It’s holy week for Christians and Jews. Easter. Passover.
I grew up in a place where it was holy week almost every month of the year. A bit of an exaggeration, I suppose, but India, with its myriad religions, bows down in prayer — often.
Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Zoroastrians — and yes, Jews.
They were an integral part of India. Jewish families erected majestic buildings, launched landmark businesses. The synagogues were oases in the middle of mayhem. Their food defined fusion long before that word was attached to any American establishment. They came from the Middle East and found peace and tolerance in my homeland. And now they are vanishing. A dying breed on the subcontinent.
I wrote a story about the Jewish community in Kolkata for CNN. That it ran on the holiest of weeks compounded the sadness in my heart.
We fight wars in the name of religion. But it can also be the greatest display of our diversity. To lose that, can never be good,
Read about India’s Jewish community: http://bit.ly/aPY9tf
