Ready, Set, Goa

Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, October 30, 2015

Rabbinic tradition has it that Hodu (“India” in Hebrew) is the wordYehudi (“Jew” in Hebrew), without the letter yod, which signifies the one God — suggesting that India possesses kindred spirituality to Judaism, minus the monotheism. Perhaps that is why the predominantly Hindu country has long provided a welcoming home-away-from-home for Israeli backpackers.

Now India is evolving into a happening tourism spot for the clean-cut, young Israeli professional who simply wants to take a break from the stresses of Israeli life, with the coastal state of Goa leading the way after the “Hummus Trail” near Kasol in northern India.

In the 1990s, this former Portuguese colony became branded as a trance-rave destination. Israelis flocked here for that post-army, psychedelic escape. These days, Israelis have found other exotic, inexpensive locales for their post-army detox, such as Central America and Vietnam, and the generation that came here to party hard in Goa decades ago is staking a new claim, older and wiser.

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