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For almost a century, Jews from the Middle East, known as Baghdadis, have lived in flourishing communities all around Southeast Asia. Baghdadis were philosophically divided between two promised lands: the religious ideal of Jerusalem and the political promise of England. They were linked across distances by tradition, family, and economic relationships. Baghdadis, like other minorities…

‘The Man with Many Hats,’ by Jael Silliman, provides a rare peek into the life of a small Jewish community that arrived in India last and left first, but made important contributions to the city’s cultural and commercial life. The release of the only work of fiction by a member of Kolkata’s Baghdadi Jewish community…

The immigration of Arabic-speaking Jews from Baghdad and Basra, as well as other parts of the Ottoman Empire, transformed the mosaic of Jewish communities in India toward the end of the eighteenth century. These arrivals, who were supplemented by Jews from Persia and Afghanistan, became known as Iraqi or Baghdadi Jews. They developed a massive…