Jewishness

Jael was the first of three Jewish women who kept me somewhat sane at different points in my life. 

I met Flower, Jael's mother, in Calcutta in February 1977 when I had a grant to research on the historic elections. (Also went to Patna and to Gandhi Maidan with J.P. for his last election speech. Shocking to see NaMo there yesterday, but in a way JP brokered the alliance for the Janata Party, said to have been suggested by Nanaji Deshmukh.)

There are some Jews in Ahmedabad still. I was so ignorant growing up. Soon after Priya was born, Raechelle's India visa needed renewal. How does one take a new mother to the police office or wherever? My father said, "Give me the passport. The deputy DG of police is a friend of mine." I asked, "Who?". He gave the name and R. said, "Oh, a Jew!" My father said, "Yes, we were in high school together." I was surprised, both that my father had a Jewish friend I didn't know of and that there were Jews in Ahmedabad. My father laughed at me, "As a boy, you used to visit Rubin David at the zoo for radio shows, and you had a picture with him!" R. laughed at me too, "You knew a Rubin David and you didn't know he was Jewish?" 

I met my father's Jewish friend and his family in Vadodara, where he had retired, with my mother, after my father's death. 

A few years ago, I read a death notice of a Jewish woman who had been the head of Sanskrit Department at the university. Last year I learnt Mr. and Mrs. Best (Jewish) - who started the Best High School in Ahmedabad in the late 1950s - are still around. 

In 2011, Priya and I went to the Magen Abraham synagogue in Ahmedabad - right across the Parsi Agiyari on Bawa Latif street. A meeting hall in the name of a Hindu monk at the corner, a big church (IP or Irish Presbyterian, who also had a mission in the village we come from) a block away, a few mosques (including the first royal mosque, by the founder of the city) and Hindu temples (including the most important Kali temple, attached to the old wall of the city's main gate) within half a kilometer. 

I was born a kilometer away, and lived nearby for the first 12 years. Only when I was 15 did I see the first Hindu-Muslim killings in my city, and much later I slowly discovered that my parents' close friendships with Christians (both sides), Muslims (my mother's side) and Parsis (my grandfather and perhaps father) kept me in the dark about the dark secrets of Indian society. I have a close Muslim (non-practicing) friend from college days, and made close Parsi friends in Ahmedabad college. 

And of course, I might have been a sickly child had not my mother taken me weekly to a Christian friend to feed me eggs, might not have topped the high school results without a Parsi teacher, and would not have learnt how to write but for a Jesuit teacher in college, and a Jewish boss here. (When I was 32, he said, "Isn't it time you learnt how to write?" I loved writing legal testimonies with him.) 

N

---

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/the-last-jews-of-kolkata/

 October 24, 2013, 3:14 am 14 Comments

The Last Jews of Kolkata

By ZACH MARKS