Siona Benjamin's Interviews on Canvas Faces of the Bene Israel

ASIAN JEWISH LIFE
By Erica Lyons

Sharon Galsurkar at Magen David Synagogue

INDIA - The story of the Jews in India goes back 2,000 years and is one of peaceful coexistence in a colorful world that embraced them yet one of isolation from global Jewry. When artist Siona Benjamin, an American, set out on her trip back to the India of her childhood in 2010, she arrived with an intense sense of purposefulness heavily laden with nostalgia. She was intent on rescuing the stories and narratives of these people, her people, the Jews of India. Benjamin was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship 2010-11, which enabled her to embark on this four month intensive research study in India that allowed her to photograph, interview, and record the Bene Israel's stories lest they fall into oblivion. [link]