India’s been home since the ’50s, now we feel scared: Jews in city

“It is only natural, isn’t it? The attack on Nariman House was clearly an attack on our community in India. This incident has now created apprehension in the minds of Jews here,” said Ezekiel Issac Malekar, honorary secretary and the rabbi in the Judah Hyam Synagogue — the only Jewish synagogue in Delhi.

According to Malekar, there are just 10 families and around 200 diplomats of the Jewish community living in the Capital.

Barely 5,000 people of the community are left in the country of which 4,000 stay in Mumbai, he said. “Our community has been staying here since the 1950s, without ever experiencing anti-Semitism, but the Mumbai attack has simply shattered our lives,” he says. “Our community here is scarred and unsure of the future now,” he added.

The Mumbai attack has had the same effect on the Israeli diplomats in the Capital. “We are equally shocked at the magnitude of the attack in Mumbai. The barbaric incident has made us apprehensive of the future of the Jewish community in the country,” said Eli Belotsercovsky, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel.

Others at the Israeli Embassy also feel that Nariman House was targeted for “being Jewish.” However, for the moment the community’s thoughts are with Moshe, the two-year-old son of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the terror attack.

Malekar said that a special prayer service for the rabbi and his wife will be held in the synagogue in Delhi on December 5 since the ritual to hold prayer services for the deceased soul is organized seven days after death.

“Despite all this we are trying to hold our own. The community, the consulate and our friends are constantly in touch with me, but I am a little disappointed that the Indian Government has not really bothered to get in touch,” Malekar said