#Bombayphile - Mumbai's Over 300 Years Old Connection with Israel.

 

My school was in the Samuel Street of Masjid Bunder in Mumbai. As a student, I never bothered to find out who Samuel was and why the street was named on him. I assumed that he might be some bigshot from the colonial era. It was around twenty-five years later, after passing out from the school, that I delved into the history of Samuel Street while researching for my first novel “Bombay 3”. I came across a very interesting story which tells Mumbai’s relation with the Israeli’s.

The local train travellers on the Central Railway know that the first station after the train originates from CSMT is Masjid. The word Masjid in Urdu translates into mosque, but in reality, the station is not named after any mosque, but after a synagogue, a Jewish place of worship. Hardly after a two minutes’ walk from the station, one reaches a yellow-coloured structure named “Gate of Mercy.” There is a history of why the synagogue has been so named.

Two Bene-Israelis named Samuel Ezekeil and Isaac Ezekeil were soldiers of the British East India Company. In the Mysore war, they were captured by Tipu Sultan’s army and were sentenced to death. Before executing them, Tipu asked to which caste they belonged. When the duo told that they were Bene-Israelis, Tipu’s mother intervened and asked Tipu to forgive them as she had read about the community in the Holy Quran. Tipu then entered into a prisoner swap deal with the Britishers and returned them.

Bene-Israelis came from the middle-east several centuries ago and landed at Alibag on the Konkan coastline. They follow Judaism. Although they follow the religious texts and practices, Bene-Israelis have also adopted Maharashtrian customs, traditions and attires. Many use the place of their dwelling as their surname, like Ramrajkar, Bamnolkar, Divekar and so on.

After returning to Bombay, they established a synagogue in 1796 to express their gratitude to God. It is the oldest synagogue in India.Initially the location was somewhere near today’s CSMT railway station, but in 1860, it was shifted to the present one. The locals mistook it be a mosque and started calling it “Juni Masjid”. The area is called Masjid Bunder due to its proximity to the port. In Marathi ‘Bunder’ means port.

The street was named as Samuel Street in his remembrance. It is hardly 200 metres away from my school’s building. Adjacent to the Samuel Street is Israel Mohalla where several Jew families lived once. Later on, members of the Pathan gang started living there. Few years back, an aspiring drug mafia was apprehended from the area by the Narcotics Control Bureau. The Gate of Mercy Synagogue is still active, although the turnout of faithful remains low. Most of the Bene-Israelis have shifted to adjacent cities, like Thane and Navi Mumbai.

(Bombayphile is published every week where Jitendra Dixit writes about the past and the present of Mumbai.)

PS: The Masjid Bunder are mentioned in this blog is a very interesting place with a unique character within the city of Mumbai. Those who are eager to know more must read my books “Bombay 3” and “Bombay After Ayodhya”.