David Jacob Cohen OBE (died 9 February 1959) was an Indian politician and a leading figure of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Calcutta. [1] [2] He served as honorary secretary of the Beth-El Synagogue. [3] Cohen, then serving as vice president of the Calcutta Jewish Association, was to the Bengal Legislative Council from the Calcutta South Central non-Mohammedan constituency in 1921. [2] [4] Being elected to the Legislative Council was the highest political office obtained by a Calcutta Jew. [5] He was defeated in the 1923 election, but was nominated by the Governor to remain in the Council in 1923 and 1926. [2]
Cohen was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1941. [6]
Cohen died on 9 February 1959 at the age of 75. [1]
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews".
The Bene Israel, also referred to as the "Shanivar Teli" or "Native Jew" caste, are a community of Jews in India. It has been suggested that they are the descendants of one of the Ten Lost Tribes via their ancestors who had settled there centuries ago. In the 19th century, after they were taught about normative Judaism, they migrated from villages in the Konkan region to nearby cities throughout British India—primarily to Mumbai, but also to Pune, Ahmedabad, and Karachi, where they gained prominent positions within the British colonial government and the Indian Army.
Cochin Jews are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots that are claimed to date back to the time of King Solomon. The Cochin Jews settled in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now part of the state of Kerala. As early as the 12th century, mention is made of the Jews in southern India by Benjamin of Tudela. They are known to have developed Judeo-Malayalam, a dialect of Malayalam language.
The history of the Jews in India dates back to antiquity. Judaism was one of the first foreign religions to arrive in India in recorded history. Indian Jews are a small religious minority who have lived in India since ancient times. They have experienced very sparse instances of anti-Semitism from the local non-Jewish majority.
The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet, was a Baghdad-born businessman and philanthropist.
Jamal al-Husayni (1894-1982), was born in Jerusalem and was a member of the highly influential and respected Husayni family.
Kolkata, India, is largely inhabited by the ethnic community of the native Bengali Hindu respectively. According to a report by the Indian Statistical Institute owned by the Government of India, the Kolkata city had a population of 4.5 million as of 2011 out of which the population of Bengalis in Kolkata is almost 62% which comprised the majority of the city's population, whereas ethnic groups like Marwaris, Biharis and Urdu-speaking Muslims together forming 36% of the population which comes under the category of large minorities. Other Various micro-minority communities of Kolkata include as far as concerned follows -: Sindhi people, Pathan people, Marathi people, Odia people, Gujarati people, Kashmiri people, Punjabi people, Nepalis, Telugus, Tamil, Anglo-Indian, Iraqis, Jewish, Armenian, Tibetan, Greek, Parsi, Chinese, and Iraqi people.
The history of the Jews in Pakistan dates at least as far back as 1839, when Pakistan was a part of British India. Various estimates suggest that there were about 1,000 to 2,500 Jews living in Karachi at the beginning of the 20th century, mostly comprising Iranian Jews and Bene Israel ; a substantial Jewish community lived in Rawalpindi, and a smaller community also lived in Peshawar.
Indian Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Indian Jewish communities, who now reside within the State of Israel. Indian Jews who live in Israel include thousands of Cochin Jews and Paradesi Jews of Kerala; tens of thousands from the Bene Israel of Maharashtra and other parts of British India and the Bene Menashe of Manipur and Mizoram.
The Gate of Mercy Synagogue, Hebrew: שער הרחמים) (also known as Shaar Harahamim and Juni Masjid is the oldest synagogue in Mumbai, India. The synagogue was built in 1796 by Samaji Hasaji Divekar, a Bene Israeli, near CSMT in South Mumbai. The synagogue was later rebuilt and moved to the present location at Mandvi in 1860. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the area was inhabited by a small but thriving Jewish community.
The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometimes called the Indian Legislative Assembly and the Imperial Legislative Assembly. The Council of State was the upper house of the legislature for India.
The Deccan Times is an english news portal based In India.
The Free Press Journal is an Indian English-language daily newspaper that was established in 1928 by Swaminathan Sadanand, who also acted as its first editor. First produced to complement a news agency, the Free Press of India, it was a supporter of the Independence movement. It is published in Mumbai, India.
The history of the Jews in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in India, began in the late eighteenth century when adventurous Baghdadi Jewish merchants originally from Aleppo and Baghdad chose to establish themselves permanently in the emerging capital of the British Raj. The community they founded became the hub of the Judeo-Arabic-speaking Baghdadi Jewish trading diaspora in Asia.
Flora Sassoon was a Jewish Indian businesswoman, scholar, Hebraist and philanthropist.
Sir David Elias Ezra (1871-1947) was a prominent member of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Calcutta, India.
Huzurpaga is the oldest Indian run girls' high school in India.
The history of the Jews in Bangladesh refers to the history of a tiny Jewish community in Bangladesh, previously known as East Pakistan. Jewish history in the country can be traced to the 18th and 19th centuries. The Jews of British India and Pakistan had a small community in what is now Bangladesh, particularly in the city of Dhaka. Jewish residents were also reported in Rajshahi. The Jews of Bangladesh are reported to have been Baghdadi Jews and the Bene Israel. Most of these Jews emigrated by the 1960s. Now, only a few Jewish families live in Bangladesh very quietly due to government policy towards Israel.
Rachel Sassoon Ezra, known as Lady Ezra, was an Indian philanthropist and community leader, a member of the Sassoon family, and wife of banker David Elias Ezra.