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Jewish Cemetery at Delisle Road, Mumbai, India

Description

BACKGROUND

According to Sifra Lentin, David Sassoon “began his life in India when he nailed his mezuza, the sign of a Jewish home, to his doorpost at 9 Tamarind Lane.”[1] Indeed, the story goes that it was at 9 Tamarind Lane, the address of an old counting house, that newly arrived David Sassoon birthed his trading company David Sassoon & Co, which would become a giant in the worldwide trade of opium, cotton, teak and other commodities. More than just a successful businessman, Sassoon was a pious orthodox Jew who enlivened the Baghdadi Jews of Bombay with a strong sense of community. His mansion in Byculla, Sans Souci became a gathering spot for Jews on the Sabbath, a place where lively religious services and impassioned religious and Talmudic studies abounded. The frequent gatherings at his mansion quickly developed into a Jewish brotherhood: Hebrath Beth David (Brotherhood of the House of David). Hebrath Beth David, according to Weil, would become a new paradigm for Baghdadi Jewish communal life and religious observance in Bombay. Sassoon would become the benefactor of the Magen David Synagogue in Byculla (1861), the Ohel David Synagogue in Poona (1867), the Sassoon Hospital in Poona (1867),[2] as well as many landmarks in Jewish hubs in Palestine and Iraq.[3] Sassoon’s work as a businessman, philanthropist and leader of the community of Baghdadi Jewish refugees was not confined to an insular Jewish community, but had a massive influence on the landscape and development of Bombay as a city. Specifically, David Sassoon’s venture into the world of opium trade with the Chinese brought in tremendous wealth to Bombay, bolstering its cotton mill industry and providing funds for the city’s public buildings and city planning.[4] After David’s death in 1867, his children would continue to play focal roles in the Jewish community and economy of Bombay.

SITE

This Jewish cemetery is located on Delisle Road, about 15 minutes by car from David Sassoon’s old counting house on 9 Tamarind St. According to Jewish-Gen, an organization committed to diagramming Jewish genealogies throughout the world, there are six Jewish cemeteries in Mumbai and 57 in all of India. Several Jewish cemeteries in Mumbai are exclusively for Bene Israeli Jews, one of three Jewish sub-ethnic groups of India in addition to the Baghdadi Jews and indigenous Cochin Jews of the southern state of Kerala. According to Schifra Strizower, “Bene Israel maintain that their name suggests their origin, namely that they are descendants of members of the Ten Tribes of Israel who were shipwrecked off the Konkan, on the west coast of India, not far from the present site of Bombay, some two thousand years ago.”[5]

This cemetery appears to be for the Baghdadi Jews of India. Of particular note is the fact that this memory was consecrated in memory of Joseph Sassoon, the grandson of David Sassoon and son of Elias Sassoon. A plaque outside the cemetery reads: “Set apart forever by Elias David Sassoon in January 1878 as a Jewish burial ground in memory of his beloved son Joseph, who died at Shanghai in China on 22nd December 1868.”[6]

Mumbai, India

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