India, Israel share ties of centuries: Jaishankar

He said he was happy to be in Israel, a “land with which we have ties of centuries”, and amid the Indian Jewish community that has “in many ways been an umbilical cord” that has nourished these relations.

The Indian diaspora in Israel has served as an umbilical cord that has nourished relations between the two nations, and there is a need to better document the heritage and history of the community, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said. Jaishankar made the remarks while interacting with members of the Indian Jewish community and Indologists in Jerusalem on Sunday. He is on his first visit to Israel after becoming foreign minister, and is holding talks with officials to boost bilateral relations.

S Jaishankar is on his first visit to Israel after becoming foreign minister, and is holding talks with officials to boost bilateral relations.

He said he was happy to be in Israel, a “land with which we have ties of centuries”, and amid the Indian Jewish community that has “in many ways been an umbilical cord” that has nourished these relations.

Some Indian Jews were “uprooted in more difficult times and moved against their will”, while others made “more prescient choices” to move out of the country, he noted. “But among all of them, I would say that the Indian Jewish community is in many ways very unique because one, like other communities, it is a community that has existed peacefully in India for hundreds of years, which maintained its Jewish identity despite isolation from other Jewish communities,” he said.