The Jewish Museum in London presents the story of British Jews while also honoring the Jewish community as a whole. The Baghdadi Jewish community in India is one such community. This Jewish population, which originated in Iraq and spread over the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, played a critical economic role in the region, which…
Jael Silliman is an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Jewish Portraits, Indian Frames: Women’s Narratives from a Hopeful Diaspora (Brandeis University Press, 2002). The experiences of four generations of Jewish women in Silliman’s family are chronicled in this deeply personal novel about Calcutta’s little-known Jewish community….
MYSORE, India (JTA) Christmas has always been a celebratory affair in Kolkata, from the blinding outdoor lights that cover Park Lane, to the lively pop-up Christmas market in the central rotunda of the vast New Market. Although celebrations are toned down this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the devastating after-effects…
Ruby Myers (1907 – 10 October 1983), better known by her stage name Sulochana, was an Indian silent film star of Jewish ancestry, hailing from the community of Baghdadi Jews in India. In her heyday she was one of the highest paid actresses of her time, when she was paired with Dinshaw Billimoria in Imperial…
In the late 18th century, Jews from Arab countries and Iran arrived in India. And they are called collectively ‘Baghdadi Jews’. Most of ‘Baghdadi’ Jews did arrive from Baghdad but there were among them Jews who arrived from Syria, Iran, Yemen and other places in Iraq. Sometimes these Jews are collectively called ‘Iraqi Jews’. And…
Members of the Bnei Menashe, a group that is said to be from the lost tribes, remarry in a ceremony in Israel. People from the Bnei Menashe community in Northern India who moved to Israel were married on Aug. 5 in an Orthodox group wedding in Israel, and 17 of them married. Because they were…
Who are the Baghdadi Jews? In the late 1800s, Jews from Arab countries and Iran came to India. They are called “Baghdadi Jews.” There were a lot of ‘Baghdadi’ Jews who came from Baghdad, but there were also a lot of Jews who came from Syria, Iran, Yemen, and other places in Iraq. Often, these…