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AJL Magazine Feature by Shalva Weil The Legacy of David Sassoon Building a Community Bridge Photo credit: Unknown photographer, mid-19th c. (Internet) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons David Sassoon (seated) and his sons 4 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 14 Feature by Shalva Weil n 1832, David Sassoon (1792-1864) known in Iraq, Persia, Syria or the homelands. In 1867, he constructed and his family arrived in Bombay Jewish communities steeped in Jewish the Lal Dewal, or Ohel David (Tent of (today Mumbai) after fleeing the learning with which he was familiar. David) red-brick synagogue in Poona, I persecutions of the ruler of Baghdad, The Bene Israel had been cut off from with a famous spire reminiscent of Daud Pasha. This wealthy merchantman, mainstream Judaism for centuries and British church architecture, where he who founded a dynasty known as the their knowledge of Jewish halacha (law) would pray during the High Holy Days. “Rothschilds of the East”, was also was minimal. They observed most of the In Poona, too, there was a small Bene named the Prince of the Exilarch. Jewish festivals, refrained from work on Israel community, who were mainly army the Sabbath and believed in one God, personnel settled there after the British David Sassoon began his sojourn in but they were ignorant of some of the had established army headquarters in Bombay at 9 Tamarind Street (today intricacies of the Jewish religion. Since Poona in 1856. non-existent) within the precincts of David Sassoon did not travel on the the city (the Fort walls were destroyed Sabbath (although the Baghdadi Jews While many books and articles have in 1862). He soon moved to Byculla’s later found a halachic (Jewish legal) focused on the discriminatory and tense bungalow Sans Souci, a former palace solution to that by inventing the Shabbat relations between the Baghdadi Jews named Shin Sangoo, (today Massina tram card with Rabbinic approval!), David and the Bene Israel, I will argue that in Hospital); he also spent the summer Sassoon quickly set about to establish fact David Sassoon tried to relate to the months in his second home in Poona his own network of synagogues to be Bene Israel with equanimity. Many of the (today Pune). Sassoon managed his led according to the Jewish rites with tensions in the complicated relationship international enterprises from Bombay, which he was familiar. At first, he held a between the two communities were including trade in cotton, jute and most prayer hall in his home. In 1861, he built exacerbated after David Sassoon’s significantly, opium. His commercial the Magen David (Defender of David) death, particularly during the period intuition and prowess, as well as the Synagogue in Byculla for members of Sir Jacob Sassoon. While David scope of his business enterprises, are of his community, who streamed in to Sassoon did not relate to the Bene well documented. Bombay as they fled persecution in their Israel in the same way that he treated his fellow Baghdadi coreligionists, I Relations with the Bene Israel maintain that he definitely tried to look after their religious, occupational and David Sassoon’s relations with the civic needs by integrating the Bene Israel Jewish community that he discovered in religious life and in his enterprises, as when he arrived in Bombay are a well as extending them philanthropy as sensitive yet important issue. The Bene members of the Jewish faith, and as Israel in India originated in the Konkan, well as fellow citizens of Bombay and but during the British period, many Poona. There were numerous strategies began to move out of the villages and of rapprochement. settle in Bombay. Testimony to that fact was the establishment in 1796 of the Integration in religious life Building a first Bene Israel synagogue in Bombay, Shaar Harahamim (the Gate of Mercy While most scholars and members of Synagogue), consecrated by a Bene both communities deny the involvement Israel officer Samuel Ezekiel Divekar to of the Bene Israel in Baghdadi communal commemorate his miraculous escape life, there were interfaces where the Community Bridge from death at the hands of Tippu Sultan Bene Israel were accepted, even if they during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. were not considered first-class Jews. The existence of the synagogue signified According to a Christian source, when the existence of at least ten Bene Israel David Sassoon first arrived in the city, the families in the city, who could make up a Baghdadis and the Bene Israel prayed minyan (quorum) for prayers. together and cooperated on religious matters. In Bombay, at the beginning David Sassoon confronted a community Statue of David Sassoon both Bene Israel and Baghdadis were and a synagogue unlike any he had Photo credit: Erica Lyons buried in the same Jewish cemetery. ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 14 5 Feature by Shalva Weil Leaders of both groups, including David Sassoon, petitioned the President and Governor-in-Council of Bombay to care for the Jewish cemetery and the petition was signed in Hebrew and English by the “Arabian” Jews and in Marathi by the ”native” Jews. But by 1836, relations between the two communities had soured and members of the Baghdadi community petitioned the British Government to erect a wall in the cemetery between the two communities. Sadly, relations deteriorated over time, and, although there were exceptions, the Baghdadis would generally not include the Bene Israel in their minyan (quorum) Photo credit: Erica Lyons Statue of David Sassoon as “pure” Jews. Israel institution, however, was after between the Baghdadi Jews and the Economic incorporation David Sassoon’s death in 1882, when Bene Israel in Bombay (and Poona) charitable funds were made available to were not ideal, David Sassoon utilized David Sassoon had prospered from the the Bene Israel Israelite School. particular strategies of rapprochement oil, cotton and opium ventures he set to endear himself to the Bene Israel. up over the Far East, and in particular, Civic benefits Sometimes, these gestures have been from trade with China. He offered misinterpreted or are unknown. Although employment to scores of Bene Israel, David Sassoon established huge subsequent generations of the Sassoon who had settled in Bombay and worked philanthropic funds for the beautification family and the Baghdadi Jews may have in the mills he had established. and development of the city of Bombay been responsible for the deterioration of and Poona from which the Bene Israel, relations between the two communities, In addition, the David Sassoon like other citizens, benefited. These I would suggest that David Sassoon Benevolent Institute, later the Sassoon included the David Sassoon Mechanics’ had aimed at harmonious relations with School, which did not want to accept Institute (1847), which evolved into the the more numerous and ‘native’ Jewish Bene Israel pupils, provided employment David Sassoon Library and Reading Room community of Bene Israel. for Bene Israel teachers. It is significant (1938), the David Sassoon Industrial and that from 1865 the headmaster of the Reformatory Institution, David Sassoon school was an educated Bene Israel, Elderly and Destitute Persons Home or Dr. Shalva Weil is Senior Researcher Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar (1834-1905), the David Sassoon Infirm Asylum (1863) in at the Hebrew University of who five years earlier became a Hebrew Poona (today the Nivara Old Age Home), Jerusalem, Israel and editor of teacher, in the school, with David the Clock Tower at the Victoria Gardens several books, including (with Katz Sassoon’s blessing. (today Veermata Jijimata Udyan), and N., Chakravarti, R., and Sinha, the Statue of the Prince Consort at the B. M.) Indo-Judaic Studies in the Philanthropy Victoria and Albert Museum (today the Twenty-First Century: A Perspective from the Margin (Palgrave- Bhau Daji Lad Museum) complete with Macmillan Press), 2007, (with Certain funds were explicitly funneled to Hebrew inscription (1861). The Bene Shulman, D.) Karmic Passages: the poorer Bene Israel community. For Israel, as municipal members of Bombay Israeli Scholarship on India (New example, the Sassoon Hospital, built in and Poona, could only be proud of the Delhi: Oxford University Press), Pune from a contribution of Rs.213,000 salience of Judaism and Hebrew in 2008 and India's Jewish Heritage: given by David Sassoon towards its their city. Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle, Mumbai: endowment in 1863, and completed Marg Publications [first published after his death in 1867, reserved special Sassoon’s Legacy of Rapprochement in 2002; second reprint 2004, places for the Bene Israel. The first time re-published 2009]. that the Sassoons directly helped a Bene While it is absolutely true that relations 6 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 14.
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