A guided journey - 15 minutes

Seven lamps across exile

Seven stops, in order, from the first great exile in Babylon to seven communities across the world that each kept a lamp of the same tribe lit in their own tongue.

1. 1 Babylonia: the exile that became a homeland The first great exile became a second Jewish centre.
2. 2 Kaifeng A community carved its own memory in classical Chinese.
3. 3 Cochin The pepper coast kept a Jewish song in Malayalam.
4. 4 Beta Israel The Orit crossed a thousand years of distance.
5. 5 Bukhara Silk, Persian verse and Shabbat travelled together.
6. 6 The Jews of Yemen A distinct tradition carried its own sound home.
7. 7 The Old Yishuv Jerusalem remained a lived place, not only a direction.