A "New Year Connection" Brings Together the Jewish Communities of India

Peninah, like 250 other Bene Israel Jews, lives on the Konkan coast, a four-hour drive south of Mumbai, India. Due to rough seas during the Monsoon season (July – October) there are no ferries from Mumbai to the secluded and impoverished village of Rewdanda. It is only accessible this time of year via a four-hour drive along a treacherous road. Because of this, the Jewish community that lives in Rewdanda is often cut off from the rest of the community and the Jewish world, especially during Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Peninah and the others though were not forgotten this past High Holiday season.

For over ten years JDC has provided a social worker to the Kokan villages. Refy, a JDC social worker, carries on the effort by visiting the deprived Jews in Rewdanda and the other villages along Konkan coast to make sure that they have their basic needs taken care of, including medicine. During the month of September two JDC Jewish Service Corps (JSC) volunteers, Yitzhak and Julieta, joined Refy on his visit and together they conducted a High Holiday seminar. The seminar, held at a synagogue (built in 1842) in Rewdanda, was aimed to educate this isolated Jewish community on the subject of Jewish High Holidays. Thirty people attended and learned about the Rosh Hashana celebration, the Shofar, Yom Kippur Repentance, and the importance of all Jewish communities around the world feeling a part of Klal Yisrael.

The Mishnaic teaching, "You should make for yourself a community" inspired Julieta to initiate a project called the "New Year Connection". She observed that the Indian Jewish community, small as it is, is spread out across great distances, and thought it was important to help everyone feel that each separate, small community is part of the greater Jewish community of India. So, she initiated a New Year's Card exchange project and dubbed it the "New Year Connection". Julieta's project involved having each of the participants of High Holiday Seminars create their own New Year's card with cardboard, paints, crayons, markers and stencils with Hebrew letters and Jewish symbols. She collected the cards and sent them to members of the Jewish community in other cities in India.

Peninah, an unemployed 72 year-old widow who lives in Rewdanda, and is usually alone for the holidays, receives assistance from JDC-supported welfare programs. She noted that, "Because of the monsoon I am very isolated during the High Holidays. The card I received from a Jew in Bombay (Mumbai) made me feel like I am part of a larger community. When Refy 'sir' comes out for a visit it always brings a smile to my face".

Julieta said, "At first I was worried that arts and crafts for the adults might not catch on, that they might feel it is too childish. I was pleasantly surprised that in fact the adults became more competitive than the children about drawing the cards. It even got to the point that the adults were taking the markers and stencils out of the children’s hands, they couldn't wait to get started!"

Margaret, who lives with her mother in Rewdanda and receives assistance from the JDC said, "I had a great time making the card and I can't wait to hear from the person who receives it!" Julieta hopes the project will continue after her year's stay in India.