Siona Benjamin's Hindu Portraits Show the Varied Faces of Jews

MONTCLAIR TIMES
By Elizabeth Oguss

NEW JERSEY - In an empty synagogue in Pune, India, an old man prays alone, his still-strong voice rising to the rafters as he chants the Hebrew prayers. The moment is captured in still photos and on video by an American artist, Siona Benjamin. "His voice in the empty synagogue was a symbol," Benjamin said, recalling the moment in the basement studio of her Montclair home. "Once there were 30,000 Jews in India. Now there are around 4,000. When he sang alone, his voice echoed."Her aim is to explore the many faces of Indian Jews in order to "reconfirm" something she has always known: "There is no such thing as a Jewish race." As a Bene Israel Jew raised in a Hindu and Muslim society and educated in Christian and Zoroastrian schools, Benjamin knows firsthand what it is to feel "other." PHOTO: Benjamin with cantor in Mumbai. [link]