Today was our first touring and learning day in Mumbai. We started at noon with an icebreaker where we had to draw a self portrait and list three words to describe ourselves. The drawings were collected and passed out randomly, and we had to guess who was who. I listed curious, bubbly and grounded for mine and my picture is somewhere in the trash. 

We went to Samrat for lunch. To eat, we had a lot of appetizers, including a safe taste of “street food” items, a buffet and dessert. I am very happy my pants are stretchy. 

Our tour guide while in India is Hanna. She‘s been leading Jewish tours in India for 25 years and shared so much knowledge.

Here’s some of what she shared:

There are 22 million people in Mumbai and less than 4,000 Bene Israel Jews. They originally came  to Mumbai via ship in 175 BC (one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world). The Jewish community here is very traditional and follows Sephardic style, so they will eat rice on Passover as well as soft matzah and the synagogues have the bimah (a stage) in the center of a synagogue. The synagogues have a ladies section upstairs and the girls do not become bat mitzvahs. 

However, unlike traditional Judaism, Jews here will drive on Shabbat “so they can sit on the same bench as their forefathers.” She shared that there is also a Hindi transliteration in the siddurim, prayer books.

I found it interesting that Jews in India do not eat cow out of respect, but will eat chicken, lamb and fish. There are no kosher restaurants, but vegetarian restaurants are abundant. Yet, there are still kosher caterers for weddings and bar mitzvahs, as well as a kosher butcher!

Our first stop on the tour for the day was the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) train station, a UNESCO world heritage site, and a view of the municipality building.

From there, we went to Magen David synagogue. There are nine synagogues in Mumbai and two were built by the Sassoon family. The Sassoon family is big in Mumbai Jewish life. They were Iraqi Jews who fled to Mumbai, and in 1861 they built a synagogue then a school. Today, there are services in the morning daily then tea/breakfast. The synagogue has expanded overtime to account for a growing Jewish population, which has shrunk down in recent years. 

The synagogue is beautifully lit inside, and we were able to peek at the setup for another wedding! 

Fun fact: coconut oil is used in the lamps for Shabbat or Hanukkah, and the building is painted blue like the Israeli flag or to show where the sky meets the water. 

Although there are no members of the Sassoon family still in India, the Sassoon Trust (it’s what they call a foundation here) takes care of the Magen David Synagogue. Knesset Eliyahu is the other Sassoon synagogue. 

Our last stop for the day was to the Chabad house in Mumbai to look at the memorial for the terrorist attack in 2008. It is the only memorial to honor all victims in the attack. We heard the story of how the nanny saved the baby, Moshe, and he was taken to Israel to live with his grandparents following his parents deaths. We saw where the bullets had pierced through siddurim, furniture, walls and the Torah. It’s uneasy learning all this. Chabad is working to make part of the building a museum. We will be back there later on the trip.   

We ate dinner at Chetana and Alex was a true sport in helping me try things. I would ask, “What is this?” He’d tell me he doesn’t know. I’d try another question, “Is it spicy?” He’d answer with either yes, no or unsure, and then try it before me.

In this moment, I fully processed that I will be in India for two weeks. Two weeks. I had the momentary thought of “oh man how am I going to do this?” But I will, and I am.

The trip has a mantra: this trip will be a challenge. We will feel shocked, challenged, inspired and moved. What does it mean to have these experiences? How do we support each other through this experience?

Miscellaneous tidbits that stuck with me:

• There are 20 different ways of draping a sari, depending on the state, and there are 29 states in India. Saris are made with six yards of fabric. 

• Marathi is spoken in Mumbai though Hindi is the national language. There are over 1,000 dialects and sometimes English becomes the language of choice, more than Hindi, when people are traveling between states. They go to the original language, back to the English roots.