Between Israel and India, a Link Based on Culture and, Now, Terrorism

Midway through Wednesday afternoon, Ani Anighotri was doing his multitasking thing, cruising the Internet while chatting with a friend about a recent business trip to his homeland, India, from his home in Georgia. Then an e-mail message popped onto his screen and ended the jocular conversation. The subject line said, “Attack in Mumbai.”

The accompanying message told Mr. Anighotri of reports of random shooting in Mumbai. He went to a Web site and found an account of a second, similar assault. Then, turning on an Indian cable television station, Mr. Anighotri saw a fire set by terrorists blazing in the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, the same hotel in which he had stayed just three weeks earlier.

By Thursday morning, Mr. Anighotri had discovered another subtler point of connection. It was now clear that besides hotels, a café, a train station and two hospitals, the terrorists had invaded a Jewish outreach center, operated by the Chabad Lubavitch movement. Mr. Anighotri absorbed the news as the co-chairman of an 80-member group in the Atlanta area called the Indo-Jewish Coalition.

In its modest way, the coalition attests to the deepening bonds between Jews and Indians, whether in Israel, India or the United States; and this week’s events demonstrate perhaps the most visceral and grisly element of connection, though far from the only one. Read Article

By Samuel G. Freedman