Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia, Paivia), a Paradesi Jew of

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, was a Portuguese Jewish diamond and coral merchant from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

belonging to the Amsterdam Sephardic community. He was married to Hieronima de Paiva. After de Paiva's death, his wife Hieronima de Paiva, also a Portuguese Jew, fell in love with Elihu Yale, Governor of Madras, and went to live with him, causing quite a scandal within Madras colonial society. Governor Yale later achieved fame when he gave a large donation to the University of New Haven in Connecticut, which was then named after him — the Yale University. Hieromima de Paiva and the son she had with him died in South Africa.

Golconda diamonds

De Paiva established good relations with

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

(EIC) and those in power, which enabled him to buy several mines to source Golconda diamonds. Through his efforts, Jews were permitted to live and trade Golconda diamonds and corals within Fort St. George. De Paiva died in 1687 after a visit to his mines of Golconda diamonds and was buried in the

Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( he, בית עלמין ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' ...

which he had established in Peddanaickenpet, which later became the north Mint Street, alongside the synagogue which also existed at Mint Street. On his tombstone we find that he died in the month of Tishri 5548 / 1687 CE.

Philanthropy

De Paiva organized the Jews into the semblance of a community and established Madras Jewish community. He built the Second

Madras Synagogue The Madras Synagogue is the only synagogue in Madras and it was built by Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia) a Paradesi Jew of Madras. Madras Synagogue was also known as the Esnoga, or Snoge, ''Esnoga'' is synagogue in Ladino, the traditio ...

and

Jewish Cemetery Chennai The Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery for the Paradesi Jews of Chennai, India. It is located off Lloyd's Road. The cemetery remains the only memoir of the once significant Jewish population of Chennai, which has now almost become extinct. Burials ...

, Peddanaickenpet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paiva, Jacques De People from Chennai Indian Jews Paradesi Jews 1687 deaths Year of birth unknown