The British Indian Jewish Association held its fifth 'Bagels and Samosas' webinar on Thursday 26 November with guest speaker Sathnam Sanghera. He was interviewed by committee member Natalie Joseph about his career and his new book 'Empireland' which will be released in January 2021. The webinar was attended by over 70 people.
Sathnam, a columnist and feature writer at The Times, spoke about his range of experiences as an author and journalist. He shared stories of about growing up in Wolverhampton as part of a Punjabi immigrant family and his journey as an author and journalist. He covered interesting topics on the similarities between Jewish and Indian communities, how antisemitism is "the original racism" and his mental health activism.
Sathnam spoke about the similarities between the Indian and Jewish communities. He described that growing up he had no exposure to the Jewish community and was shocked that classmates poked fun when watching the film Schindler's List at school whereas nowadays he has a number of Jewish friends.
Sathnam said: “Sikhs in particular have a lot in common with the Jewish community. We are actually almost the same size [communities] in the UK and internationally we compete to be the 5th or 6th largest religion in the world. There's the obsession with food, the overbearing mothers, the weird hair and the hats. We have a lot in common. I've ended up with quite a few Jewish friends because of that. We face a lot of similar issues and challenges. There is also the obsession with education!"
At the webinar, BIJA highlighted its Winter Campaign to provide food packages for those in need in partnership with Amrit S Maan’s Punjab Restaurant. Its initial target is to raise the money for 2,000 parcels, but it hopes this will grow.
Committee member Natalie Joseph said: “It was an honour to interview Sathnam for the Bagels and Samosas webinar. In a wide-ranging and thought-provoking talk, he encouraged both the Indian and Jewish communities to reflect on our respective pasts and consider future responsibilities. The event highlighted the essence of what BIJA aims to do, namely strengthening relationships between our two communities."
Zaki Cooper, Co-Chair of BIJA, said: “This was another successful BIJA webinar with a popular speaker, who both entertained us and made us think. It was also important to highlight our winter social action campaign. At BIJA, we believe passionately in not only holding interesting events but also doing things together to strengthen the fabric of society. Feeding the hungry is intrinsic to our religious communities, and something that we all need to take responsibility for.”
The final “Bagels and Samosas” webinar of 2020 takes place on 17 December with founder of Ebookers, Dinesh Dhamija.
