Jews have God’s promise...
The city’s Jewish population may be dwindling, but as a leading light of the community puts it, “we have a habit of turning up unexpectedly!” Mathures Paul reports Even though an extremely small and dwindling community, Kolkata wouldn’t be the pot pourri that it is without its Jewish population. The first Jew to arrive in the city, it is said, was one Shalon ben Aharon ben Obadiah Ha-Kohen (Shalom Cohen). Cohen was a trader and in 1798 journeyed from Aleppo to Kolkata, the then business capital of India. With only about 50 members to call their own, the Jews are a close-knit people. And more importantly, one with minimum internal problems. “It is mostly the elderly who are left in the city. As far as I remember, the last Jewish marriage I attended was in the ‘60s. We have no problem with inter-community marriage; if a Jewish girl chooses to marry outside the religion her children will still be within the fold of the community…” says Ian Zachariah who set foot in Kolkata in 1959 to stud...