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Heart and Soul: Custodians of the synagogue

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Custodians of the synagogue

22/11/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Custodians of the synagogue

Kolkata’s Maghen David synagogue was once the centre of a thriving Jewish community.

The magnificent Maghen David synagogue in Kolkata, India, was once a place of worship for a thriving community of Baghdadi Jews in the city. Now, not more than 30 Jews remain, most of them elderly. There was no resident rabbi from the mid-'60s onwards and, for years, no regular services have been held in the synagogue. But the Maghen David synagogue still occupies a special place in the hearts and souls of those who have known and used it.

Jael Silliman and her mother Flower have returned to Kolkata, the city of their birth, after living in the USA and Israel. Before the community completely disappears, Jael is trying to compile a digital archive that will record their history.

Although the community itself has almost disappeared, the Maghen David has recently been restored and – somewhat surprisingly – has been lovingly looked after for generations by Muslim caretakers. Like his father and grandfather before him, Rabul Khan, takes great pride in his work as a custodian of the synagogue. He says there is no difference between this place of worship and his own: “Both are the House of God and you look after it as if it is your own. We do it with our hearts, whether it is a church, temple, synagogue or mosque.”
 
Rabul hopes that the synagogue’s restoration might perhaps lead to a revival of the community too: “We believe that there will be a resurgence and more will come to pray in the synagogue…with Allah’s blessings”

(Photo: Maghen David synagogue. Credit: Ruth Evans)

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