For more than 2,000 years, Jewish life has flourished in India, creating one of the most remarkable and enduring chapters in Jewish history. In a world where Jewish communities have so often faced persecution and displacement, India stands apart as a place where Jews lived openly, securely, and in partnership with the cultures around them.
That history became the foundation for “Jews of the Raj,” a recent major donor mission organized by Jewish Federation of San Diego. The experience offered participants an opportunity to explore India’s Jewish story while reflecting on the broader responsibility of sustaining Jewish life across generations and continents.
Traveling from Delhi and Jaipur to Kochi, Mumbai, and Kerala’s backwaters, participants encountered the layered legacy of India’s Jewish communities. The Bene Israel of western India, the Cochin Jews of Kerala, and the Baghdadi Jews who settled in India’s port cities each built traditions that were both distinctly Jewish and unmistakably Indian. Synagogues rose alongside bustling trade routes. Hebrew prayers blended with local customs, languages, and cuisine.
By the mid-20th century, India’s Jewish population numbered as many as 50,000. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, most made aliyah (the immigration of Jews to Israel), helping build the young nation while preserving the customs and identity they carried from India. Today, a small but enduring Jewish population remains in India, sustaining centuries-old traditions and communal institutions.
For mission participants, those realities transformed history into something deeply personal.
“This is why a Federation mission is different from a regular sightseeing trip,” said Mission Chair and Federation Campaign Co-chair Sonia Israel. “We get to meet with people we otherwise would never have the opportunity to meet. We learn about relationships between Israel and the rest of the world. And we learn about how as American Jews we fit into that tapestry.”
For Federation Board Chair Jeff Schindler, the mission also became a reflection on leadership, resilience, and communal responsibility. In Mumbai, participants visited Dharavi, one of the world’s most densely populated neighborhoods, where the group encountered not despair, but ingenuity and strength. “We expected deep poverty,” Schindler shared with GB Magazine. “What we found was community: fierce, proud, ingenious community.”
That lesson, he said, mirrored the very essence of Federation’s work: strengthening communities and ensuring Jewish life continues to flourish wherever Jews call home. “Our mission is to ensure that Jewish life persists and flourishes, not just in San Diego, but wherever Jews have put down roots and looked up at the same stars,” Schindler reflected.
As participants returned home, they carried with them more than memories of India’s landmarks and landscapes. The journey reinforced a larger truth: Jewish communities may take shape differently around the world, but they remain connected through shared history, collective responsibility, and philanthropy that transcends borders.
To learn more about upcoming Federation missions, leadership opportunities, and ways to engage in Jewish life locally and globally, visit www.jewishinsandiego.org.
