External links
- Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli, jewishphotolibrary.smugmug.com
The Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli, is a cemetery in Chinchpokli, Bombay, laid out near the Chinchpokli railway station by Elias David Sassoon in 1878.
Covering two acres, the burial ground now contains more than a thousand graves, and new burials continue to take place. [1]
Elias David Sassoon, a leading Bombay merchant and banker, created the cemetery in January 1878 in memory of his son Joseph, who had died at Shanghai in 1868. [1] It was originally intended for Sephardic Baghdadi Jews. [2]
The cemetery has declined since the days when there was a large community of Jews in Bombay, with numbers falling during the second half of the 20th century from around 7,000 to only a small fraction of that. [3]
Two large mausoleums of very similar design contain the remains of Sir Jacob Sassoon (1844–1916) and his wife, Rachel Sassoon. A third mausoleum is that of Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet (1818–1896), [2] who in the event was buried in England.
The first Miss India, Esther Victoria Abraham (1916–2006), also an actress and film producer, is mentioned on the monument to the Abraham family. [1] There are plaques to the memory of Otto Mass, who was murdered in Buchenwald, and Ernst Mass, who was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. [3]
In 2014, the cemetery was reported to be "overrun with weeds" and still used largely by the small Baghdadi Jewish community, said to number just over a hundred. While some Israelis were also being buried, they were usually ones related to the Baghdadi Jews. [3]
The history of the Jews in India dates back to antiquity. Judaism was one of the first foreign religions to arrive in the Indian subcontinent in recorded history. Desi Jews are a small religious minority who have lived in the region since ancient times. They were able to survive for centuries despite persecution and antisemitic inquisitions.
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.
David Sassoon was the treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the Jewish community in Mumbai after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there.
Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet, was a Baghdad-born businessman and philanthropist.
Chinchpokli is a neighbourhood in South Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Central line of the Mumbai suburban railway. Historical British era spellings include Chinchpugli and Chinchpooghly. The neighbourhood is named after the Marathi words for tamarind (chinch) and betel nut (pofali).
Sir Edward Albert Sassoon, 2nd Baronet was a British businessman and politician.
The Knesset Eliyahoo, also Knesset Eliyahu, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located in downtown Mumbai, India. It is the city's second oldest Sephardic synagogue. It was established in 1884 by Jacob Elias Sassoon, son of Eliyahoo David Sassoon and grandson of David Sassoon; the latter had immigrated from Baghdad to India in 1832 due to persecution and had settled in Mumbai, then known as Bombay. It is maintained by the Jacob Sassoon Trust. The building's significance is attributed to its Jewish traditions as well as Indian and English colonial influences.
There are many synagogues in the Indian subcontinent, although many no longer function as such and today vary in their levels of preservation. These buildings dating from the mid-sixteenth through the mid-20th century once served the country's three distinct Jewish groups—the ancient Cochin Jews, and Bene Israel communities as well as the more recent Baghdadi Jews.
Jews were among the first settlers after Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841. The first Jews arrived in Hong Kong from various parts of the British Empire as merchants and colonial officials. Among the first wave, the Baghdadi Jews stood out especially, including representatives of the influential families of Sassoon and Kadoorie. The construction of the Ohel Leah Synagogue in 1901 marked the beginning of a fully fledged religious life for the city's local Jews.
The Sassoon family, known as "Rothschilds of the East" due to the immense wealth they accumulated in finance and opium trade, are a Baghdadi Jewish family.
Elias David Sassoon, an Indian merchant and banker born in Baghdad, was the second son of David Sassoon, an Iraqi-Indian philanthropist Jewish businessman involved in trade in India and the Far East, with branches at Calcutta, Shanghai, Canton, and Hong Kong; and his business, which included a monopoly of the opium-trade, extended as far as Yokohama, Nagasaki, and other cities in Japan.
Two Sassoon baronetcies were created, in 1890 and 1909 respectively, for members of the Anglo-Indo-Iraqi and Indo-Iraqi branches of the Sassoon family of Baghdadi Jewish descent.
Sir Sassoon Jacob Hai David, 1st Baronet, was an Indian merchant who was a member of the community of Baghdadi Jews who lived in Bombay from the late 19th century into the 20th century. He was a textile mill-owner and merchant who also became Chairman of the Bank of India.
The history of the Jews in Mumbai, India, began when Jews started settling in Bombay during the first century, due to its economic opportunities. The Jewish community of Bombay consisted of the remnants of three distinct communities: the Bene Israeli Jews of Konkan, the Baghdadi Jews of Iraq, and the Cochin Jews of Malabar.
Magen David Synagogue is an Orthodox Sephardi synagogue located in Byculla, 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.
Solomon David Sassoon (1841–1894) was a Baghdadi Jewish Indian businessman and philanthropist.
Sir David Elias Ezra (1871-1947) was a prominent member of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Calcutta, India.
Elias David Joseph Ezra was a property owner in Calcutta, India. He was a member of the Baghdadi Jewish community of that city.
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.
