Friday, November 30, 2012


Florida bound? I’ll be talking about “The Scattered Tribe,” in December here in South Florida. Stop by and say hello.

11 am, December 3, 2012, Jewish Community Center,  Ft. Lauderdale, (Davie)  FL. ( arranged by Jewish Book Council Network).

12 noon, December 10, 2012, B’nai Torah Synagogue, Boca Raton, FL.

12:30 pm, December 11,  JCC , Boynton Beach,  FL.

10:45 am. December 17, 2012, Gesher Hadassah, Ponte Vecchio, Boynton Beach, FL.

Searching for a holiday gift, especially for travelers.  “The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond,” (Globe Pequot Press). “Wherever books are sold!”

Follow me on twitter @bengfrank

Check out my blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.”


·          



 
fall 2012

19

A

h, the “glamour of the mysterious East.”

I travel the world. So when someone mentions

Asia, I conjure up mystical India, the “jewel in the

crown.”

Falling in love with “Incredible India,” is not difficult,

even though the country often bewilders the visitor.

Hard to believe that India stretches from the tropics

right up to the temperate regions, from near the

equator to the base of the Himalayas; a vast continent,

indeed.

“India is history,” wrote the late Jawaharlal Nehru,

leader for Indian independence from Britain and the

country’s first prime minister, adding she “has a long

memory.”

Indeed, the Jewish people have remained part of that

memory. For more than 2,000 years, pluralist India

has been a peaceful home to Jews and has played a

significant role in Jewish consciousness. Throughout

the ages and on into in the 21

st century, the largest

number of Jews of any country east of Iran resided

in India. The Talmud contains several references to

India. Saadia Gaon himself mentions great profit to

be had in the India trade. During the 12

th century,

Jewish travelers visited India. Benjamin of Tudela left

extensive descriptions of the Jews of southwest India.

Maimonides wrote that his

mishne torah was studied

there.

Still, the early history of the Jews in India remains

shrouded in legend. The traditional belief is that

refugees left Israel by boat and ultimately reached the

Konkan coast, even before the time of King Solomon,

whose ships plied the waters between the Gulf of

Aqaba and the west coast of India.

Like all tourists, American Jewish visitors usually begin

their sojourn in Delhi, the capital. They, too, embrace

the “golden triangle” of India tourism: Delhi; Agra,

site of the world marvel, the Taj Mahal, as well as the

deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri with its evanescent red

sandstone city that has been cited as among “the most

evocative ruins in India.” Then, they head to Jaipur,

home to the Amber Fort, which is best reached by

riding an elephant up the steep road.

As I toured India---the birthplace of three great faiths:

Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism --- I could not help

but see and sense the tumult, the hustle, the poverty

and inequality that exists in wide segments of the

population. Yet, progress moves forward today even

in the face of the ancient Hindu caste system. Now

at least, discrimination on the basis of caste remains

illegal.

Arriving in Delhi, one of the world’s most historic

cities, I quickly sought out my people and learned

that there are three distinct groups: The Bene Israel

trace their roots in India back to the destruction of the

First Temple in 586 BC; today they are the largest

group of Indian Jews and most reside in Mumbai.

The Cochin Jews, another ancient community, living

in Kochi is another group, followed by the Baghdadi

Jews who descended from 19

th century emigrants from

Iraq and other Arab lands.


“Incredible India” &

Its Jewish Community




By Ben G. Frank

Author, Ben Frank, and

his wife, in front of the

Taj Mahal.

Inside the historic

Paradesi synagogue,

Kochi, India.



20


J Magazine

“Israel is in my heart; India in my blood”

says Attorney Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, of the

Judah Hyam Synagogue, opposite the Taj

Mahal Hotel in New Delhi. Single-handedly,

he keeps the ten-family Jewish community

alive and is often joined by approximately

100 Jewish diplomats in this capital.

“There is no rabbi, no

chazzan, no

shoichet


, and usually no minyan,” he

declares, but always services at 6:30 pm.

Friday, in winter; 7 pm. in summer, and

Saturday mornings at 9 a.m.—if there is a

minyan.

Chabad House is located in the General

Market in Paharanj. The sign says,

“Welcome to The Chabad of India—We

are your Jewish Home away from Home.”

An old adage states that “as long as

Bombay exists, there will be Jews in town.

“In enormous, diverse, mystic Mumbai, the

nation’s transportation hub, the business

capital, the economic powerhouse, stands

the heart of an active Jewish community.

Most Indian Jews reside in Greater

Mumbai with its 20.5 million people. Nine

Sephardic, Orthodox synagogues function,

with only two rabbis.

The Evelyn Peters JCC is located at

D.G. Ruparel College, in Matunga. The

JCC, with its meeting rooms, computer

facility, library, a large hall and offices,

is sponsored and aided by the American

Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A

Reform Movement of Judaism congregation

meets here.

The Jewish population has remained stable

at about 5,000 persons. Because India,

with its 1.3 billion persons, has become

one of the world’s largest economies,

now 6.9 percent growth, Jews are staying

put, despite the Mumbai terrorist attack at

Chabad House.

As a business mogul on Delhi television

declared, “never has there been a better

time to have been born in India.” Many

young Jews work in call centers; that

activity hurts Jewish communal life. “It’s

hard to get the young people to activities

if they sleep during the day and work at

night,” said a synagogue leader.

As I flew to Kochi, (Cochin) in Kerala, I

recalled that India is seen as a country

without anti-Semitism. As Professor Nathan

Katz wrote: “The Indian chapter [in Jewish

history] remains one of the happiest of the

Jewish diaspora.” Cochin Jews are best

known to the outside world, though only

about a dozen reside here. The outstanding

Jewish site remains the whitewashed,

rectangular Paradesi Synagogue, part of

the “Living Legend of India.” Well-worth a

visit.

In Kochi, “the Queen of the Arabian Sea,”

and the epitome of long-ago India, small,

kiosk-type shops dot Synagogue Lane in

“Jew Town, “ located in the Mattancherry

district. Tourists can spot the Jewish star on

the lattice of many homes, and some even

have Jewish names inscribed on them.

Tourists can obtain postage stamps with the

Star of David at the post office.

India—with all of its infinite charm, long

history, mixed culture, vast plains, huge

mountains, mighty rivers and great forests—

awaits you. As has been said, “whatever

happens, India will go on,” and so likely

will its Jewish community.


Ben G. Frank, journalist, travel writer,

is the author of the just-published,

“The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the

Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti

& Beyond,” Globe Pequot Press; as

well as “A Travel Guide to Jewish

Europe, 3

rd edition”;”A Travel Guide

to Jewish Russia and Ukraine,” and “A

Travel Guide to the Jewish Caribbean

and South America, Pelican Publishing

Company. Blog: bengfrank.blogspot.

com, twitter:@BenGFrank


Magen Hassidim synagogue in Mumbai, India.

In the Sunday School of the JCC, Mumbai,

India.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012


Come on over and say hello at my two “Meet the Author and Book Talk” events in South Florida this next week. I’ll be at the Miami Beach  JCC, 4221 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach, at 7:30 pm. Thursday, November 29.  And at 11 am Monday, December 3, I will be at the David Posnack Jewish Community center for the 25th Annual Jewish Book Festival, 5850 S. Pine Island Road, Davie, FL,  The  latter is a local author event where I will be the keynote speaker re  The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond. (Globe Pequot Press). Both events were arranged by the Jewish Book Council.




Blog     

Follow me on twitter @bengfrank

Check out my blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.”

 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is executed in prison, the BBC reported today.
WE REMEMBER!

"from "The Scattered Tribe," (Globe Pequot Press)..."the brazen terrorist act of November, 2008, shook India, the world , and the Indian Jewish community which had experienced hardly a drop of anti-Semitism throughout its long history. Yes, time stood still at 2120 hours on the night of November 26, 2008 in Mumbai....174 persons, including nine gunmen, lost their lives...Included in the carnage were six Jews..."
WE REMEMBER!

Happy Chanukah!

“A box of candy as a Chanukah gift can last 8 days. But a book will last forever!” As an author I believe that any book is a wonderful holiday gift idea.

Check out:“The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond,” (Globe Pequot Press.) -- See attached.


Amazon http://www.amazon.com/The-Scattered-Tribe-Traveling-Diaspora/dp/0762770333/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337002629&sr=8-1 http://amzn.to/J3Z47T
 Barnes & Noble, or “wherever books are sold.”

Blog Check out my blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com  
“I Travel the World.”

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

President Obama was in Phnom Penh today (Nov. 20, 2012) and Sec. of Defense Panetta was in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, recently. Check out my article on Cambodia, Angkor Wat and its Jewish community on my blog. Scroll down. My blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.” Follow me on twitter @bengfrank
For more info on Asia, "The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond," (Globe Pequot Press)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Historic visit of first U.S. President to travel to Myanmar. Good move.President Obama's visit encourages reform and let us not forget, helps Burma to be less dependent on China. How times have changed; when I was there just a few short years ago, one couldn't even mention the name of Aung San Suu Kyi. And today, President Obama is scheduled to meet with this symbol of democracy. Check out my Burma chapter in "The Scattered Tribe," (Globe Pequot Press) Blog: www.bengfrank.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 15, 2012

"Ah, Odessa."


Ah, Odessa, the home of my grandparents, where my mother lived as a young girl. Anyone who has ever visited Odessa never forgets the Odessa Steps, the statue of Duc de Richelieu, the arteries that feed the heart of this port city; frantic Deribasovskaya street; majestic and sleepy Pushkin st. Walk along Nikolaevsky and Primorsky Blvd, and you will inhale the spicy aroma of the acacias. Odessa is truly special and the home of Jewish enlightenment and a Zionist city. Here lived Chaim Nachman Bialik, Isaac Babel, Zeev Vladimir Jabotinsky. Russian Jewry stood in awe of Odessa. For more info on this city on the Black Sea, check out “The Scattered Tribe,” (Globe Pequot Press) and my blog: www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I travel the world.”
Blog     
Follow me on twitter @bengfrank

 

 

Chanukah is coming! Unlike Candy, a Book lasts forever!

Chanukah is coming! Dec. 8, Just back from my book talk (Jewish Book Council) at the JCC in Virginia Beach, VA, where I urged all to visit Israel, especially since 60 percent of American Jews have never toured the Jewish State. You can tell Chanukah is coming; sold more copies of “The Scattered Tribe,” than usual. http://amzn.to/J3Z47T Check out my blog at www.bengfrank.blogspot.com “I Travel the World.”
Like · · · 16 hours ago ·



Thursday, November 8, 2012

Good strategic move!

Good strategic move on the part of President Obama to visit Myanmar.. It shows the people of Myanmar, the U.S. stands behind reforms. The President's visit also will encourage tourism which is on the increase and important if progress is to continue. Finally, let's not forget, it is in our interest to build ties with nations in Southeast Asia, especially with increased volatility in the South China Sea. Check out my chapter on Burma, in "The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cubu to India to Tahiti & Beyond." Follow me on twitter @bengfrank.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Review of "The Scattered Tribe," Jewish News Service!

a review of "The Scattered Tribe," by Jewish News Service!

Tracking faith

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 11:02AM
Jeffrey Barken / JNS.org in Book Review, Travel, Travel

Author Ben G. Frank takes the old fortune cookie prediction “you will be on the soil of many countries” very seriously, especially as he embarks on a journey to forbidden Burma. That prophecy echoes the biblical story of Abraham, affirms Frank’s Jewish faith, and motivates him to travel to isolated regions and uncover the legacy of the Diaspora.

In his new book, The Scattered Tribe, Frank first embarks on a quest to uncover his familial roots in Russia but then discovers a remote Jewish community on the exotic island of Tahiti. Later travels to India, Vietnam, and Morocco reveal intricate histories of Jewish achievement, tragic purges, and a diverse people’s stubborn endurance throughout the centuries. Frank even manages to infiltrate the communist regime in Cuba, where a suppressed Jewish community struggles to revive in the face of politically imposed atheism.

“I wanted to meet my people and learn how they lived and survived,” Frank explains his reason for traveling to the ends of the earth. The Scattered Tribe contemplates the author’s nearly 60 years of personal and professional travel as a reporter. In the course of his long career he witnessed the creation of Israel and a half-century of tumultuous relocation among Jewish people around the world. The resultant travelogue lifts the heavy veil of the Holocaust, exposing an extended Jewish identity that in many places is now under pressure in an age of secularization, inter-marriage, and the magnetic pull of an Israeli homeland for Jews.

Over and over again in my travels in the Diaspora I was to hear the name of Jerusalem uttered with awe…Paradise is only in Jerusalem,” Frank writes, describing his choice of destinations in relation to the holy city central to Judaism. Having visited some countries so far west of Israel that congregations debate what direction to place their temple’s Bima so as to face Jerusalem during prayer, Frank draws concentric circles around the Old City, connecting disparate points of the faith and demonstrating universal reverence for the Holy Land.

Frank routinely asks congregation leaders and community organizers of each locality he visits: “What do all Diaspora Jews hold in common?” “How and when did Jews come here?” His questions may reveal Jewish participation in European colonialism or uncover well-worn ancient trade routes.

The author is both mindful and appreciative of the influence of Chabad-Lubavitch, an international Hasidic organization that holds the spread of Judaism in the widest possible manner as one of its chief tenets. Chabad has established stations in many of the remote countries visited by Frank, providing a safe haven for Jewish and Israeli travelers and a source of renewed Jewish life in regions where those traditions are in decline.

.Although Frank accepts aggressive propagation of Judaism around the world, his American identity changes his perspective slightly, enabling him to be subtly critical of the true nature of the Diaspora. His aversion to the word “remnants,” when used to describe the shrunken, “formerly large Jewish communities that survived the Holocaust” in Europe, suggests a question that he is not willing to state outright: At its height, was the Diaspora less an epoch of expulsion, suffering, and wandering that Jews typically are taught to believe, or rather a thriving Jewish cultural empire?

Readers carefully consider the meaning of the word Diaspora as they travel with Frank. Jewish historian Nathan Katz’s observation “that Jews are not western but global” appears to confirm Frank’s uncertainty about the word and the communities it is intended to characterize. Additionally, Frank’s encounters in the East reveal a generally peaceful and positive experience for many Asian-Jewish communities, especially in India. Their heritage renders Frank self-conscious of his Western-based expectation that wherever Jews have been scattered, they have encountered hardship and persecution. The author is at once delighted to feel connected to a version of Judaism that is less scarred than the faith in which he was raised and to participate in the charming and unique traditions that have evolved in these regions throughout centuries of admirable, successful integration.

Frank’s belief in the “Sanctity of the Diaspora” has kept him traveling despite his earlier inclination to immigrate to Israel. In some cases, his memoirs digress. The chapters on Tahiti and Cuba, included to show the exotic fringes of the faith, are more of a travelogue of local anecdotes and fun tourist tips than a critical analysis of the Diaspora in some remote corners of the globe. Readers may also become frustrated by the lack of a dedicated chapter on American Jewry, a large and successful Diaspora community with wide-reaching influence on Israel and the Jewish faith.

Returning to Israel in the final chapter, the book pivots after Frank’s encounter with a North African immigrant to Israel who casually observes, “All Jews are brothers.” Frank then recognizes that something spiritual has kept Jews connected to each other and to Israel, wherever they live, whatever language they speak, and whatever regime threatens.

Frank is interested in the future of his people. He is desirous of Jewish cultural solidarity but also tolerant of the degree of separation that is the inevitable product of centuries of oppressive conditions and wanderlust inherent in the Jewish experience. Frank’s tracking of his own family’s origins and his recapitulation of the Scattered Tribe’s journeys East and West may raise more questions than answers, but such is the nature of the Diaspora. Readers will delight in Frank’s remarkable accomplishment, ponder the tracks in the sand left by their own wandering Jewish ancestors, and wonder what has been lost or gained along the way.

Jeffrey Barken, Cornell University graduate and University of Baltimore MFA candidate, frequently reports on Israel news topics and Jewish-interest literature. He is currently writing a collection of stories, “This Year in Jerusalem, Next Time in America,” based on his experiences living on a kibbutz in Southern Israel from 2009-2010.

Article originally appeared on JNS.org (http://www.jns.org/).

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