A trip to Mumbai where the unthinkable happened
After having spent three days in Kolkata last winter, Moshe Klein was looking forward to a long weekend in Mumbai to gain a different perspective on India’s Jewish communities. While India has several states with Jewish populations, Mumbai was the destination that beckoned to Klein, and he timed his visit for the 15th yahrtzeit of the deadly massacre at the local Chabad House, in which Rabbi Gavriel and Rivky Holtzberg and four others were murdered.Klein headed straight from Mumbai’s main airport to the Magen David Synagogue, built in 1864 by Sir David Sassoon to meet the needs of the growing local Baghdadi Jewish community. As in other countries with significant Muslim minorities where Klein has traveled, the shul is located in a Muslim area, where the buildings’ distinctive architecture of spires and cusped arches is richly ornamented.
“History-wise, Jews get along better with their Muslim neighbors than anyone else,” explains Klein. “There is often a mutual respect.”
The shul was restored in 2011, its original yellow façade repainted a spectacular shade of light blue, a color used in several other local shuls as well. The compound where Magen David stands is home to two schools that once served the local Jewish community — the Eliza Ezra Ezekiel Sassoon High School, built in 1902, and the Sir Jacob Sassoon High School, founded in 1908. While both are still operating and run by a Jewish trust, their students have no connection to Klal Yisrael, a situation that evolved as Mumbai’s Jewish residents emigrated from the area. This reality echoes what Klein encountered in Kolkata, but he found Mumbai’s “Jewish” schools to have even less of a Jewish flavor than those he had seen just days earlier in eastern India.
The trip from the airport to the Magen David Synagogue normally takes 25 minutes by car, but Klein decided to travel the 18 miles by rickshaw, a decision that he admits wasn’t the best choice.
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