A look at the first Jewish Synagogue in Calcutta
Written by Taste of Calcutta with images by Abir Ganguly
The first Jewish settlers were actually from Aleppo, Syria and not from Baghdad. Shalom Aaron Cohen from Aleppo was the first recorded Jewish immigrant in Calcutta. After him other Jews settled down in Indian, particularly from Baghdad and made India their home. The most famous of the Baghdadi Jews in Calcutta are the Nahoum family who run Nahoum and Sons confectionary in New Market, Calcutta.
Neveh Shalome Synagogue was the first synagogue built in Calcutta in 1831 by Shalom Obaidah Cohen. However, the structure had a very short lived history. Because it was the first synagogue, it had only a simple prayer hall initially but as the population grew, grander synagogues were built like Beth El and Magen Davin Synagogue.
So in just 59 years in 1884 Naveh Shalome Synagogue was demolished and was replaced by the grander Magen David Synagogue. But in 1910 the the Jewish community decided to rebuild the Neveh Shalome Synagogue in the vacant plot in the Magen David Synagogue complex.
As was the previous state and design of the original synagogue, the new one too was kept simple. But the population of Jews started to decline soon in Calcutta with the independence of India in 1947 and the birth of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948 and that led to the services being stopped soon.
In 2000 the Archaeological survey of India (ASI) restored the Magen David and the Beth El Synagogues, but the Neveh Shalome did not come under the heritage tag of ASI and remained forgotten. Till, in 2014, the Jewish community decided to restore the synagogue.
Today Neveh Shalome Synagogue stands restored with its simple elegant interiors. It follows the pattern of the other Baghdadi synagogues.
The inside has chequered marble floor. In the middle of the hall there is a simple raised platform called bimah from where the rabbi would read from the Torah.
The particularly prominent architectural feature is the sizeable heckal (ark) at the end of the hall. The heckal is always positioned on the wall nearest to Jerusalem as per synagogue convention, is set within a high half-domed apse. Below the dome are 3 arched doors, with Parochet or curtains hanging, separating this holiest of the holy spot from the rest of the synagogue.
There several long wooden benches and chairs. As per Orthodox synagogue custom, the ground floor is where men sit, whereas the gallery level is the women’s seating area.
Although the services have stopped & it is a rather simple structure, the clean & quietness of the place holds a lot of Jewish history in a land so far away from their home.
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