History of the Jews in Pakistan goes back to 1839 when Pakistan was part of British India.[1][2] Various estimates suggest that there were about 50,000 to 60,000 Jews living in Karachi at the beginning of the 20th century, mostly comprising Iranian Jews and Bene Israel (Indian Jews);[3][4][5] a substantial Jewish community lived in Rawalpindi,[1] and a smaller community also lived in Peshawar.
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 Jew in Pakistan.[9][10] However, Benkhald's identity has been challenged by his brothers, who claim to be Muslims,[11][12] and he has been targeted and attacked in the country due to his activism for religious minorities in Pakistan. However, his Jewishness was formally recognized by the Pakistani government in 2017 after numerous appeals.[13]
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.[1]
According to the 1881 census, there were 153 Jews in Sindh province.[14] In the Sindh Gazetteer of 1907,[15]Edward Hamilton Aitken mentions that according to the 1901 census, the total population of Jews [in Sindh] was 482 and almost all of them lived in Karachi.[16] By 1919, this figure had risen to about 650.[17] By 1947, there were about 1,500 Jews living in Sindh with the majority residing in Karachi. Most of these Jews were Bene Israel and they lived as tradesmen, artisans, poets, philosophers and civil servants.[18]
In 1911, Jews constituted 0.3 percent of Karachi's population and at the time of independence from the British Empire their number had reached 2,500.[19] In her 1947 book 'Malika-e-Mashriq' (Queen of the East), Mehmooda Rizwiya has written about the Jewish presence in Karachi.[16] Jews used to live in Karachi.[20][21] In a paper titled "Karachi Ke Yahudi" (Karachi's Jews), Gul Hasan Kalmatti indicates that Jews arrived in Karachi from Maharashtra in the 19th century.[22][23]
A variety of associations existed to serve the Jewish community in Pakistan, including:
Magain Shalome Synagogue: Built in 1893 near Ranchore Line,[24] 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
Pakistani Jews after making aliyah from Pakistan, 1963
1947–1970
Leading up to the time of the Partition of India,[25] some 1300 Jews remained in Karachi, most of them Bene Israel Jews observing Sephardic Jewish rites.[26] 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.[27][28] When Israel came into being in 1948, many Jews migrated to Israel, and after the Arab-Israel war a majority of them left Karachi.[29] By 1953, fewer than 500 Jews were reported to be in all of Pakistan.[30]
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.[31] As per another account, in July 1988 the synagogue was burnt and brought down by religious zealots (where today a building 'Madiha Square' stands).[32] The last custodian of the synagogue was Rachel Joseph, now deceased.[33][34][35] Many Jews who migrated from Pakistan have not updated their status since leaving Pakistan in NADRA's database so the database must be old and there may not actually be as many Jewish Pakistanis left in Pakistan despite NADRA showing existence of Jews in Pakistan.[citation needed]
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.[36]
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.[37] The Bene Israel's prayers include intercessions on behalf of Her Majesty as in several Commonwealth countries.[38] The Jewish Chronicle of London reported on Karachi's Jews as recently as 2007.[39]
Most 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. Developments in the Middle East peace process led to an alleged visit of Pakistan's government's representative's visit to Israel. While, the government denies any such visit to Israel a new controversy broke out when a former minister said that he visited Israel during Nawaz Sharif's tenure as PM.[citation needed]
The massive demographic influx of Mohajirs from the Dominion of India upon independence, the creation of Israel and the Arab–Israeli conflict led to a rise in anti-Semitism in Pakistan. The Synagogue was demolished in 1988.[43] Incidents of violence against Jews started occurring following the establishment of Israel, creating a sense of insecurity within the community in Karachi. Karachi's Magain Shalome Synagogue was set ablaze, and attacks on Jews escalated after each Arab-Israeli war—in 1948, 1956, and 1967.[43] Since the 1970s, anti-Semitism has significantly mounted.[44]
^Weil, Shalva. 2010 'Pakistan'; in Norman A. Stillman (ed.) Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Leiden:Brill.
^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).
^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).
^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 [first published in 2002; 3rd edn.], 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.
^Salman, Peerzada (3 November 2013). "Role of Jews in Karachi's uplift highlighted". Pakistan: Dawn. Retrieved 17 January 2017. In 1911 they constituted 0.3 per cent of the city's population and at the time of partition their number had reached 2,500.
^Ghosh, Palash (16 November 2013). "Karachi Yahudi: Pakistan's Vanishing (Or Vanished) Jewish Community". International Business Times. Retrieved 26 January 2017. In a paper titled "Karachi Ke Yahudi" ("Jewish Karachi"), Kalmatti indicated that Jews arrived in Karachi from Maharashtra (now the state in western India that includes Mumbai) in the 19th century – when, of course, there was no Pakistan, as the British ruled over all of the Indian subcontinent.
^Weil, Shalva. 2009 'Bene Israel Rites and Routines' in Shalva Weil (ed.) India’s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle, Mumbai: Marg Publications [first published in 2002; 3Arts, 54(2): 26–37.rd edn.], 78–89. Reprinted in Marg: A Magazine of The
^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).
^Salman, Peerzada (3 November 2013). "Role of Jews in Karachi's uplift highlighted". Pakistan: Dawn. Retrieved 17 January 2017. When in 1948 Israel came into being a lot of Jews migrated to Israel, and after the Arab-Israel war a majority of them left the city.
^Salman, Peerzada (3 November 2013). "Role of Jews in Karachi's uplift highlighted". Dawn. Pakistan. Mr Kalmatti, the only speaker of the day who spoke in Urdu, said in 1988 the synagogue was burnt and brought down by religious zealots.
^"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.
^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.
^Hashmi, Zeeba T (12 November 2015). "The Jews of Pakistan". Daily Times. Pakistan. Retrieved 17 January 2017. We cannot ignore the fact that before the 1970s there generally were no anti-Semitic feelings towards the Jews of Pakistan.
