https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Jewish_Cemetery%2C_ChinchpokliJewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli - Revision history2026-08-05T19:48:38ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jewish_Cemetery,_Chinchpokli&diff=506114&oldid=prevWikindia777: Started details2025-10-29T06:49:27Z<p>Started details</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Chinchpokli Jewish cemetery}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2025}}'''Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli''', is a [[cemetery]] in [[Chinchpokli]], [[Mumbai|Bombay]], laid out near the [[Chinchpokli railway station]] by [[Elias David Sassoon]] in 1878. Covering two acres, the burial ground now contains more than a thousand graves, and new burials continue to take place.<ref name="MHC"> "The Mausoleums of Sassoon family and Jewish cemetery in Chinchpokli", in ''My Heritage Chronicle'', 13 January 2020</ref><br />
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==History==<br />
Elias David Sassoon, a leading Bombay merchant and banker, created the cemetery in January 1878 in memory of his son Joseph, who had died at [[Shanghai]] in 1868.<ref name=MHC/> It was originally intended for [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic]] [[Baghdadi Jews]].<ref name=BbM>Prashant Kidambi, Manjiri Kamat, Rachel Dwyer, eds. ''Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos'' (Oxford University Press, 15 August 2019), [https://books.google.com/books?id=SPerDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11 p. 11]</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Elana |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/My_Mother_s_Spice_Cupboard/EJF5DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=mumbai+cemetery&pg=PT110&printsec=frontcover |title=My Mother's Spice Cupboard: A Journey from Baghdad to Bombay to Bondi |date=2018-11-01 |publisher=Hybrid Publishers |isbn=978-1-74298-171-0 |language=en}}</ref><br />
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The cemetery has declined since the days when there was a large community of Jews in Bombay, with numbers falling during the second half of the 20th century from around 7,000 to only a small fraction of that.<ref name=TI/><br />
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==Mausoleums==<br />
Two large mausoleums of very similar design contain the remains of [[Jacob Sassoon|Sir Jacob Sassoon]] (1844–1916) and his wife, Rachel Sassoon. A third mausoleum is that of [[Albert Sassoon| Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet]] (1818–1896),<ref name=BbM/> who in the event was buried in England.<br />
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==Notable monuments==<br />
The first [[Femina Miss India|Miss India]], [[Esther Victoria Abraham]] (1916–2006), also an actress and film producer, is mentioned on the monument to the Abraham family.<ref name=MHC/><br />
There are plaques to the memory of Otto Mass, who was murdered in [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], and Ernst Mass, who was murdered in [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz-Birkenau]].<ref name=TI>Nergish Sunavala & Rizwan Mithawala, [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-secrets-jewish-film-stars-and-holocaust-victims-remembered-in-a-chinchpokli-cemetery/articleshow/43675120.cms Mumbai Secrets: Jewish film stars and holocaust victims remembered in a Chinchpokli cemetery], ''[[Times of India]]'', 28 September 2014, accessed 12 July 2021</ref><br />
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==21st century==<br />
In 2014, the cemetery was reported to be "overrun with weeds" and still used largely by the small Baghdadi Jewish community, said to number just over a hundred. While some Israelis were also being buried, they were usually ones related to the Baghdadi Jews.<ref name=TI/><br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[Sassoon family]]<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
==External links==<br />
*[https://jewishphotolibrary.smugmug.com/ASIA/ASIAcentral/INDIA/MAHARASHTRA/INMumbaiChinchpokliJewishCem/ Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli], jewishphotolibrary.smugmug.com<br />
{{Cemeteries in India}}<br />
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[[Category:Cemeteries in India]]<br />
[[Category:Jewish cemeteries]]<br />
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Mumbai]]</div>Wikindia777