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History of the Jews in Pakistan goes back to 1839 when Pakistan was part of British India. Various estimates suggest that there were about 50,000 Jews living in Pakistan at the beginning of the 20th century, mostly comprising Iranian Jews and Bene Israel (Indian Jews); a substantial Jewish community lived in Rawalpindi, and a community also lived in Peshawar and Karachi.

The Partition of British India along religious lines in August 1947 led to the establishment of two independent sovereign states: a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. Following this event, Pakistani Jews began to leave the new country for India, Canada and the United States after the establishment of Israel in 1948, which ultimately led to their exodus from the country; today, Pakistan-origin Jews are often found in the Israeli city of Ramla (see Pakistani Jews in Israel), while Pakistan hosts a modest Jewish population. According to Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), there are 745 registered Jewish families in the country.

It has been widely reported in Pakistani media that a man known as Fishel Benkhald, who preserves the last standing Jewish cemetery in Karachi, has claimed to be last one of the Jews in Pakistan. His Jewishness was formally recognized by the Pakistani government in 2017 after numerous appeals.

History

First migrations

A community of Jews fleeing a revolt in Mashhad, Persia, settled in Rawalpindi in the Punjab in 1839. The elaborate early 20th century synagogue they built still stands on Nishtar Street in Rawalpindi's Babu Mohallah neighborhood, between the Bohra Mosque and a large and elaborate Victorian era church.

Colonial era (1842–1947)

Most of these Jews were Bene Israel and they lived as tradesmen, artisans, poets, philosophers and civil servants.

A variety of associations existed to serve the Jewish community in Pakistan, including:

• Magain Shalome Synagogue: Built in 1893 near Ranchore Line, by Solomon David Umerdekar and his son Gershone Solomon. Other accounts suggest that it was built by Shalom Solomon, a surveyor for the Karachi Municipal Committee and his wife Shegula-bai. The synagogue soon became the center of a small but vibrant Jewish community. A member of this Synagogue, Abraham Reuben Kamarlekar, 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 rent fees.

Post-independence

1947–1970

Leading up to the time of the Partition of India, some Jews remained in Karachi, many of them Bene Israel Jews observing Sephardic Jewish rites. The first real exodus of Jewish refugees from British India to Bombay and other cities in India came just prior to the creation of Israel in 1948 when antisemitism spread to Pakistan. When Israel came into being in 1948, many Jews migrated to Israel, and after the Arab-Israel war many of them left Karachi.

1971–present

Magen Shalom, the Bene Israel's only synagogue in Karachi founded under the British Raj, was demolished in 1988 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. The last custodian of the synagogue was Rachel Joseph, now deceased.

Dan Kiesel, a Jew of German origin, was employed as a physiotherapist by the Pakistan Cricket Board from 1995 to 1999. His appointment brought some controversy, as Pakistani politicians questioned the hiring an Israeli Jew in the Senate of Pakistan.

The term "Yehudi" and its variants remains a word of derision when directed at a Bene Israel or anyone else as noted by Reverend John Wilson, one of the founders of University of Bombay (now University of Mumbai). In Urdu and Hindi, however, the word simply translates to Jewish. The Bene Israel's prayers include intercessions on behalf of Her Majesty as in several Commonwealth countries. The Jewish Chronicle of London reported on Karachi's Jews as recently as 2007.

In 2017 According to the National Database and Registration Authority, there are 745 registered Jewish families in Pakistan.

Many of the Karachi Jews now live in Ramla, Israel; Mumbai, India; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with several spread throughout the United States of America and built a synagogue they named Magen Shalome after the Pakistani Synagogue in Ramla.

Landmarks

The Jewish Bene Israel Graveyard remains in the larger Mewa Shah Graveyard in Karachi.

See also

• Pakistani Jews in Israel
• Antisemitism in Pakistan
• Religion in Pakistan

References

1. ^ Tahir, Saif (23 February 2016). "The lost Jewish history of Rawalpindi". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
2. Weil, Shalva. 2010 'Pakistan'; in Norman A. Stillman (ed.) Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Leiden:Brill.
3. Weil, Shalva. 'The Jews of Pakistan', in M.Avrum Erlich (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora, Santa Barbara, USA: ABC CLIO. 2008, (3: 1228–1230).
4. "The Jewish Community of Pakistan". The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
5. Weil, Shalva. "Jews of India" in Raphael Patai and Haya Bar Itzhak (eds.) Jewish Folklore and Traditions: A Multicultural Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, Inc. 2013, (1: 255–258).
6. Hussain, Danish (27 March 2017). "Man of interfaith parents wins right to religion of choice". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
7. "'Last Jew in Pakistan' beaten by mob, arrested". The Express Tribune. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
8. "A passage to Pakistan". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
9. Pakistan’s ‘last Jew’ finally recognised by the government, Hindustan Times, MAR 27, 2017last jew
10. Weil, Shalva. 2009 'The Heritage and Legacy of Indian Jews' in Shalva Weil (ed.) India’s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle, Mumbai: Marg Publications , pp. 8–21. Weil, Shalva. 2011 'Bene Israel', in Adele Berlin (Ed. in Chief) Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion, 2nd edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 131. Weil, Shalva. 2011 'Bene Israel' (616), in Judith Baskin (ed.) Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture, New York: Cambridge University Press.
11. Goldstein, Israel (1984). My World as a Jew: The Memoirs of Israel Goldstein. Associated University Presses. ISBN 978-0-8453-4780-5.
12. Weil, Shalva (2012). "The Unknown Jews of Bangladesh: Fragments of an Elusive Community". Asian Jewish Life (10): 16–18. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
13. Weil, Shalva. 2009 'Bene Israel Rites and Routines' in Shalva Weil (ed.) India’s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle, Mumbai: Marg Publications , 78–89. Reprinted in Marg: A Magazine of The
14. Weil, Shalva. 'The Jews of Pakistan', in M.Avrum Erlich (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora, Santa Barbara, USA: ABC CLIO.2008, (3: 1228–1230).
15. Daiya, Kavita (4 February 2011). Violent Belongings: Partition, Gender, and National Culture in Postcolonial India. Temple University Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-59213-744-2.
16. Weil, Shalva. 2011 "The History and Disappearance of the Jewish Presence in Pakistan", ETH Zürich. https://css.ethz.ch/en/services/digital-library/articles/article.html/130984/pdf
17. "No more in Karachi". Pakistan: Dawn. 27 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2017. Rachel Joseph, until her death, claimed that the property developers had promised her and her brother Ifraheem Joseph an apartment in the new building, and also space for a small synagogue.
18. Sahoutara, Naeem (18 March 2014). "Jewish trust goes to court to take back demolished Karachi synagogue land". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 8 January 2017. After his death, his sister, R. Rachel Joseph, became the last known survivor of the community in the country.
19. Khurshid, Jamal (26 October 2015). "Jewish trust given time to review nazir's report on property status". The News International. Retrieved 8 January 2017. The counsel alleged that trustee Rachel Joseph, in violation of the prevailing laws, regarding sale and transfer of properties allocated to minority communities, executed certain conveyance deeds in favour of private respondents Aftabuddin Qureshi and Ahmed Elahi.
20. Weil, Shalva. 2011 "The History and Disappearance of the Jewish Presence in Pakistan", ETH Zürich. https://css.ethz.ch/en/services/digital-library/articles/article.html/130984/pdf
21. Platts, John T. (John Thompson) (1884). "A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English". dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
22. Weil, Shalva. 1994 'The Secular & Religious Elite among the Bene Israel Jews in India', Pe’amim 60: 49–63. (Hebrew)
23. Ghosh, Palash (16 November 2013). "Karachi Yahudi: Pakistan's Vanishing (Or Vanished) Jewish Community". International Business Times. Retrieved 8 January 2017. The Jewish Chronicle of London reported on Karachi's Jews as recently as 2007, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of Pakistan.
24. Hussain, Danish (27 March 2017). "Man of interfaith parents wins right to religion of choice". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
25. "Jewish Graveyard in Karachi Pakistan". Archived from the original on 8 June 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2011 – via YouTube.
26. "In search of the Jews of Karachi". The Express Tribune. 6 February 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.

Further reading

• "The Jews of Pakistan-A forgotten heritage", Yoel Reuben (Satamkar), Bene Israel heritage museum and genealogical research centre, 2010
• "So, what's your Kar-A journey into unknown India & Pakistan", Eliaz Reuben-Dandeker, Kammodan Mocadem Publishing house, 2018
• "The guide for the Bene Israel of India-culture, history and customs", Eliaz Reuben-Dandeker, Kammodan Mocadem Publishing house, 2019
• "The Jammaat-Inspiring people of the Bene Israel of India community, Eliaz Reuben-Dandeker, Kammodan Mocadem Publishing house, 2020
• Bene Israel graveyard: buried in time or conscience?, Dawn News
• In search of Jews in Karachi, Express Tribune
• When Jews found refuge in an unlikely place: Pakistan, Haretz
• The Jews of Pakistan, Daily Times

Sources

1 Adil Najam of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, published in Pakistan's newspaper The Daily Times.

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• Jewish Pakistani history
• Jews and Judaism in Pakistan
• Pakistani Jews
• South Asian Jews
• Israel–Pakistan relations
• History of the foreign relations of Pakistan