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

