Religious roots stretch from Bombay to Valley
RANDI BAROCAS
Staff Writer
and LOU HIRSH
Managing Editor
The Valley of the Sun boasts at least one native of India whose family practices Judaism. And Lavina Pearlman's short life story also includes the added twist of having lived on a kibbutz in Israel.
Pearlman was born in Bombay, India, and lived there until she was 15, when her family moved to a small community in the Jewish state.
"I lived in Yevneh; I didn't know Hebrew that well," Pearlman says. "My parents put me in a kibbutz. That's where I met Jonathan (Pearlman, her husband). I lived in Israel for three years."
She came to the United States at age 18 and was married to Jonathan at age 19. The couple reside in Phoenix.
Lavina Pearlman, now 24, is a former teacher's assistant at the Beth El Center for Early Childhood Education who is currently taking a break from working to have a child. Growing up in Bombay, a Jewish life was attainable, despite the relative scarcity of Jewish institutions, she says.
"We didn't have a rabbi as such. We had a hazzan," Pearlman says. "He did all the prayers and stuff. The rabbi from Israel used to come once in a while to make sure everything was going right.
"We had all the functions, weddings (and) the religious holidays. ... All the Jewish community was together, and everyone knew everyone. But we didn't go to synagogue just for Sabbath."
Traditional native clothing was the accepted garb at religious services. "My mom wore a sari. We wore dresses and Indian clothes."
The family decided to leave India after a visit to the Jewish state, Pearlman says. "We went to (Israel) for a wedding. My brother and I liked it so much we didn't want to go back to India. And my mother's whole family was in Israel - my grandparents, her brother.
"For my mom, it was easy (to decide to move), but for my dad it was much harder because he had to leave his work and everything."
She said the family's decision had nothing to do with treatment by people of other faiths. Her family, which was always observant, had no problem with discrimination while in India. And while many in Bombay report long trips to the synagogue, due to widespread traffic jams in the big city, Pearlman says her family's commute was not that bad. "We just went for religious holidays and weddings. It was about half an hour (to get there)."
They didn't even need to make the trip when Pearlman came of age.
"They don't have a big ceremony for a bat mitzvah. It's just a family thing," says Pearlman. "You do a ceremony at home and relatives come over. It's not in a synagogue, and you don't read a Torah portion."
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