New Delhi, 15th October, 2014: The Ambassador of Israel to India, H.E Mr. Daniel Carmon hosted a book launch named “Jews and the Indian Art Project & Western Jews in India”, yesterday at his residence in Delhi. The event was attended by more than 60 guests from all fields including the media and heavy weights from the art world. The guests of honor was Bollywood actor and screenwriter Haidar Ali and American psychiatrist, collector, independent scholar on South Asia and editor of the books, Dr. Kenneth X Robbins and Lt-Gen (retired) J. F. R Jacob. The event was followed by a panel discussion featuring Haidar Ali. A short video from the movie “Shalom Bollywood” was also screened featuring the life and works of Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), one of the first Bollywood actresses and mother of Haidar Ali.

 

 

Ambassador Carmon said in the event, "We are gathered here today to inaugurate two books: “Jews and the Indian National Art Project” and “Western Jews in India”. These two books depict the great range of contribution that Jews have made to the sub-continent. They describe how Jews have provided spiritual leadership; contributed to art, architecture, and medicine; engaged in administrative and military service; and become involved at the national-level politics of the region. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Ken Robbins for his unparalleled enthusiasm and devotion to the cause of preserving Indian Jewish culture.  “Jews in Bolywood” will be the topic of Ken’s next book, and this will also be the theme of our panel, in which Bolywood’s Haider Ali will soon share his memories of his mother, legendary actress and first Miss India, Esther Victoria Abraham, also known as Pramilla. Let me also recognize on this occasion General Jacob, an Indian War Hero, a proud Jew, a friend of Israel, whose presence here tonight is very significant to the issue at stake".

 

During the panel discussion, Kenneth X. Robbins mentioned, "Jews and the Indian National Art Project and Western Jews in India are  the first two of eight books documenting the contributions of Jews to Indian society and the welcoming enduring  relationships they have found in India. Independent India 1947. First freelance lady producer, Silver Films, produced The next four volumes will deal with Jews in Bollywood, Holocaust refugees in india, the Military history of the Bene Israel and Muslim-Jewish Relations in South Asia". A teary eyed and nostalgic Haidar Ali recalled his mother and added, "Esther Victoria Abraham, Pramila, First on many fronts. First beauty queen over a dozen films. First freelance lady distributor, Shama Films, distributed over a dozen films overseas. Esther Victoria Abraham, Pramila, A one woman army".

 

 

 

Kenneth X. Robbins is a psychiatrist, collector, and independent scholar on South Asia, who is  interested in Maharajas and other Indian princes, as well as the Rajputs, African Muslims, Chettiyars, Sikhs, missionaries, and Jews in South Asia. He has curated more than a dozen Indian exhibits and developed seven scholarly conferences dealing with maharajas and nawabs, painting, women artists, political figures, minority groups in India, medicine, and philately.  In addition to publishing more than eighty articles, he is co-editor of African Elites in India and these two volumes. He is presently working on a book about the Princely states of Gujarat and separate volumes about  Jews in Bollywood, Holocaust refugees in India, the military history of the Bene Israel, and  the history of Jewish-Muslim interactions  in South Asia.

 

 

Haidar Ali is an Indian film and television actor and screenwriter. He acted in an early Doordarshan TV Serial Nukkad (1986–87) as Raja. This was followed by Circus (1989) directed by Aziz Mirza, where he played the role of Ringmaster. Over the years, he has worked as a character actor, with director Aziz Mirza in Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000), Chalte Chalte (2003) and Kismat Konnection (2008).Later Haidar Ali wrote story of Ashutosh Gowarikar's historic film, Jodhaa Akbar (2008). He also had a cameo in the movie song Khwaja Mere Khwaja. Haidar Ali is the youngest son of India’s first-ever beauty queen Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham) and actor Kumar (who appeared in Mughal-e-Azam and Shri 420). Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham),  the winner of the first Miss India contest, in 1947, was born in Calcutta. She was of the Jewish faith, and a member of the Baghdadi group of Jews.

 

 

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer served as United States Air Force Chaplain in Japan. Upon discharge he returned to Tokyo to serve for eight years as the rabbi for the Jewish Community of Japan. He wrote 20 books in Japanese, including several bestsellers; discovered literally the last of the Chinese Jews; located a long-lost Jewish cemetery in Nagasaki; contributed to the Encyclopedia Judaica; acted as a bridge for many travelers between East and West; served the needs of his congregation; and became spellbound by the threads of a story which he began piecing together.

 

His investigation of the facts took him throughout Asia, to Israel and Washington D.C. as he searched for documents and tracked down the people, both Jewish and Japanese, who had taken part in the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust. After his time in Japan, he founded and led the Cherry Lane Minyan shul in Great Neck, New York for fourteen years, while leading tours of Japan, China,  India and Southeast Asia.

 

This volume reveals the roles of foreign and Indian Jews in the Indian national art project and raises many issues. Is an “Indian artist” any artist born into an Indian family? What role can foreigners and  members of  Indian minority groups play    in  the Indian National Art Project as scholars, critics, or artists? Is a piece of work “Indian art” because of its subject matter or its style? Is it possible to utilize “foreign techniques” in creating “Indian art”? Can the demands of personal individual creativity and the national art project be in dynamic tension with each other or are they always in opposition? How can artists retrieve the connections to their roots without being limited by them? In what ways does the modernization and change in India reflect changes in other societies? How can artists transcend the hegemony of established Western modes of thought and creativity?  

 

 

This  contributions of artists like Anna Molka Ahmed, Mirra Alfassa (The Mother), Siona Benjamin, Carmel Berkson, Fredda Brilliant, Esther David, Annie Heilig,, Margaret Isaacs, Gerry Judah, Anish Kapoor, Andree Karpeles, Magda Nachman, Fyzee Rahamin, Sir William Rothenstein, Gladstone Solomon, Rudi von Leyden,  and Rebecca Yeheziel as well as  those of photographers (David Mordecai and Man Ray)  and architects (Otto Königsberger, Moshe Safdie) are discussed in this volume. The book also documents the work of critics, scholars and art patrons like Ernst Cohn-Wiener, Charles Fabri, Stella Kramrisch  Kathe Langhammer, Emmanuel Schlesinger, Marion Harry Spielmann, Sir Marc Aurel Stein, General Jean-Baptiste Ventura, and Rudi von Leyden

 

This is the first book describing the roles of Western Jews in South Asian political affairs, medicine, painting, architecture and religion. A time-line summarizes their contributions and those of the Indian Jews to the Indian Subcontinent.  Many of these foreign Jews left behind their Jewish identities.  Others remained Jews, but functioned as individuals unconcerned with implementing any “Jewish agenda”.The Mother, a great mystic and leader of the Aurobindo ashram, was a French artist with a Turkish Jewish background. Maurice Frydman (Bharatananda), an important associate of Nisargadatta Maharaj and other gurus, tried to create a Gandhian democracy in Aundh. Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) was an important Islamic political thinker and government official in Pakistan. Jews provided the Portuguese, who persecuted them, with language skills and access to trading networks.

Jean-Baptiste Ventura became commander of the Sikh armies. In 1921, Lord Reading and Edwin Montagu were the two highest British officials governing India. Garcia da Orta was a founder of tropical medical botany in the sixteenth century. Waldemar Haffkine, who created anti-cholera and plague vaccines, undertook large-scale vaccination programs in India. Louis Kahn created the iconic National Parliament House in Bangladesh. The buildings of Moshe Safdie, Joseph A. Stein, and Stanley Tigerman are very well known in India and Bangladesh. Articles written by a distinguished international group of scholars are combined with a very large number of illustrations ranging from paintings, photographs, maps, medals, stamps, and documents to photographic essays on painters and architects.