বাংলায় পড়ুন
Humans are vulnerable the most when they are tossed-and-turned with sorrow and the best place to encounter the past memories are synagogues, cemetery. A true reflection of memories are sealed forever in these places.
“…And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 10:12
If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.”
Deuteronomy 28:1
Such blessing and command written in Jewish Torah (also called as the ‘Devarim’) that would bequeath the Jews if they stay under the path of Almighty. But, tables were turned when the Assyrians, then the Babylonians and finally the Romans forced the Jews to move away from their own land. They wandered the earth for many years and prospered wherever they use to reside. Due to their business-oriented approach towards life, it was pretty easy for them to adapt to any lifestyle even though they were ‘Stateless’ for many years. But have you ever wondered how many Jews who arrived from Aleppo in Syria, Isfahan in Iran, from Baghdad in Iraq, settled in Narkeldanga?
According to history, the community was led by first Jewish Settler in Calcutta was Shalom Aharon Obadiah ha-Cohen, who arrived in 1798. Legend has it, a Bengali friend helped him to provide land so that he could use it for cemetery purpose for his community. After receiving a plot of land in Narkeldanga, Sholam offered his gold ring to his friend,who denied receiving any amount for the land. Unknowingly, they created history as that day Calcutta’s Jewish Cemetery was created. The first burial was of Hacham Moses de Pas Shaliah of Safad on 1st January 1812. But sadly, no one can trace the grave of Shalom Cohen. If you visit Jewish Cemetery, those century-old graves have blue and white metal plates on them with letters and number on them. Back in the 1870s, a small, private, Jewish cemetery was created at 24, U.C. Banerjee Road. It was shut down around 20 years later. The small cemetery contained 7 graves, of which 2 were of infants. The other 4 graves were identified by Rabbi Ezekiel Musleah back in the 1950s. Shalom Israel (The last Jews in Calcutta), the former caretaker of Beth El Synagogue (26, Pollock St, Chitpur, Barabazar Market, Kolkata, West Bengal 700001) left Calcutta for Israel on 2014, December.
The curious structure of the Prayer Hall will draw your attention, no doubt. It is about 4 feet tall, a pentagon in shape, with a sloping roof and a tiny slit near the top of the roof. These structures will show little influence on Jewish culture.
Not many of us know that several of the graveyard vaults were meant to store cash. But it is still not clear whether was it for the poor or for the maintenance of the cemetery. Many stories still stay cocooned at the Jewish Cemetery.
All of us take life for granted. We plan greater things which keep us pushing. Then one day we find that it’s too late to fulfill every dream. Two petrifying words haunt a human being is “What if”, and “If only”. So do what’s need to be done because “TOMORROW NEVER COMES”.
