In 2017, newlyweds Ashriel and Maayan Ashush set out with backpacks and big dreams to travel the world. But instead of sandy beaches and mountaintop ashrams, their journey led them to volunteering and outreach — and eventually to opening up their own center, Bet Halev, Hebrew for “House of the Heart,” in Varkala, India.

Now, the Ashush family — which has grown to include daughters Odeh, 3, and Naya, 1 — lives six months each year in Varkala, where they’ve created something deeply personal. More than just a Jewish center, Bet Halev is an open, welcoming Jewish home for travelers from around the world, regardless of their religious background or affiliation.

Varkala, a beach town in the southwestern state of Kerala, is located in a region rich in Jewish history centered on Cochin, a city whose active Jewish community claimed to have emigrated to there during the rule of the biblical King Solomon. While some Jews remain in the region, none are thought to live in Varkala, home to some 40,000 people.

But plenty pass through each year, drawn to the city’s cliff-lined beaches and, more recently, for the hospitality, sense of community, spiritual teachings and Jewish atmopshere created by the Ashushes’ project.

“I’ve been in many places in the world and really feel there is no place like Bet Halev,” said Nitza Roskin, a professor and mother of five on her sixth trip to India. “We decided to come to Varkala because of them. People are coming to Bet Halev day after day, and they don’t leave. Varkala is not a place to be in for months — people stay because of them. There is something in their home that makes you feel at home. It’s a safe place where you will get what you need, and no one will judge you.”

Bet Halev hosted more than 2,000 people over the course of its last season, which usually runs from the holiday of Sukkot in the fall through the Purim holiday in the early spring.

“We are very excited to start the fourth season of Bet Halev,” Maayan Ashush said by phone from Israel as she prepared to return to Varkala.

“It’s our third year going into the war,” she said, just days before a US-brokered ceasefire facilitated the long-awaited return to Israel of the living hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and ushered in a tentative end to hostilities that began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, atrocities in southern Israel.

“On the one hand, Israel is very broken from the war, and we all are brokenhearted. But, there is no fuller heart than a broken heart, and we really hope that together, we’ll be able to mend our hearts,” Maayan said. “We are very much looking forward to going to India — not that we’re looking forward to leaving Israel, but we really believe that wherever we are, we bring Israel with us.”

The project has been so successful that Maayan and Ashriel, also known as Ash, now hope to also bring the spirit of Bet Halev back to Israel, with plans to open a similar........

© The Times of Israel