The 2000-Year-Old Jews of India: Zilka Joseph on a Forgotten History | The Literature Lounge

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About This Podcast

This episode of The Literature Lounge is a whispered revelation from a fading world.

Author Zilka Joseph unspools the nearly forgotten threads of India’s Jewish communities through her debut collection, weaving the food, stories, and quiet sacrifices of her Bene Israel ancestors into a living tapestry.

A conversation about the stories we inherit through spice and memory, and the race to reclaim a history on the brink of being lost.

What this episode is REALLY about:
Not dominant narratives.
Not religious doctrine.
Not mere recipe books.

Key Takeaways:

The hidden Jewish diaspora: cultures overshadowed by the Ashkenazi mainstream
Inheritance through flavour: how food carries memory when religion recedes
The unthanked matriarchs whose cooking was the first scripture
The urgent realization after loss: “How much I lost of their stories”
Reclaiming pre-Partition identity: “Karachi was not Pakistan… we were all one”
A plea to peel back layers and discover ancient roots
Writing as an act of gratitude: “I am here because of your food”

Episode Timeline

0:00

: Intro — Reclaiming a hidden heritage

9:36

: The West’s blind spot: India’s Jewish & Mizrahi cultures

11:17

: A secular childhood steeped in stories, food, and myth

13:35

: Mohua: The spiritual meaning of Bene Israel food

16:11

: Cooking as legacy: thanking the taken-for-granted matriarchs

25:50

: The stories lost with her parents, and the history of a united subcontinent

28:30

: A call to peel back layers and embrace ancient, rich cultures

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