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Revision as of 02:12, 6 November 2006

The Baghdadi Jews are one of the main Jewish communities of India.

The Baghdadi Jewish community consist chiefly of expatriate Iraqi Jews, but there are also Syrian, Yemenite and Persian Jews among them. The community developed as a result of Jews fleeing religious persecution in Muslim lands to the northwest of India during the British imperial era. Unlike other Jewish communities in India whose oral tradition attest to a presence in India going back as long as 2000 years, the Baghdadi communities were established relatively recently (in the past few centuries). While the Baghdadi Jews are known primarily from their presence in India, they also established themselves in trading ports further east, notably in Yangon (Rangoon), Singapore, Penang, Melaka, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Famous Baghdadi Jews

• Lord Kadoorie
• Nadira, Bollywood actress
• J.F.R. Jacob, Indian military commander in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971
• Anish Kapoor, British Asian sculptor; Baghdadi Jewish mother
• David & Simon Reuben, British Asian businessmen
• David Sassoon, merchant and founder of the Sassoon family
• Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, merchant
• Sassoon David Sassoon, founder of European Sassoon's

See also

• Jewish ethnic divisions
• Indian Jews
• Baghdad Arabic (Jewish)

External link

• Jewish Encyclopedia's article covering the Jews of India

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