Pakistani Jews in Israel

Pakistani Jews in Israel are a small community, numbering between 1,000 and 2,000. The majority of these Jews are those who migrated from Karachi to Israel as part of the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, and formed a small community in the city of Ramla. The Jews in Pakistan were originally Baghdadi and Marathi-speaking although a sizeable number of Bene Israel and Bukharan Jews from Peshawar also found their way into this population. Bukharan Jews from Peshawar fled from USSR after Socialist Revolution in 1917 and granted refuge by Sethi Family of Peshawar, mainly famous for their international trade from Russia and China into India and the rest of the world. They had very old relations with Bukharn Jews, and helped poor of them who can not afford migration to US or France at that time. After proclamation of independence of Israel they preferred to migrate to Israel.

Records cite that major Pakistani Jewish migration to Israel occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. Magain Shalome, built by Shalome Solomon Umerdekar and his son Gershone Solomon, Karachi’s last synagogue, was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a shopping plaza. Most of the Karachi Jews now live in Ramle, Israel, and built a synagogue they named Magen Shalome.

Jewish immigrants from Pakistan have helped revive the game of cricket in Israel.