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As an indigenous[ citation needed ] West Asian people, Jews have been present in western Asia since the beginning of their history. Some examples of ancient Jewish communities in the Mediterranean and Caucasus are: Iran (Persian Jews) and Iraq (Iraqi Jews); the Georgian Jews and Mountain Jews of the Caucasus.
Through the centuries, they also established Jewish communities in eastern parts of Asia. There are Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. Some Jews migrated to India, establishing the Bene Israel, the Baghdadi Jews and the Cochin Jews of India (Jews in India); and the former Jewish community in Kaifeng, China.
Here is a partial list of some prominent Asian Jews, arranged by country. Note that those regions of Asia where Arabic or Russian or Turkish predominate are excluded from this list (except for the Baghdadi Jews from India and Southeast Asia); see Middle Eastern Jews, Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardi Jews for information on these populations.
A small community of Jews lived mainly in Herat, Afghanistan and Kabul, but they emigrated to Israel, Europe and the United States. In September 2021, the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, Zablon Simintov, fled Afghanistan 's capital Kabul in response to the Taliban takeover several weeks prior.
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.
Bukharan Jews, in modern times also called Bukharian Jews, are an ethnoreligious Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that historically spoke Bukharian, a Judeo-Tajik dialect of the Tajik language, in turn a variety of the Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara, which once had a sizable Jewish population. Bukharan Jews comprise Persian-speaking Jewry along with the Jews of Iran, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus Mountains. Bukharan Jews are Mizrahi Jews, like Persian, Afghan and Mountain Jews.
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.
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.
Ashkenazi is a surname of Jewish origin. The term Ashkenaz refers to the area along the Rhine in Western Europe where diaspora Jews settled and formed communities during the Middle Ages.
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.
Sir Eleazer "Elly" Silas Kadoorie was a Baghdadi-born Jewish businessman and philanthropist active in Shanghai and Hong Kong. He was a member of the wealthy Kadoorie family that had large business interests in the Far East.
Jews have a long history in Singapore, dating back to the 19th century, and are currently a significant minority population in the country.
Judaism is a minority religion in Australia. 99,956 Australians identified as Jewish in the 2021 census, which accounts for about 0.4% of the population. This is a 9.8% increase in numbers from the 2016 census.
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; thousands of Baghdadi Jews from Mumbai and Kolkata; tens of thousands from the Bene Israel of Maharashtra and other parts of British India and the Bnei Menashe of Manipur and Mizoram.
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.
The history of the Jews in Japan is well documented in modern times, with various traditions relating to much earlier eras.
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.
David Solomon Sassoon, was a bibliophile and grandson of 19th century Baghdadi Jewish community leader David Sassoon.
Ezekiel Judah or Yehezkel Yehuda or Yahuda or Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sliman was a Jewish communal leader, trader of indigo, muslin, and silk, philanthropist, and talmudist of Baghdad. He migrated to India, leading the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata in his lifetime and establishing the city's first synagogues.