`Colonial Diasporic Architecture and a City
2.2.2 Jewish Community General History and Origin Sreekala. S. the author of the thesis on Israel's policy of "absorption of immigrants": a case study of the Indian Jews (2000) explained about the three groups of Jewish communities in India, the Bene Israel, Cochin Jews and Baghdadi Jews. Jews from Aleppo, Baghdad and Basra travelled to Surat in the second half of the eighteenth century for trading purposes. Some Jews later settled in the cities of Bombay, Pune and Calcutta with the coming of the British in 1765. Alex Shams in his article on The Baghdadi Jewish connection, on the website Ajam Media Collective, mentioned that the Baghdadi Jews migrated to Calcutta and grew prosperous due to business and trading activities. They were later joined by Jewish Arabs from Aleppo and Yemen. They built the Neveh Shalome Synagogue in 1825 and gradually built cemeteries, prayer halls and more synagogues. Calcutta mostly contained Syrian Jews in the first two decades of the nineteenth century and immigrants from Iraq in the second quarter due to the persecution by Daud Pasha of Baghdad. Most Jews in the nineteenth century moved to stock exchange and became large urban landowners. They adapted to the food and lifestyle of the new region, still keeping a strong hold on their culture and tradition. Shams also writes that the growth in the speed of travel and communication in the 18th and 19th century helped the Jews expand to Yangon, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, London and Manchester and developed an extensive trading network. Jewish architecture outside Calcutta The website The Museum of the Jewish People provides insight on the Jewish community of Baghdad, the largest city of Iraq and its architecture. The community was founded in the mid 8th century were active in the field of medicine, pharmacy and most importantly in trade. The city of Baghdad had a turbulent history, as it was under a series of different rulers ranging from Mongol, Ottoman, Persian, Turkish and British. The Turkish rule in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century deteriorated the Image 3: View of the Great Synagogue at Baghdad condition of the Jews. This led to many Source: http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/299/ wealthy members move to Persia, India as well as other countries. The number of synagogues dropped from 60 synagogues in 1950 to only seven in 1960. Currently, only one synagogue is still functioning in the city but is not used by the Jews to worship. The online archive Diarna, speaks about the Great Synagogue at Baghdad, Iraq. Located along a busy Jewish neighbourhood market street, it is one of the largest synagogues in Iraq and is home to beautiful Jewish art. The building is destroyed by years of ill-treatment. It is said to be built by King Jehoachin, who supposedly built the Shad veYativ with bricks made of earth from Israel. Israel currently houses the reconstructed synagogue.
Goa College of Architecture
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Andrea D'Silva
