Next Year in Bombay
VIEW EVENT DETAILSNext Year in Bombay is the story of the Jewish community Bene Israel, which settled in India 2000 years ago. Although they never faced anti-Semitism, most of Bene Israel's residents moved to Israel in the 1950s and today they number approximately 4000 in Bombay and the surrounding area.
The Bene Israel story, however, may soon come to an end. Since the community is so small, Indian Jewish culture could evaporate within one generation. Many families are afraid they will have to choose between staying in India and being Jewish. This story raises the question whether the creation of Israel, in an odd trick of history, hasn't actually threatened a unique Jewish culture.
Next Year in Bombay focuses on the last two educators of this community, Sharon and Sharona, who were trained in a yeshiva in Jerusalem and have been relentlessly working towards a better Indian Jewish life. As their daughters are growing older, they have to decide whether they will stay with their shrinking community or if they will fly to Israel in order to provide their children with a better Jewish life.
Please join one of the Bene Israel community, Nissim Reuben, along with Professor Maina Chawla Singh, and Indian cultural expert Ken Robbins for a screening and discussion of the film.
Nissim Reuben currently works as Program Director: Indian-Jewish American Relations at American Jewish Committee. Drawing on his unique personal background of being both Indian and Jewish and as part of his professional commitment and personal passion, Reuben travels around the country networking Indian and Jewish students, community leaders, artists, doctors, and business professionals. Every year since 2004, Reuben has arranged for American Jewish leaders to meet with the Indian Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Foreign Secretary.
Maina Chawla Singh, Associate Professor, University of Delhi, has lectured widely at international institutions including at Cambridge, Oxford, Yale, Cornell, and the Library of Congress. Between 2005-8, Singh researched and lectured in Israel at Bar-Ilan, Haifa, and Tel Aviv universities. She was Haddasah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence (2008) and Fellow, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University (2009). Her recent book Being Indian, Being Israeli: Migration, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Jewish Homeland (New Delhi: 2009), is based on extensive fieldwork research and over 150 interviews conducted among Indian Jewish communities in Israel. She is currently Scholar-in-Residence at American University and has spoken widely at Jewish community events and Jewish film festivals across the US.
Kenneth Robbins, a psychiatrist, has curated 11 exhibitions and published 300 slides from his own Indian collections specializing in maharajas and minority groups in India. He has published dozens of articles on Indian history, art, religion, medicine, numismatics, and philately as well as a book on African Muslim elites in India. He is presently working on five volumes on Jews in India as well as a Sufi conference April 28-30 at Freer Gallery, the Library of Congress, and Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Co-sponsored by American Jewish Committee
Event Details
Asia Society Washington, The Cinnabar Room, Whittemore House, 2nd Floor, 1526 New Hampshire Ave, NW