The end of the year saw many losses. Former president Jimmy Carter, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to name a few.
Flower Silliman probably didn’t make those media lists of people we lost in 2024. But her death this year left its own void in Kolkata.
For years she had been the ambassador in chief for Kolkata’s little Jewish community. Now that community, barely 20 plus, has shrunk a little more.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata
FUNERAL SERVICE
Silliman’s death at 94 was ironically an occasion for the shuttered Maghen David Synagogue in Kolkata to open its doors again. For her memorial. The students of the Jewish Girls School of Kolkata, where she had once studied, came together to sing at her memorial service.
HYMN
Except the names of the girls singing this traditional Jewish hymn don’t sound very Jewish at all.
NAMES: Mohsina, Alina, Anika, Fatima, Anasah
Almost all the students at the Jewish Girls School in Kolkata are Muslim. There are only around 20 Jews left in Kolkata now, mostly in their 70s or older says Brian Auckland, the treasurer of the school.
BA1: So in any religious ceremony now, it's mostly, uh, unfortunately, mostly, uh, burials. I think for the past 35 or 40 years, there has never been a marriage.
Even a funeral is difficult. Jewish tradition requires a minyan of 10 men to conduct a service. There’s no minyan anymore says Sydney Moses.
SM1: We don't have a rabbi, and the body is washed by the local people who we have engaged to wash the body. The prayers are read in English
But there are still three beautifully maintained synagogues with chandeliers and marble floors. But no worshippers. A far cry from its heyday Flower Silliman told me a few years ago. The Jews of Kolkata were called Baghdadi Jews. They came to India as traders from all over the Middle East during British rule. At one time they were about 5000 strong. The three synagogues were bustling says Silliman.
FS3A: you couldn't even get a seat to sit in. You had to reserve your seat beforehand.
Her daughter Jael didn’t share the same enthusiasm as her mother.
JS1: I didn’t love going to the synagogues as a child. I actually found it quite boring. The prayers were in Hebrew. I didn't have my best friends or my school friends there.
In Kolkata synagogues like Maghen David are right next to with churches, mosques and temples.
Flower remembered trying to observe Yom Kippur while church bells rang, muezzins called the faithful to prayer in mosques and drums beat in temples.
FS4: I remember telling my father my mother God must be getting deaf so many people trying to get his attention at the same time.
Her mother scolded her.
FS5: And she said don't talk like that. God is everybody's God you know.
It’s a lesson that Kolkata’s little Jewish community took to heart.
For example, they realised the people who understood their dietary rules best were Muslims. So their Jewish cooks weren’t really Jewish.
FS6: they were always Muslims and so that's why we called Jewish cook who knew how to cook Jewish food.
In fact Flower’s Muslim cook was more Jewish than Flower says Jael. And would get upset if Flower didn’t observe all the traditions.
JS2: He used to call my mommy Bubba. Bubba is not following the law. I'm going to tell her mother.
Now those Jewish cooks are gone as are the Jews of Kolkata. Most have emigrated says Susan Lynne Iyer who came to the memorial with her mother Natalie.
SUSAN1: all in London, in Israel, America, mainly England and Israel
But the institutions they built still remain. Schools, synagogues, a Jewish bakery.
Iyer says she still comes to the synagogue on Jewish holidays with her mother even though there’s no service. It’s a tradition.
SUSAN2: We just pray and go. There's no one here.
But that’s not quite true. The synagogues have been left in the care of men like Abdul Khan who hands out the Jewish head covering for us to wear in the synagogue. He is the third generation of his family working here.
ABDUL1: cleaning guest dekha. 3 generations.
He’s not the only one says Sydney Moses. Generations of Muslim caretakers are the custodians of Kolkata’s Jewish heritage.
SM2: It's their dedication. Their dedication. They say this is our synagogue. And we will continue
The tale of Kolkata’s Jews is not a roadmap to Middle East peace but it’s still a reminder that sometimes we have more in common with each other than we realize.
That’s why at her memorial, Flower Silliman’s friend bade her goodbye with a prayer of a different hue.
WONDERFUL WORLD
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW