We had just finished a spirited dance and young Moshe — a kippah-clad boy who kept in step like a yeshivah bochur at a wedding — was showing us bottles of sacramental wine made especially for Kiddush. But this was no NCSY shabbaton — in fact the crowd wasn’t even Jewish. This is what life looks like at theChristian “Zion Torah Center” in the Tamil-speaking southern Indian town of Erode popularly known as “Turmeric City.” What we witnessed there is part of a compelling phenomenon taking place around the globe. People in surprising off-the-beaten-track settings are discovering Judaism and pining to become adherents. While only about 14 million of today’s monotheistic believers are Jewish there’s a surprising momentum of non-Jews moving closer to Judaism. Our most recent trip where we visited a special group of Christians in Erode India was yet another manifestation of this quiet movement. As the first Jewish-born people to have visited them their developing story is even more inspiring for us.
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