MARCH 17 • 2022 | 51
“This new book really is, in
many ways, a meditation on the
experiences I’ve had through
many years of traveling back
and forth to India and back and
forth to Israel,
” said the author,
whose husband twice yearly
teaches aspects of patent law in
Israel. “It also draws on the first
two books because I learned
a great deal about India in the
course of all that time.
”
The time frame covered in
the book dates back 2,500 years
and reaches into the present as
the author explores reasons why
Israelis and young Jewish adults
from America travel to India
and adapt some spiritual prac-
tices encountered during their
journeys.
BORROWING EASTERN
PRACTICES
Besides chapters that describe
the specifics of religions that
include Buddhism, Hinduism
and Zoroastrianism, Adelman
considers the thinking behind
the large numbers of Israelis
traveling to India and what
she describes as the “modern
wandering Jew.”
“When I began studying
Hinduism and Buddhism,
I feared I was betraying my
Judaism only to find out on
later visits to Israel that my
attraction to India made me a
typical Israeli,
” said Adelman,
who attends synagogue services
every week, studies Hebrew and
has regular one-to-one rabbini-
cal learning sessions.
The book presents annotated
statistics about Jewish travelers
to India and Jews who take on
the practices of other religions
— from meditation to yoga —
while maintaining their Jewish
identity. Adelman delves into
the search for spirituality out-
side of Judaism.
“The more I learned, the
more I came to believe that
there’s no need to have concerns
about studying other religions,
”
she said. “My research actually
enhanced my understanding of
my own religion.
”
In explaining her under-
standing of that concept, she
tells a rabbinical allegory about
a Jewish man looking for gold
in a distant land and finding it
in his own home with the help
of an individual representing
another religion.
“Tzaddiks (Jewish spiritual
leaders) and gurus (Hindu
spiritual leaders) have a lot
in common,
” she said. “We
watched Sikhs read from the
Granth, their holy writings,
with the same reverence Jews
read Torah.
”
Completing her third book
took one year for Adelman as
she did research on the web and
ordered referenced volumes
—nearing 50 — for her direct
review.
“I got guidance and assis-
tance from friends in Israel
and India,
” she explained. “One
particular friend has a degree in
Jewish studies and is very much
interested in Buddhism.
“With this guidance, the book
shows how Jews and Indians
were linked by the ancient
Persian empires and their
religions, and I make the argu-
ment that these connections
have remained in the collective
Jewish memory.
”
Adelman shows how the
early Zoroastrian and Hindu
works lean back to the same
times and a later compilation of
the Zoroastrian work and the
Babylonian Talmud go back to
the same time and place.
“The majority of the peo-
ple that I read about and
wrote about who were Jewish
remained Jewish as they
became involved with Indian
Ashrams and Buddhist cen-
ters,” she said. “One of the
beauties of Eastern religions
is that Jews can recast most of
the meditation and mindful-
ness as therapy, and that’s been
extremely successful.”
Details
Susan Adelman will
discuss From Jerusalem
to Delhi, through Persia
and sign discounted
copies ($30) at 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 27, at Adat
Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills (masks
required) and 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 3, at the
Bharatiya Temple, 6850
N. Adams Road, Troy. For
information, call Michael
Kuper at the Jewish
Community Relations
Council (248) 642-5993.
COURTESY OF SUSAN ADELMAN
A meeting
of people
representing
different
religions.
Adelman visits an
Indian temple.
“MY RESEARCH ACTUALLY
ENHANCED MY UNDERSTANDING
OF MY OWN RELIGION.”
— SUSAN ADELMAN
Susan Adelman with Ari
and Ella Moskowitz in
Israel