Esther David Explained

Esther David
Birth Date:	1945 3, df=yes
Birth Place:	Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Occupation:	Author, artist, sculptor
Nationality:	Indian
Alma Mater:	Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Genre:	Fiction, anthropology
Notableworks:	Book of Rachel
Awards:	Sahitya Akademi Award 2010

Esther David (born 17 March 1945) is an Indian Jewish author, an artist and a sculptor.^[1] She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Early life

She was born into a Bene Israel Jewish family^[2] in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.^[3] She won Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 for The Book of Rachel.^[4]

Her father, Reuben David, was a hunter-turned-veterinarian, who founded the Kamala Nehru Zoological Garden and Balvatika near Kankaria lake in Ahmedabad.^[5] Her mother, Sarah, was a school teacher.^[6]

After her schooling in Ahmedabad, She was at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, as a student of Fine Arts and Art History. There she met Sankho Chaudhary, a sculptor, who taught her sculpture and Art History.^[4] After her graduation she returned to Ahmedabad and started her career as a professor in art history and art appreciation. She taught at the Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Fine Arts College, CEPT University and NIFT.

She started writing about art and became the Times of India art critic, a national English daily. Later she became a columnist for Femina, a women's magazine, the "Times of India" and other leading national dallies. She is an advisory editor of Eve Times, Ahmedabad.^[7] She has authored several books; and also been an editor and contributor.^[8] Her books are related to Bene Israel Jews in Ahmedabad.^[4]

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) featured Shalom India Housing Society in the Hasassah-Brandeis 2010–2011 calendar, which highlights 12 Jewish women authors across the world whose "writing illuminates a particular city". The title of the calendar was Jewish Women Writers and the Cities that Influence Them.^[9]

Bibliography

• Book: Ahmedabad: City with a Past. 10 February 2016. HarperCollins Publishers India. 978-93-5029-798-8.
• The Walled City 1997 East West Books, Madras. Re-published by Syracuse University Press USA.^[4]
• By the Sabarmati^[10]
• The Book of Esther ^[10]
• Book of Rachel ^[10]
• My Father’s Zoo 2007
• Shalom India Housing Society 2007^{[10] [11]}
• One Church, One All Jewish Faith, One God 2008 Media Creations, Inc.^[12]
• The Man with Enormous Wings 2010 Penguin Books^[13]
• Bombay Brides 2019, Harpercollins ^[14]

Contributor

• Sari Sutra, contributed a chapter on Bene Israeli Jewish costumes.^[15]
• City Stories "The Worry Box and The Laughing Lady" Scholastic India.^[10]
• Growing Up as a Woman Writer "Nanki Chirai" Sahitya Academy New Delhi.^[10]
• Gattu's Wildlife Adventures^[10]

Editor

• Ane Dhara Dhruji^[10]

Awards and recognition

• Writer in Residence at Villa Mont Noir, France in 1999–2000.^[16]
• Writer in Residence, Maison des Écrivains Étrangers et des Traducteurs, Saint-Nazaire, France in 2001–2002.^[17]
• Sahitya Akademi Award 2010 for The Book of Rachel.^[18]
• Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) Research Award 2011 for "I am the seed of the Tree…," A Jewish woman’s search of her Jewish heritage in India.^[19]
• Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) Research Award 2016 for Bene-Appetite (Research on Indian Jewish Food Traditions).^[20]

See also

• List of Indian writers

Further reading

• Book: Weil, Shalva . 2009 . Bene Israel Rites and Routine . Weil, Shalva . India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle . Mumbai . Marg Publications . 2002 . 3rd . 78–89 . Reprinted in Marg: A Magazine of The Arts, 54(2): 26–37.
• Book: Weil, Shalva . Bene Israel . Baskin, Judith Baskin . Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture . New York . Cambridge University Press . 2011 . 59 .

Notes and References

1. Book: Weil, Shalva . 2008 . Esther David: The Bene Israel Novelist who Grew Up with a Tiger . Shulman, David . Weil, Shalva . Karmic Passages: Israeli Scholarship on India . New Delhi . . 232–253 .
2. Weil, Shalva . 2012 . The Bene Israel Indian Jewish Family in Transnational Context . Journal of Comparative Family Studies . 43 . 1 . 71–80 .
3. Web site: Paniker . Shruti. Come, visit my city . Ahmedabad Mirror . 2016-02-14 . 2016-03-28.
4. News: City-based author wins Sahitya Akademi award. 6 October 2012. www.ndtv.com. 22 December 2010.
5. Book: Roland, Joan . 2009 . The Contributions of the Jews of India . Weil, Shalva . India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle . Mumbai . Marg Publications . 2002 . 3rd .
6. Web site: My Father's Zoo . David, Esther . 124 .
7. Web site: Esther David Official . 5 October 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120719073307/http://estherdavid.com/biography.html . 19 July 2012 . dead.
8. Book: David, Esther . 2009 . Sari-Sutra: Bene Israel Costumes . Weil, Shalva . India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle . Mumbai . Marg Publications . 2002 . 3rd .
9. News: Esther David, Ahmedabad in US calendar on Jewish women writers . https://archive.today/20130103124211/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-09-26/ahmedabad/28241184_1_calendar-city-women-writers . live . 3 January 2013 . 6 October 2012 . . 26 September 2010.
10. Web site: Esther David Books. 5 October 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20130902205003/http://estherdavid.com/books.html. 2 September 2013. dead. For a review, please refer to: Weil, Shalva. 2003 The Book of Esther by Esther David, reviewed in Biblio: A Review of Books, New Delhi: Manohar, p. 26.
11. Book: Shalom India Housing Society. 5 October 2012. 9781558616455. David. Esther. April 2009. The Feminist Press at CUNY .
12. Book: One Church, One All Jewish Faith, One God. 5 October 2012. 9781595269775. David. Esther. June 2008. Media Creations, Incorporated .
13. Book: The Man with Enormous Wings. 5 October 2012. 9780143066927. David. Esther. 2010. Penguin Books .
14. Web site: Bombay Brides.
15. Book: Weil, Shalva . 2009 . The Heritage and Legacy of Indian Jews . Weil, Shalva . India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle . Mumbai . Marg Publications . 2002 . 3rd . 8–21 .
16. Web site: Historique des bénéficiaires. Bienvenue sur le site de la maison des écrivains et de la littérature.
17. Web site: Esther David. Meeting Saint Nazaire.
18. News: They are not on facebook. 6 October 2012. India Today. 14 January 2011.
19. Web site: HBI Research Awards 2011. Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.
20. Web site: HBI Research Awards 2016. Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.