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Indian Refugee Family

What can we see?

We can see a family of five smiling at the camera. We can also see that they are each holding an animal- some have a monkey and some have a parrot.

Look closely, what can you see?

What do we know?

This photo shows the Isaac family who immigrated to Britain from India in 1957. Albert Isaac, the father, decided that the family should move to London, as he believed there was no longer a future for Jews in India. The Isaac family was part of the Indian Jewish Baghdadi Community and practiced Sephardic traditions of Judaism. Albert was an atheist, but his wife Miriam was Orthodox, so they kept an Orthodox home even though Albert did not attend synagogue. In India the Isaac’s were a fairly wealthy family. They had servants which was typical of affluent families in India at that time, the daughters attended private schools, and Albert Isaac had a good job.

When the Isaac’s left India and migrated to London they were not able to take money out of India, so they came to London with very little. They had to sell nearly all of their possessions and borrow money from relatives to get the money to travel. However, they still managed to bring some things from their home country with them on their journey. They brought black pepper, stone tools for grinding spices, a sewing machine, overcoats for the English winters, and their mother’s tradition of making homemade non-alcoholic currant wine for Shabbat.

The family travelled from Bombay (present day Mumbai) to Liverpool by cargo boat, a journey which lasted six weeks. After arriving in Liverpool the family travelled to the Jews’ Temporary Shelter in the East End of London. At the shelter, they lived in dormitories separated by gender, which meant that the family had to live apart from each other at the shelter. Most of the other immigrants in the Jews’ Temporary Shelter were Hungarian and Egyptian. Due to their different customs and traditions of worship, the Isaac family felt like outsiders among the other Jews at the shelter. Even the food at the Shelter was unfamiliar as the cook was Hungarian, and they had grown up eating Jewish food influenced by Arab and Indian cultures. The Isaac’s remained in the shelter for six months until they found a place to live in Stamford Hill.

In London, Albert was able to continue working for the company he worked for in India, but he was forced to take a lower position than he had previously held. Miriam, who had never worked before, got a job as a seamstress. The eldest daughter Yvonne found work as a typist, and the two youngest daughters, Jeanette and Maureen, attended school.

What do we wonder?

We might wonder who took this photograph? We might also wonder if any of the family missed living in India?

What do you wonder?

Object File

Object name: Jewish Immigrant Family from India

Date: 1957

Catalogue number: 75.25

Material(s): Black & White Photograph

Artist: Unknown

Size: Unknown

On display in the Jewish Museum? No

In the late 18th century Jews from Iraq, Iran, and other Arab countries arrived in India. These Jews were called ‘Baghdadi Jews’ because the majority of them came from Baghdad. However, the community soon came to include Jews coming to India from Syria, Yemen, Aden, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. The Baghdadi Jews came to India because of religious persecution in their home countries, and also for economic reasons. Many people in the Baghdadi Jewish community were merchants and businessmen, and they were able to set up new businesses and trade in India.

There were Baghdadi Jews living in many different parts of India from Surat (modern day Gujarat), to Bombay (modern day Mumbai), and Calcutta (modern day Kolkata). By 1940 there were around 7,000 Baghdadi Jews living all over India. The Baghdadi Jewish Communities in India maintained a strong sense of identity and kept alive many of the traditions that they had brought with them from their home countries, including life cycle rituals, methods of worship, and Arab-influenced foods.

During this time India was part of the British Empire. Many people in the community began to learn English and began to adopt British style clothing. When British rule ended and India became independent, many people from the Baghdadi Jewish Community were unsure of their future in India. By the 1950s and 1960s much of the Baghdadi Jewish Community had migrated to a new life in Britain. Today there are less than 50 Baghdadi Jews left in India.

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