Not to be confused with History of the Jews in Baghdad.
Baghdadi Jews
Prominent Bagdadi Jewish patriarch David Sassoon (seated) and his sons Elias David, Albert (Abdullah), and Sassoon David Sassoon
Total population
50,000 in 1900 [1]
Regions with significant populations
India 100 (chiefly Mumbai and Calcutta)
Israel, Britain, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States.
Languages
Traditionally Arabic, Persian, Judeo-Urdu and Bengali.
Now mostly English and Hebrew
Religion
Judaism
The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Beginning under the Mughal Empire in the 18th century, merchant traders from Baghdad and Aleppo established originally Judeo-Arabic speaking Jewish communities in India, then in a trading network across Asia, following Jewish customs.[2] These flourished under the British Empire in the 19th century, growing to be English-speaking and British oriented.[2]
These grew into a tight trading and kinship network across Asia with smaller Baghdadi communities being established beyond India in the mid-nineteenth century in Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.[3][4] Baghdadi trading outposts were established across Southeast Asia and Oceania with families settling in Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Australia.[5] Until the Second World War, these communities attracted a modest flow of Jewish emigrants from Iraq, with smaller numbers hailing from Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iran, and Turkey.[6]
The Second World War brought strife to India, the Japanese occupation of Burma, Hong Kong and Shanghai, then swiftly the end of the British Empire in Asia. Dislocated by war, the violence of the Indian Partition, rising nationalism and the uncertainty of independence in both India and Burma, an exodus began to the newly founded state of Israel, Britain and Australia.[2] Their old trade routes severed by first Communist victory in China, the ocean trade stifled in India and Burma by postcolonial nationalizations and trade restrictions, the Baghdadi Jews had emigrated almost in their entirety by the 1970s.[7] Families of Baghdadi Jewish descent continue to play a major role in Jewish life, especially in Great Britain where families such as the Sassoons and Reubens have enjoyed great prominence in business and politics.[8][9]
^Cuinet, Vital (1894). La Turquie d'Asie (in French). Vol. 3. Paris. p. 66. Retrieved Jul 11, 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ abcCite error: The named reference auto10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Calcutta", Jewish Virtual Library
^Muzeon, Yisrael (1995). The Jews of India: A Story of Three Communities. University Press of New England. p.74. ISBN 965-278-179-7
^Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called BaghdadiJews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes...
000 Jews registered there in the 1940s, divided into B'nei and BaghdadiJews, though the BaghdadiJews refused to recognize the B'nei Israel as Jews, and...
Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. Some Jews migrated to India, establishing the Bene Israel, the BaghdadiJews and the Cochin Jews of India (Jews in India);...
history of the Jews in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in India, began in the late eighteenth century when adventurous Baghdadi Jewish merchants...
people (Malacca-Portuguese), Mizrahi Jews (the majority of whom are BaghdadiJews), Malabar Jews and Ashkenazi Jews. Jews could be found well into the 18th...
The history of the Jews in Iraq (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים בָּבְלִים, Yehudim Bavlim, lit. 'Babylonian Jews'; Arabic: اليهود العراقيون, al-Yahūd al-ʿIrāqiyyūn)...
of Israel. Indian Jews who live in Israel include thousands of Cochin Jews and Paradesi Jews of Kerala; thousands of BaghdadiJews from Mumbai and Kolkata;...
the Jews of Allahdad have residence in this area. Bangladeshi Jews areJews of Bangladesh who are reported to have been BaghdadiJews , Cochin Jews and...
Jewish groups—the ancient Cochin Jews, and Bene Israel communities as well as the more recent BaghdadiJews. The Jews in India had very peaceful existence...
BaghdadiJews which heavily influenced their relationship with Iraq. It shed a light on the plight of Jews in Arab countries, leading to Iraqi Jews being...
Mizrahi Jews (Hebrew: יהודי המִזְרָח), also known as Mizrahim (מִזְרָחִים) or Mizrachi (מִזְרָחִי) and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or Edot...
The BaghdadiJews had emigrated from Iraq to escape persecution and being subject to pogroms; they comprised most of the immigrants. Cochin Jews and the...
created, most Desi Jews immigrated mainly to Israel. BaghdadiJews Bene Ephraim Bene Israel Bnei Menashe Cochin Jews History of the Jews in Bangladesh History...
Look up Baghdadi in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Baghdadi or Al-Baghdadi may refer to: Al-Baghdadi or Baghdadi is an Arabic nisba meaning "from Baghdad"...
diversity of coastal south west India. These include the Parsis, Bohras and BaghdadiJews in the westernmost region, The descendants of west asian and mediterranean...
James Adam Reuben (born May 1987) is a British businessman, son of billionaire investor David Reuben. James Adam Reuben was born in May 1987,[citation...
reported in Rajshahi. The Jews of Bangladesh are reported to have been BaghdadiJews , Cochin Jews and the Bene Israel. Most of these Jews emigrated by the 1960s...
Empire: BaghdadiJews British Jews British Mandate of Palestine History of the Jews in Australia History of the Jews in Canada History of the Jews in Colonial...
Empire as merchants and colonial officials. Among the first wave, the BaghdadiJews stood out especially, including representatives of the influential families...
three distinct communities: the Bene Israeli Jews of Konkan, the BaghdadiJews of Iraq, and the Cochin Jews of Malabar. Bombay is home to the majority of...
Brian George (born 1 July 1952) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt in Seinfeld (1989–1998), the Indian...
Indian silent film actress of Jewish ancestry, from the community of BaghdadiJews in India. In her heyday she was one of the highest paid actresses of...
Jews. The two communities retained their ethnic and cultural distinctions. In the late 19th century, a few Arabic-speaking Jews, known as Baghdadis,...
spoken by the Jews of Baghdad and other towns of Lower Mesopotamia in Iraq. This dialect differs from the North Mesopotamian Arabic spoken by Jews in Upper...
Global Information