FOOD BRIDGES GAPS BETWEEN CULTURES Welcoming Passover with Cantor Aviva Marer words: Charity Singleton Craig | photography: Lauren McDuffie
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lance at the Passover food prepared by Aviva Marer, cantor of Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, and the bright red chicken curry or the chunky charoset made with dates, dried apricots and cardamom might give you a clue as to her religious background. Cantor Marer’s family hails from a small Jewish Indian sect in New Delhi, known as Bene Israel. But it’s the rice—plain, white and piled next to the curry—that actually tells the story better. Unlike the Ashkenazi Jews, who come primarily from Europe and do not consider kitniyot—or legumes, grains and seeds—kosher for Passover, the Bene Israel proudly eat rice during the holiday, featuring it prominently in their festival meals. “Every Passover my father would bring a big plate of rice to the table and just kind of put it down as a marker,” Cantor Marer says, the color of her silk blouse a near-match for her family’s turquoise and gold Seder plate she shows us in a photo. “It was his way of affirming that we eat rice at Passover, and there’s nothing wrong with it. It was kind of who he was.” It’s kind of who Cantor Marer is, too, as she carries the mantle of her family’s religious traditions into her own vocation as a hazzan, or keeper of traditional music, in her Reform Jewish congregation that values “choice through knowledge with deep respect for tradition and community.” “I very intentionally share my Indian Judaism,” Cantor Marer says. “I’m always honored when people want to know about it.”
THE JEWS OF INDIA There are actually three sects of Indian Jews, Cantor Marer explains: The Cochin Jews, which is the oldest sect of Indian Jews emerging from the Cochin region of India. The Baghdadi Jews, who migrated to India from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. And then the Bene Israel Jews, or Sons of Israel, who were kind of a lost tribe for a time. According to tradition, nearly 2,000 years ago a ship sailing from Palestine wrecked along the rugged Konkan coast of western India. As Cantor Marer tells it, there were 14 survivors, seven men and seven women, who settled in India and continued to practice Jewish customs. Over time, however, they lost sight of the source of those customs. In the 1600s, a Jewish trader from Aleppo discovered the Bene Israel and set about to re-textualize these Indian Jews with the traditional Jewish teachings and festivals. For centuries, Jews have lived peacefully in India, a religiously diverse culture of Muslims, Hindus, Jains and others. In fact, “India is the only place in the history of the world where there was never any persecution against the Jews,” Cantor Marer says. One reason, she suggests, might be that Indian and Jewish cultures have some similarities. For instance, many Indians don’t eat shellfish or pork, two important omissions of a Jewish kosher or kosher-style diet. The similarities go beyond food, too. “The cultures blend together pretty seamlessly, too, with the general practice of inner peace, tolerance and treating others the way you want to be treated,” Cantor Marer says.
Opposite: Cantor Aviva Marer reading the Torah at Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. 20
edible INDY
Spring 2019
