Sunday, March 13, 2011

Karachi's Jewish cemetery in dire need of repair

There are nearly 5,000 graves at the Bani Israel cemetery in Karachi, Pakistan. (photo: Huma Imtiaz/The Express Tribune)

The Pakistani Jewish Journal blogger Mahim Maher always wanted to be Jewish - not a popular thing to be in today's Pakistan. The few Jews have all disappeared, or claim to be Christians. The 5,000-grave cemetery in Karachi is in desperate need of repair, according to an article by Huma Imtiaz:

In the heart of Karachi, amidst the sounds of traffic and the ever-present smog, one can hear shouts of bus conductors calling out “Tower, Tower!” The object of their affection is the 19th century Merewether Tower on II Chundrigar Road, dwarfed now by tall buildings in the city’s busy financial area, but still unique due to its design. In the middle of the tower is an engraved Star of David, set in stone. Some upholder of religion has thoughtfully spray painted Yahoodi (Jew) on the tower, perhaps to mark it for demolition in the future.

During the British Raj, there was a small but vibrant Jewish community in Karachi, which was renowned even then for being a multi-ethnic city. One member of the Jewish community, Abraham Reuben, was even elected to the post of councilor of the Karachi city corporation, the forerunner of the KMC, in 1919. Many members of the community left after the founding of Israel and more left after the Arab-Israeli wars led to increased anti-Jewish feeling in Pakistan. Of those who remained, many succumbed to old age and disease, but urban legend has it that a few still live on in deliberate obscurity. And those who died here have left their mark on the land.

Walking into the Jewish cemetery in Mewa Shah, Karachi, one is greeted by a family sitting on a charpoy [rope bed], soaking in the sun. “Is this the Jewish graveyard?” I ask. A young boy lisps back, “This is the Israeli graveyard”. To him, the meanings of Jewish and Israeli are interchangeable.

Muhammad Ibrahim, the 62-year-old caretaker of the cemetery, was born in a small room located inside the cemetery. “We’ve spent our entire lives here. My parents, now long dead, also lived here.”

Funds to maintain the cemetery are drying up. “Some people come once a year, they donate money and leave. We’ve paid for some of the maintenance ourselves such as the construction of the boundary wall around the cemetery,” says Ibrahim.

Nearly 5,000 graves are present here. Many are broken, and nettles and thorns adorn the site. “A woman named Rachel used to come here. But we’ve been told that she’s moved to London now.”

Mehrunissa, a wizened old woman, is a member of one of the six families that live on the cemetery’s grounds. Raving against the government for neglecting the place, Mehrunissa says the land mafia has repeatedly tried to take over the land. “We have repeatedly filed First Investigation Reports with the police about this. We’re the ones who have been safeguarding this place. Why doesn’t the government do anything?”

Ibrahim shows me around the cemetery; in a room lies the grave of Solomon David, an official of the Karachi Municipal Corporation, who also built the Magain Shalome synagogue in Saddar. The room also doubles as a storeroom for a pile of twigs, a clock with no hands marks the time. “The last burial here was in the 1980s,” says Ibrahim. Some Jewish people were present in the city, according to Ibrahim, but have married within Muslim families.

There was once a Jewish synagogue here too – according to Karachi’s residents, who had seen it. It was a small building located at Nishtar Road in Saddar. However, it was torn down in the 1980s, and a shopping plaza now stands in place of the synagogue.

Byram Avari, a prominent member of the Parsi community, says there are now no Jews left in Karachi that he is aware of. “There were prominent Jews here, one used to be a pilot at the Karachi Port Trust. I had a friend at school who was Jewish, they used to tell people they were Christians. They moved to Canada, and that’s where he passed away. There was a Jewish synagogue in Manora, and the Jewish graveyard in Karachi. The Jewish families used to tell people that they were Christians because their features resembled them, and they wore shalwar kameez.” Avari says he had heard there was a woman who used to pay for the maintenance of the Jewish graveyard, but says he has no contact with any Jewish family in Pakistan.

Being a Jew in today’s Pakistan would be living a life fraught with fear and constant persecution. The term Yahoodi (Urdu for Jew) is frequently tossed around as a curse word.

Read article in full

7 comments:

  1. I have seen an in-depth analysis of Pakistani anti-semitism by Ahmed Tufeil(?) in Memri - I can't retrieve it now. Have you seen it?

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  2. Yes I have - will post later today

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  3. Hi. This is Mahim Maher. I'd like to point out for the record that I had blogged about Huma Imtiaz's story on the Jewish cemetery in Karachi, Pakistan. She did the actual reporting, not me. I tried to share it with my Jewish Journal blog readers. I specified that in the blog.

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  4. Apologies, I have corrected the introduction.

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  5. how will i go there ? i want to visit jewish graves anyone tell me ?

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  6. 555hello
    i am Mohammad HABIB from karachi
    pakistan i am muslim but i love and respect all please safe that grave Jew people safe that historical grave

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  7. can anbody help me in visiting the jewish graveyard as i want to discover the culture and old sites of karachi?

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