Jews in India - Revision history

Jyoti: /* Maharashtra's Jews, Minority status for */

2025-07-22T13:38:49Z

‎Maharashtra's Jews, Minority status for

Pdewan: /* See also */

2024-08-13T20:45:02Z

‎See also

Pdewan: /* See also */

2024-08-13T20:43:25Z

‎See also

Pdewan: /* See also */

2018-11-11T12:46:45Z

‎See also

Pdewan: /* Delhi: Judah Hyam Synagogue */

2017-07-31T07:06:52Z

‎Delhi: Judah Hyam Synagogue

Pdewan at 07:05, 31 July 2017

2017-07-31T07:05:23Z

Pdewan: /* Minority status for Maharashtra's Jews */

2017-03-18T15:14:36Z

‎Minority status for Maharashtra's Jews

Pdewan: /* West Bengal */

2017-03-18T15:13:54Z

‎West Bengal

Jyoti: /* Maharashtra */

2016-07-03T21:56:57Z

‎Maharashtra

Jyoti: /* West Bengal */

2016-06-15T07:37:06Z

‎West Bengal

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 The application for minority status was fuelled by a recommendation made by Maharashtra governor and BJP leader C.V. Rao in November 2014. Six months later, the ministry of minority affairs informed the community that the census showed no sign of a Jewish population in the country. "But that was easy to explain. After all, when people from the census department come to our houses they have no idea who Jews are. Rather than try and explain, we agree to being put down in the list as Christians," says Sopher.
-==Maharashtra's Jews, Minority status for ==
+==Maharashtra's Jews, Minority status for==
 [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Q-A-Unlike-China-Indias-Jews-survived-Indian-01072016022037 The Times of India], Jul 01 2016
 Navras Jaat Aafreedi teaches history at Presidency University, Kolkata, and has written Jews, Judaizing Movements and the Traditions of Israelite Descent in South Asia. Speaking with Eram Agha, Aafreedi discussed `minority' status for Maharashtra's Jews, Jewish amity with Indian Muslims  and `intolerance':
@@ Line 83: / Line 85: @@
 Even the Arab-Israel conflict failed to dent cordial relations of Indian Jews and Muslims.
 ==Tamil Nadu/ Madrasapattinam==

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 [[Jews of Bombay ]]
 [[The Religions of the Indian sub-continent ]]
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 JEWS IN INDIA]]
 [[Category:India|J
 JEWS IN INDIA]]

@@ Line 305: / Line 305: @@
 [[Bnei Menashe ]]
-[[Cochin – The Dutch Portuguese and Jewish Influences ]]
+[[Cochin – The Dutch, Portuguese and Jewish Influences ]]
 [[Jew: South India ]]
@@ Line 313: / Line 313: @@
 [[Jews of Bombay ]]
 [[The Religions of the Indian sub-continent ]]
+[[Category:Communities|J
-[[Category:India|J]]
+JEWS IN INDIA]]
-[[Category:Communities|J]]
+[[Category:India|J

@@ Line 283: / Line 283: @@
 Minority status will mean little to the Galsurkars, not just because they hope to eventually emigrate to Israel, but because they aren't sure how much it will affect everyday challenges for Indian Jews. A day before Passover, there is mayhem at their third-floor home in Byculla, once a hostel for Jewish children making their way to Israel. They are expecting 53 guests, both friends and family, for Passover seder, and the meal must be homemade. The menu includes chicken gravy, potatoes and peas curry, and similar Indian kosher delicacies. A goat too has been slaughtered (according to kosher law) so that a shank bone can be plated as a ritual offering. The Israeli consulate has decided against importing the matzo, special unleavened bread, for the community this year. But they have managed to stock up on the Baghdadi-style matzo made at the makeshift tent behind the Magen David synagogue nearby. Meanwhile, the house has been undergoing a spring cleaning of sorts all day long.
 =See also=
-[[Bnei Menashe ]]  <>
+[[Jews in India]]
-[[Cochin – The Dutch Portuguese and Jewish Influences ]] <>
-[[Jew: South India ]] <>
+[[Jewish customs and laws: India]]
-[[Jewish beauty queens of India ]] <>
-[[Jews of Bombay ]] <>
+[[Bnei Menashe ]]
 [[The Religions of the Indian sub-continent ]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:06, 31 July 2017
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	[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Little-Israel-in-Delhi-keeps-culture-alive-03072017003044 Ambika Pandit\|Little Israel in Delhi Keeps culture alive\| Jul 03 2017 : The Times of India (Delhi)]		[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Little-Israel-in-Delhi-keeps-culture-alive-03072017003044 Ambika Pandit\|Little Israel in Delhi Keeps culture alive\| Jul 03 2017 : The Times of India (Delhi)]
		+
	Little Israel in Delhi keeps culture alive		Little Israel in Delhi keeps culture alive

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:05, 31 July 2017
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	Parsis and Jews. The Armenians who had built the grand mansions. The shady mystique of China Town. And most of all the partying Anglo-Indians; as ‘Uncle Puri’ of Trinca’s would later say, “The day they went ‘back home’ was the day the city’s music died.” Each ‘minuscularity’ proudly serviced its cultural identity without battening down the hatches of a ghetto. Each worked in its unique threads to create a cloth of many colours – till varying developments frayed that tapestry.		Parsis and Jews. The Armenians who had built the grand mansions. The shady mystique of China Town. And most of all the partying Anglo-Indians; as ‘Uncle Puri’ of Trinca’s would later say, “The day they went ‘back home’ was the day the city’s music died.” Each ‘minuscularity’ proudly serviced its cultural identity without battening down the hatches of a ghetto. Each worked in its unique threads to create a cloth of many colours – till varying developments frayed that tapestry.
		+	==Delhi: Judah Hyam Synagogue==
		+
		+	[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Little-Israel-in-Delhi-keeps-culture-alive-03072017003044 Ambika Pandit\|Little Israel in Delhi Keeps culture alive\| Jul 03 2017 : The Times of India (Delhi)]
		+	Little Israel in Delhi keeps culture alive
		+
		+	New Delhi:
		+
		+	Every Friday evening, Judah Hyam Synagogue on Humayun Road, near Khan Market, sees a small congregation come together for the Shabbat services. Apart from the few Jewish families in Delhi, diplomats from Israel and other countries and even nonJewish people gather for the weekly prayer. This is followed by families returning home to a feast to celebrate and the next day is observed as a “rest day“.
		+	Ahead of PM Narendra Modi's Isreal tour on July 4--he will be the first Indian prime minister to visit the country--the lone synagogue in Delhi is a beautiful reminder of how a handful of Jewish families have held on to their roots. Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, its honorary secretary , is an example of this.
		+
		+	When TOI visited the synagogue, there were a handful of people there with beautiful chandeliers adding to the moment of faith and unity . The Shabbat (the day of rest after God created heaven and earth) service begins at 7pm.Through this, a small community--there are just seven to eight Jew families in the city-is trying to keep its culture alive. Some have stories that go back, as far as, four generations. The 2001 Census put the number of Jews living in Delhi at 23. In the rows of chairs lined around the prayer podium, there was a lawyer from Israel who was on her first visit to India for a conference but took time out to attend the Shabbat services.
		+
		+	A Russian and a Christian couple also turned up for this holy occasion. All were rea ding the same scriptures and reciting the hymns. Two young doctors from a Delhi hospital too were part of the prayers. In 2007, the synagogue welcomed more than 12,000 visitors for worship or tours from all around the world.
		+
		+	Malekar, a prominent member of the community, was born in Pune but moved to Delhi in 1980. His own story reflects the history of Jews in India. He cites his last name `Malekar' to point out that when Jews arrived in India, they were largely located on the coastal hamlets in Maharashtra. Their surnames still bear the names of villages. “My family surname, Malekar, comes from a village called, Male,“ he said.
		+
		+	Malekar has been to Israel but he has never felt like moving out of India. “To put it simply , Israel is in my heart but India is in my blood,“ Malekar added. His son is a musician, who stays with him in Delhi and his daughter now lives in Australia. The synagogue is the common meeting ground for Jews and others interested in Judaism. It houses an inter-faith study centre, which draws people from different religious backgrounds, making it a place of cultural assimilation. The synagogue has seen Jews marrying into other religious communities as well. Hebrew classes are also conducted here.
		+
		+	On the issue of minority status for Jews in India, Male status for Jews in India, Malekar said, “The Centre, we hope, will consider giving minority status to Jews across the country . It will not only enable our children to get certain benefits, but also reinforce our identity in the country where we have lived in peace and harmony .“ Hannah Judah (39), a teacher, now lives in Mumbai.Recalling her days in Delhi in 2010-2012, she said, “Since the community is really small, Shabbat is our way to stay in touch with our roots. In Delhi, we used to go for a meal at Maharahstra Bhawan to mark the feast. Now, we have WhatsApp to stay connected.“

	=Presence of Jewish diaspora in Israel=		=Presence of Jewish diaspora in Israel=

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:13, 18 March 2017
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	Even the Arab-Israel conflict failed to dent cordial relations of Indian Jews and Muslims.		Even the Arab-Israel conflict failed to dent cordial relations of Indian Jews and Muslims.
		+
		+	==Tamil Nadu/ Madrasapattinam==
		+	[http://esefarad.com/?p=10147 Mordechai Arbell \| THE PORTUGUESE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF MADRAS, INDIA, IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY \| APRIL 11, 2010 \| Esefarad.com]
		+	[[File: Synagogue property Chennai.jpg\| This picture accompanies Mr Arbell’s article. The inscription belonged to the Synagogue in Kochangadi in Cochin/ Kochi. Was it shifted to Chennai or is the picture only illustrative. \|frame\|500px]]
		+
		+	''' THE PORTUGUESE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF MADRAS, INDIA, IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY '''
		+
		+	Mordechai Arbell
		+
		+
		+	The famous Sephardi poet Daniel Levy de Barrios wrote, along with other types of poems, some with historical and geographical meaning. His information was usually most precise and drawing upon him we may receive a panorama of Sephardi life in the seventeenth century. In 1688 he wrote a poem in Amsterdam:
		+
		+	Ya en seis ciudades anglas se publica:
		+
		+	Luz de seis juntas de Israel sagrada.
		+
		+	Tres en Nieves, London, Jamaica,
		+
		+	Quarta y quintana en dos partes de Barbados
		+
		+	Sexta en Madras–Patan se verfica.
		+
		+	In free translation this means: There are in six English cities, six holy Jewish communities — three in Nieves, London, and Jamaica; the fourth and fifth in two parts of Barbados, and the sixth in Madras-Patan. (Indpaedia: Much of Chennai was once called Madrasapattinam.)
		+
		+	This information is quite exact. From 1655 Jews had lived in Port Royal, Jamaica; there was also a Jewish community on the island of Nevis, called Nieves in Spanish. London in 1688 had a small Jewish community. There were two Jewish communities in Barbados — Bridgetown and Speighstown. Another one was in the Indian city of Madras, though not much is known about that community. We are better informed about Jews in other places in India.
		+
		+	Goa, 400 km south of Bombay, a Portuguese colony from 1510 until 1961, did have a presence of Christianized Jews called «New Christians.» We known of the Inquisition trials there against the physician Jeronimo Diaz, burned at the stake in 1560, and against the great scientist Gracia da Orta, condemned by the Inquisition after his death, his remains exhumed, burned, and his ashes thrown into the river (1580).
		+
		+	Cochin and the Malabar Coast had an ancient Jewish community composed of Jews from Persia and Palestine-Syria who were joined in the sixteenth century by Jews from Spain and Portugal. This community prospered under Dutch rule, 1663– 1795, and the benevolent attitude of the local rajas. We know about them in detail from the report by a leader of the Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish community, Moses Pereira de Paiva, who visited Cochin and produced his famous document, «Noticias dos Judeos de Cochin,» in which he also tells about the leading Sephardi families Castiel and Halegua. Jews also had a flourishing trade in Surat, a port north of Bombay, which in the seventeenth century was the main trading center between Europe and Asia. Jews could not settle there until the end of the century, when Pedro Pereira from Amsterdam did do so with a group of Portuguese Jews.
		+
		+	The English East India Company, looking for commercial opportunities in India and the Far East, wanted to break the monopoly held by Portugal in trading with precious stones to and from the Indian subcontinent. Therefore the company decided to build a fort in south India in 1639 which they named Fort St. George; the city of Madras grew up around it. This was the first settlement of the East India Company. The company’s policy was that trading was permitted only to its shareholders or to those who had been given special trading rights.
		+
		+	Those who traded on their own were considered interlopers and met opposition to their doing so. The Jewish traders on the coasts of India were interlopers in the main. With time, their trading acumen, their specialization in diamonds and precious stones, and their relations with the local rulers were seen as beneficial to St. George, and they were gradually accepted as honorable citizens of St. George/Madras.
		+
		+	Jews from Leghorn and the Caribbean exported coral to India together with precious textiles and European ornaments. From India the Jews exported diamonds, precious or semi-precious stones, such as rubies, emeralds, opals, topazes, and pearls.
		+
		+	One of the first Jews who came to Madras with special permission to reside and trade there was Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia), originally from Amsterdam. Through his good relations with the rulers, he acquired mines in the kingdom of Gloconda, neighboring Madras. At the same time he managed to convince the English authorities to permit Jews to settle in Madras, and he was the one who organized the Jews into the semblance of a community. On a plot of land in the suburbs he established a Jewish cemetery. During one of his trips to the mines he owned, he fell ill and died in Madras and was buried in its Jewish cemetery. On his tombstone we find that he died «in the month of Tishri 5548–1687.»
		+
		+	Incidentally, his wife, also a Portuguese Jewess, fell in love with the English governor of Madras, Elihu Yale, and went to live with him, causing quite a scandal within Madras’ colonial society. Governor Yale later achieved fame when he gave a large donation to the University of New Haven in Connecticut, which was then named after him — the Yale University. Hieromima de Paiva and the son she had with him died in South Africa.
		+
		+	As far as the mention of mining in Gloconda, two other Jews — Salvador Rodrigues and Antonio do Porto — after being refused to trade in Madras as interlopers, started mining projects in Gloconda. Their excellent relations with the local rulers were so beneficial to the Madras authorities that these gentlemen became widely respected in the city.
		+
		+	Gradually, the attitude towards Jewish traders became more positive. The Amsterdam and London Portuguese Jews who began to settle in Madras were joined by Sephardim coming from Leghorn and the Caribbean islands. Thus the community formed an official body, «Colony of Jewish Traders,» in 1687, whose board included Jaime de Paiva, Pedro Pereira, Antonio do Porto, and Fernando Mendes Henriques. The number of Jews residing in Madras cannot be verified, though their number in the municipality demonstrates their importance.
		+
		+	On 29 September 1688, Governor Elihu Yale founded the Municipality of Madras, composed of a mayor, 12 alderman appointed for life, and a council of 60 citizens. The mayor was elected by the alderman who consisted of three Company employees, one Frenchman, three Jews, two Portuguese, and two local citizens. This shows the proportional weight of Jewish representation.
		+
		+	The first three Jewish alderman were Bartolomeo Rodrigues, Domingo do Porto, and Alvaro da Fonseca who had arrived form Covalao, India, where they supposedly lived as Portuguese. Upon arrival in Madras, they became openly Jewish. At first they were regarded as interlopers, but over the years they came to own the largest trading company in Madras; it dealt with precious stones, coral, amber, sandalwood and its range was all of India and Burma, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines.
		+
		+	Bartolomeo Rodrigues, known also as Jacob de Sequeira was president of the company. An English Jew, he became one of the most prominent citizens of Madras. After his death in 1692, he was replaced by his partner, Alvaro da Fonseca, known also as Jacob Jesurun Alvares. (Some of the Portuguese Jews in Madras used their Portuguese names on their visits to Goa and Saint Tomé that were in Portuguese hands and when the Inquisition was active, and their Jewish names in Madras. Alvaro da Fonseca came from the English Caribbean island of Nevis. Under his management the company became even larger and owned its own ships for transport from Madras to Europe.
		+
		+	The East India Company used Portuguese Jews, based in Madras, in its diplomatic efforts to expand English trading. The most prominent of these Jewish diplomats was Avraham Navarro. He started his career as an interpreter and linguist and took part in a special mission to China that tried to convince the Chinese emperor to open the port of Amoy to international trade. The mission failed and Navarro became a company employee in Madras. When the Mogul Empire became aggressive toward the English traders, Navarro was sent on a mission to the Mogul ruler Aurangzeb, and in very complex negotiations with the emperor himself obtained permission (firman) for the English trade. He died in 1692.
		+
		+	The Jewish trading houses grew larger and continually expanded their international aspect. The trade in precious stones and gems became a science. The greatest specialist in the science of diamond polishing, in stone cutting, and in gem appreciation was Isaac Sardo Abendana (1662–1709). Originally from Holland, an observant Jews who knew Hebrew, he became scientific advisor to most trading companies in Madras and a personal friend of the governor, William Pitt. Curiously enough in his testament, Pitt stipulates that if his widow was to remarry it should be only in a city where there is a synagogue. Madras had no synagogue. His widow married a German Lutheran.
		+
		+	The big Jewish companies in Madras began slowly to move to London, leaving only a family member in Madras. The large trading house of de Castro, founded by Samuel de Castro, moved from Curacao to Madras and then gradually to London, where the company prospered. Another sizable trading house was that of Salomon Franco of Leghorn, who after flourishing in Madras moved the trading house to London. The largest trader in Madras, Alvaro da Fonseca, moved when very prosperous to London where he became one of the specialists in diamond appraisal.
		+
		+	By the mid-eighteenth century there were almost no Portuguese Jews in Madras. The gravestones of the old Jewish cemetery were moved to the Central Park of Madras in 1934 with the gate of the cemetery on which is written Beit ha-Haim in Hebrew letters, the last vestige of Jewish presence in Madras in the seventeenth century.
		+
		+	Fuente: Los Muestros Nº 41

	==West Bengal==		==West Bengal==

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 Marrying within the community may no longer be top priority, but it remains an important principle for many Indian Jews. "Of course, I would like to marry a Jewish girl,"says Jhirad. "I see it as a responsibility. How else will we continue the tradition in its purest form? Marrying someone from your religion and faith is not about racism or exclusion, it's about continuing a legacy."
 The application for minority status was fuelled by a recommendation made by Maharashtra governor and BJP leader C.V. Rao in November 2014. Six months later, the ministry of minority affairs informed the community that the census showed no sign of a Jewish population in the country. "But that was easy to explain. After all, when people from the census department come to our houses they have no idea who Jews are. Rather than try and explain, we agree to being put down in the list as Christians," says Sopher.
 ==West Bengal==

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 The application for minority status was fuelled by a recommendation made by Maharashtra governor and BJP leader C.V. Rao in November 2014. Six months later, the ministry of minority affairs informed the community that the census showed no sign of a Jewish population in the country. "But that was easy to explain. After all, when people from the census department come to our houses they have no idea who Jews are. Rather than try and explain, we agree to being put down in the list as Christians," says Sopher.
-=West Bengal=
+==West Bengal==
-==Kolkata==
+===Kolkata===
 By Moni Basu, CNN, March 29, 2010 </div>
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 Diehard Flury’s customers, those who were not  frequenters of New Market,  too bowed to the torah of Nahoum’s, going there to personally pick a skein of ‘chotli paneer’, the seasonal plaited cheese. Or ask David or his brother Solomon when they were next making ‘aloo makkala’ – the signature chicken dish with crisp-fried little potatoes; we called them savoury rosogollas since they dripped oil when you sunk your teeth into their golden crust.
 Parsis and Jews. The Armenians who had built the grand mansions. The shady mystique of China Town. And most of all the partying Anglo-Indians; as ‘Uncle Puri’ of Trinca’s would later say, “The day they went ‘back home’ was the day the city’s music died.” Each ‘minuscularity’ proudly serviced its cultural identity without battening down the hatches of a ghetto. Each worked in its unique threads to create a cloth of many colours – till varying developments frayed that tapestry.
-−
 =Presence of Jewish diaspora in Israel=