India, May 8 -- Jews and Muslims are frequently at loggerheads, and the ongoing war between Gaza and Israel is possibly the most terrible episode in contemporary human history. Nevertheless, there are occasional examples of unity and goodwill between the two communities. A Jewish woman born into an affluent German family in 1895, Philipsborn's life is not only an exception but also an inspiration for scholars and campaigners seeking interfaith connections.

Historian Margrit Pernau, who has written this compelling biography of Gerda Philipsborn, is also the author of Ashraf into Middle Classes in the 19th Century and The Delhi College: The Traditional Elites, the Colonial State, and Education Before 1857. By her own account, she was not t...