Rotarians gain insight into Jewish trading practices
Andree Aelion Brooks
Andrée Aelion Brooks is a journalist, author, lecturer and a former contributing columnist and news writer for The New York Times, currently specialising in Jewish history.She is an Associate Fellow at Yale University and founder and first president of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale. The programme, started in 1993, trains women from the U.S. and overseas to run winning campaigns for elective office.
Brooks thanked the Club for inviting her and expressed her honour at being on such an esteemed platform. She is in India to research about ancient trading practices of Jews in the country and she discussed the same in her talk. She said, “I study the contributions made by Jews rather than the atrocities on them. Before I start, I want to let you know that the connection of Jews in India goes back to the early days of the Bible. I am going to discuss why and how the Jews became so popular in world history for their trading practices and the secrets to their having achieved such success ever since.
“The first one would be literacy. From very early on, the Jewish leaders insisted that the boys (in the beginning) be schooled in learning to read their prayers, their rituals and the culture of their community. As they grew up, they realised that literacy was not just for perpetuating their own culture but would provide them access to far-reaching opportunities in a world that did not have the skill yet. The earliest accounts we hear of Jews are that they were taken on as accountants by Finnish traders in the Mediterranean. It is then that they realised that they could be traders themselves and it was a far better occupation than farming; less hard work and manual labour and so they moved into trade. With literacy also came the benefit of being able to communicate with people outside of your community and Jews succeeded in slowly expanding their business to other communities over the years, gaining their faith and respect.”
Brooks said that the Jews first came to India through a gateway from the Far East. She explained, “Travelling through Asia gave Jews an edge over their competitors back home. When they brought back exotic items — silks, gemstones, spices — from faraway countries to Europe, it gave an instant boost to their business. They also became very active in the credit markets by being moneylenders as their businesses grew and they came into money faster than everyone else. They started to fan out globally in no time to became a cosmopolitan community and today, we have Jews in almost every country of the world and trading helped them achieve this milestone.”