San Jose Mercury News
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Filmmaker takes
on a disappearing community; DOCUMENTARIAN FOCUSES ON THE JEWS WHO STAYED IN
INDIA
By Mark Whittington
Mercury News
There are 1 billion people in
India and just 5,000 Jews. Filmmaker Vanessa C. Laufer turned her camera on the
tiny community in ``Salaam, Shalom: The Jews of India.''
``Most people have no idea that
there are Jews in India,'' Laufer says.
Her film will be shown Nov. 13
as part of the San Jose Jewish Film Festival. The screening will include a
discussion with Jacob Abraham, who grew up in Mumbai and lives in San Jose.
Laufer's 50-minute documentary
blends history, interviews and anecdotes to cover a lot of ground. It traces the
roots of four distinct Jewish communities -- Cochini, Baghdadi, B'nai Menashe
and Beneh (Bene) Israel.
These communities have
flourished in India's cultural melting pot, some for more than 2,000 years. They
haven't faced anti-Semitism. Jews live in communities with Hindu and Muslim
neighbors. They share traditions -- like mehndi (henna) and haldi (turmeric)
ceremonies before weddings.
``It was a radically different
experience than Jews in the rest of the world,'' the film's narrator notes. ``In
a country like India, it was easy. They have so many religions, so many sects,
this was just one more religion to accept.''
But these communities changed
dramatically after India's independence in 1947 and the formation of the state
of Israel in 1948. Some Jews had been in a position of privilege during British
rule, and they saw independence as the end of a golden age. The last 60 years
have seen a mass emigration, with whole communities moving to Israel and their
communities in India falling into disrepair.
``When faced with the choice
between their spiritual homeland and the place where they were born, it was easy
for them to make,'' Laufer says. ``The timing was important. There was an
uncertainty in India.''
Speaking from her home in
Toronto, Laufer explains how she picked the topic for her first documentary. She
wanted to explore her Jewish roots, in part because of an Orthodox friend's
criticism of her pride in saying she is half Jewish. She also had studied India
in college and felt she might have an entree because her partner is Indian. But
she didn't know the story of the Jewish communities in India when she started.
``I unraveled it as I did the
research,'' she says. ``People often recommend that you do something that you
already know, they always say, `Stick to your own back yard.' It took me on a
journey to find out something about myself.''
Others tried to discourage her,
saying the dwindling Jewish communities in India wouldn't provide enough fodder
for a documentary.
``I was aware that it was a
community in decline,'' she says. ``But people were extremely warm, extremely
friendly. Yes, there were locked synagogues, but there were people who had keys
to those locks and would open them for me.
``People were very delighted
that this word was going to get out to the rest of the world.''
Her goal wasn't to save the
communities; it was to make her first film.
Laufer studied film at the
University of Toronto and at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre but also got
a law degree at the University of Windsor.
``I come from a family of
artists. My parents worked in theater,'' Laufer says. ``They tried to discourage
me from following a similar path. They were elated when I went to law school.''
She landed a job on the
business side with a company making documentaries. ``I was always feeling
frustrated,'' she says. ``I wanted to be the person making the film.''
Rather than working for another
filmmaker, she decided to produce, write and direct her own project. ``That's
the only way you'll get to make films about the topics that you are interested
in. . . . I tend to be interested in things that don't have mass appeal.''