INDIA AND JEWS

History of the Jews in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_India

History of the Jews in Mumbai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Mumbai

History of the Jews in Kolkata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Kolkata

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Jews and India
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/India.html

The Jews of India
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Jewish_World_Today/Jews_Around_the_Globe/jews-india.shtml

The Jewish Community of India
http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/india.htm

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Indian Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Indian_Jews

Bombay Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Jews

Cochin Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochin_Jews

Bene Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Israel

Bene Ephraim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Ephraim

Bnei Menashe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Menashe

Meshuchrarim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshuchrarim

Baghdadi Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdadi_Jews

Paradesi Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradesi_Jews

Sephardic Jews in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic_Jews_in_India

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Synagogues in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagogues_in_India

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India–Israel Relations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Israeli_relations

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Current Jewish Influence in India

Yusuf Hamied
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Hamied
Yusuf Khwaja Hamied (born 1936) is a leading Jewish Indian scientist and chairman of Cipla, a socially conscious generic pharmaceuticals company founded by his father Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour by Government of India in 2005. Born in Vilnius, Lithuania,on July 25th 1936. Yusuf Hamied was raised in Mumbai (previously Bombay). His Indian Muslim father and Russophone Jewish mother met in pre-war Berlin, where they both were graduate students.

J. F. R. Jacob
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._R._Jacob
Jacob-Farj-Rafael "JFR" Jacob (born 1923) is a retired Jewish Indian Army Lieutenant General. He is best known for the role he played in India's victory in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Liberation of Bangladesh. Jacob, then a Major General, served as the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army's Eastern Command during the war. During his 36 year career in the army, he also fought in World War II and the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. He later served as the Governor of the Indian states of Goa and Punjab. Jacob was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, British India, in 1923. His family were Baghdadi Jews originally from Iraq who settled in Kolkata in the middle of the 18th century. They were "a deeply religious Jewish family." Jacob's father, Elias Emanuel, was an affluent businessman.

Renana Jhabvala
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renana_Jhabvala
Renana Jhabvala is a Jewish Indian social worker based in Ahmedabad, India, who has been active for decades in organizing women into organizations and trade unions in India, and has been extensively involved in policy issues relating to poor women and the informal economy. She is best known for her long association with the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), India, and for her writings on issues of women in the informal economy. In 1990, she was awarded a Padma Shri from the Government of India for her contributions in the field of social work. In April 2012, she became Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural Institute, a Deemed University in Tamil Nadu, India.

Ezekiel Isaac Malekar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Isaac_Malekar
Ezekiel Isaac Malekar is the head of the Jewish community in New Delhi, India. He is the Honorary Secretary of the Judah Hyam Synagogue at the corner of Humayun road, where he works voluntarily. The Synagogue, in addition to serving the Jewish community of New Delhi, caters to the Jewish diplomats from foreign missions. It has hosted former Israeli Prime Ministers like Shimon Peres and felicitated David Danieli, the present Israeli Ambassador to India. Indian Jews also come here for important rituals like Brit milah, Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah for girls. Mr. Malekar, in addition to being a scholar of Judaism, is a noted human rights activist and a Deputy Registrar (Law) with the National Human Rights Commission in India. He was a key participant in the 15th International Conference on Human Integration (inaugurated by Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, a Sikh religious cleric and President of the World Council of Religions), at Kirpal Bagh, New Delhi on February 6, 2006. He is actively involved in inter-faith activities between the Jewish community and the Hindu majority in India, as well as the Sikh community. He has praised the multicultural nature of Indian Society where Judaism had existed for 2,000 years without ever experiencing anti-Semitism. Malekar has also presided over inter-faith marriages. He has asserted that his innate Indianness was infinitely more important than his consciousness of being a Jew.

David and Simon Reuben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Simon_Reuben
David and Simon Reuben are Jewish Indian British businessmen and philanthropists. In the Forbes magazine List of billionaires 2013, ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, the brothers were placed second. The brothers were born to a prosperous Baghdadi Jewish family in Bombay, India, in the forties. The family, which had lived in British India since the mid-1800s, emigrated to Britain in the early 1950s. Their extended family had run various businesses across the Indian Subcontinent from their base in Bombay. The family arrived in London when the boys were teenagers, allowing them to be educated in British secondary schools. The brothers increased their fortune during the 1970s and 1980s in both metals trading and property. Nearly half their fortune is in liquid assets such as cash and bonds. They avoid publicity, but provide some details about their interests on their personal website.

David & Simon Reuben
http://www.forbes.com/profile/david-simon-reuben/
Net Worth - $11.8 Billion. Real estate mogul brothers benefited from the best year in London real estate since 2006; asking prices in the U.K. capital increased 10.6% last year as supply failed to keep up with demand. The brothers continue to expand their data center business, GlobalSwitch, in Hong Kong, Sydney and Amsterdam. The company's strong balance sheet allowed it to pay the pair a special $1 billion dividend in December. The brothers were raised in the U.K. Simon started out importing carpets and buying real estate; David in metals trading. They later joined together in Transworld, a metals trader that invested in Russia and Kazakhstan in the 1990s. Since selling their metals business, the pair have built their fortune in property, pubs and natural resources. Their Reuben Foundation funds health care and educational causes. David resides in Monaco and Florida; Simon in Monaco.

Reuben Brothers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_Brothers
Reuben Brothers refers to the business interests of David and Simon Reuben. Reuben Brothers has various international departments and companies, including an office based in Switzerland. Its main activities are in real estate, private equity, and venture capitalism. Reuben Brothers have been involved in a number of major business transactions.

Solomon Sopher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Sopher
Solomon F. Sopher is the self-appointed president of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Mumbai, India. He also serves as the Trustee of the David Sassoon Fund, and as the chairman and managing director of Sir Jacob Sassoon Trust, which manages the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogues in Mumbai, as well as the Magen David and the Ohel David synagogues at Pune, India.

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Historical Jewish Political Influence in India

Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_Isaacs,_1st_Marquess_of_Reading
Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, GCB GCSI GCIE GCVO PC KC (1860 – 1935) was the Viceroy of India (1921–25), barrister, jurist and the last member of the official Liberal Party to serve as Foreign Secretary. He was the second practising Jew to be a member of the British cabinet (the first being Herbert Samuel,[1] who was also a member of the Asquith Government), the first Jew to be Lord Chief Justice of England, and the first British Jew to be raised to a marquessate.

Abraham Barak Salem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Barak_Salem
Abraham Barak Salem (1882–1967) was an Indian nationalist and Zionist, a lawyer and politician, and one of the most prominent Cochin Jews of the twentieth century. A descendant of meshuchrarim, he was the first to graduate from college, and the first Cochin Jew to become an attorney. He practised in Ernakulam, where he eventually used qsatyagraha to fight the discrimination among Jews against his people. An activist in the trade union and Indian national causes, he later was attracted to Zionism. After visiting Palestine in the 1930s, he later helped arrange the migration of most Cochin Jews to Israel by 1955. He stayed in Kochi for the remainder of his life.

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Historical Jewish Commercial Influence in India

Kadoorie Family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadoorie_family
The Kadoorie family (Arabic: خضوري‎) are a wealthy family, originally Mizrahi Jews from Baghdad. From the mid-18th century they were established in Bombay India, becoming one of the wealthiest families in Asia, and later to Hong Kong and Shanghai, China.

Sassoon Family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassoon_family
The Sassoon family is a famous family of Iraqi Jewish descent and international renown. It was based in Baghdad, Iraq, before moving to Mumbai, India and then spreading to China, England, and other countries. It is said that the family descended from the famous Ibn Shoshans, one of the richest families of medieval Al-Andalus, although the origins are ambiguous (see section below). From the 18th century, the Sassoons were one of the wealthiest families in the world, with a merchant empire spanning the continent of Asia.

David Sassoon & Co.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sassoon_%26_Co
David Sassoon & Co., Ltd. was a trading house operating in late 19th century and early 20th century China. Established by David Sassoon, a Baghdadi Jewish businessman in Bombay, the firm specialised in trading Indian cotton yarn and opium from Bombay to Canton, China. Later on the business expanded to act as Hong Kong agents for the Apcar Line, a company which operated steamers plying between Calcutta–Hong Kong and Japan–Shanghai. The firm also acquired property in Hong Kong.

Sassoon Baronets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassoon_baronets
Two Sassoon baronetcies, both now extinct, were created in 1890 and 1909 respectively, for members of the Anglo-Indo-Iraqi and Indo-Iraqi branches of the Sassoon family of Baghdadi Jewish descent. The Sassoon baronetcy, of Kensington Gore, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 22 March 1890 for the Anglo-Iraqi businessman Albert (formerly Abdullah) Sassoon, whose family hailed from Baghdad. The second baronet Sir Edward Sassoon represented Hythe as a Liberal Unionist Party Member of Parliament from May 1899 to his death in 1912. The third Baronet Sir Philip Sassoon was a Conservative British politician, art collector and social host, who represented Hythe in the House of Commons from 1912 and served as Under-Secretary of State for Air from 1924 to 1929 and again from 1931 to 1937, and First Commissioner of Public Works in 1937. He was appointed Privy Councillor in 1929. On his death in 1939 the baronetcy became extinct. The Sassoon baronetcy, of Bombay, was created 9 February 1909 for Sir Albert's nephew Jacob Elias Sassoon. He had no children, so a special remainder enabled his younger brother to inherit. The third baronet was also childless, and the title died out with him in 1961.

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Historical Jewish Commercial Influence in India

Sir Sassoon David
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Sassoon_David,_1st_Baronet
Sir Sassoon Jacob Hai David, 1st Baronet (1849 – 1926) was a member of the community of Baghdadi Jews that lived in Bombay from the late 18th Century into the 20th Century. A prominent businessman, he was the lead promoter of the Bank of India, founded in 1906. He served on the council of the governor general of India, on the Imperial Legislative Council and the Bombay Municipal Corporation for twenty years, becoming its head in 1921. He was made a knight in 1905 and a baronet in 1911. He had partly financed the construction of the Gateway of India. He was married to Hannah Sassoon, the daughter of Elias David Sassoon. Their son was Sir Percival David, 2nd Baronet.

Ellis Kadoorie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Kadoorie
Sir Ellis Kadoorie (1865 – 1922) was a Jewish Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. He was a member of the wealthy Baghdadian Kadoorie family that had large business interests in the Far East. His brother was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his nephew was Lawrence Kadoorie. His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-eighteenth century.

Elly Kadoorie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elly_Kadoorie
Eleazer Silas Kadoorie, known as Sir Elly Kadoorie (1867 - 1944), was a Jewish philanthropist and member of a wealthy family that had large business interests in the Far East. His brother was Sir Ellis Kadoorie, and his sons are Sir Lawrence Kadoorie and Sir Horace Kadoorie. His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-eighteenth century.

Ellis and Elly Kadoorie arrived in Shanghai from Bombay in 1880 as employees of the Sephardi Jewish firm David Sassoon & Sons. Within a few years they had accumulated large sums of money and had gone into business on their own accounts, with companies in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. Over the next two decades, the Kadoorie brothers made their fortunes, achieving success in banking, rubber plantations, electric power utilities and real estate, and gaining a major share-holding in Hong Kong Hotels Limited.

Horace Kadoorie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Kadoorie
Sir Horace Kadoorie, CBE (1902 - 1995) was a famous Jewish industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-18th century. In 1913-14, he spent a year at Clifton College and was a member of Polacks House; a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton. Kadoorie and his brother Sir Lawrence Kadoorie worked for Victor Sassoon during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his famous Shanghai hotel. They also worked for there for their father, the famous industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.

Lawrence Kadoorie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kadoorie,_Baron_Kadoorie
Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron Kadoorie, CBE (1899 - 1993) was a famous Jewish industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. His family were originally Mizrahi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-eighteenth century. He was educated at Clifton College. Kadoorie and his brother Sir Horace Kadoorie worked for Victor Sassoon during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his famous Shanghai hotel. They also worked for their father the famous industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.

Albert Abdullah David Sassoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Abdullah_David_Sassoon
Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet, KCB, CSI, (1818 – 1896) was a Jewish British Indian businessman and philanthropist. He was a major benefactor to the city of Bombay; among his gifts were the Sassoon Dock completed in 1875, and a handsome proportion of the cost of Elphinstone High School. In 1867 Sasoon was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) and in 1872 a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KCB). Around the same time he received "Order of Lion and Sun" from Shah of Persia for "work in Persia and his services in development of Persian commerce". In 1873 he visited England and received the freedom of the city of London. Shortly afterwards he settled in England, and was created Baronet Sassoon in 1890. David Sassoon donated Rs. 60000, while the Government of Bombay Presidency bore the remainder of the cost, Rs. 65,000, for the construction of the David Sassoon Library and Reading Room on Rampart Row, Kala Ghoda in Mumbai. Its contraction was completed in 1870 and like many buildings in the vicinity, such as Elphinstone College, Army and Navy Buildings and Watson's Hotel, it was built using yellow Malad stone. The entrance portico bears his white stone bust.

David Sassoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sassoon
David Sassoon (1792 – 1864) was the Jewish treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the Jewish community in Bombay (now Mumbai) after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there. He was a leading trader of cotton and opium in China.

Elias David Sassoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_David_Sassoon
Elias David Sassoon (1820 – 1880) was a Jewish Iraqi-Indian philanthropist and businessman involved in trade in India and the Far East. He was the second son of David Sassoon by his first wife Hannah Joseph. He first followed father started his business in India. After the occupiation of Hong Kong, he moved to Hong Kong in 1844 as his base to start his business in China. In 1850 he moved to Shanghai. He was father of Jacob Elias Sassoon and Edward Elias Sassoon.

Solomon David Sassoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_David_Sassoon_%281841%E2%80%931894%29
Solomon David Sassoon (1841 – 1894) was a Baghdadi Jewish Indian businessman and philanthropist. He was born in Bombay, India in 1841. He went to China as an assistant to his father, and later served as head of David Sassoon & Co. until his death. He also served as Chairman of the Sassoon Spinning and Weaving Co. and the Sassoon and Alliance Silk Co. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the Port Canning and Land Improvement Co. and the Oriental Life Assurance Co., two Joint-stock companies. He sat on the Board of Directors of the Bank of Bombay and the Mumbai Port Trust. Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet (1832–1907) appointed him twice to the Council of the Governor of Bombay. He was President of the Bombay branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association from 1894. An Orthodox Jew, he had a private synagogue in his home.

Henry Strakosch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Strakosch
Sir Henry Strakosch GBE (1871 – 1943) was a Jewish Austrian-born British South African banker and businessman. He entered banking in the City of London in 1891, then began working for the Anglo-Austrian Bank of South Africa in the 1895. Strakosch became a naturalized British citizen in 1907. He served as a financial adviser to the South African government, and was the author of the 1920 South African Currency and Banking Act. He was chairman of the South African goldminers, Union Corporation from 1924. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance during 1925 and 1926. He later served on the Council of India between 1930 and 1937, served as a delegate for India at the Imperial Economic Conference in 1932, and acted as adviser to the Secretary of State for India between 1937 and 1942. He was chairman of The Economist between 1929 and 1943.

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Joseph Rabban
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rabban
Joseph Rabban (early Malayalam: Issuppu Irappan) was a prominent Jewish merchant chief on the Malabar Coast, India in 11th century AD. According to the Jewish copper-plates of Cochin (AD 1000), a charter issued by the Ceras of Cranganore, Rabban was granted land (rights of Ancuvannam along with the other proprietary rights enjoyed by high ranking Cera nobles) in the Cera kingdom. Rabban's descendants continued to exercise dominion over the Jews of the Malabar coast until a conflict broke out between one of his descendants, Joseph Azar, and his brother in the 1340s. The ensuing strife led to intervention by neighboring potentates and the eradication of Jewish autonomy in southern India.

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Hindu - Jewish Leadership Summit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR3LuHGfJTc

Rabbi David Rosen on the Hindu-Jewish Relationship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB3eMbItvrk

A Hindu Nationalist addresses Chabad Lubavitch Synagogue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKECZLdfjEo

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India-Israel Relations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymV6_cBr76M

Israel's Arms Trade with India
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s17pwpwqIks

India, Israel, and the Jewish People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WZTJe-XuQU

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Jewish India in Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMRR42oFdPY

Jews in the Cradle of India
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5EMuUrpj0

The Jews of Mizoram - India
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS0RQG5FMuE

The Vanishing Jews Of Bombay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYuwFNbPvJY

Bene Israel: Jews of Mumbai Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9pZnnHlKs

Bene Israel: Jews of Mumbai Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQ2gDe8z10

Bene Israel: Jews of Mumbai Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrdG7O0UIO4

India's 'Lost Tribe' of Jews looks to Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8easGuA6x70

Scenes of Jewish Life in Kerala, India (1937)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha91MldHZb4

Bnei Menashe Documentary - from India to Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VIEGfAg6UM

The Jews of Jew Town, Mattencherry, Kerala, India
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_82ntBcACQ8