Knesset Eliyahoo בית הכנסת אליהו | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
Rite | Sephardic |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Active |
Location | |
Location | Kala Ghoda, Mumbai |
State | Maharashtra |
Country | India |
Geographic coordinates | 18°55′41″N72°49′57″E / 18.928114952632427°N 72.83257376854603°E |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Gostling & Morris |
Completed | 1884 |
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; [1] 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.
It was designed by the British architectural firm Gostling & Morris of Bombay. [2] The basement part of the edifice is built in stone masonry and the superstructure is built in brick masonry. The exterior facade of the synagogue is painted turquoise. The sanctuary within the interior of the building is in western direction, towards Jerusalem.
Knesset Eliyahoo, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, the second oldest Sephardic, is located in Colaba at 55, Dr. V.B. Gandhi Marg, Fort, Mumbai. The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and Oberoi Trident are nearby. [3] [4]
Prior to the arrival of Baghdadi Jews in India, the Jews residing in Bombay — the name then used for Mumbai — had settled in the towns of India, living peacefully with other communities in India. [5] [6] Harry D. Wall, in an interview to the New York Times, has said that among the Jews who now remain in Mumbai are a group of Jews known as Bene Jews or Bene Israel who were reportedly descendants of seven tribes of Israel who, in the 2nd century BC, were shipwrecked on India's Konkan coast while escaping persecution in the Galilee. [5] [7] They found that living in India, amidst a cosmopolitan community consisting of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and, much later, Muslims, was a very cordial environment, totally free of anti-Semitic feelings. [5] [6]
The Jewish merchant community, which played a significant role in the commercial development of then Bombay (now Mumbai), consisted of Jews from Iraq, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries who immigrated in the late 18th century under the threat of persecution. They found the environment conducive to continuing their trade and settled in the city, becoming prosperous in business ventures such as textile mills and international trading. [5] [6] In 1784, the British government took over the East India Company. With this change, many business opportunities emerged in India, and Bombay in particular, encouraging immigrants to set up businesses. In 1790, one such business magnate was Shalom ben Ovadiah HaCohen, a Baghdadi Jew who had migrated from Aleppo (Halab), in Syria to Bombay; other Jewish businessmen from Baghdad, Basra, and Yemen followed him. [8]
In 1832, David Sassoon immigrated to Bombay and established himself as a magistrate of the cotton industry. He built the Magen David Synagogue in Byculla. Mumbai in 1864; this was in addition to the older Magen Hasidim synagogue. His son, Albert Sassoon, transformed the weaving industry in Bombay. [7] [8] To cater to the increasing need of the Baghdadi Jews, Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue was constructed on a premium piece of land in the hub of Bombay's commercial area by Jacob Sassoon, grandson of David Sassoon, commemorating his father, Eliyahoo Sassoon. It was established in 1884. [6] [9]
More Jews came from Bukhara, Persia, and, following the Farhud pogrom in Iraq in 1941, many more immigrants shifted to Bombay. They all used to assemble in the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue in large numbers during festival days and on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. On many such occasions, in view of the large crowd of devotees, overflow prayer services were held in the neighbouring Cawasjee Jehangir Public Hall. [9]
In 1985, President Giani Zail Singh visited the site to honour the centennial of the synagogue's construction. India Post issued a commemorative stamp in honour of the centennial. [10]
The first-ever terrorist attack on Jews in Mumbai occurred on 26 November 2008. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who had conducted Sabbath services on the previous day and also held religious discourses at the Knesset Eliyahoo, was killed, along with his wife and a few other Jews at the Nariman House, a community center operated by Chabad. This sowed fear among the Jewish community members residing in Mumbai, and also forged a closer bond between the city's Baghdadi and Bene Israel Jews. [6]
Designed by the British architectural firm Gostling & Morris of Bombay, [3] the building's base is of stone masonry while the superstructure is of brick masonry. [9] The external frontage of the synagogue is painted turquoise, and the synagogue is popularly known as the Blue Synagogue of Mumbai. [6] The synagogue was not originally blue. The synagogue was returned to its original colour of white, with bright indigo boarders during a restoration process in 2018 - 19 carried out by conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah. [1] [11]
The inner space contains ornamented pillars, and the sanctuary faces west towards Jerusalem. The bimah (reader's platform) is bordered on both sides by ornately carved marble, over which is placed a tall, stained-glass arch that reaches the ceiling. Women worshippers sit in an upstairs gallery. The synagogue contains a number of Torah scrolls, along with silver-cased sefarim (religious books) belonging to the Sassoon family. On the ground floor, there are meeting and school rooms, and a mikveh (immersion pool). [9] The staircase, windows, timber balconies, ceiling, walls, and roof are in need of restoration. [3]
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.
Byculla is an area of South Mumbai.
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. The 2,000-year history of Indian Jews was marked by a total absence of antisemitism from the Hindu majority and a visible assimilation in the local languages and cultures.
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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.
Solomon F. Sopher is the president of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Mumbai, India. He also serves as the Trustee of the David Sassoon Fund, and as the chairman and managing director of Sir Jacob Sassoon Trust, which manages the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogues in Mumbai, as well as the Magen David and the Ohel David synagogues at Pune, India.
There are many synagogues in India, 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 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 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.
Eliza Ezra Ezekiel Sassoon High School, Mumbai, India. It is an English medium school recognised by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Mumbai Division.
Ohel David Synagogue, also called Laal Deval or Laal Deul is a synagogue in Pune, 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.
Elias David Joseph Ezra was a property owner in Calcutta, India. He was a member of the Baghdadi Jewish community of that city.
Ezekiel Judah, or Yehezkel Yehuda or Yahuda or Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sliman was a Jewish communal leader, indigo, muslin and silk trader, philanthropist and talmudist of Baghdad, who migrated to India, leading the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata in his lifetime and establishing the city's first synagogues.
The Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli, is a cemetery in Chinchpokli, Bombay, laid out near the Chinchpokli railway station by Elias David Sassoon in 1878.