Hong Kong Jews
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Hong Kong Jews
Jews were among the first settlers after Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841. The first Jews arrived in Hong Kong from various parts of the British Empire as merchants and colonial officials. Among the first wave, the Baghdadi Jews stood out especially, including representatives of the influential families of Sassoon and Kadoorie. The construction of the Ohel Leah Synagogue in 1901 marked the beginning of a fully fledged religious life for the city's local Jews. Hong Kong's Jewish community is able to freely practice most of their cultural and religious traditions, including holding Shabbat meals and celebrating the main Jewish holidays. The city currently has four active synagogues, three schools and a Jewish cemetery. Jews never constituted a large community in Hong Kong, only numbering a few hundred prior to World War II. Nevertheless, many influential Jews have left their mark on the city. Among them are: Matthew Nathan, the first and only Jewish governor of Hong ...
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Hebrew Language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved throughout history as the main liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Hebrew is the only Canaanite language still spoken today, and serves as the only truly successful example of a dead language that has been revived. It is also one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still in use, with the other being Aramaic. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as '' Lashon Hakodesh'' (, ) since an ...
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Matthew Nathan
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan (3 January 1862 – 18 April 1939) was a British soldier and colonial administrator, who variously served as the Governor of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Natal and Queensland. He was Under-Secretary for Ireland from 1914 to 1916, and was responsible, with the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, for the administration of Ireland in the years immediately preceding the Easter Rising. Early life and career Nathan was born in Paddington, London, England. He was of Jewish descent and the second son of businessman Jonah Nathan and Miriam Jacob Nathan. His brothers were Colonel Sir Frederick Nathan, an officer of the Royal Artillery and sometime Superintendent of Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills, and Sir Nathaniel Nathan, a colonial judge in Trinidad and Tobago. Nathan was educated at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he was the winner of the Pollock Medal (1880) before being gazetted to Royal Enginee ...
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Happy Valley, Hong Kong
Happy Valley () is an upper-income residential area in Hong Kong, located on Hong Kong Island. The area is bordered by Caroline Hill to the east, Jardine's Lookout to the south, Morrison Hill to the west, and Causeway Bay to the north. Administratively, it is part of Wan Chai District. Happy Valley is considered as an area surrounded by Caroline Hill Road to the east, Tai Hang Road and Stubbs Road to the south, Canal Road Flyover and westbound section of Wong Nai Chung Road to the west, and Leighton Road to the north. The area is home to the Happy Valley Racecourse, Hong Kong Racing Museum, Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Valley Clubhouse, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, Hong Kong Adventist Hospital – Stubbs Road, home to a number of sports clubs including Valley RFC rugby club, Craigengower Cricket Club, Hong Kong FC football club, and a number of cemeteries including the Hong Kong Cemetery. History The area now known as Happy Valley was formerly known as Wong Nai Chung ...
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Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery, Hong Kong
Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery, Hong Kong is the main Jewish cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. The cemetery is located on Shan Kwong Road and is managed by Jones Lang Lasalle Management Services. History The burial ground was opened in 1855 by Reuben David Sassoon on former farmland acquired by his father David Sassoon of the Anglo-Jewish Sassoon family from the British Crown to serve the Jewish community in Hong Kong.Cemetery , Ohel Leah SynagogueArchived version
/ref> Additional land was acquired in 1904 for space for a chapel and other buildings.


Burial

There are over 300 graves including th ...
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History Of The Jews In Mumbai
The history of the Jews in Mumbai (previously known as Bombay), India, began when Jews started settling in Bombay during the first century, due to its economic opportunities. The Jewish community of Bombay consisted of the remnants of three distinct communities: the Bene Israeli Jews of Konkan, the Baghdadi Jews of Iraq, and the Cochin Jews of Malabar. Bombay is home to the majority of India's rapidly dwindling Jewish population. At its peak, in the late 1940s, the Jewish population of Bombay reached nearly 30,000. Arrival in Bombay The first Baghdadi Jew, Joseph Semah, moved to Bombay from Surat in 1730 and the first member of the Bene Israel community to move from the Konkan villages south of Bombay to the city arrived in 1746 part of the Divekar family. In 1796 Samuel Ezekiel Divekar (1730-1797) established "The Gate of Mercy" synagogue. Present population Less than 4,000 Jews live in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, and there are eight synagogues in the city. Today, the ...
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David Sassoon, Sons & Co
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. In the Books of Samuel, he is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame by slaying Goliath, a champion of the Philistines, in southern Canaan. David becomes a favourite of Saul, the first king of Israel; he also forges a notably close friendship with Jonathan, a son of Saul. However, under the paranoia that David is seeking to usurp the throne, Saul attempts to kill David, forcing the latter to go into hiding and effectively operate as a fugitive for several years. After Saul and Jonathan are both killed in battle against the Philistines, a 30-year-old David is anointed king over all of Israel and Judah. Following his rise to power, David ...
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Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kong and north of Macau, Guangzhou has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road; it continues to serve as a major port and transportation hub as well as being one of China's three largest cities. For a long time, the only Chinese port accessible to most foreign traders, Guangzhou was captured by the British during the First Opium War. No longer enjoying a monopoly after the war, it lost trade to other ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, but continued to serve as a major transshipment port. Due to a high urban population and large volumes of port traffic, Guangzhou is classified as a Large-Port Megacity, the largest type of port-city in the world. Due to worldwide travel restrictions at the beginni ...
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David Sassoon (treasurer)
David Sassoon (October 1792 – 7 November 1864) was the treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the History of the Jews in India, Jewish community in Mumbai after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there. Life and career Sassoon was born in Baghdad, where his father, Sassoon ben Saleh (1750-1830), was a wealthy businessman, chief treasurer to the pashas (the governors of Baghdad) from 1781 to 1817, and president (''Nasi'') of the city's Jewish community. The family were Iraqi Jews. His mother was Amam Gabbai. After a traditional education in the Hebrew language, Sassoon married Hannah Joseph in 1818. They had two sons and two daughters before she died in 1826. Two years later he married Farha Hyeem (who was born in 1812 and died in 1886). The pair had six sons and three daughters. Following increasing persecution of Baghdad's Jews by Dawud Pasha, the family moved to Bombay via Iran, Persia. Sassoon was in business in Bombay no later than 1832, originally ac ...
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Elias David Sassoon
Elias David Sassoon (27 March 1820 – 21 March 1880), an Indian merchant and banker born in Baghdad, was the second son of David Sassoon, an Iraqi-Indian philanthropist Jewish businessman involved in trade in India and the Far East, with branches at Calcutta, Shanghai, Canton, and Hong Kong; and his business, which included a monopoly of the opium-trade, extended as far as Yokohama, Nagasaki, and other cities in Japan. He was the first of his siblings to assist the family business's expansion into China when he opened a branch of the business there in 1844. He was also involved in his father's business in Bombay, India. In 1867, Elias established his own business called " E.D. Sassoon & Co.", starting to trade in dried fruits, nankeen, metals, tea, silk, spices and camphor from modest offices in Bombay and Shanghai. In 1878 he established the Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli, in memory of his son Joseph, who had died at Shanghai in 1868.“The Mausoleums of Sassoon family and Jewi ...
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Jewish Religious Movements
Jewish religious movements, sometimes called "religious denomination, denominations", include different groups within Judaism which have developed among Jews from ancient times. Today, the most prominent divisions are between traditionalist Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox movements (including Haredi Judaism, Haredi and Religious Zionism, Religious Zionist () sects); modernist movements such as Conservative Judaism, Conservative, Masortim, Masorti and Reform Judaism, Reform Judaism; and Jewish secularism, secular or Jews. The movements Relationships between Jewish religious movements, differ in their views on various issues. These issues include the level of observance, the methodology for interpreting and understanding Halakha, Jewish law, Historical criticism, biblical authorship, textual criticism, and the nature or role of Messiah in Judaism, the messiah (or messianic age). Across these movements, there are marked differences in Jewish services, liturgy, especially in the language ...
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Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea, and shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. Israel also is bordered by the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally. The land held by present-day Israel witnessed some of the earliest human occupations outside Africa and was among the earliest known sites of agriculture. It was inhabited by the Canaanites ...
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