film

Salaam Shalom: The Jews of India

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Director(s)	Vanessa C. Laufer
Release Date	1999
Work In Progress	n
Runtime	50 min
Youth Media	n

Film Description

This colorful film about the Jews of India brings to life a remarkable history dating back two millennia. A microsopic minority living within a vast, varied and densely populated nation, they co-existed for all those years in an environment of tolerance and pluralism. But a watershed was reached in 1947 with the declaration of Indian independence and in 1948 with the creation of Israel. Many of the Jews of India decided to “leave their home to find their home: their religious loyalty stronger than their national loyalty to India.”
The filmmaker travels to the cities of the fascinating subcontinent of India where the remaining Jews have made their homes, to Goa, Bombay, Cochin, Calcutta. There she finds those Jews studying the Talmud, adhering to relgious custom, wearing yarmulkah. In many ways, they seem even more observant than Western Jews.