Indian Flag
Credit: etti h | ©etti h
When we hear about India these days, it is usually a news item about outsourcing, or a wonderful curry recipe. There is another side to India though: the Israeli invasion.
Israeli youngsters are enrolled in the army right after High school, and must serve for a mandatory three years. Their time there being rigorous and often difficult (think about the Intifada or even daily patrols), it has become fashinable over the past ten years to unwind by going to India.
While it's not certain how the phenomenon began, we do know that backpacking there is much cheaper than in Europe. An Israeli student with the low Shekel can actually go far in India.
Many people also go to 'Find themselves'. While there are orthodox Jews in Israel, many of the secular Jews tend to have no connection with root Judaism whatsoever, and so they trek through India in search of whatever they might find.
I have heard personal accounts of young men and women adopting local religions for a time, sitting in mud huts to meditate and eating all sorts of things that would be really strange under different circumstances. Most of these people eventually let go of the spell and go back to Israel to attend university and get life back on track.
Funnily enough, some actually find the Jewish religion while in India. There are representatives of the Chabad movement in many Indian cities, ready to assist Israelis with kosher food and lodgings, as well as teach the basics of Judiasm like prayer, Shabbat (observing the Sabbath as the day of rest) etc. Many people who are opposed to religion on their own turf find themselves softening when encountering fellow Jews in other countries.
Indian business profit majorly from the backpackers, offering hostels and food, tours and more. Many stores have up signs in Hebrew, to better accommodate the tourists.The problem is that drugs and other recreations are readily available in many places, and while some of the ex soldiers dabble in substances to blow off steam, Chabad rabbis are sometimes forced to supervise a drug addict who has gone too far and send for his relatives to come take him to a rehab center in Israel.
Israeli youngsters are enrolled in the army right after High school, and must serve for a mandatory three years. Their time there being rigorous and often difficult (think about the Intifada or even daily patrols), it has become fashinable over the past ten years to unwind by going to India.
While it's not certain how the phenomenon began, we do know that backpacking there is much cheaper than in Europe. An Israeli student with the low Shekel can actually go far in India.
Many people also go to 'Find themselves'. While there are orthodox Jews in Israel, many of the secular Jews tend to have no connection with root Judaism whatsoever, and so they trek through India in search of whatever they might find.
I have heard personal accounts of young men and women adopting local religions for a time, sitting in mud huts to meditate and eating all sorts of things that would be really strange under different circumstances. Most of these people eventually let go of the spell and go back to Israel to attend university and get life back on track.
Funnily enough, some actually find the Jewish religion while in India. There are representatives of the Chabad movement in many Indian cities, ready to assist Israelis with kosher food and lodgings, as well as teach the basics of Judiasm like prayer, Shabbat (observing the Sabbath as the day of rest) etc. Many people who are opposed to religion on their own turf find themselves softening when encountering fellow Jews in other countries.
Indian business profit majorly from the backpackers, offering hostels and food, tours and more. Many stores have up signs in Hebrew, to better accommodate the tourists.The problem is that drugs and other recreations are readily available in many places, and while some of the ex soldiers dabble in substances to blow off steam, Chabad rabbis are sometimes forced to supervise a drug addict who has gone too far and send for his relatives to come take him to a rehab center in Israel.
- There is another side to India: the Israeli invasion
- Many people also go to 'Find themselves'.
Comments
Maglayas
(Guest)
(Guest)
08/31/2009
When I traveled through India in 2008, there were indeed a ton of Israeli backpackers, often straight out of their military service. I thought that one of the great things about this was how widespread Israeli food became in India. It really is delicious -
http://www.tripwolf.com/en/blog/2009/07/14/the-israel-india-connection/
tom walsh
(Guest)
(Guest)
03/20/2007
March 20, 2007 - In what foreign policy experts believe to be a direct
response to the hit American movie "300," Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad today declared war on Sparta. Even for the mercurial
Ahmadinejad, the move struck many diplomatic insiders as extraordinary,
since the consensus in the international community is that the city-state of
Sparta no longer exists.
But, according to a close associate of Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president's
thoughts turned to war after seeing a matinee showing of "300" this past
Saturday at the Tehran Cineplex 12. "He was hopping mad at the way the
Spartans kicked the Persians' butts," the aide said. "I haven't seen him
this angry since he saw that thing with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore."
At a press conference in Tehran today, President Ahmadinejad directed his
most barbed comments at the 300 Spartan warriors depicted in the film. "So
you think you are a match for the entire Persian army?" Ahmadinejad said.
"Well
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