Mumbai’s Jews To Stay

By Arnaud KEHON – Sylvain LEPETIT, France24

Last November, at least 179 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Mumbai. Among the 10 sites targeted were two five-star hotels and a Jewish centre. A month later, the Jewish community in Mumbai is still reeling from the trauma but has decided to stay.

During the attacks on Nariman House, its steel menorah, the Jewish traditional candelabra, remained standing. One month after the bloody rampage that struck Mumbai, the Jewish orthodox movement of the Chabad-Lubavitch came to light the menorah, which has become the symbol of the reopening of the Jewish centre.

On November 26, Islamists targeted American and Israeli Jews. None of the six victims were Indians. Still, the 5,000 members of the Jewish community in Mumbai feel threatened. Up until the attacks, they had always lived peacefully with Muslims.

Like every Friday, Jonathan Solomon, president of the Federation of Indian Jews of Mumbai, goes to his synagogue in the heart of a Muslim neighbourhood in Mumbai.

Said Solomon: “Both of us share the same food habits, both are non-vegetarian, both are minorities, both come from the Middle East. There are so many similarities; that’s why there’s a bond between the two communities.”

Salomon is the leader of the Bene Israel community, whose name means “sons of Israel”. According to their tradition, they are the descendants of King Salomon who came to India 2,000 years ago.

For the first time since their arrival, they are experiencing anti-Semitism.

“We’ve been living here for 2000 years without anybody persecuting us,” said Solomon, “without anybody making it difficult for us to practice our religion. Now we’ve entered a new era; we have to stick together and be together.”

But the recent attacks are likely to increase the flight of young Jews from India to the West. What everyone fears here is that the Indian Jewish community will one day disappear. Today there are more Indian Jews living in Israel than in India.