Pakistani Jews in Israel

Pakistani Jews in Israel

Total population
(1,000 - 2,000)
Regions with significant populations
Ramla
Languages
Hebrew (Main language for all generations); Mainly older people: Urdu, Marathi
Religion
Judaism

Pakistani Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Pakistani Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number between 1,000 and 2,000. The majority of these refugee Jews are those who migrated from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan to India and then many to Israel as part of the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, and formed a small community in the city of Ramla. The Jews in Pakistan were mainly Marathi-speaking Bene Israel.

Immigration history

Records cite that major Pakistani Jewish migration to Israel occurred in the 1960s and 1970s from India, where many Jewish refugees from Pakistan eventually settled during the independence period. Magain Shalome, built by Shalome Solomon Umerdekar and his son Gershone Solomon, Karachi’s last synagogue, was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a shopping plaza. Most of the Karachi Jews now live in Ramla, Israel, Toronto, Canada and Mumbai, India and built a synagogue they named Magen Shalome.

Jewish immigrants from Pakistan have served with distinction in the Israel Defense Forces, helped revive the game of cricket in Israel and have added a fair amount of colour to Israeli society.

See also

• Aliyah
• Jewish ethnic divisions
• Bene Israel
• One Million Plan

External links

• In search of the Jews of Karachi