Salem Shaloam David (1853−?) was a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

convert to

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

Biography

He was born in 1853 to Chinese parents in

Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers wher ...

, China, who named him Feba. Feba remained with his parents until 1861, when his family were murdered during the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...

. He, along with other boys, was held captive by the rebels until they came within a short distance of Shanghai, where the rebels were routed and scattered by British soldiers under

Charles George Gordon Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Charles George Gordon Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (28 January 1833 – 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British Army officer and ...

. Feba sought protection of Solomon Reuben, one of the volunteers, who presented him to David Sassoon & Co., Shanghai. Here S. H. David took him under his care; and in 1862 he sent him to Bombay, where he was admitted to the Jewish faith and named Salem Shaloam David. He was educated at the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution, and joined the firm of

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 branch ...

& Co. in 1872; served in their Shanghai house from 1874 to 1882; and from 1882 was in their Bombay establishment. As a communal worker he was equally popular with the Jews and

Bene Israel The Bene Israel (), also referred to as the "Shanivar Teli" () or " Native Jew" caste, are a community of Jews in India. It has been suggested that they are the descendants of one of the Ten Lost Tribes via their ancestors who had settled there ce ...

. He was honorary secretary to the Magen David Synagogue in Byculla and to the

Jacob Sassoon Two Sassoon baronetcies were created, in 1890 and 1909 respectively, for members of the Anglo-Indo-Iraqi and Indo-Iraqi branches of the Sassoon family of Baghdadi Jewish descent. The Sassoon baronetcy of Kensington-gore and of Eastern-terrace w ...

Jewish Charity Fund, as well as to the Hebrath Kehat-Kadosh, Bombay. He was unanimously appointed by the last-named as visitor to the Jewish patients in the hospitals. He was a member of the Shanghai Society for Rescuing the Chinese Jews. He married Habiba Reuben Moses in 1883.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:David, Salem Shaloam 1853 births 19th-century converts to Judaism Chinese Jews Jewish Chinese history People from Wuhan Year of death unknown