Ethnos

Journal of Anthropology

ISSN: 0014-1844 (Print) 1469-588X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/retn20

Bollywood in Israel: Multi-Sensual Milieus, Cultural

Appropriation and the Aesthetics of Diaspora
Transnational Audiences

Gabriele Shenar

To cite this article: Gabriele Shenar (2013) Bollywood in Israel: Multi-Sensual Milieus, Cultural
Appropriation and the Aesthetics of Diaspora Transnational Audiences, Ethnos, 78:2, 226-254,
DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2011.651483

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2011.651483

Published online: 12 Nov 2012.

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 Bollywood in Israel: Multi-Sensual Milieus,
Cultural Appropriation and the Aesthetics of
Diaspora Transnational Audiences

Gabriele Shenar
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Tel Aviv, Israel

abstract Research on Bollywood cinema’s increasingly global presence identifies the

genre as a significant cultural domain for the articulation of diasporic Indian identity
and its constitution. Focusing on the appropriation of Bollywood cinema and its filmi
song and dance, regarded as a multi-sensual media, the article investigates Bolly-
wood’s popularity among Bene Israel immigrants in Israel and explores the aesthetics
of diaspora, understood as a politics of consumption, embodied performance of identity
and claims to ownership of tradition shaped by commercialized popular culture
imported into Israeli society. I suggest that a sentient anthropology may provide
insights into cultural identity as emerging out of material, social and aesthetic prac-
tices. The participatory culture and multi-sensual milieus inspired by Bollywood’s sen-
sorium are constitutive, the paper argues, of diasporic identity and community through
their potential to evoke shared emotions and a sense of place and subjectivity,
mediated by the qualities of objects, performance styles and etiquette.

keywords South Asian Diaspora, Bollywood, Indian Jews, sentient Anthropology,

popular culture

ur coach is like an Indian bubble floating in a Middle Eastern ocean of

O sand. We are headed for the Southern Israeli resort town of Eilat, to
participate in the annual gathering of Indian Jews in Israel, dubbed
the hoduyada (India festival).1 As we traverse the desert, the coach speakers
blare non-stop Bollywood music to pass the time. Some enthusiasts are
singing along with the filmi songs, while girls and boys on the back seats
perform dance-like movements. Bollywood ringtones are ringing behind me.

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226– 254), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2011.651483

# 2013 Routledge Journals, Taylor and Francis
 Bollywood in Israel 227

Every so often, someone passes around spicy home-made Indian snacks. Our
tour guide announces the final update of scheduled performances. Will I have
the stamina to attend the erev nostalgia (nostalgic evening), a performance of
Hindi vintage songs, that very same evening, after our long journey from Lod
to Eilat? – my friend wonders. There is a palpable sense of anticipation
among the travellers, expressed in an excited melange of Hebrew, Marathi
and English. We are looking forward to the grand performance show,
hosting Bollywood playback singers and Indian-Israeli performers – singers,
musicians and dancers, stunningly clad in South Asian garments. There will
be opportunity to meet Indian relatives and friends from other Israeli towns.
For three consecutive days, the Indian community will invade several of
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Eilat’s top hotels, with Zee TV booming from hotel rooms, and stalls displaying
South Asian accessories and Bollywood DVDs lining the lobby. During the eve-
nings, Indian-Israeli hotel guests will gather in the foyers to watch performances
of Indian song and dance by local Indian-Israeli artists.
Every year, several thousand Israelis of Indian origin follow the call of Indian
Bene Israel community activists to attend this large-scale event. They travel
long distances and spend large sums of money on expensive tickets in order
to collectively experience, perform and celebrate globalized Indian popular
culture in the form of Bollywood music and dance in an ‘all-Indian’ milieu at
an Israeli holiday resort. The hoduyada is one among other ethnic-flavoured cul-
tural festivals and fairs which continue to feature significantly in Israel’s complex
and multi-faceted multicultural landscape, with its various cleavages and over-
lapping and criss-crossing conflicts along ethnic, religious, socio-economic
and political lines. While these cultural events share a common festival-style
or cultural-evening-style format, they differ in the extent to which they draw
on the narrative(s) of specific cultural identities as well as their political,
social, religious and political dimension.2 Clearly, the celebration of diasporic
culture in the shape of globalized aesthetic genres such as commercial Indian
popular music and dance during community-based festivals in Israel resonates
with the social cultural, political and economic changes Israeli society has
undergone since the beginning of the 1970s. This period in Israel’s history is
associated with the beginning of the gradual decline of the hegemonic pioneer-
ing ethos of Labor Zionism and the onset of a process of liberalization, invol-
ving a greater openness to western culture, which is predominantly perceived
as Americanization, and a rise in the general standard of living. Israeli society’s
transformation from a single to a multi-channel media society in the early 1990s
had a decisive influence on the emergence of new and diverse forms of media

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 228 gabriele shenar

consumption and the widespread use of the Internet as well as other advanced
media technologies significantly impacted on Israelis’ leisure activities in various
domains (see, for example, Galily & Bernstein 2008:6 – 7). Furthermore, the new
trends of postmodernization, postzionism, postnationalism and multicultural-
ism that entered Israeli public debate in the 1990s, and which continue to
inform public debates on Israeliness, form an important backdrop against
which ethnic cultural festivals in Israel need to be understood (see, for
example, Kimmerling 2001; Shapira 2004; Shimoni 2007; Shohat 2010).3 The cel-
ebration of community-based cultural activities like the Indian-Israeli hoduyada,
it is suggested, may be seen as the public expression of an ongoing debate over
the ‘cultural’ character of Israel, and what ‘Israeliness’ should entail.
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The hoduyada, while being the largest and arguably most impressive Indian-
Israeli festival-style community event, is not, however, the only important
occasion during which Indian-Jewish immigrants and their Israeli-born children
explore and celebrate their various emotional and affective attachments to India
and Indian culture(s). The consumption of everything Indian and, in particular,
commercialized popular genres such as film, music and dance features in many
other settings, both private and public, forms an integral part of everyday life.
The continued attachment to Indian popular culture and, in particular, Hindi
popular cinema, without doubt is also facilitated by an increasingly globalized
media world in which people share aesthetic genres in transnational cyberspace.
Significantly, while Bollywood, the modern face of Hindi popular cinema, has
entered mainstream popular culture in western metropolises, in particular, in
the UK and the US, and has been explored as part of a cosmopolitan attitude
that gives increased visibility to Bollywood as ‘chic’, it has remained largely
invisible within the Israeli public cultural sphere (see Dudrah 2006:18; Chan
2008:265; Parciack 2008). At the same time, Bollywood’s popularity among, in
particular, the Israeli-born generation of Indian origin points to an increasingly
globalized Israeliness albeit one that is influenced by a non-Western form of
cultural globalization.
Acts of sharing, appropriating and managing cultural-cum-aesthetic genres
and products – film, music and dance genres that evoke specific cultural
milieus – are becoming, so it seems, ever more elaborate in an increasingly
global media world. Modern and advanced media technologies such as the
Internet, digital media as well as film and video technologies facilitate increas-
ingly less costly and more convenient access to a myriad of sounds, images
and styles at various and differing sites of reception. How, then, are these glo-
balized aesthetic genres or products administered, marketed, organized and

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 Bollywood in Israel 229

experienced at their local reception sites? Bollywood’s increasing presence

around the world is a striking example of a non-Western form of cultural glo-
balization in which different audiences are linked through transnational circuits
of production, distribution and consumption (see, for example, Kaur & Sinha
2005; Dudrah 2006; Gopal & Moorti 2008; Kavoori & Punathambekar 2008).
Hence, Bollywood is more than simply a film industry and might best be
seen, as Rajadhyaksha (2008:20) suggests, ‘as a more diffuse cultural conglom-
eration involving a range of distribution and consumption activities from
Web sites to music cases, from cable to radio’. Moreover, as a number of
writers have recently shown, Bollywood song and dance ‘provide a repertoire
of images, visualities, and performance idioms that articulate with local con-
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cerns at different reception sites’ (Gopal & Moorti 2008:45). The question this
article addresses is how, by whom and under what pretexts are Bollywood’s cul-
tural-cum-aesthetic products that traverse regional, national and international
boundaries received at a specific site of reception? Even more significantly,
who ‘owns’ the discursive spaces which both embrace and underpin the con-
sumption of this local Mumbai-based Indian aesthetic product and its
symbols? And to reverse the question: to what extent is the consumption and
performance of globalized Indian popular culture constitutive of an Indian-
Israeli identity? These questions will be explored by focusing specifically on
the consumption and performance of Bollywood and its filmi song and dance
within the context of Jewish Israeli society. More specifically, I investigate the
popularity and appropriation of this global Indian cultural product among
the Bene Israel (Sons of Israel), the largest group of Indian-Jewish immigrants
in Israel, and their Israeli-born children and grandchildren. How do they, in par-
ticular, deploy ‘Bollywood sensoria’ – the sounds, visualities, objects of Hindi
popular Cinema – to create multi-sensory milieus that have an affecting pres-
ence on their cultural life as Israeli nationals in Israel, as a returning diasporic
group?
Political speeches and lobbying as well as community structures and organ-
izations without doubt enhance Bene Israel community action and are an
important feature of their festivals, cultural evenings and other community-
based activities. And yet the affective and aesthetic dimension of multi-
sensual milieus, created and re-created during everyday living as well as
especially organized community, and family events such as the hoduyada or
Indian pre-wedding henna parties are perhaps even more significant in
shaping individuals’ perceptions of themselves in relation to others – through
the ‘sensuousness’ of objects, styles, rituals and performance genres. Such

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 230 gabriele shenar

perceptions are present at the experiential as well as the discursive level and are
often verbalized as a ‘sense of belonging’ or, more specifically for the present
context, the wish to participate in an ‘Indian’ ambience. The problem with
such vague constructs is that they are difficult to conceptualize and define for
analysis. And yet the question as to what extent sensuous experiences are con-
stitutive of identity and community remains a significant one and should be
explored in a framework of a sentient anthropology of identity and community,
which acknowledges that sensation is fundamental to our experience of
reality (Bull et al. 2006:5).
Clearly, the sentient anthropology of diasporic identity endorsed here resonates
with contemporary theories that privilege embodied and aesthetic experience.
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More particularly, however, it draws on a recent and growing body of literature

by writers from various academic disciplines who endorse the idea that the sen-
sorium, that is, the whole sensory apparatus, impacts on our socially constructed
reality (Howes 2006:114). In contrast to earlier paradigms that emphasized
cultures as ‘texts’ or ‘discourses’, the new sensory study approach within anthro-
pology foregrounds the social and cultural life of the senses (see, for example,
Stoller 1989; Geurts 2002; Desjarlais 2003; Howes 2003; Jackson 2004). Similarly,
the sentient anthropology of identity, proposed here, proceeds from the assump-
tion that ‘the senses mediate the relationship between self and society, mind
and body, idea and object’ (see Bull et al. 2006:5). Hence the focus of analysis
here is both on the ‘sensuousness’ of objects, styles and performance genres
and subjective sensory experience. More broadly, a sentient anthropology of iden-
tity, it is argued, can make an important contribution to academic debates on
multiculturalism, identity and diversity which often still neglect the vital signifi-
cance of the aesthetic, performative dimensions, and hence the ‘sensuousness’ of
diasporic cultures. In the present context, I focus on how the Bollywood sensor-
ium is increasingly implicated in the social, cultural and political process of
constituting an Indian-Israeli identity.
Scholarly interest in Indian Jews, in general, and the Bene Israel, in particular,
has predominantly focused on their Jewish heritage, origins, history, immigration
and ethnic or diasporic identity (Weil 1977; Isenberg 1988; Roland 1989; Katz
2000; Singh 2009). Ignored in all these discussions, however, has been the
Bene Israel’s continuing attachment to commercialized Indian popular culture
and its cultural products within the context of Israeli society. Writers on the com-
munity in Israel have sometimes noted the popularity of Bollywood among, in
particular, the Israeli-born generation, but have not interrogated this aesthetic
passion in depth (see Guy 1984:285; Roland 1995:21 – 2; Singh 2009:205 – 6).

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 Bollywood in Israel 231

It may well be that these writers, with the possible exception of Singh, consider
the consumption of commercial popular cinema and, more specifically, the par-
ticipatory culture around Bollywood, as irrelevant – or perhaps too trivial to
dwell upon in analyses of Indian Jewish ethnicity. Missed thereby, however, is
the vitality and contemporaneity of Bene Israel’s attachment to Indian popular
culture, particularly in the shape of Bollywood – a critical point of entry, I
argue here, for an exploration of what it means to be a returning diaspora Jew
from India. In the present context, I define the Bene Israel as a multiple or
counter-diaspora, highlighting the fact that they are both part of the returning
Jewish ingathering of the exiles to Israel while being at the same time part of
the contemporary worldwide South Asian, and more specifically Indian, dia-
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spora. As the experience of the Bene Israel Indian Jews in Israel illustrates,
coming back to the homeland of one’s imagination (Israel) may itself be experi-
enced as a displacement. To overcome this, the Bene Israel carve out sensuous
spaces in which to lead meaningful lives (Figure 1).
There are various Bollywood audiences in Israel, including other immigrant
groups from India like the Jews of Cochin and the Baghdadi Jews, immigrants
from the former Soviet Union, Israeli Arabs as well as small pockets of fans,
including returning Israeli backpackers from India. Yet, the Bene Israel immigrant
generation and their Israeli-born children appear to be the most enthusiastic
consumers and performers of Bollywood’s filmic performance genre. They
unite collectively around this Mumbai-based Indian cultural product in a partici-
patory culture that, in a sense, has come to signify the ‘Indian community’ in some
parts of Israeli society. Among Indian-Israeli audiences, the term ‘Bollywood’ is

Figure 1. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa
finalists perform during the
2008 Hoduyada, photo:
Yosi Aptekar.

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 232 gabriele shenar

increasingly and affectionately mobilized for community-centred activities and

features, in particular, during Indian-Israeli wedding celebrations. ‘Bollywood’
is also the term predominantly employed, alongside the more general term
‘Indian films’, to refer to Indian popular cinema, although there are, of course,
connoisseurs of the genre who employ the term ‘Hindi cinema’, in particular,
when referring to the golden era of Mumbai’s Hindi film industry. Clearly,
Indian audiences in Israel, and, in particular, the immigrant generation from
Maharashtra, are aware of the existence of India’s other regional cinema tra-
ditions, including Marathi cinema, and yet it is the Hindi films churned out of
Bombay (now Mumbai) that they primarily consume and perceive to be
Indian and part of their Indian cultural heritage.
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In the following, I provide a brief overview of the Bene Israel in India and
Israel, sketch out a short history of the consumption and commercial distri-
bution of Hindi popular cinema in Israel, and show how Indian popular
culture in the form of Bollywood is appropriated in various contexts within con-
temporary Israeli society. The central question explored here is: how are the
senses implicated in shaping cultural identities in a context that interlinks
migration, globalized media consumption, the performance of transnational
genres and localized participatory cultures?

The Bene Israel Indian Jews of Maharashtra

The Bene Israel, like India’s other main Jewish communities, the Baghdadi
Jews and the Jews of Cochin, proudly point out that Indian Jews were not sub-
jected to any form of anti-Semitism throughout their sojourn in India, although
some remark on recent incidents of anti-Jewish expression, mainly associated
with Muslim anti-Israel sentiments.4 Clearly, the highly publicized terrorist
attack on a Mumbai-based Chabad house of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Luba-
vitch movement in November 2008 might have shaken this narrative, and yet
Indian immigrants in Israel insist that Jews were and are an integral part of
Indian society, not subjected to any form of anti-Semitism. Arguably, this has
shaped the community’s continued affective ties with India.5 Prior to emigra-
tion, in 1951, the Bene Israel numbered approximately 20,000 in India (Isenberg
1988:Viii). They lived mainly in western parts of India, in Maharashtra, and
spoke several North Indian languages, particularly Marathi but also Hindi,
Gujarati and Urdu, depending on where they had settled.
There are different theories as to the origin of the Bene Israel community.6
According to their oral tradition, the ancestors of the Bene Israel, fleeing
persecution by Syrian Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, were shipwrecked

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 Bollywood in Israel 233

off the Konkan coast, near the village of Nawgaon, south of Bombay (now
Mumbai), in the second-century BCE. They settled in the surrounding villages,
merged with the local population and became known as shanwar telis (Saturday
oil pressers). While initially settled in villages, in the second part of the eight-
eenth century, in their search for economic and educational opportunities,
Bene Israel began to gradually move out of their Konkan villages and settle
mainly in Bombay and nearby towns, but also in other major cities within
India, such as Ahmedabad, Delhi and Karachi (now in Pakistan). The Bene
Israel were largely salaried workers in India and did not have the legendary
Jewish money-making skills, as Noah Massil, former President of the Central
Organization for Indian Jews in Israel, notes (see Chandy 2005). As secular edu-
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cation spread among the Bene Israel community, they took up employment in
government civil service jobs such as clerks, draftsmen, telegraph signallers and
hospital assistants. Others became teachers or entered the fields of medicine,
law and engineering and many Bene Israel built careers based upon enlistment
in the army (Isenberg 1988:161 – 2). While some members of the community
reached high-ranking positions in public life, other Bene Israel joined
Bombay’s emerging Hindi film industry, both as actors and behind-the-screen
writers and producers. A good example of this trend was the Bene Israel
actress Susan Solomon (Firoza Begum) who starred in a succession of Hindi
and Marathi films in the 1920s and 1930s (Menon 2005). Considering that
Indian Jews formed only a microscopic minority of the total population of
India, the contribution of individual members of the Bene Israel community
to the gigantic Hindi film industry, especially during its silent era, is quite
remarkable. Among the more familiar names are Josef David Penkar, who
wrote several stage plays as well as India’s first talkie picture Alam Ara (1931),
actresses Ruby Myers (Sulochana) as well as actor David Abraham Cheulkar
(David) (Benjamin 1967:11 – 7). Other Indian Jews who worked in the Hindi
film industry were Ezra Mir, known as the pioneer of Indian Documentary,
actress Farhat Ezekiel (Nadira), Esther Victoria Abraham (Pramila), the first
ever Miss India who also acted in numerous films, Rachel Hyam Cohen
(Ramola), actress, actor and assistant director Hannock Isaac Samkar, as well
as professionals such as Bunny Reuben Nagaonkar, a film journalist, critic
and author of several biographies of Indian film stars, who descended from a
Bene Israel family.7
Economic development under British rule, growing Indian nationalism, as
well as the formation of Zionist institutions, had a decisive influence on the for-
mation of a Bene Israel ethnic Jewish identity in India (Roland 1989). While the

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 234 gabriele shenar

Bene Israel initially kept aloof from Zionism and did not participate in the first
Zionist Congress in 1897, eventually they initiated Zionist activities in Bombay,
and a religiously defined Zionism based on belonging to the Jewish national col-
lectivity brought about large-scale immigration to Israel, beginning in the 1950s
(Weil 1982:173 – 5). Today, it is estimated that approximately 5500 Bene Israel
identify as Jews in India (see Weil 2002:14). There are several still-functioning
synagogues in Mumbai, Thane, Panvel, Alibag, Pune and Delhi. The majority
of Indian Jews, though, have moved to Israel and smaller numbers to Britain,
Australia, Canada and the US.

The Bene Israel Indian Immigrants in Israel

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Within Israeli society, the Bene Israel, although the largest group of Indian
immigrants, are a comparatively small, little known edah (ethnic community)
numbering, according to estimates by members of the community (approxi-
mately 50,000 – 70,000).8 Their status as Jews was initially contested by ortho-
dox religious authorities in Israel, and after a lengthy dispute was resolved
finally in their favour in 1964 (Weil 1986:20). This early encounter with
Israel’s orthodox religious authorities has left scars on the immigrant generation,
in particular, who understandably watch with a critical eye anything written
about the community. In spite of some socio-economic mobility among
them, Israel’s Bene Israel are still disproportionally found in Israel’s lower
socio-economic strata and in Israel’s peripheral ‘development’ towns, which
were established in the 1950s and 1960s following the arrival of large waves of
immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Indian community activists operate through local Indian synagogue net-
works, trans-local family and friendship networks as well as cricket and other
sports clubs. They actively promote the organization of a Bene Israel, or now
generally ‘Indian’ community life, more recently using the Internet as well.
There are approximately 50 Indian synagogues and prayer halls in Israel,
most of which have been established by Bene Israel. Some of these Indian
Jewish places of worship are housed in beautiful buildings, while others are
accommodated in more modest structures, including even abandoned air-raid
shelters. This material, social and emotional investment in Indian synagogues
in Israel attests to the Bene Israel’s continued strong religious sentiments as
well as their desire to perpetuate their specific Indian Jewish traditions, liturgies
and special Indian tunes for prayers, and, in particular, also the Eliahu ha’navi
ritual. The Eliahu ha’navi ritual, frequently also referred to as malida, is a
ritual food offering to the prophet Elijah which is unique to the community

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 Bollywood in Israel 235

and still widely performed by the Bene Israel in Israel (see Shenar 2003). The
Central Organization for Indian Jews in Israel, founded in 1987, and its various
local branches, as well as the Indian Women’s Organization, are active in pro-
moting a Bene Israel or more generally an Indian community life. Since the
establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and India in 1992, Indian
Jews in Israel have also kept in close touch with the staff of the Indian
embassy, inviting them whenever possible as guests of honour to their commu-
nity functions.
While the Bene Israel Indian Jewish community remains a relatively little-
known group within Israeli society, its cultural activities, in particular, those
centred around the performance of Indian popular culture derived from Bolly-
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wood cinema, are nevertheless noticed by other Israelis, in particular, in periph-

eral towns with a larger Indian population. This is evidenced by joint musical and
dance performances with other Israeli musicians, singers and dancers, as well as
the efforts made by Indian community activists who lobby members of local
municipalities for free use of community centres, and who invite members of
Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) and staff of the Indian embassy to attend
Indian or Bene Israel community celebrations. Bene Israel, the most significant
player in the organization of an Indian community life in Israel, are actively
involved in the organization of trans-local cultural community events such as
Indian evenings of music and dance, Indian beauty contests and Indian festivals.
The annual gathering of Indian Jews, which used to take place in Jerusalem
between 1987 and 1999 as well as the more recent hoduyada, as the annual gather-
ing of Indian Jews is now referred to, are organized and supported, in particular,
by members of the Bene Israel community. In-marrying non-Indian Israelis as
well as friends are included in Indian community activities and especially immi-
grants from the former Soviet Union have joined Indian dance groups, and
attend Indian festivals and other community-based activities. They participate
particularly enthusiastically in the Indian-Israeli wedding culture – an integral
part of Israel’s flourishing wedding industry, with its emphasis on conspicuous
consumption and celebration of ethnic flavours. The increasingly Bollywood-
inspired Bene Israel mehndi (pre-wedding henna) parties, now often referred
to as ‘Indian hinna’, are very popular among both Indian and non-Indian
guests. At one such occasion, I observed a Georgian-Israeli bride-to-be clad in
a Bollywood-style costume, performing a Bollywood-style dance for her
Indian-Israeli in-laws at her mehndi party, thus publicly stating her support for
the continuation of an Indian cultural life in Israel. Such cooperation and enthu-
siastic sharing of various cultural-cum-aesthetic genres among the Israeli-born

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 236 gabriele shenar

generations have also led to a somewhat bizarre union of Bollywood aesthetics

with Israel’s arms industry. In 2009, major Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael
unveiled a Bollywood-inspired promotion at Aero India. The video pictures a
group of Georgian-Israeli and Indian-Israeli performers dancing and singing in
Bollywood style around models of Spike anti-tank missiles, which Rafael
intended to sell to India. Assi Yossephy, the Director of Exhibitions at Rafael,
explained the somewhat macabre combined display of Bollywood and missiles
as follows: ‘In Israel we have Jewish people from India, so we know about
Bollywood and her song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of
Indian culture. This video is to help build up familiarity between India and
Israel.’9 Bollywood’s sensoria are thus seen as a medium that interacts with an
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ongoing dialogue between India and Israel. More particularly, such sharing
and cooperating within performative spaces in relation to Bollywood among
Indian and non-Indian Israelis points to an extension of a unified Indian space,
while also emphasizing, at the same time, a shared Jewish-Israeli national iden-
tity. The inclusion of non-Indian Israelis into these performative spaces does not,
however, affect its constitution as a unified Indian milieu. While this milieu may
be entered as a performing artist, an in-marrying bride or groom or a friend, it
remains nevertheless clearly defined as an Indian space within Israel society
and is ‘owned’ by immigrants from India.

‘Shalom Bollywood’: the Hindi Popular Film Sensorium and its

Consumption in Israel
Historically, the popular Hindi film sensorium has always drawn on a mul-
tiplicity of India’s cultural genres and traditions. Among them, as we saw, were
valuable contributions by India’s Jewish minority. The worldwide spread of the
South Asian diaspora has helped to open up significant overseas markets for this
Mumbai-based Hindi/Urdu film industry, so that Indian immigrants upon
arrival in Israel joined already-existing markets in the Middle East. From the
1950s, when they first immigrated to Israel, some Indian immigrants attempted
to bring popular Hindi films to their new place of settlement. Until the 1980s,
Indian films were brought from India to Egypt where they could be subtitled
in Hebrew, Arabic and English at a lower cost and found their way into the
milieu of the unofficial Israeli cultural scene. The films were screened in
private theatres, community centres and other cheap venues, in particular, in
areas with larger concentrations of Indian immigrants, and were well attended
both by Indian-Israeli audiences and other Israelis, in particular, Mizrahim
(immigrants from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia) (Guy 1984:286).

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 Bollywood in Israel 237

Indian Jews who had remained in India noted with pride that Hindi films, for
example, Raj Kapoor’s Boot Polish (1954), featuring Bene Israel actor David
Abraham Cheulkar as John Chacha, enjoyed immense popularity with Israeli
audiences (see Benjamin 1967:11). One particular Hindi film distributor in
Israel reminisced about the hefty profit he made from another successful film
Sholay (1975), which was a hit both in Tel Aviv and Gaza in 1976, pointing
thus to the popularity of the genre within Israel society.10 Some of these com-
munity centres have now been converted into olamei smahot (festive event halls),
but whenever an Indian-Israeli wedding takes place, the sounds and images of
Bollywood music and dance return to these halls once again, perhaps with even
greater vitality.
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Given commercial Hindi cinema’s standing among mainstream Western

audiences and film critics, prior to its more recent visibility as mainstream
popular culture or more particularly as ‘Bollywood chic’ in major Western
metropolises, it seems little surprising that in western-oriented Israeli society,
Hindi cinema has been received critically, and was categorized by the European
born Ashkenazi elite that dominated mainstream Israeli culture as an ‘oriental’
genre. Israeli authorities dismissed this popular culture genre as failing to
meet the criteria of an ‘appropriate’ source of ethnic or cultural Jewish identity,
while supporting classical genres such as playing the sitar or Indian classical
dance. Since there were no official channels through which Indian immigrants
could set up a cinema chain, this cultural activity, like other ‘oriental’ genres in
Israel, emerged on the margins of the Israeli culture industry and has, to this day,
remained an ‘ethnic’ genre, although, as mentioned, other Israelis, too, may
develop a taste for it.11 Significantly, the very idea that popular Indian cinema
could be more than simply an ephemeral by-product of processes of settlement
and home-making by first-generation Indian immigrants in Israel – the notion
that it could be made part of a ‘modern’ Israeli cultural life – appeared to be
inconceivable to the Israeli authorities and Israeli film critics. In contemporary
Israel, too, Bollywood films continue to be regarded mainly as incomprehensi-
ble kitsch, and thus a non-profitable venture by the main film distributors, who
argue that these films do not fit in with their main lines and are best introduced
to an Israeli audience via especially organized Indian film festivals or special
screenings organized by the Indian embassy.12 These, incidentally, are well
attended and draw a heterogeneous Israeli audience.
In the late 1960s, with the introduction of television to Israel, Indian films
could also be viewed alongside Egyptian films, though not on a regular basis,
on Israeli television on Friday afternoons. There is anecdotal evidence that

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 238 gabriele shenar

some members of the Bene Israel community on occasion favoured Indian films
over their mandatory visit to synagogue on Friday evening, as a member of one
local Indian synagogue in Lod recalled. Increasingly, more sophisticated media
technology as well as a growing number of consumer households that connect
to Cable/Satellite TV, including Zee TV, have played a significant role in the
local reception of popular Hindi films in Israel since the mid-1990s. Zee TV
and other advanced media offered viewers a more convenient and less costly
access to Bollywood films, music and dance as well as to celebrity stars. Since
the beginning of 2000, Israeli Cable and Satellite TV providers HOT and YES
have been competing for potential customers by adding Indian movie channels
to their package. In 2008, HOT, after negotiations with a local Bene Israel film
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enthusiast and businessman, launched a further Indian channel, Hot Bollywood,

and tapped into a market of Indian-Israeli audiences who were not satisfied
with Zee TV or Yes India’s selection of Hindi films, although entertainment
shows such as SA RE GA MA PA, Dance India Dance as well as various soaps
are much appreciated and talked about. Many switched from YES to HOT in
order to enjoy a greater selection of new releases of Bollywood films, which rep-
resent the new, more cosmopolitan face of Hindi cinema. Hindi films are also
available through DVD rentals. Some shops even provide a home delivery
service, and DVDs may be purchased during Indian festivals as well as in
Indian convenience stores or at market stalls, although the selection of films is
usually rather limited. The Internet is also increasingly used to access Hindi
films as well as information about Bollywood stars.

Indian-Israeli Audiences and Bollywood as a Transnational Dialogue

Indian-Israeli audiences enjoy Bollywood films for a variety of reasons and,
naturally, audiences differ in their preferences for particular Bollywood films.
Some immigrants enjoy the Indian scenery that brings back memories from
their past in India (see Roland 1995:22). Many Bene Israel I know, however,
are, in particular, interested in Indian film stars. They enjoy the songs and
dances, the slapstick humour, the lyrics of the songs, the lavish wedding
parties, the dialogues, the fashion and glamour of upwardly mobile Indians,
both within Indian and diaspora settings, the aesthetics of intimacy and
romance and, more generally, the social etiquette that is not part of mainstream
Israeli society. Multiple viewings of particular films are quite usual, and friends
and family members often watch them together, commenting on their feelings
and exchanging views on particular actors, the plot of a film as well as specific
issues relating to the story line. On one occasion, a young man shouted from

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 Bollywood in Israel 239

the living room that his wife, who had gone to the bathroom, should hurry so as
to not to miss her favourite scene of the film we were watching, Pardes (1997).
During such Bollywood movie nights at home, young men expound their
views on Indian patriarchy and express the wish to differ from a typical
‘Indian’ husband who behaves like a ‘baal ha’bait’ (master of the house) or
ponder over the special love a son feels for his mother. Others admit to
feeling attracted to fair-skinned women upon seeing non-Indian dancers swir-
ling across the screen. Indian actor and comedian Johnny Lever may be imitated
at the dinner table on Friday evenings. More contentious issues, such as the infa-
tuation of middle-aged men with young girls, are also brought up – on one
occasion I attended, by a daughter-in-law, after watching Ram Gopal Varma’s
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Nishabd (2007), much to the embarrassment of the elders of the family.

Clearly, Bollywood consists of diverse genres, and audiences have their own
preferences, likes and dislikes; some may not watch the films on a regular basis
or not at all. And yet, from the perspective of the audience I am concerned with
here, many of the films appear to convey culturally shaped moral discourses on
identity, ‘Indian’ values, gender, intergenerational relations, friendship, love and
hate, good and evil, success and failure; themes which have shown resilience in
the face of historical change, and which are currently tested against modernity,
postcolonialism and resettlement in Israel.
The future of Indian popular cinema in Israel will obviously depend on how
the wider Israeli public receives the genre as it evolves and whether future gen-
erations of Bene Israel and other Indian origin Israelis will continue to enjoy the
genre. Given Bollywood’s increased global visibility alongside its continuously
changing face, it may well be that popular Hindi cinema conquers a wider audi-
ence in Israel as well. There are already tentative signs pointing in this direction.
In the summer of 2011, several leaders of the Indian film industry visited Israel,
scouting out locations and discussing with local Israeli counterparts ideas about
films and storylines that bring characters to Israel. The trip was organized and
mostly funded by the American Jewish Committee and aimed to explore Israel’s
potential for the Indian film industry. Thus, it may well be that the Jerusalem
film festival, which regularly screens Indian films, will in the near future also
include Bollywood film scenery shot in Israel (see Jeffay 2011). The question
that still needs exploring here is why it is that Indian audiences in Israel are
not simply satisfied with watching popular Hindi films and listening to sound
tracks in the privacy of their homes. Rather they seem to feel the need also
to re-enact Bollywood film music and dance – at home, during pre-wedding
mehndi parties, at wedding receptions and on other festive occasions, as well

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 240 gabriele shenar

as during Indian festivals and evenings of song and dance, which are sometimes
paraded as ‘folklore’ festivals. Evidently, the emulation and idolization of stars is
not unique to the Indian-Israeli community setting. Neither is the participatory
culture that has developed around Bollywood’s filmi song and dance among
Indian as well as non-Indian audiences. And yet, if we are to fully understand
the symbolic and expressive meanings of this participatory culture, we need
to place it in its social, cultural and political context, the context of Israeli
society.

Bollywood Music and Dance as an Imaginary of India and Indian Ambiance

Although Bollywood films are consumed by other Israelis too, festivals and
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evenings of Indian music and dance organized by Israel’s Indian community are
almost exclusively ‘Indian’ gatherings. They are held particularly in Israel’s per-
ipheral towns with larger Indian populations – Ramle, Kiryat Gat, Petakh
Tikva, Dimona, Ashdod and Beersheva. In contrast, Indian film festivals,
special screenings and shows like the recent musical extravaganza ‘The
Wonder that is India’, staged in Tel Aviv’s Heichal Hatarbut auditorium, or Bolly-
wood dance classes at Tel Aviv’s Suzanne Dalal Centre during the 2011 India Cel-
ebrations are held in Israel’s major cities, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. These
latter are promoted by Israeli event producers and the Indian embassy, and
form part of official Israel-India cultural relations. But there are also joint ven-
tures: in 1995, for example, Sonakshi Vision PVT LTD, in cooperation with
show organizers Sudhir More and Elias Herman, staged a Film and Zee Star
Night in Tel Aviv’s Heichal Hasport in cooperation with the Central Organiz-
ation of Indian Jews in Israel. The Organization also convened the annual gath-
ering of Indian Jews in Israel which was held in Jerusalem’s international
convention centre Binyanei Ha’uma between 1987 and 1999. In 2000, this impor-
tant community event was revamped as hoduyada (Indian festival) and moved to
the southern holiday resort of Eilat. Since then, the hoduyada has taken place
every January, enjoying immense popularity among Israelis of Indian origin.
Even Israel’s military operation in Gaza in the winter of 2008 – 2009 did not
affect ticket sales, and the festival took place as scheduled. The hoduyada is a
well-organized event. It includes group travel by coach to Eilat, overnight
accommodation in five-star hotels, a main performance show featuring Bolly-
wood playback singers from India, Indian and Israeli-Indian dancers, an erev nos-
talgia (nostalgic evening) of Hindi film songs of the golden era, performance
shows in hotel lobbies, a disco, and stalls selling Indian food, accessories,
fabrics and DVDs. This annual event attracts between 3000 and 4000 Israelis

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 Bollywood in Israel 241

of Indian origin. In 2010, a further trans-local Indian festival, the Bollywoodyada

(Bollywood festival), was initiated according to the organizers, in response to an
increasing demand for Bollywood performance shows in Israel. Bollywoodyada
also takes place in Eilat, just after the hoduyada, pointing to an increased
demand among Israel’s Indian community to experience live performances by
Bollywood singers and dancers. The demand for Bollywood entertainment
shows in Israel has clearly been influenced by advanced media technology
that facilitates virtual participation in the glamorous Bollywood entertainment
shows that travel to western metropolises, events that are out of reach for most
members of the Bene Israel community in Israel. And yet it is important for
Israelis of Indian origin that they, too, like other Indian communities, in particu-
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lar, in Western countries, receive Bollywood singers and dancers in their new
place of settlement.
Funding for local Indian evenings of music and dance in Israel is always
scarce, but enthusiasts lobby municipalities as well as other potential sponsors
in order to stage these events. Their endeavours are supported by local Indian-
Israeli artists, who perform at these events without much profit. The ticket-
paying audiences attend these staged performances even if the performers are
primarily Indian-Israeli youth rather than well-known Bollywood playback
singers or dancers, flown in from India. And there are countless community
activists and supporters who help organize the events by selling tickets,
setting up the stage, designing and sewing costumes as well as preparing and
serving Indian food. Indian festivals or evenings of Indian music and dance,
as mentioned, are often but not exclusively sponsored, planned and organized
by the Central Organization for Indian Jews in Israel, and are, in particular, sup-
ported by members of the Bene Israel community (Figure 2).
Local Indian evenings of song and dance sometimes include competitions by
Israeli-born singers and dancers as well as performances by popular Indian-
Israeli dance groups such as Sapna or Namaste. Large trans-local Indian festivals
such as the hoduyada, on the other hand, feature visiting artists from India,
mainly Bollywood playback singers, dancers and actors, who are received
enthusiastically by their Indian-Israeli audience and who sometimes perform
on stage with Israeli artists. Some tour organizers speculate that more people
would attend the hoduyada if only they could afford the ticket prices, which cur-
rently start at approximately ILS 1200 (£207) per person and ILS 1500 (£260)
per couple! (Figure 3).
Indian festivals and evenings of song and dance in Israel celebrate Indian
popular culture above all in the shape of Bollywood. Artists who perform

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 242 gabriele shenar

Figure 2. Indian–Israeli
youth during the 2007
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Hoduyada, photo: Yosi

Aptekar.

Figure 3. Indian–Israeli
youth perform during the
2007 Hoduyada, photo:
Yosi Aptekar.

predominantly classical genres often remark critically on the preponderance of

‘Bollywood’ during Indian festivals and cultural evenings and some express the
view that Indian-Israeli audiences lack the sophistication to enjoy classical
Indian dance. Indian dance classes are offered in various community centres
throughout Israel, especially in towns with large concentrations of Indian
families, and some young people take private lessons to improve their self-
taught skills. Semi-professional Indian-Israeli musicians, singers and dancers

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 Bollywood in Israel 243

perform as solo artists or in local Indian bands and dance groups at various com-
munity and family events, at weddings, Bar mitzvahs and Hanukkah parties.
The dancer’s outfits are inspired by Bollywood, sometimes by a particular
film or film star, and during the performance the young men and teenage
girls appear to be making considerable effort to perform just like movie star
look-alikes. After all, they perform under the watchful eye of an informed audi-
ence who knows the songs and dances as well as the films, and the loudest
applause goes to those who manage to recreate the atmosphere of a particular
film. During the pre-wedding mehndi (henna) party, increasingly inspired by the
Bollywood sensorium, it is often difficult to say who are the performers and
who are the spectators: most guests perform dance sequences and sing along,
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thus performing an intimate knowledge of the genre. As one guest at a recent

mehndi party commented to me with a smile, ‘They all think they’re in a
movie here’. It may well be argued that the Israeli-born generation, in particular,
are prone to emulating the lavish wedding parties, usually North Indian in style,
that are an essential part of many recent Bollywood films. The business cards of
wedding organizers, for example, feature Bollywood stars rather than Bene
Israel brides wearing traditional green saris, and the creation of a Bollywood-
style Indian spectacle is enthusiastically supported by the Israeli-born gener-
ation, who dress up in South Asian garments and perform Bollywood dance
sequences. The creation of an Indian ambience at Indian cultural events is
also reflected in the stage set, which is inspired by Indian themes. And last
but not least, the fragrance of Indian food and the socializing with Indian rela-
tives and friends rounds up the creation of an Indian ambiance.
Since the predominant genre performed at Indian festivals, wedding parties
and other festive occasions draws increasingly on Bollywood’s sensorium, this
raises interesting theoretical questions about the aesthetics of diaspora in an era
of mass consumption. It seems that performers, as well as parents who wish
their youngsters to perform Indian songs and dance, do so to celebrate what
they consider to be ‘Indian’: in their view, Indianness is exemplified by a com-
mercial popular Indian cultural genre. Moreover, the ‘tradition’ which many
Indian immigrants have appropriated for festive occasions and cultural commu-
nity events is not paraded as an ‘ethnic’ Jewish genre in front of outsiders.
Rather, Indian immigrants, and, in particular, members of the Bene Israel
community, create and perform for themselves and invited guests an all-Indian
sensorium, a multi-sensual milieu in which they can enjoy an Indian ambiance.
During festivals of Indian music and dance such as the annual hoduyada in Eilat,
Indian immigrants in Israel are thus not merely parading a symbolic ethnic

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 244 gabriele shenar

Indian identity. Rather, they perform Indian popular culture as part of a trans-
national Bollywood fan club, and this is an experiential expression of their
Indian-Israeli way of life. As one mother, who wished her daughters to
perform a Bollywood-style dance at an important family function, pointed
out, ‘I want my children to know some of our Indian traditions, we should
not forget everything’13 (Figure 4).
A defining feature of both festivals and community events focusing around
music and dance is their political dimension. They often provide a platform
for political party and election campaigning and for local Indian-Israeli activists
wishing to be recognized publicly as leaders of the community, or at least as
local Indian leaders of a town or an Indian synagogue. Indian-Israeli political
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activists often remark on the difficulty of mobilizing members of the community

for political action, especially during election times. While being critical of the
fact that ‘Indians’ are only interested in Indian music and dance, these commu-
nity activists can nevertheless count on the fact that there will be a larger crowd
to address during Indian cultural events. Furthermore, members of the Knesset
(the Israeli Parliament) and other prominent figures from Israel’s public life, as
well as staff of the Indian embassy who agree to appear in front of an Indian-
Israeli audience, publicly recognize the collective effort invested in staging
Indian music and dance in today’s Jewish Israeli society. Indian ambassadors
to Israel have noted over the years that Israelis of Indian origin, despite their
complete integration into Israeli society, have sustained a strong emotional
and sentimental attachment to India and, in particular, its music and dance.

Figure 4. Dancers of
Indian– Israeli dance group
‘Sapna’, Hoduyada 2008,
photo: Yosi Aptekar.

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 Bollywood in Israel 245

As one Indian ambassador put it during the annual gathering of Indian Jews in
Jerusalem in 1996, ‘those of you who were born and have lived in India will not
forget the music and dance of India. Music and dance are part of the rhythm of
our way of life. We live it every day, in joy and in sorrow.’ More than 10 years
later, another Indian ambassador addressed the Indian community during the
annual hoduyada in Eilat: ‘You are a very important link between India and
Israel. While contributing and integrating into Israeli society you have contin-
ued to maintain the Indian tradition.’ The audience usually endures the many
speeches patiently, waiting for what they have really come for – the perform-
ance of Indian music, song and dance.
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Indian Milieus and the Indian Way of being Israeli

Studies of ethnicity and diaspora often describe the ambiance created by
sojourners without recognizing the centrality of this ambience in the life of com-
munities. There is little evidence that the Israeli-born generation of Indians is
overly concerned with Indian politics or the Indian economy. Indian news bul-
letins are left for elders, the immigrant generation. Neither are they overly active
in any of the existing Indian community organizations. And yet they are
involved, some of them on a daily basis, in the consumption of commercialized
popular culture from India through various modern media technologies. Indeed,
Indian popular cinema and its cultural products are a medium through which
they engage with aspects of Indian culture and society, regardless of whether
or not these are stylized images of India’s multifarious social and cultural
reality. Indian immigrants and their Israeli-born children appropriate the Bolly-
wood sensorium in spaces where they can feel an avira hodit (Indian ambience).
Significantly, writers on Bollywood cinema have noted a shift in the mutually
constitutive relationship between commercial Hindi cinema and Indian diaspo-
ric audiences which they trace back to the mid-1990s. Indian audiences in
various diasporic settings around the world and, in particular, the UK and the
US have become an integral part of the cultural imaginary of Hindi cinema
and the NRI (non-resident Indian) has been brought into popular Indian
films as a stable figure of Indian identity (see Punathambekar 2005:152 – 3).
While Israelis of Indian origin are not represented in Bollywood films, they
can nevertheless relate to the struggle for ‘Indianness’, even though their own
struggle is a different one and is in significant ways defined by their identifi-
cation with the broader Israeli national Jewish collectivity. Yet because Indian
multi-sensual milieus are not part of Israeli public culture, they need to
be created. To do so, Indian immigrants and their Israeli-born children thus

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 246 gabriele shenar

appropriate public Israeli spaces such as community centres, hotels, wedding

halls and convention centres, and transform them for a limited period of
time, filling them with the sounds, visions, tastes and fragrance of an imagined
Indianness. In these spaces they live and explore, as performers or spectators,
their various emotional and affective attachments to India and Indian culture,
irrespective of whether or not they wish to be an integral part of existing
Indian-Israeli community organizations. Indian festivals, evenings of Indian
music and dance as well as Indian hinna (henna) parties create an embodied,
materially immediate imaginary India, in the imaginative spaces in which the
community enjoys, sensuously-cum-aesthetically, an Indian ambiance.
Although located in mainly marginal spaces of Israeli society, these multi-
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sensual spaces remain, nevertheless, central to Indian-Israeli identity.

During such events, Bene Israel experience collectively what Israeliness means
for them in contemporary Israel and in what sense they wish to embrace an
Indian identity. This is evident both at the discursive as well as the performative
level and forms an integral part of a wider, multifaceted and complex, debate on
Israel’s ‘culture’. In such ‘Indian’ gatherings, the underlying tensions between
living everyday life in a society which in many contexts is experienced as socially
heterogeneous and in some respects even as culturally alienating, while perpetu-
ating, on a discursive-ideological level, the quest to be true Israelis, is brought out
into the open, and solved for a brief moment in time. To appreciate this, it needs
to be seen historically. Although Israel has no politically sanctioned concept of
herself as a multicultural society, the celebration of cultural diversity as part of
the Israeli cultural sphere is now acknowledged and officially promoted. Since
the 1970s, Israeli society has undergone significant structural and ideological
transformations which resulted in a profound critique of the so-called melting
pot ideology, paving the way for a multicultural and, some would argue, increas-
ingly privatized Israeli identity (Gutwein 2004). In the 1990s, the debate was
intensified by the emergence of postzionist and multiculturalist discourses,
which, combined with the structural and ideological changes brought about by
the advent of globalization and postmodernization, gradually resulted in the dis-
mantling of Israel’s hegemonic secular Zionist metaculture and the unified ‘Sabra’
national identity that it constructed (see, for example, Almog 2000; Kimmerling
2001; Ram 2007; Shohat 2010). This shift gave rise to the public assertion of
diverse ethnic cultures and countercultures, escalating into what some Israeli
writers have come to refer to as ‘cultural war’ with the still-hegemonic secular
Zionist culture (Kimmerling 2001:112).

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 Bollywood in Israel 247

Clearly, the conflict and debate over Israeliness resonates with various social,
political, cultural, economic and religiously defined conflicts within Israeli
society. One key contestation is between ‘Easterness’ and ‘Westerness’, a
European Ashkenazi cultural orientation versus a Mizrahi Middle Eastern or
‘oriental’ orientation. Easterness and Westerness seem to present two exclu-
sively opposed choices of Israeli identity (Parciack 2008:235). Yet these
grossly defined categories fail, in reality, to represent the broad spectrum of cul-
tural identities they are claimed to stand for, even as they continue to impinge
on Israeli dominant discourses. While Indian Jews in Israel are considered to be
Mizrahim, they, like other groups subsumed under this label, do not find their
history, culture and identity represented in that category, even when they
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draw on a Mizrahi identity to forge a strategic political alliance in local and

national politics. Indian ‘Easterness’ is, for example, only marginally represented
in the Israeli popular culture genre referred to as Mizrahi music and does not
feature significantly in discourses on Mizrahi identity that are dominated by
immigrant groups from Arab-speaking Moslem countries.
Since the 1970s, authorities in Israel have promoted the celebration of diaspo-
ric folklore traditions as a positive expression of identity in an acknowledgement
of the value of all Jewish traditions. However, the Bene Israel seemingly refuse to
hand over the Indian part of their identity to the mere confines of folk dance
festivals, history books, exhibitions and museum collections on Indian Jewish
identity. Instead, they express the wish, as some of my interlocutors put it, ‘to
bring all the good things from India to Israel and the “Israelis” now, in the
present.’ Clearly, in celebrating and performing commercialized Indian
popular culture, the Bene Israel and their Israeli-born children have redefined
for themselves what aspects they wish to embrace of their so-called diasporic
tradition and folklore. For Israelis of Indian origin, as is the case with other
Indian communities around the world, the Bollywood sensorium has come to
occupy a crucial presence as a ‘cultural unifier’ and a ‘keeper of the flame’
(Rajadhyaksha 2003:32 cited in Punathambekar 2005:153). It is contemporary
Bollywood cinema and its music and dance above all and, alongside that, reli-
gious rituals and liturgies specific to the community – Indian cuisine, lavish
Indian style henna parties and cricket – that inspire their continued devotion.
In these spaces of fun and aesthetic pleasure, Bene Israel, sometimes alongside
Cochini and Baghdadi Jews, imagine and celebrate ‘Indianness’ by adorning
themselves in shining South Asian-style clothes and jewellery, and indulging
in Bollywood music, song and dance.

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 248 gabriele shenar

Bollywood-inspired occasions are social events in which Bene Israel narrate

the story that affirms both their national Jewish identification and their wish to
embellish their lives as Jewish Israeli citizens with aspects of an aesthetic
cultural tradition they appreciate and evaluate. It may be ‘Indian etiquette’,
‘Indian aesthetics’, ‘Indian hospitality’, ‘Indian ambiance’ or specific issues
relating to the aesthetics of intimacy that Bene Israel and their Israeli-born
children long for. The problem with these aspirations is, as mentioned, that
Indian multi-sensual milieus are not part of Israel’s public culture. Furthermore,
Indian Easterness is not really part of the struggle over the cultural character
of Israeli society (Parciack 2008:235). Indian evenings, Indian festivals and
other community celebrations may thus be seen as a collectively staged subver-
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sive meta-commentary on the fraught question of what constitutes ‘Israeliness’.

This continuous struggle centres on what taste or behavioural style is
representative of mainstream or appropriate Israeliness. This is an underlying
powerful discourse, omnipresent in Israeli society, in spite of the fact that
it has become increasingly difficult to define what mainstream Israeliness
means.
Importantly, for the argument here, Indian immigrants and their Israeli-born
children not only appropriate Israeli public places to create an Indian ambience
for themselves and invited guests, but they also share and celebrate Bollywood
and Indianness with other South Asian diasporans around the globe. As
Dudrah puts it succinctly and vividly: ‘Not only do the playback singers and
the stars of Bollywood sing for India, but the Bollywood audience, in India and
throughout the world, joins in the song’ (2006: 64). Clearly, as Dudrah and
others remind us, Bollywood’s imaginary of India is a fantasy, which does not cor-
respond to the multifarious realities of Indian society (ibid; Kaur & Sinha 2005:19).
Indian-Israeli audiences and, in particular, the immigrant generation are aware of
this too, and yet, the Bollywood sensorium that is appropriated, reproduced and
performed during Indian festivals, mehndi parties and in the privacy of Indian-
Israeli homes acquires its own ‘reality’, providing a powerful emotional link
between India and her Jewish-Indian diaspora in Israel. This emotional continu-
ity clearly points to the sentient dimension of identity. At the same time, the col-
lective mobilization around this cultural-cum-aesthetic genre and its embodied
performance of identity has a direct bearing on Israeli society’s heterogeneity.
The celebration and performance of Indian popular culture within the context
of Israeli society thus are expressions of both an increasingly globalized Israeli-
ness as well as part of the debate over what constitutes Israeliness.

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 Bollywood in Israel 249

Conclusion
Despite the fact that commercial Hindi cinema is still widely regarded in
Israel as inauthentic kitsch, and its commercial distribution has been largely
unsuccessful since the 1970s, Indian immigrants and their Israeli-born children
continue to embrace it with intense affection. In performing, celebrating and
appropriating this globalized popular culture genre through various media
technology, they link themselves not to a diasporic past and its enshrined ‘tra-
dition’ but to a transnational and globalized cultural-cum-aesthetic sensorium
that is continuously evolving in its place of origin (India) while also impacting
on its diasporic audiences (in Israel and elsewhere). The performed and embo-
died identities, and the emotional and affective attachments which emerge in
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such aesthetic-cum-sensuous material milieus, are as real and authentic as

India’s cultural diversity. They are made real through the cultural layering of
spaces, practices and discourses about an imagined homeland, while the
social and material cultural reality, that is the sensuousness of objects, styles,
fragrances and tastes, impacts upon individuals, engendering thereby new
and unique forms of Indianness fused with Israeliness. Bollywood cinema
and, in particular, its filmi music, it is suggested, ‘help to define, with intense
emotional clarity, ways in which Indians identify themselves, or choose to
separate themselves from other cultures’ (see Sarrazin 2008:217). Moreover, the
creation of such aesthetic-cum-sensuous milieus and imaginaries may also be
regarded as a kind of empowerment, in particular, when seen against the relative
political, social and economic marginality of the Bene Israel community in Israel.
Unlike other pressure groups such as immigrants from the former Soviet Union,
Moroccans or Ethiopians, the Indian community has remained mainly absent in
the public debate over Israel’s cultural orientation. The public appreciation of a
performed Indian milieu by Israeli officials may thus be seen to counterbalance
a sense of marginality and relative invisibility within Israeli society. Indeed, the
public acknowledgment by members of the Israeli parliament and invited
guests, who appreciate Bollywood inspired community performances, instils a
sense of pride and distinction in members of the Indian community in Israel.
Similarly, in sharing and celebrating Bollywood’s sensoria together with visiting
artists and officials from India, this small group of Indian Jewish immigrants
visibly and audibly demands its place on the map of India’s worldwide diasporas.
The multi-sensuous milieus created and consumed by Israelis of Indian
origin provide spaces in which the sensuousness of identity is explored, a sen-
sorium of taste, fragrance, sounds and images that are felt, perceived and con-
ceptualized as Indian. These sensory experiences thus enable a sentient,

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 250 gabriele shenar

immediate connection with Indian ‘culture’. Since the senses are fundamental
to our experience, these sensory experiences and their emotional and affective
presence may be said to provide a tangible sense of identity.

Acknowledgements
A draft of this paper was presented at the ASA08: Ownership and Appropriation
Conference, held at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in December 2008. I
would like to thank all participants of the panel on aesthetics of diaspora for their
insightful comments and, in particular, Pnina Werbner who read and commented
on an earlier draft of my paper. I also thank the three anonymous reviewers for
their helpful and inspiring comments on an earlier draft of my paper. Finally, this
paper would not have been written without the generous support of my Bene Israel
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interlocutors in Israel who invited me to their community events as well as their

private homes. I am grateful to Yossi Aptekar for giving his permission for the repro-
duction of some of the images he has taken during the hoduyada in Eilat.

Notes
1. The annual gathering of Indian Jews is sometimes also referred to as hodiyada
(Indian festival).
2. Some of these festivals, such as the Kurdish saharane, the Iranian ruze-baque or the
Moroccan mimouna, are a continuation of ethnic holidays in the diaspora. In Israel,
they have undergone far-reaching changes in their meaning, their functions and
atmosphere. Others, such as the Yemenite teimaniyada or the Indian hoduyada, are
not associated with a traditional ethnic festival in the diaspora and hence are newly
invented traditions. Significantly, in the diaspora, celebrations like the Moroccan
mimouna, the Iranian ruze-baque and the Kurdish saharanei were family- and commu-
nity-centred events, while in Israel they have developed into large ethnic–political fes-
tivals which are regularly attended by Israeli politicians, in particular, during election
times (Shokeid 1984:262–3). Indeed, the Moroccan mimouna, the Kurdish saharanei
and the Ethiopian sigd festivals have become national festivals in Israel.
3. It has become increasingly difficult to define what postzionism refers to since the
term is used in various discourses, both academic and public. It is commonly
used to refer to the structural changes triggered off by the advent of economic
and cultural globalization into Israel as well as a critical counter-hegemonic dis-
course that emerged in Israeli academia in the 1990s. More generally, postzionism
can be seen as the Israeli variant of a postmodern counter-discourse.
4. There are three established Indian Jewish communities, the Marathi-speaking Bene
Israel, the Malayalam-speaking Jews from Kerala and the Arabic- and Persian-
speaking Baghdadi Jews (see, for example, Katz 2000). Further groups are the
Bnei Menashe from northeast India, who claim to be descendants of the tribe of
Menashe and the Bene Ephraim of Andhra Pradesh, South India. Other Jewish
communities who resided in India include German, Russian and Yiddish-speaking
European Jews who came to India fleeing Nazi persecution.
5. See also a letter by US-based Bene Israel Rabbi Romiel Daniel. Description of Bene
Israel in a Cookbook. Indian Jewish Congregation of USA, Newsletter, (4) 2, September

ethnos, vol. 78:2, 2013 (pp. 226–254)

 Bollywood in Israel 251

2010, pp. 3–4. http://www.jewsofindia.org/PDFs/newsletters/Indian%20Jewish%

20Congregation%20) Newsletter%20Sep-2010.pdf (accessed 15 October 2010).
6. For a review of Bene Israel theories of origin in the light of historical and biblical
history, see, in particular, Isenberg (1988). For an account of the formation of a
Bene Israel ethnic Jewish identity, see, in particular, Roland (1989).
7. There are other Indian Jews who contributed to the Hindi Film industry. See, for
example, Jews of India Forum. Indian Jewish Bollywood Stars. http://
jewsofindia.org/forum/index.php?topic=4.0 (accessed 10 October 2010).
8. The Central Bureau of Statistics does not yield any numerical data on the size of
individual immigrant groups and it is, therefore, not possible to give accurate stat-
istical data on the size of the community. The number of Jews of Indian origin is
also difficult to estimate by synagogue membership, since not all families are regis-
tered. Also a significant number of the Israeli born generation has intermarried with
non-Indian Israeli Jews, but there are no numerical data available on the identities
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they chose to embrace. Since the mid-1990s, the size of the community has been
estimated anywhere between 40,000 and 70,000, with researchers, journalists and
the Indian embassy in Israel referring to these figures. It seems, however, unclear
who originally came up with these now widely circulated figures.
9. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/israeli-arms-dealer-tries-bollywoo
d-pitch/ (accessed 20 May 2009). For StratPost interview with Assy Josephy,
Director for Exhibitions at Rafael, see http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-
dewline/2009/03/israels-rafael-goes-bollywood.html (accessed 1 June 2009).
10. Aniruddha Bahal. Hindi Films in Iraq and Palestine, posted 22 October 2004.
http://www.chowk.com/articles/8236 (accessed 19 October 2010). Sholay (1975),
an action –adventure film produced by G.P. Sippy and directed by Ramesh
Sippy, is considered to be among the greatest films of Indian cinema.
11. Since the 1970s, there has been no significant commercial distribution of Hindi films in
Israel. Israeli film distributors who attempted to bring Hindi films to commercial thea-
tres in the 1990s faced major financial losses. Their hope that the thousands of Israeli
backpackers who travel to India each year would flock into the movie theatres to
watch Hindi films upon their return to Israel did not materialize (Parciack 2008:229–30).
12. Ha’ir, Tel Aviv, 16 April 1998.
13. Various journalists and scholars have commented on the centrality of Indian
popular cinema to the life of Indian immigrants in various diasporic settings
(Punathambekar 2005:152). Hindi films have been, for example, one of the major
sources of the cultural renewal for Indo-Guyanese (Narain 2008:164). Kaur, on the
other hand, cautions that it is too cursory to say that Bollywood enables a reli-
gious-like nostalgia for people of the Indian diaspora and that film provides an
emotional link that needs to be reaffirmed. Instead, she observes that among the
relatively more assured and confident South Asian diaspora in Britain, as opposed
to Germany, for instance, there is a playful and parodic relationship amongst the
spectators of Indian cinema (2005:314).

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