In Karachi, the Magain Shalome Synagogue was built in 1893 by Shalome Solomon Umerdekar and his son Gershone Solomon. Other accounts suggest that it was built by Solomon David, a surveyor for the Karachi Municipality and his wife Sheeoolabai, although these may be different names for the same people. The synagogue soon became the center of a small but vibrant Jewish community. Abraham Reuben was one of its leaders.
Jews were treated with tolerance and respect, and a variety of associations existed to serve the Jewish community in Karachi, among them the Young Men’s Jewish Association. It was founded in 1903, and its aim was to encourage sports, as well as religious and social activities, among the Bene Israel in Karachi. In addition, the Karachi Bene Israel Relief Fund was established to support poor Jews in Karachi. The Karachi Jewish Syndicate, formed in 1918, aimed at providing homes for poor Jews at reasonable rents. Jews also had a small community in the northern city of Peshawar in the Northwest Frontier Province, that was served by two synagogues.
Some Jews migrated to India at the time of independence, but reportedly some 2,000 remained, most of them Bene Yisrale (or Bene Israel) Jews observing Sephardic Jewish rites. The first real exodus from Pakistan came soon after the creation of Israel, which triggered multiple incidents of violence against Jews, including the synagogue in Karachi being set on fire. The Karachi synagogue became the site of anti-Israel demonstrations, and the Pakistani Jews the subject of public mistrust.
Ayub Khan’s era saw the near-disappearance of Pakistani Jewry. The vast majority left the country, many for Israel, but some went to India or the United Kingdom. Reportedly, several hundred Jews remained in Karachi, but out of concern for their safety, and as a reaction to increasing religious intolerance in society, many went underground, sometimes passing themselves off as Parsis.
According to a website on Jewish history, many of the Karachi Jews now live in Ramale and have built a synagogue there called Magain Shalone. The Magain Shalome Synagogue, in Karachi’s Rancore Lines area, became dormant in the 1960s and was demolished by property developers in the 1980s to make way for a commercial building. Reportedly, the last caretaker of the synagogue, a Muslim, rescued the religious artifacts (bima, ark, and so on) from the synagogue, but it is not clear where he—or those artifacts—are now.
Before 1947
Before 1947, there were about 2,500 Jews living in Pakistan and most of them lived in Karachi. Most of these Jews had migrated from Persia (Iran) and they lived as tradesmen, artisans, poets, philosophers and civil servants. Their mother-tongue was Marathi which indicated their Bene Israel origin.
1947-1968
Relations with Jews continued to be tolerant after the establishment of Pakistan as a modern state in 1947. But violent incidents against Jews occurred in Pakistan after the creation of Israel, that gave rise to feelings of insecurity within the Jewish community. The synagogue in Karachi was burned, and Jews were beaten. More attacks on Jews occurred after the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948, 1956 and 1967. The Jews migrated to India, Israel and the United Kingdom. The small Jewish community in Peshawar ceased to exist by the 1960s, and both synagogues were closed.
By 1968, the Jewish population in Pakistan had decreased to only 250 people and almost all of them were living in Karachi—and being served by one synagogue. Pakistan did not establish relations with Israel out of Muslim solidarity with Arab states.
1969-1999
In his address as chair of the Second Islamic Summit in 1974, Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto asserted: “To Jews as Jews, we bear no malice; to Jews as Zionists, intoxicated with their militarism and reeking with technological arrogance, we refuse to be hospitable.”
The media in Pakistan have provided extensive coverage of the political and personal career of the cricket star Imran Khan. Since Khan’s marriage in 1996 to Jemima Goldsmith, daughter of a British industrialist and politician, Sir James Goldsmith, Khan was accused of acting as an agent of the ‘Jewish lobby.’ Jemima Khan publicly denied that her parents were Jewish. An Egyptian newspaper distributed in Pakistan accused Khan of receiving large sums of money for his election campaign from the so-called ‘Jewish lobby.’ Following complaints from Khan, the deputy editor of the newspaper retracted the story and published an apology.
Since India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992, the Pakistani media have repeatedly referred to the “Zionist threat on our borders,” and occasionally combine both anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. This is particularly common in the Islamic press, but also occurs in mainstream publications. Some of the hatred may be partially attributed to the fact that Israel helped India with military supplies during the Kargil War. Israel also provided intelligence reports during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, in which an Indian Jew, J.F.R. Jacob, was one of the military masterminds in liberating East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
2000-Present
Jews from Iran used Pakistan as a transit point to migrate to India. However, the Iranian government discovered the secret route and closed the passageway in 2000. Presently, the tiny Jewish community in Karachi maintains a low profile. As mentioned earlier, Magen Shalome, the synagogue built by Shalome Solomon Umerdekar and his son Gershone Solomon, was Karachi’s last synagogue, and was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a shopping plaza. Most of the Karachi Jews now live in Ramla, Israel. Some Jewish families do remain, but they prefer to pass themselves off as Parsis.
