment by Jewish thinkers.

The Arab philosopher Ibn Roshd (Averroes), the contemporary and tutor of Maimonides, closes the philosophical era of the Arabs. The boldness of this great commentator of Aristotle aroused the full fury of the orthodox.

Driven from the Arabian schools, Arabic philosophy found a refuge with the Jews, to whom belongs the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian world. A series of eminent men-such as the Tibbons, Narboni, and Gersonides-joined in translating the Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and commenting upon them. The works of Ibn Roshd especially became the subject of their study, due in great measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed to his pupil Joseph ibn Aknin, spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Roshd's commentary.

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Rabbi at Temple Shalom in Dallas emerges as leader in Muslim-Jewish dialogue - Excerpt from The Dallas Morning News

Me & My Jewish Friends


Rabbi at Temple Shalom in Dallas emerges as leader in Muslim-Jewish dialogue

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, December 13, 2008

By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
samhodges@dallasnews.com

Rabbi Jeremy Schneider spends a lot of time talking to Muslims, and wants other Jews to do the same.

[Click image for a larger version] MIKE STONE/Special Contributor
MIKE STONE/Special Contributor

Rabbi Jeremy Schneider has emerged as a leader in Jewish-Muslim dialogue.

At age 32, the assistant rabbi at Dallas' Temple Shalom has emerged as a national leader in Jewish-Muslim dialogue.

"He has been in the forefront of strengthening relations between our two communities," said Rabbi Marc Schneider, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.


Rabbi Schneider – whose office boasts not only diplomas but a neon University of Texas longhorn – was one of 20 clergy who participated in last year's groundbreaking National Summit of Imams and Rabbis.

He was the only rabbi in a National Peace Foundation-sponsored delegation visiting the Muslim Middle East – specifically Egypt and Syria – last June.

At Temple Shalom, he preached against "Islamophobia" on Rosh Hashana, pointedly telling his congregation, "We must learn what Islam truly stands for, not from politicians, not from e-mail forwards, and not from the media, but from Muslims themselves by engaging in dialogue."

Interfaith gatherings

To that end, Rabbi Schneider has organized monthly meetings with five members of his congregation and five from the Islamic Association of Carrollton. He and his wife, Rachel, had a dinner at their home for the group during the Jewish holiday Sukkot.

"I find Rabbi Jeremy to be an amazing person, and a dear friend," said Azhar Azeez, president of the Carrollton mosque, who at Rabbi Schneider's request gave the sermon at Temple Shalom during a service last month. "He's been extremely sincere."

Rabbi Schneider traces his passion for interfaith efforts to growing up in the predominantly Christian suburbs of Houston.

His mother, a teacher, made it a point to educate schoolchildren about Judaism. He visited a church with his best friend and had the friend over for Passover.

"It was second nature," he said. "I thought that's what you do – learn about others' religion and teach them about yours."

After attending Jewish summer camps and spending a high school term in Israel, Rabbi Schneider majored in education at the University of Texas. He decided his junior year to be a rabbi, and after graduation enrolled at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

There, he got involved in interfaith efforts, and wrote a thesis titled "Jewish-Christian Relations: From Tolerance to Pluralism to Partnership." His thesis adviser was Rabbi Reuven Firestone, author of An Introduction to Islam for Jews and an advocate of Jews and Muslims learning from one another about their faiths.

Rabbi Schneider launched right into interfaith work – both with Christians and Muslims – soon after joining the staff at Temple Shalom, a Reform congregation, in 2006.

Tension in Middle East

While Jewish-Christian dialogue and projects have been going on for decades, Jewish-Muslim efforts are in an early and tentative stage, impeded by a strained, often violent political situation in the Middle East.

"It's the beginning of a marathon, not a sprint," said Mohamed Elibiary, president of the Freedom and Justice Foundation in Carrollton, and another Muslim who has spoken at Temple Shalom.

Rabbi Schneider makes plain that the dialogue he fosters is not aimed at changing anyone's faith. Nor is it about wrangling over the Middle East.

Rather, he said, it's about building relationships between Jews and Muslims in North Texas and across the United States, and working through fears to solid knowledge of the other's faith.

Rabbi Schneider argues that the three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – have much in common, and that extremists have, at times, "hijacked" each of them.

"There is terrorism in the world. There are fanatics in Judaism, in Christianity, in Islam. But if we give in to the fear that they're creating, then they win," he said.

Rabbi Schneider will be honored Jan. 10 by the National Peace Foundation for his interfaith work, and he plans to do more, including forming additional dialogue groups and starting a class on Islam at Temple Shalom.

There, he said, he has found "far more support than pushback," but acknowledges some congregants think he is naïve. Solidly in his corner is Rabbi Andrew Paley – senior rabbi at Temple Shalom.

"He's a terrific pastor and a wonderful teacher," Rabbi Paley said. "I'm praying that his example here will be a real model for people to follow."