“Henna, Love, and Light: Jewish Life and Art in Siona Benjamin’s India”

In 2011, Siona Benjamin, an intercultural artist born in India to a Bene Israel Jewish community, returned to her country of birth on a Fulbright India-US fellowship. During her stay, she traveled across the country, conducting research and interviewing Jews in India. “Henna, Love, and Light: Jewish Life and Art in Siona Benjamin’s India” brings to Fordham several pieces from Siona Benjamin’s series of photo-collage paintings, “Faces: Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives.” These pieces serve as anchors that link the present and the past. Around Siona Benjamin’s art are photographs taken by the artist’s parents and family members. In the 1950s, Siona Benjamin’s parents, Judah and Sophie Benjamin, traveled across India photographing synagogues and houses of prayer, capturing the range and diversity of the Indian Jewish community: from splendid metropolitan synagogues to small rural prayer halls. The cache of photographs in Siona Benjamin’s possession thus documents an aspect of Jewish history, now threatened by oblivion.

Like Siona Benjamin’s art, some of the old family photographs underscore how much the life and culture of Jews in India were very much of India. Henna, saris, glass lamps of synagogue lights meld with modern suits and classic fedoras becoming one. Indian and Jewish, traditional and modern–all form a distinct Indian Jewish identity.

The exhibit was made possible by the Hadassah Weiner Fund for Jewish Art and was curated by Amy Levine-Kennedy, Mallory Roof FCRH ‘26, and Magda Teter. It will be on view from January 30 until March 28, 2025 in the Henry S. Miller Judaica Research Room on the 4th floor of the Walsh Family Library.