Jael Silliman

Therein Lies A Tale: The Synagogues of the Baghdadi Jews of Calcutta

ABOUT

Introducing the Five Synagogues of Calcutta:

Today there are less than twenty or so Jews left in Calcutta but there are still three impressive synagogues – the Neveh Shalome, the Beth El and the Maghen David. They are clustered rather close together in what was once central Calcutta, home to many communities who migrated to the colonial City between the 18th and early 20th centuries to seek their fortunes. The Jews were active in all spheres of its social, political, economic and cultural life. These synagogues have garnered significant national and international attention for the beauty and grandeur of their architecture, and are increasingly on the tourist map as they are all well maintained and renovated with Jewish Trust funds. The most majestic and ornate of the three synagogues is the Maghen David, built by the wealthy Ezra family – the city’s merchant princes. It is considered to be Asia’s largest and most imposing synagogue. The Baghdadi Ohel David synagogue in Poona, built by David Sassoon also lays claims to this distinction.

The synagogues have been a revelation for international media; for generations they have been served by Muslim caretakers. In today’s increasingly polarized world where Jews and Muslims are all too often positioned as oppositional categories, this close relationship seems anomalous. However, Calcutta’s Baghdadi Jews – so called because they followed the liturgy of Baghdad – came from various countries of the Middle East and were familiar with both the Islamic faith and its customs, and this made their choice of Muslims as caretakers a straight-forward matter. The two communities shared much in common; both, for instance are “People of the Book”, have some similar dietary traditions (Halal/ritual slaughter), and prohibit idolatry.

These Muslim caretakers have served the synagogues well while maintaining their own faith. Visitors today are encouraged not to visit on Friday afternoons as that is the time when the staff observe their “Namaaz” (prayer). It is this mutual respect for, and acceptance of one another’s faith and traditions, that made Calcutta a city where a multiplicity of religions could flourish cheek by jowl. Jews, like many other traders who made the city their home in the colonial period (18th to mid-20th century), were free to worship as they chose in a city that accommodated their diverse needs. For example, as Jews did not carry money on Sabbath, they were able to ride trams using a token.

In addition to Calcutta’s three existing synagogues there was the Maghen Aboth synagogue, also known as the Beth Knesset; it was located on Blackburn Lane, not far from the other three synagogues. The Magen Aboth was led by Hacham Twena, the most learned scholar from the Calcutta community. Born in Baghdad in 1885 and trained in the yeshiva Beth Zilka headed by Rabbi Abdullah Somekh, Twena was sent to Bombay to serve as a Rabbi. He then moved to Calcutta. He was first employed to teach Talmud and sold religious articles and performed the ritual slaughter of poultry and conducted services at the Neveh Shalome and the Maghen David. He then established the Maghen Aboth where he administered primarily to the poor in the community. Though the Baghdadi Jews were known for their wealth, half of the community’s members were poor and relied on Jewish charities. As many members of the community in the late nineteenth century still spoke in Arabic, Twena preached in Arabic and ran a printing press to publish his prolific writings in Arabic and Hebrew.

In 1934, as the community was still flourishing and expanding, a prayer hall, the Shaare Rasone was rented in Sudder Street, then a residential area where many Jews had started to live since the turn of the century. Members of the Jewish community had first lived, worked and prayed in what was known as the “grey area” of the city where the 4 synagogues are located, along with other members of such minority communities as the Armenians, Parsees, and Chinese. As the Baghdadi Jews became more Anglicized in their ways, they moved to the South central part of the colonial city home to many of its Europeans and Anglo Indians. The Shaare Rasone, more conveniently located relative to where Calcutta’s Jews were residing in the 1930’s was very popular, especially for daily and Sabbath services. Though Anglicized, they remained very observant and would not drive on Sabbath.

While the Jews of made the city their home, they also supported Jewish charities and religious institutions in the Holy Land, especially the four cities with sacred historic associations for which charity boxes were set up in the synagogues The community also entertained Shaliachs, most of them Ashkenazi, who sought support. Bogus Shaliachs became a bone of contention across the Baghdadi diaspora whose members also felt burdened by the constant stream of Palestinian visitors seeking monetary support.

The most notable, and least recorded donation in the accounts of Calcutta Jewish history is that of Yosef Abraham Shalom of Calcutta (1833-1911) who built the first hospital in Jerusalem in 1900 and the Beit Hadas in Hebron in1909. His family built a major yeshiva in Jerusalem (until today!) – Porat Josef – next to the Kotel (on the steps coming down from the Jewish quarter to the Kotel), which bears his name. The family originally bought the site overlooking the Temple Mount with the intention of building a hospital. Ben ish Chai of Baghdad, whose guidance was sought, thought a Yeshiva should be endowed instead. The cornerstone for Porat Yosef was laid in 1914. Construction was delayed, however, because World War I; the yeshiva was finally inaugurated in 1923.Yosef Shalome lies buried in the large Jewish cemetery in Narkeldanga, that used to be on the outskirts of the city but is now very much part of the sprawling metropolis.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the synagogues were the dominant cohesive force and served as places for religious worship as well as social gatherings and community meetings. It was at the synagogue that important events in the lives of its members was announced, among them weddings, bar mitzvahs, and maftirs. Registries of marriages and circumcisions were also maintained by several of the hazans and kept in the respective synagogues. Synagogue politics, family rivalries, disputes over property, management and the naming of synagogues were commonplace. The synagogues management structures and investments demonstrated high levels of community organization, business acumen, philanthropy and knowledge of and outreach to Jews from other parts of the world who were always welcomed at the synagogue and given refuge by Jewish community members in times of need.

The Synagogues:

Neveh Shalome:

When the first Jewish settlers came to Calcutta from Syria in the 1790s, they sought a place to pray and rented a hall from an Armenian. Observant as they were they soon purchased a large house which became the Neveh Shalome. Dwek Cohen, the son-in-law of Shalome Cohen, the founder of the community, raised money through donations to pay for the synagogue. In 1826 the congregation gathered at the house and dedicated it as a place of worship. In 1837 there were 307 Jews in Calcutta. Dwek Cohen introduced the system of auctioning privileges and religious services to augment the income from individual donations. In keeping with Middle Eastern tradition all the synagogues maintained a ladies section. In the 3 large synagogues the women would sit upstairs, in the prayer halls they were separated from the men by a partition.

The Neveh Shalome was demolished in 1884 to make way for the magnificent Maghen David Synagogue that was built on the extended property of the Neveh Shalome by the fabulously wealthy Sir David Ezra. The plan was for the grounds of the Neveh Shalome to be used for a yeshiva and an old-age home. The Ezra family had made their fortune in the export of indigo and silk to the Near East and opium on a large scale to Hongkong. He rapidly expanded their business enterprise to many other lucrative concerns. A protracted dispute arose regarding the naming of the synagogue that lasted decades. Finally the Neveh Shalome was rebuilt in 1912 by the congregants in keeping with the lines of the old synagogue. It is typically Middle Eastern, with few Western architectural flourishes.

The boys of the Talmud Torah, skilled readers one and all, were brought twice a day to make up the minyan for the shacharit and the arbit minha services during the first twenty years of the twentieth century. Ezra Arakie, the school’s philanthropist, wished to inculcate a religious education through prayer service in the synagogue and the boys were skilled readers. The synagogue funds were also used to support poorer community members. It was estimated that in 1877 the expenditure of the two synagogues and public philanthropy exceeded two thousand pounds sterling annually. Thus from the establishment of the first synagogue the city’s Baghdadi Jews displayed the deeply religious and charitable impulses of the Baghdadi community

Beth El :

The Baghdadi Jews prospered through trade across Asia. In the mid-nineteenth century trade between Iraq and India was almost entirely under Jewish control though they did have to contend with Arabs, Persians and Europeans. The community expanded rapidly as other Middle Eastern Jews flocked to Calcutta in search of opportunities. This made it necessary to build a larger synagogue. Called the Neveh Shalome during the lifetime of Dwek Cohen, the Beth El was built by Joseph Ezra and Ezekiel Judah in 1855-56. The synagogue’s entry hall displays an oil painting of one of the early members of the community dressed in Middle Eastern robes and turban clearly denoting the strong Arab orientation of the early settlers. However, the openness to other influences is clearly seen in the many motifs used in the synagogue including the large blue, white and red flowered patterned stained-glass window that towers above the entrance. As in the other two synagogues, the Beth El contains old teak chairs upstairs and family benches downstairs, that still have some of the intricately designed cane work intact that were woven by Chinese craftsmen.

The wine cellar in its basement holds many large clay amphorae and several brown and ochre patterned vats hail from China. These indicate the congregants’ underlining wide trading relations and networks. The Baghdadi community traded across Asia from Basra to Shanghai and along the way, in all the major port cities Baghdadi Jews lived and worked to extend these family networks. Kosher red wine was made locally in Calcutta till the early 1970’s when Isaac Agha Baba passed away in his eighties. By then he was the only person who knew how to make the wine and ensure that it was Kosher. The “sacred wine” was stored and sold to Jewish community members for ritual purposes. Not just Kosher wine was made at the Beth El; there is a large clay oven, a tandoor, in the synagogue’s courtyard where Matzas was made. The wheat was checked from the time it was growing in the field until it was ground into flour. The making of Matzah was supervised by a non-profit Matzah Board made up of 2 members of each of the 3 major synagogues. A mikvah was also built in the courtyard that was renovated during the 40’s to be more modern with amenities like running water. Thus, the community was influenced by the many cultures around it, European and Chinese for example, that was evident in the style, furnishings, they selected for the synagogue.

Maghen David

Sir David Ezra built the Maghen David in 1884 in memory of his father, Elia Ezra. It was built by the British firm Mackintosh Burn and Co and designed by their architect Ormond in the Italian Renaissance style. It was modeled after the old Telegraph office and other public buildings of the period. It is referred to locally as Lal Girja (Red Church) as its façade is prominently red brick with some grey elements and it has a steeple, clock face and bells. As the Calcutta Jews looked for guidance to Baghdad for religious matters, they asked whether it would be halachic for the synagogue to have a steeple and were told that it did not go against Jewish law to have a steeple as long as it was higher than the others around it. The steeple is 142 feet high. A clock 64 feet high, imported from London graces the fourth level of the steeple. It was then the largest of all public clocks on public spaces in the city. Clearly it seemed like the synagogue donors were both influenced by and competing with the many cathedrals and churches in the city as they sought to make their mark on its landscape and culture.

The Maghen David boasts soaring ceilings, sturdy pinkish-hued Mirzapur stone pillars with their pediments imported from London, and a large round stained-glass window opposite the sanctuary. There was an elaborate chandelier that burned olive oil in the middle of the large hall atop the Tebah – electricity was installed in 1902. In 1918 the chandelier was with a “cut-glass thirty light electrolier” that had been in the Grand Opera House in Calcutta. It was gifted to the synagogue by E.M.D Cohen, a benefactor. High blue and white floral decorated arches with psalms in Hebrew lettering are indeed imposing. The ornate apse has a floor of Castilian tiles created by Manton Holland and Company of London. The star studded cobalt blue dome, a focal point in the house of worship is adorned with Jewish mystical symbols.

Embedded as they are in the lifestyle of colonial Calcutta, Western architectural materials and decorations reveal the dominant the transformation of the Arab Jewish identity of the community to an Anglo-Jewish community. This is also clearly seen in the photographs of the founders that grace the staircase. They are dressed in Western style and differ from the founder portrait at the Beth El. Only the portrait of E. M. D. Cohen, who served as Hazan of the Neveh Shalome and Maghen David for fifty years, portrays him still in quasi Middle Eastern dress. A wealthy landowner, E M D Cohen established the important printing press that published the Paerah which was a very popular paper in the Jewish community. It was referred to as The Jewish Gazette and was known the world over and was quoted in the Jewish Press in Europe. It contained a weekly calendar with announcements of births, circumcisions and marriages as well as trade advertisements of Jewish merchants and arrival and departure dates between Calcutta and other cities in India and beyond. Its editorials, which included local Jewish news as well as items related to world Jewry, were wide-ranging with topics of interest to the Calcutta community.

The Baghdadi Jews were loyal to the British and though they were not granted the European status that the British gave to the Portuguese and Armenians in the City, they identified with British values and culture, as did other elites in the colonial city. Baghdadi Jews served in both World Wars as is seen in the two plaques outside the Maghen David that honor David Ezra, of the Ezra family, who was killed in action in France in 1918, and that of Sonny Solomon who died in air operations over France in 1944.

While there were always some European Jews in Calcutta who engaged with the Calcutta community, and the city’s Jews remained solicitous and hospitable to other Jews. For example, EMD Cohen who was deeply concerned about the religious needs of Jewish soldiers during World War 1, arranged for about 70 boys from 24 units throughout India to spend the High Holidays in the traditional manner by writing to the Battalion, Brigade and Divisional Commanding offers. He communicated with the authorities on matters pertaining to Jewish soldiers such as the sick and wounded and burial in cases of death. The numbers of such soldiers grew rapidly during World War 11 when many British and American soldiers were stationed in Calcutta. Jews also fled to Calcutta from Burma and S. E Asia. All were welcomed at the synagogue and financial assistance and employment were afforded them where possible. The Jews of Calcutta also gave refuge to European Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

The Reverend David Seligson, one of the first American chaplains to volunteer overseas during World War II, introduced the Young People’s Congregation at the Beth El synagogue. After services he would meet with the youth to discuss the prayers in English in a bid to deepen their Jewish learning. Many of the young servicemen visited Jewish homes and some married women from the community. These “GI brides” were among the first to emigrate to the US, Canada and England in the ‘40s.

Calcutta’s Jewish community was so wealthy that at one time each synagogue housed dozens of sifre torahs and elaborate parochets (curtains or decorative hangings) gifted by families. By the 1930’s the Neveh Shalome had about 50, the Beth El had over 90, the Maghen David over 80 and the two prayer halls between them had about 15. Each scroll, containing the Five Books of Moses, was written on parchment containing the Five Books of Moses by dedicated scribes in Baghdad. The parchment was encased in wood and placed in large silver cases that are elaborately patterned; each of these cases weighs over 10 or 15 kgs. The scrolls were taken out and read from each Sabbath and displayed during the Simchat Torah Festival.

Today only four old sifrei torahs remain in Calcutta, two of which are unfortunately spoiled by the damp. The parochets were gifted in memory of family members and were made of expensive cashmere wool, velvet or silk with the name and blessing embossed in gold zari threads in a rectangular inset. Not only do the sefer torahs and rich parochets denote the enormous wealth of the community, they illustrate how this diaspora community fashioned ritual and religious objects with local jewelry, weaving and embroidery traditions. Today these beautiful ritual items are in Baghdadi synagogues across the world and a couple of sifrei torahs are in the Israel Museum.

The Emigration from the City

Calcutta’s synagogues are no longer used for services because of the migration of the Jews. From a community of around 4500 or so in the mid-twentieth century it had dwindled to about 700 or so people by the seventies. There were several reasons for their emigration. The British were leaving India and the Baghdadi Jews who had migrated here during the Raj were unsure of their future. They had witnessed the terrible rioting that had rocked Bengal before and after Partition. Prime Minister Nehru was articulating a Socialist vision for the nation and the wealthier Jews were uncertain of their financial prospects. Meanwhile, the British offered citizenship to Indians and many, including some Jews, emigrated to Britain. Once the wealthier members of the community had left the middle-class and poorer Jews who were employed in Jewish businesses emigrated too.

At the global level, the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism in Europe, that had brought Jewish refugees to Calcutta, and the Jews fleeing persecution in Arab lands after the formation of Israel, also had an impact on the psyche of the Calcutta Jews. It made them more uncertain of their future in a changing India. Baghdadi Jews from Burma, who were often relatives of Calcutta Jews, obtained refugee status to emigrate to the United States. Some younger and more idealistic members of the community made aliya to Israel as did some of the poorer community members who thought they would have a better future there. Many emigrated to Australia, Canada and the USA. As the community was small and tight knit family members emigrated with their kin. A fragment of the community remained. By the 1970s there were only about six to seven hundred Jews left in the city, among them many elderly, who did not want to start their lives anew. Thus, though the Jewish community had always been welcomed in India and never faced any Anti-Semitism, they left India for political, economic and familial reasons.

Though the synagogues still functioned as long as a minyan could be formed, the last wedding held in the Maghen David was in the early 1980s. Today services are held when Jewish visitors from abroad attend the synagogue for special occasions, or when they visit India to pray in synagogues across the country as part of Jewish heritage tours. The Calcutta Jews were so attached to their synagogues that there was a plan to transport the Maghen David brick-by-brick to Jerusalem. Calcutta Jews living abroad had met with Teddy Kolek, then Mayor of Jerusalem, to find a suitable site to locate it. They felt it was a shame that the synagogue was no longer being used as a place of worship and wanted to see it filled with prayer and devotion again. However, the few Jews left in Calcutta opposed this plan and registered the Maghen David with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to ensure that it could never be moved. Today both the Maghen David and the Beth El are under the aegis of the ASI.

Conclusion

Calcutta’s synagogues tell a complex story of the community – their origins and Judaeo Arab orientation, their rapid rise, economic success and Anglicized orientation in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, and their steep decline in number that occurred in the 1940s/50’s as a result of tumultuous global and national events. The synagogues speak to the fundamentally religious nature of the members of the community, the wealth they amassed, their wide trading network, and their on-going understanding, engagement and involvement in matters pertaining to the larger Jewish world. The synagogues also bear testimony to their very philanthropic gestures that took care of the poorer members of the Jewish community in Calcutta and in the wider Jewish world. The synagogue structures and furnishings track the cultural shift of the Baghdadi Jews of the Middle East from their Judaeo-Arabic to their Anglo Judaic identity. The synagogues also tell us about the good relationships their congregants enjoyed with the many communities around them and shows how they adapted some of their material and cultural traditions. The Baghdadi Jews were very much an integral part of all aspects of life in the city and were accepted with open arms by both colonial and Indian rulers. The rededication of the Maghen David in 2018 drew in Baghdadi Jews from many parts of the world for the celebration who were deeply moved when the predominantly Muslim girls of the Jewish Girls School sang Hebrew songs and hymns at this auspicious event.

The three synagogues today are significant heritage sites and are visited by the descendants of Calcutta Jews seeking to learn more of their past, and by both foreign and Indian tourists. As more media attention has been focused on the Jewish community in Calcutta, people of Calcutta also visit the synagogues. They are proud of this aspect of the City’s history as they represent a material manifestation of Kolkata’s multicultural and multi-religious past. The synagogues stand testimony to Kolkata’s Jewish past and India’s acceptance of the Jewish community. As Anti-Semitism continues to raise its ugly head around the world, the three remaining synagogues stand witness to how the city and indeed the nation have been enriched by the Jewish presence.

Selected Bibliography

Mukerjee, Mala and Jael Silliman, Where Gods Reside: Sacred Places of Kolkata, Niyogi Books, 2018.

Musleah, Rabbi Ezekiel N., On the Banks of the Ganga: The Sojourn of Jews in Calcutta, The Christopher Pubishing House, North Quincy, Massachusetts, 1975.

Silliman, J, Jewish Portraits, Indian Frames, Women’s Narratives from A Diaspora of Hope, Seagull Press.