Introduction
The Bombay Jewish Archives is a digital repository and website dedicated to preserving and showcasing the history, culture, and contributions of India’s minuscule Jewish community through the lens of the city of Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay till 1995).
This rich past has lessons for Mumbai’s citizenry and for the communities whose archives we host. It highlights how multicultural the city’s social and business fabric was. We have a special section on Bombay’s Jewish families overseas, some written by members of these families and others by the Bombay Jewish Archives team.
This website hosts a valuable collection of personal histories, documents, images, artifacts, and traditional recipes that highlight the significant impact of Jewish individuals and institutions on the city's social, economic, and cultural landscape. The website is not just a valuable resource for the city and its citizens but for overseas Indian Jewish communities. The aim is to preserve and record this Jewish diaspora’s history, traditions, culture, and heritage in the locations where their identity as Indian Jews was shaped.
The name Bombay Jewish Archives refers not just to the city of Bombay but to the geographical extent of the colonial Presidency of Bombay that included cities like Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Karachi, and numerous princely kingdoms where communities of Jews once resided. It is in Bombay City that the largest community of both Bene Israel and Baghdadi Jews once resided, with smaller numbers of Malabar, Pardesi, and European Jews
The website chronicles how the Jewish communities contributed to city and community institutions through philanthropy; their seminal role in 19th and early 20th-century business; their outsized contribution to the city’s Hindi films industry, and, the colonial (later Indian) armed forces and administrative services; and the imprint they left as well-loved doctors, educationists, lawyers, artists, poets, and teachers
The Bombay Jewish Archives is a collaborative effort relying on contributions from community members, researchers, and institutions. We invite you to share your family histories, documents, and memories to enrich this digital archive.