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Visit to revamped Chinchpokli Jewish cemetery stirs many memories

By, Mumbai:
Jul 04, 2024 08:50 AM IST

German and Israeli consul generals, with a holocaust survivor, oversee renovation of Mumbai's historic Jewish cemetery, funded by both governments

The consul generals of the Federal Republic of Germany and Israel, accompanied by a 93-year-old holocaust survivor, visited a quaint cemetery close to the Chinchpokli railway tracks on Wednesday morning, to check the ongoing renovation, which started in April. The cemetery houses 1012 graves of Jews. While most graves are those of Baghdadi Jews, 22 are of Europeans who escaped the holocaust and found an unlikely refuge in Mumbai.

Mumbai, India - July 3, 2024: The Consulate General of Israel in Mumbai and The Consulate General of The Federal Republic of Germany in Mumbai to a ceremony to mark the restoration project of ‘The Chinchpokli Cemetery’. This ceremony marks the completion of the restoration project aimed at preserving the heritage and legacy of the European Jews who fled Europe during World War 2 & found shelter in Mumbai. This is the only Holocaust Memorial in India which has the gravesites of Holocaust refugees in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)
Mumbai, India - July 3, 2024: The Consulate General of Israel in Mumbai and The Consulate General of The Federal Republic of Germany in Mumbai to a ceremony to mark the restoration project of ‘The Chinchpokli Cemetery’. This ceremony marks the completion of the restoration project aimed at preserving the heritage and legacy of the European Jews who fled Europe during World War 2 & found shelter in Mumbai. This is the only Holocaust Memorial in India which has the gravesites of Holocaust refugees in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

“The graves were drowning amidst overgrown grass and plants,” said Ayushi Shah, the landscape architect who has been tidying up the cemetery since the last three months. “The greens have been trimmed so that the graves remain in focus for visitors to gaze and occasionally stop by to read the names of the people inscribed on them. Two benches have been set up as well.”

Apart from this, the entrance gates of the graveyard have been refurbished, the cobblestoned pathway raised to make walking easy especially when the area becomes waterlogged during monsoons and lamps have been put along the way.

This is the oldest of the four Jewish cemeteries in the city, which was set up by Elias David Sassoon a leading merchant and banker, and son of philanthropist David Sassoon, in January 1878, in memory of his son Joseph. The others are in Worli, Bandra and Mazgaon.

While the German government funded 60% of the project cost of 20 lakh, the rest was financed by the Israeli government. The cemetery itself is a landmark on the ‘Jewish Route’ (sites of Jewish heritage in the state, dotting Mumbai, Alibaug and Pune).

“It sends shivers down your spine to touch history,” said Kobbi Shoshani, consul general of Israel, as he showed visitors around the newly accessible graves. A rabbi who was flown in from Israel offered prayers at one. “We are taking a step towards preserving our memories through this restoration,” said Achim Fabig, the German consul general.

Holocaust survivor Jinx Ackerkar said, “I’ve heard stories of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, and boarding ships to the farthest places they could reach, including China. The ships made stops in Mumbai where some Jews familiar with British faces decided to settle down here.” Following tradition, Ackerkar placed a stone on the grave of her friend’s husband.

Ackerkar survived the holocaust fleeing from Germany to France and then to America after the attack on Pearl Harbour. She fell in love with a Maharashtrian while in college in the USA, and the couple made Mumbai their home in 1955.

Shoshani referenced from Margit Franz’s work on the holocaust and said India had sheltered around 5,000 European Jews at the time, many of them in Mumbai as the Jewish Relief Association was founded in the city in 1934. Franz is a researcher of German-Indian history from the University of Graz, Austria.

Abraham Yehuda, trustee of the Jacob Sassoon Trust, that takes care of the cemetery’s day-to-day operations, which also hosted Wednesday’s event, said that burials in the cemetery are few, given “the handful of Baghdadi Jews currently residing in the city”. Yehuda put the number down to 40.

The Jacob Sassoon Trust and Yehuda are funding the renovation of the inactive Bandra Jewish Cemetery in Kadeshwari Marg, which lay in a decrepit state. “The boundary wall was broken at two parts and the gate was also in a poor condition. Rats were seen scurrying around the garbage dump. This did not sit right with me. This is the resting place of our forefathers and deserves respect,” said Yehuda.

He calls it a “boutique cemetery,” with only 47 graves within of the erstwhile Jewish community in Bandra – most of them have passed on or moved out of the country. “Three Jewish men had opened the cemetery in 1947; two of them are buried in it, the other in Israel,” he said.

In 2022, when the caretaker and manager of the graveyard died, a committee was formed chaired by Yehuda and a plan laid out to renovate the space. “With the trust’s funds and my own contribution we repaired the wall and gate. We got rid of the rat problem with the help of the BMC and private pest control agencies. Grass, shrubs, plants and flowers were planted, and two water tanks installed,” he said.

The garbage dump was also cleared and a CCTV camera set up at the gates “Work will continue. A gardener visits every morning to tend to the plants and wash the graves. We plan to add more colour in the spaces between the graves by putting more flowering plants and decorating it.”

Yehuda however laments the neglect of the Jewish cemetery in Mazgaon – marked by garbage strewn around and dead wood and twigs. The inscriptions on the gravestones have also faded away. He said the trust is prepared to take on its restoration as well in future.

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