The Sassoon family stands as one of the most remarkable dynasties in the history of the Jewish diaspora. Originally from Baghdad, the Sassoons built a business empire from Bombay that stretched across India, Persia, China, and Britain, financing the construction of docks, mills, railways, and schools while remaining deeply committed to their Jewish heritage. At their peak, they were described as the “Rothschilds of the East.”
David Sassoon: The Patriarch
David Sassoon (1792–1864) fled Baghdad for Bombay around 1832 after tensions with the Ottoman-appointed governor made life dangerous for the city’s Jewish merchants. In Bombay he founded David Sassoon and Sons, a trading house that quickly grew into a regional powerhouse. The firm dealt initially in opium, cotton, and textiles, and later expanded into banking, real estate, and manufacturing. David Sassoon never learned English, conducting all his business in Judeo-Arabic with trusted family members posted in the firm’s offices from Calcutta to Shanghai. He was scrupulously observant, maintaining the Sabbath and Jewish dietary laws throughout his commercial career.
The Sassoon Legacy in Bombay
The Sassoon family left an indelible physical mark on Bombay. The David Sassoon Library and Reading Room, built in 1847, remains one of the most beloved institutions in the city, a Victorian Gothic building in the heart of the Fort district. The Sassoons also built the Magen David Synagogue and the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue in Bombay, both of which still stand. They funded schools, hospitals, and a mechanics’ institute, and constructed a network of housing for their employees across the city.
The Family in Britain and China
David Sassoon’s descendants moved into the highest levels of British society. His grandson Siegfried Sassoon became one of the most celebrated British poets of the First World War. Other family members sat in the British Parliament and moved in circles that included the Prince of Wales. The family’s business network, which extended to Shanghai and Hong Kong, played a significant role in the opium trade that fueled so much of the nineteenth-century economy of Asia — a history that later generations have grappled with honestly.
A Jewish Community Builder
Throughout all of this commercial and social success, the Sassoon family remained anchored to their Jewish identity and to the welfare of the Baghdadi Jewish community in India. They built synagogues, funded Jewish schools, supported newly arrived Jewish immigrants, and maintained the religious and cultural institutions that defined Baghdadi Jewish life in Bombay and Calcutta for over a century.
Source: Sassoon Family – Wikipedia