India

Description

The history of the Jews in India reaches back to ancient times. Indian Jews are a religious minority of India. Judaism was one of the first foreign religions to arrive in India in recorded history. The better-established ancient communities have assimilated a large number of local traditions through cultural diffusion. Post breakfast we drive to a very busy commercial trading area of Mumbai city which calls for walk through narrow streets to visit the oldest synagogue, Shaar Ha-Rahamim (Gate of Mercy) synagogue built in 1796 by Samuel Ezekiel Divekar. Proceed to Magen David Synagogue situated at Byculla in Central Bombay with a huge Jewish population, built in 1861 by Sir David Sassoon. Drive to visit Tifereth Israel Synagogue. Our next stop is `Dhobi Ghat’, the city’s open air laundry! where “Dhobis’ (washermen) attend to an astounding quantity of washing daily. Clothes, linen, towels …. are washed in small open air cubicles rented out each day. An itemized account is logged in a notebook and clothes collected from households are returned a week later. End your tour by visiting Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue which dates back 1884. It has a white wooden staircase, decorative floor tiles and fine stain glass windows.