Table of Contents

Introduction; N.Katz PART I: HISTORICAL STUDIES, ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL Reaching out to Distant Shores: Indo-Judaic Trade Contacts (up to CE 1300); R.Chakravarti Traders and Ideas: Indians and Jews; B.Weinstein Hindus and Hinduism in Medieval Jewish Literature; R.G.Marks PART II: COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS STUDIES Beyond Hegemony: Hinduisms, Judaisms, and the Politics of Comparison; B.A.Holdrege Divine Anthropos and Cosmic Tree: Hindu and Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective; B.M.Sinha The State of the Art of Hindu-Jewish Dialogue; N.Katz PART III: JEWISH (AND NEAR-JEWISH) COMMUNITIES IN INDIA New Research, Discoveries and Paradigms: A Report on the Current Study of Kerala Jews; B.C.Johnson On Origins, the Arts, and Transformed Identities: Foci of Research into the Bene Israel; S.Weil The Baghdadi Jews of India: Perspectives on the Study and Portrayal of a Community; J.Roland Tribal Jews; T.Parfitt PART IV: CONTEMPORARY INTERACTIONS IN POLITY, POLITICAL DISCOURSE, AND DIPLOMACY Describing the 'Other,' Describing the 'Self': Jews, Hindu Reformers and Indian Nationalists; Y.Egorova India and Israel: The Diplomatic History; P.R.Kumaraswamy India and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Shifting Strategic Focus; D.Kumar The Multicultural Issue in India and Israel - Some Reflections; M.Chatterjee

About the Author

NATHAN KATZ is Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, Florida International University, USA.
RANABIR CHAKRAVARTI is Professor of Ancient History, Centre for Historical
Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.
BRAJ M. SINHA is Professor of Religious Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
SHALVA WEIL works as an anthropologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. She is the founding Chairperson of the India-Israel Cultural Association.