Kolkata (Calcutta)

Calcutta

Baghdadi-Jewish merchant capital of the Raj - the Sassoon-linked trading houses, the Maghen David and Beth El synagogues (1880s, among Asia's largest) - reduced to dozens.

Modern locality anchor

Kolkata (Calcutta)

India · City · 22.6°N 88.4°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

View location

Where is Kolkata (Calcutta)?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Kolkata (Calcutta)?

1795–1884

Baghdadi settlement era (1790s; Shalom Cohen)

1884–1947

Raj-era peak (Maghen David, Beth El built)

1947–present

Post-1947 emigration

Today

Dozens of residents; landmark synagogues maintained.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Kolkata (Calcutta) sound like?

Judeo-ArabicHebrew (עברית, Ivrit)

Judeo-Arabic is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Kolkata (Calcutta)

Dozens of residents; landmark synagogues maintained.

Maghen David Synagogue
synagogue · historic site
Built 1884; restored.
Beth El Synagogue
synagogue · historic site
Built 1856.
Jewish cemetery (Narkeldanga)
cemetery · historic site

SOURCES & REVIEW

Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)
Macmillan Reference USA · 2007
India - Virtual Jewish History Tour
Jewish Virtual Library · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

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