More than 50 business, civic and community leaders from Boston’s Indian and Jewish communities gathered recently for a convening designed not simply to celebrate friendship, but to build a more durable relationship between two of the world’s oldest and most resilient civilizations.

The gathering, titled “Building Bridges: India-Israel,” was co-hosted by Colette Phillips, founder and CEO of Get Konnected!, and Meena Bharath, founder of the Meher Foundation and former president of the Massachusetts Asian American Commission. Special guests included Benjamin Sharoni, Consul General of Israel to New England, and Shri Raghuram S., Consul General of India in Boston.

The event reflected a relationship that has been growing at several levels at once: between India and Israel, between Indian and Jewish communities in the diaspora, and among local leaders in Boston who see the two communities as natural partners in business, civic life, education, technology, philanthropy and culture.

India and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1992, but the connections between Jews and India reach much further back. India is often described by Jewish historians and community leaders as one of the rare places where Jewish communities lived for centuries with comparatively little antisemitism. Indian Jews maintained distinct religious and cultural traditions while also becoming part of the broader fabric of Indian society.

That history gave the Boston gathering a deeper significance. This was not........

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