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The Baghdadi Jews in India
Source
Extracts from a dissertation by: Alex Roy Hayim
The terms Baghdadi came to include all the Jews from Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, Aden, Yemen and even Jews from Persia and Afghanistan. Baghdad though was always seen as their spiritual centre, and when Jews came to India, the customs of which they were so proud, remained intact. Bombay began to enter into Jewish history after the cession of the city to the Portuguese in the mid-sixteenth century, when it was a mere fishing village. It was in the town of Surat, then a successful and important trading post, North of Bombay, where a number of wealthy Portuguese merchants came to do business and eventually dwell. A colony was first established there under the leadership of Shalom Obadiah Ha-Kohen, a businessman from Aleppo. By the time he moved to Calcutta in 1797, there were around ninety five Jewish merchants in Surat with a synagogue and a cemetery.
One of the first Baghdadis to move from Surat to Bombay making his name there, was the rich merchant Soliman ben Yaakob Soliman. As Surat lost its dominant position as a port, Jewish merchants eventually began leaving for Bombay and Calcutta. In Calcutta, the Baghdadis found themselves the only settled Jews in the city and so had to set-up all Jewish institutions, starting as in Surat with a synagogue and cemetery. Those Baghdadis who eventually decided to settle into Bombay though - a city of some 200,000 inhabitants in 1832 - found the Bene Israel already settled with functioning Jewish establishments. One can imagine the shock these Baghdadis must have had in witnessing for the first time Indian-Jews, with their Indian dress and customs, worshipping in a synagogue.
It was not until the arrival in 1832 of David Sassoon of Baghdad, a wealthy and celebrated merchant, who spoke Arabic, Persian, Amrani (Jewish-Arabic), Turkish and Hindustani, that the Bombay community really began to flourish. By then, Bombay was under British rule and the freedom of worship and expanding opportunities for trade, no doubt appealed to him. Like the Jews in Calcutta, the initial activities of the Baghdadis of Bombay were in the import and export trade with the Persian Gull In 1855 a religious confraternity bearing his name, Hebrath Beth David - the Brotherhood of the House of David, was established. This constituted a nucleus around which a new model organisation of Baghdadi Jews were formed, equipped with all the requircments of a traditional Jewish Congregation increasing with notable rapidity. In 1861 he built the beautiful Maghen David Synagogue in the then fashionable Byculla district, set in a spacious compound with a clocktower. On the side he erected a hospice for travellers, a ritual bath and a Talmud Torah for the education of Jewish youth. After the end of the war and India's Independence in 1947, most of the community emigrated to Israel and the West.
As an illustration of Jewish adherence to their traditions, marriage into other Jewish communities was frowned upon. My father who was born in Bombay was told that he was marrying out, when he announced his engagement to an Ashkenazi. Indeed there were a few eyebrows raised on my mother's side, when it was disclosed that she was marrying an lndiant
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Elias, F & Elias Cooper, J; The Jews of
Calcutta- the autobiography of a community
1798- t 972;Calcutta; The Jewish association
of Calcutta; 1974.
• Ezra, E.D; Turning back the pages - A
Chronicle of Calcutta Jewry;
London; Brookside Press; 1986.
• Gussin, C; The Bene lsrael of lndia:Politics,
Religion and Systematic Change,Michigan;
University Microfilms International - 1972.
• Israel, B.J; The Jews of lndia,- New Delhi;
Centre for Jewish and inter-faith Studies
Jewish Welfare Association; 1988.
• Jackson, S; The Sassoons; Cox & Wyman
Ltd; London-, 1968.
• Japheth, M.D; The Jews of India, A brief
Survey,- We-One Printers; Bombay; 1966.
• Kehimkar, H.S; The History of the Bene
Israel in India; Tel Aviv; Dayag Press;
1937.
• Musleah, Rabbi E.N-, On the Banks of the
Ganga - the sojourn of Jews in Calcutta;
Massachusetts; The Christopher Publishing
House; 1975.
• Lord, Rev, J.H; The Jews in lndia & the Far
East; USA; 1907.
• Rejwan, N;TheJews of lraq-3 O00years of
History and Culture London; Weidenfeld &
Nicolson; 1985.
• Roland, J.G;Jews ln British India-Identity
In A Colonial Era;New England; University
Press Of N.E; 1989.
• Roth, C; The Sassoon Dynasty; London;
Robert Hale Ltd; 1941.
• Sassoon, D.J; A History of the Jews in
Baghdad,-Letchworth; Alcuin Press; 1949.
• Sawdayee, M.M;TheBaghdadConnection;
1977.
• Strizower, S; The Children of Israel: the
Bene Israel of Bombay. Oxford, Basil
Blackwell; 1971.
• Timberg, T; Jews in India,- New Delhi;
Vicas Publishing File; 1986.
• Waley, S.D, - Edwin Montagu - A Memoir
and an Account of his visits to India;
Bombay;
Asia Publishing House. t 964
• EncyclopediaJudaica; entry onBombay and
Baghdad.
ESSAYS/THESES:
• Ed. Dangoor, N; The Scribe:
Manasseh, R & S; The Baghdadi Jews of
/rid/a; part I July 1994; no. 32. part 2;
September 1994; no.33.
Isaacs, Dr H; Migration of lraqi Jews.
• Greenbaum, A;Report onIndia;Jerusalem;
1966.
• Ben Yaacob, A; The immigration of
Babylonian Jews to India and their
integration there; Jerusalem: Hebrew
University, Phd thesis, 1986.
• The Kenesseth Elyahoo Synagogue
Centenary 18 April 1985;
Kelly, S; Glimpses into the History of the
Dynasty of the Sassoons
Kelly, S; A Narrative of the Historical
Background of the Baghdadi Jewish
Community in India.
• SamueI, S; A summary of the History of the
Bene Israel Community in India.
• Neuman, S; The Jews oflndia - a Study in
Majority-Minorlty relations; New York;
N.Y. University, MA; 1960
Note: About 210 years ago in Baghdad, Iraq, there were two brothers, Heskel Ha Nasi and Ezra Ha Nasi Gabbay (mother's name Rachel of Constantinople). In 1810, Heskel assisted Khaled Effendi, a special envoy of Sultan Mahmood II (1808- 1839) to organise a plot against Suleiman Pasha, the Governor of Baghdad. As a consideration for his assistance, Heskel was appointed as Sarraf Bashl (treasurer) in tstanbul, the capital c ity of the Ottoman Empire. Heskel utilised his influence in the Ottoman Empire and he succeeded to expel Saeed Pasha, Governor of Baghdad (1813-1817). He then appointed Dahoud Pasha as the Governor of Baghdad ( 1817-1831). For 36 years, Sheikh Sasson was the President of the Jewish community and the Sarraf Bashi. He was replaced by Ezra, brother of Heskel, as Sarraf Bashi from 1817-1824. Heskel's grandson, Heskel was editor of the Istanbul Jewish Journal L'Israelite.
The Baghdadi Jews in India
Source
Extracts from a dissertation by: Alex Roy Hayim
The terms Baghdadi came to include all the Jews from Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, Aden, Yemen and even Jews from Persia and Afghanistan. Baghdad though was always seen as their spiritual centre, and when Jews came to India, the customs of which they were so proud, remained intact. Bombay began to enter into Jewish history after the cession of the city to the Portuguese in the mid-sixteenth century, when it was a mere fishing village. It was in the town of Surat, then a successful and important trading post, North of Bombay, where a number of wealthy Portuguese merchants came to do business and eventually dwell. A colony was first established there under the leadership of Shalom Obadiah Ha-Kohen, a businessman from Aleppo. By the time he moved to Calcutta in 1797, there were around ninety five Jewish merchants in Surat with a synagogue and a cemetery.
One of the first Baghdadis to move from Surat to Bombay making his name there, was the rich merchant Soliman ben Yaakob Soliman. As Surat lost its dominant position as a port, Jewish merchants eventually began leaving for Bombay and Calcutta. In Calcutta, the Baghdadis found themselves the only settled Jews in the city and so had to set-up all Jewish institutions, starting as in Surat with a synagogue and cemetery. Those Baghdadis who eventually decided to settle into Bombay though - a city of some 200,000 inhabitants in 1832 - found the Bene Israel already settled with functioning Jewish establishments. One can imagine the shock these Baghdadis must have had in witnessing for the first time Indian-Jews, with their Indian dress and customs, worshipping in a synagogue.
It was not until the arrival in 1832 of David Sassoon of Baghdad, a wealthy and celebrated merchant, who spoke Arabic, Persian, Amrani (Jewish-Arabic), Turkish and Hindustani, that the Bombay community really began to flourish. By then, Bombay was under British rule and the freedom of worship and expanding opportunities for trade, no doubt appealed to him. Like the Jews in Calcutta, the initial activities of the Baghdadis of Bombay were in the import and export trade with the Persian Gull In 1855 a religious confraternity bearing his name, Hebrath Beth David - the Brotherhood of the House of David, was established. This constituted a nucleus around which a new model organisation of Baghdadi Jews were formed, equipped with all the requircments of a traditional Jewish Congregation increasing with notable rapidity. In 1861 he built the beautiful Maghen David Synagogue in the then fashionable Byculla district, set in a spacious compound with a clocktower. On the side he erected a hospice for travellers, a ritual bath and a Talmud Torah for the education of Jewish youth. After the end of the war and India's Independence in 1947, most of the community emigrated to Israel and the West.
As an illustration of Jewish adherence to their traditions, marriage into other Jewish communities was frowned upon. My father who was born in Bombay was told that he was marrying out, when he announced his engagement to an Ashkenazi. Indeed there were a few eyebrows raised on my mother's side, when it was disclosed that she was marrying an lndiant
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Elias, F & Elias Cooper, J; The Jews of
Calcutta- the autobiography of a community
1798- t 972;Calcutta; The Jewish association
of Calcutta; 1974.
• Ezra, E.D; Turning back the pages - A
Chronicle of Calcutta Jewry;
London; Brookside Press; 1986.
• Gussin, C; The Bene lsrael of lndia:Politics,
Religion and Systematic Change,Michigan;
University Microfilms International - 1972.
• Israel, B.J; The Jews of lndia,- New Delhi;
Centre for Jewish and inter-faith Studies
Jewish Welfare Association; 1988.
• Jackson, S; The Sassoons; Cox & Wyman
Ltd; London-, 1968.
• Japheth, M.D; The Jews of India, A brief
Survey,- We-One Printers; Bombay; 1966.
• Kehimkar, H.S; The History of the Bene
Israel in India; Tel Aviv; Dayag Press;
1937.
• Musleah, Rabbi E.N-, On the Banks of the
Ganga - the sojourn of Jews in Calcutta;
Massachusetts; The Christopher Publishing
House; 1975.
• Lord, Rev, J.H; The Jews in lndia & the Far
East; USA; 1907.
• Rejwan, N;TheJews of lraq-3 O00years of
History and Culture London; Weidenfeld &
Nicolson; 1985.
• Roland, J.G;Jews ln British India-Identity
In A Colonial Era;New England; University
Press Of N.E; 1989.
• Roth, C; The Sassoon Dynasty; London;
Robert Hale Ltd; 1941.
• Sassoon, D.J; A History of the Jews in
Baghdad,-Letchworth; Alcuin Press; 1949.
• Sawdayee, M.M;TheBaghdadConnection;
1977.
• Strizower, S; The Children of Israel: the
Bene Israel of Bombay. Oxford, Basil
Blackwell; 1971.
• Timberg, T; Jews in India,- New Delhi;
Vicas Publishing File; 1986.
• Waley, S.D, - Edwin Montagu - A Memoir
and an Account of his visits to India;
Bombay;
Asia Publishing House. t 964
• EncyclopediaJudaica; entry onBombay and
Baghdad.
ESSAYS/THESES:
• Ed. Dangoor, N; The Scribe:
Manasseh, R & S; The Baghdadi Jews of
/rid/a; part I July 1994; no. 32. part 2;
September 1994; no.33.
Isaacs, Dr H; Migration of lraqi Jews.
• Greenbaum, A;Report onIndia;Jerusalem;
1966.
• Ben Yaacob, A; The immigration of
Babylonian Jews to India and their
integration there; Jerusalem: Hebrew
University, Phd thesis, 1986.
• The Kenesseth Elyahoo Synagogue
Centenary 18 April 1985;
Kelly, S; Glimpses into the History of the
Dynasty of the Sassoons
Kelly, S; A Narrative of the Historical
Background of the Baghdadi Jewish
Community in India.
• SamueI, S; A summary of the History of the
Bene Israel Community in India.
• Neuman, S; The Jews oflndia - a Study in
Majority-Minorlty relations; New York;
N.Y. University, MA; 1960
Note: About 210 years ago in Baghdad, Iraq, there were two brothers, Heskel Ha Nasi and Ezra Ha Nasi Gabbay (mother's name Rachel of Constantinople). In 1810, Heskel assisted Khaled Effendi, a special envoy of Sultan Mahmood II (1808- 1839) to organise a plot against Suleiman Pasha, the Governor of Baghdad. As a consideration for his assistance, Heskel was appointed as Sarraf Bashl (treasurer) in tstanbul, the capital c ity of the Ottoman Empire. Heskel utilised his influence in the Ottoman Empire and he succeeded to expel Saeed Pasha, Governor of Baghdad (1813-1817). He then appointed Dahoud Pasha as the Governor of Baghdad ( 1817-1831). For 36 years, Sheikh Sasson was the President of the Jewish community and the Sarraf Bashi. He was replaced by Ezra, brother of Heskel, as Sarraf Bashi from 1817-1824. Heskel's grandson, Heskel was editor of the Istanbul Jewish Journal L'Israelite.