Mumbai, India - Synagogues: 3 of 4

The Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue was built in 1884 by Jacob Sassoon. Incorporating outstanding stained glass, English tiles and high ceilings, this Synagogue was the most impressive of the three we had seen today. The synagogue’s decorative interiors featured Victorian stained glass windows and rich Burmese teakwood furnishings and staircase. They share a Rabbi (with the first Synagogue) and have Services on Friday and Saturday with approximately 30-50 Congregants. We enjoyed the visit there although we didn’t get a guided tour but when I asked the caretaker and he confirmed I was Jewish , he was happy to allow me to see the Torah. They were selling some interesting books and Judaica (surprisingly the other two did not have a gift shop!).

According to the community’s folklore, the Bene Israel Jews here are descended from “seven black couples from a country to the north,” the sole survivors of a shipwreck off the Konkan coast near Navagaon (about 30 miles south of Bombay). An interesting story part of this story as to the community’s origins has to do with the centrality of the prophet Elijah in their name and tradition producing the theory that their ancestors lived in the Holy Land in the time of Elijah (eighth century BCE) and that the “country to the north” was actually Israel.Läs mer