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Lakshmipat Singhania Academy
Kolkata
Synagogue
When Faith Found a Home
Situated in the historical nerve centre of Kolkata’s Jewish settlement, the Neveh Shalome Synagogue stands as a profound emblem of cultural resilience, interfaith coexistence and architectural legacy. Erected in the early nineteenth century, it is recognised as the first synagogue built in Kolkata, marking the genesis of organised Jewish religious life in eastern India. Its enduring presence speaks not merely of the community’s faith traditions, but of the cosmopolitan fabric that once characterised the city—where Baghdadi Jews, Armenians, Muslims, Christians and Hindus coexisted in a uniquely pluralistic environment.
As a heritage structure, it embodies an intersection of Sephardic liturgical customs and colonial-period architectural sensibilities, thus offering invaluable insights into transnational migration, adaptation and assimilation. The synagogue’s historical narrative is intrinsically linked with global trade routes, as many of its congregants were successful merchants navigating between the Middle East and South Asia. Today, despite the dwindling Jewish population, Neveh Shalome retains its intangible sanctity as a physical repository of memory, spirituality and communal identity. Its preservation is therefore not merely an act of architectural conservation, but a moral obligation to safeguard the testimony of a community that contributed significantly to Kolkata’s mercantile and cultural evolution.