History of the Jews in Pakistan

Jews (Urdu: یہودی pronounced "Yehudi") were a small religious group in Pakistan . Various estimates suggest that there were about 1,000 Jews living in Karachi at the beginning of the twentieth century. A smaller community of Jews also lived in Peshawar. Many of these are Baghdadi Jews, Bukharian Jews, Mizrahi Jews mainly from Central Asia, neighbouring Iran and Afghanistan. The Bene Israel Jews from India were concentrated in Karachi.

1881-1947

According to the 1881 census, there were 153 Jews in Sindh province. By 1919, this figure had risen to about 650. By 1947 there were about 1,500 Jews living in Sindh with the majority residing in Karachi. Most of these Jews were Bene Israel and they lived as tradesman, artisans, poets, philosophers and civil servants. Some Baghdadi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews and Bukharan Jews could also be found.

Karachi

A variety of associations existed to serve the Jewish community in Pakistan such as:

• Magain Shalome Synagogue

Built in 1893, by Shalome Solomon Umerdekar and his son Gershone Solomon. Other accounts suggest that it was built by Solomon David, a surveyor for the Karachi Municipal Committee and his wife Sheeoolabai, although these may be different names for the same people. The synagogue soon became the center of a small but vibrant Jewish community. A member of this Synagogue, Abraham Reuben, became a councilor in the Karachi City Corporation in 1936.

• Young Man's Jewish Association

Founded in 1903 and whose aim was to encourage sports as well as religious and social activities of the Bene Israel in Karachi.

• Karachi Bene Israel Relief Fund

Established to support poor Jews in Karachi.

• Karachi Jewish Syndicate

Formed in 1918 and whose aim was to provide homes to poor Jews at reasonable rents.

Peshawar

Main articles: Israelites, Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites, and Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

Bukharan Jews (also found in neighboring Afghanistan) formed a small community in the northern city of Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province. Peshawar was served by two synagogues.A complete list of now Pakistani tribes in FATA AND Balochistan who are now Muslim have biblical names of them and they can be viewed in the narration of Torah.

1947-1968

At the time of independence, some 1300 Jews remained in Karachi, most of them Bene Israel Jews observing Sephardic Jewish rites. The first real exodus of Jewish refugees from Pakistan to Bombay and other cities in India came just prior to the creation of Israel in 1948 when many Muslims, including Muhajir, committed violent and other anti-Semitic acts against the Bene Israel Jews of Karachi and other Jews in Pakistan. By 1953, less than 500 Jews were reported to be in all of Pakistan.

Anti-Jewish sentiment and violence often flared during ensuing conflicts in the Middle East, resulting in a further movement of Jewish refugees out of Pakistan.

1969-1999

Magen Shalome, the Bene Israel's only synagogue, was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a shopping plaza by order of General Zia-ul-Haq shortly after the Bene Israel community in Israel petitioned for its maintenance and use as a historical or other community center.

2000 – present

Most of the Karachi Jews now live in Ramla, Israel, Mumbai, India and Toronto, Canada and built a synagogue they named Magen Shalome after the Pakistani Synagogue in Ramla. Developments in the Middle East peace process such as the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza strip led to the first high level meeting between Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers. The foreign ministers of both countries met publicly for the first time in Istanbul, a diplomatic breakthrough brokered by Turkey.

Rachel Joseph, the last Bene Israel Jew of Pakistan, left Karachi for Israel. There are no Bene Israel Jews remaining in Pakistan.

Dan Kiesel is a prominent Israeli Jew who was appointed by PCB. He worked for PCB for some time and then left it. He lived happily with his wife in Lahore.

The term "Yehudi" (Urdu translation of "Jew") and its variants remains a word of derision when directed at a Bene Israel (or even anyone else).

Additional Information

Historic records show that the Jewish community in British India were enthusiastic supporters of Israel and Zionism that, in its broadest sense, calls for the self-determination of the Jewish people and a sovereign, Jewish national homeland.

One of the leaders of the Jewish community,

“Abraham Reuben, who was elected the first Jewish councillor on the city corporation in 1919, wrote to acting Belgian Consul in Bombay and Head of Zionists in Bombay (Mr. Israel Cohen, the secretary of the World Zionist Organization in 1921,described him as unofficial head of Zionists in Bombay). Mr. Abraham Reuben expressed, on behalf of Bene Israel community of 650 people living in Karachi, entire sympathy with Zionist movement. The community would decide on forming a branch association of Universal Zionist Organization when it had more information, and he therefore requested more details about the movement, suggesting that he might also meet Zionist representatives when he was in London the following May”.

Reuben wrote at his letter head, president of the All India Israelite League. Later, Karachi Community of Jews appointed Reuben to proceed to the Holy Land to report on the practical possibilities of Zionism.

“In August 1920, David I. Rogow of New York gave a lecture on Zionism to about one hundred Bene Israel in Bombay, exhorting his audience to form themselves into a Zionist Organization as a practical way to help the movement, which American Jews, he stated, were supporting. This call seemed to be the push they (Indian Jews) needed: less than a month later, Zionist sympathisers held another meeting, resolved unanimously a Bene Israel Zionist association, and appointed a committee to draft a constitution, with Dr. E Moses as president and Jacob Apteker as treasurer. D. M. Samuel, the secretary immediately wrote to the Zionist organization in London requesting a copy of its constitution, a statement of its aims and objectives, and advice on how the Bene Israel branch could affiliate to it. Pleased that the “present great moment in Jewish history was appreciated in Bombay,” the head office expressed the hope that the Indian Jews would “do their utmost in collecting a large fund towards the rebuilding of Palestine and thus assist in redemption of our people. (P150)

“In May 1936 Abraham Reuben, vice president of the Karachi Jewish community, has inquired whether Bene Israel were permitted to settle in Eretz Israel……. Joseph Sargon reassured him that there were no restrictions on Bene Israel immigration” (P194).

(The Jewish communities of India: identity in a colonial era By Dr. Joan G. Roland. She is a chair and professor of history at Pace University in New York City. She received her Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Columbia University. )

Israel Goldstein a rabbi, author, Zionist leader and one of the founders of Brandeis University, highlighted the absence of the rule of law as the reason for the Jewish Community of Karachi's exodus to Bombay, India as refugees in his book “My world as a Jew”(P 20-21) in following words,

"A dozen years of independence had failed to instill more than lip service to the ideals of democracy. Corruption was still rife...Grim poverty was widespread and visible in the shantytowns and hovels occupied by the indigenous population and by hordes of Muslim refugees from India. Pakistan's refugee problem was then certainly the largest in the world, as a result of the 1947 partition, which had taken place against a welter of indiscriminate butchery...American support for Israel also aroused indignation in this overwhelmingly Muslim country."

“From Burma, we flew on to Karachi (in 1959)…… We received a warm welcome from tiny local Jewish community. On the evening after our arrival in Karachi, some 250 of the 400 souls whom it comprised, including young people and school children, assembled in Magain Shalome Synagogue, which had been erected in 1893. The meeting was followed by a reception in an adjoining hall, where the president of the congregation extended greetings. We were happy to learn that many of the young people were going to Israel, by way of India, in order to train in hakhsharot for agricultural settlement there. A remarkable high spirit was maintained by the community, which had a great asset in the Israeli shaliah, who taught Hebrew to adults and children alike”.

He continued his narration regarding the concerns for the future of Jews in Pakistan,

“Their cantor led the singing of Israeli songs, and the evening concluded with Hatikvah. I was impressed by the fact that Hatikvah, the Zionist and Israeli national anthem was sung with the windows the hall wide open- despite the unfriendly Muslim environment”. However, as cited by Mr. Goldstein: "the leaders of the Bene Israel community had no confidence in the future. They could not forget how, following the proclamation of Israel's establishment in 1948, local agitators had led a riotious mob into the synagogue, where the Holy Ark and Torah scrolls were desecrated and other acts of vandalism took place." Many Jewish refugees promptly left for India, whence they proceeded to Israel and other countries. Numerous news accounts also cite violent acts of anti-Semitism committed by Muslims against Jews in Karachi and other cities in Pakistan during the partition period.

The Jewish community of Karachi were definitely forced to leave Karachi as refugees because of increasing anti-semitism especially by Muslim religious leaders across Pakistan and muhajirs arriving from India. To help and care for the Olim (Migrant to Israel), the Jewish agency maintained offices in Bombay, India where such Jewish refugees first arrived from Karachi.

The original Ark and podium were stored by a non-Jew in Karachi; a Torah scroll case was taken by an American Jewess to the US. In 2004 she donated synagogue registers covering the period 1961-1976 to the Ben-Zvi Institute Library in Jerusalem. Two silver Kiddush glasses from Magain Shalome were donated to the Museum of the International Synagogue at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in honour of the memory of the late president.

Jewish Graveyard in Karachi

A Jewish graveyard still remains in Karachi, Pakistan which is a reminder of them. It is located in Mewa Shah in Karachi. It is looked after a man named Muhamamd Ibrahim who is 63 years old. He was born inside in a room in that graveyard. Mehrunissa is a lady that lives on the place of this graveyard. They both say that they are facing problems in looking after it and the land mafia is trying to take it from them.

Jewish Life in Pakistan

Issues of Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism and Anti-Judaism

Main article: Antisemitism in Pakistan

Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism and Anti-Judaism are common in Pakistan. They have increased after the creation of State of Israel and Arab Israeli Wars. Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism are common among Pakistani Muslims but Anti-Zionism has only been seen after the creation of the State of Israel. Jewish residents of Karachi were attacked by Muhajir people at the creation of the State of Israel. David Ben Gurion's statement in The Jewish Chronicle about Pakistan increased the hostility for the Pakistanis.

Jewish Lifestyle

Byram Dinshawji Avari says they were prominent members of the community at Karachi. One Jew used to be pilot at Karachi Port Trust. There was a also a synagogue in Manora Arif Hassan says there were Jewish cabaret artists and film actresses in the city, along with bureaucrats. Most bureaucrats left in the 1940s, the cabaret artists in the 70s. The Roma Shabana nightclub that once stood on Frere road also boasted two Jewish cabaret dancers, who later faded into obscurity. Ardeshir Cowasjee also agrees that some Jews still remain in Karachi. The remaining Jews hide their real identity and show Muslims as they are Christians or Parsis and wear shalwar kameez.

Recognition of Israel and Peace Process

Israeli politicians and Pakistani Jews in Israel spoke for the Pakistani recognition of Israel and peaceful relations between two countries. Some Pakistani leaders like Pervez Musharraf and human rights activists like Asma Jehangir also spoke on this issue.

Notable Jews

Some of notable Pakistani Jews are:

• David Solmon-member of Karachi Municipal Corporation who built synagogue in Karachi
• Abraham Reuben, Councillor of Karachi 1919
• Dan Kiesel, an Israeli cricket personality

Sources

Above material is based on an article of Prof. Adil Najam of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, published in Pakistan's newspaper The Daily Times. 1

Related links

• Bene Israel graveyard: buried in time or conscience?
• [1]

See also

• Religion in Pakistan