Sadia Shepard On Bene Israels
By kamla bhatt • Nov 25th, 2009Category: Books and Authors, Diaspora, Featured, India, Mumbai, New York, People
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American filmmaker and writer Sadia Shepard grew up thinking that her Pakistani maternal grandmother was a Muslim just like her mother. And therein lies an interesting story, whose roots can be traced to the
partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 and the tragic consequences it had for so many families and people on either side of the border.
Sadia discovers that her maternal grandmother was born into the Bene Israel, one of the oldest Jewish communities on the Western coast of India. The Bene Israels were concentrated on the Konkan coast of Maharashtra for over 2,000 years. Often known as Shaniwar Teli (Saturday oil-pressers), the Bene Israel community now numbers a few thousand people and they are mostly concentrated in Mumbai and surrounding areas. Many have migrated to Israel, Canada, US and other countries.
A few years ago Sadia went to India on a journey of discovery about her maternal grandmother’s Jewish heritage and her story. Sadia spent nearly 2 years living in Mumbai in pursuit of her grandmother’s story.
What was the story of her maternal grandmother? What did Sadia discover about her grandmother’s Jewish ancestry forms the basis of her book: The Girl From Foreign – A Memoir.
This interview was first aired on Stanford’s radio station.
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
