As the tiny Jewish community in the city mourns the loss of lives in the terror attack in Mumbai, the ten families living in the Capital say they now feel “vulnerable” and believe the attack on Nariman House to be an “attack on their community.”

“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 rabbi said that the synagogue here-a meeting point for the members of the community as well as the others would be “extra cautious now.”

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.

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